New account suspended

[ac45726c]

Hello, I have been an active freelancer for many years but am new to Upwork. They have suspended my account after I referred an existing client to my new Upwork profile in order to continue our business relationship here. Is this typical of Upwork? Can someone point out to me in the TOS where this is considered a violation?

[petra_r]

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Steven H wrote:

 They have suspended my account after I referred an existing client to my new Upwork profile in order to continue our business relationship here.

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Are you and the "existing client" close? Any overlaps on the profiles?

In other words, is there any reason for Upwork to suspect that your "client" is more a friend or family member and hires you on Upwork to boost your profile?

[ac45726c]

What would constitute an overlap on the profile? 

also, in my reveiw of the TOS I can't find any clause which prohibits behing hired by people who are "close" to you...

[petra_r]

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Steven H wrote:

What would constitute an overlap on the profile? 

also, in my reveiw of the TOS I can't find any clause which prohibits behing hired by people who are "close" to you...

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So the client isn't just a client. Thanks for the confirmation.

[ac45726c]

What does that mean? 

I'm still confused as to why that would be considered a violation of the terms...

The client is a person who I have known and we agreed to move our working relationship to Upwork. 

I've reveiwed the User Agreement and it does not prohibit that. 

[petra_r]

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Steven H wrote:

What does that mean?

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It means Upwork remove profiles which artificially boost their profiles by getting friends, relatives, partners etc to create a client account with the primary purpose of giving a new profile a boost with a history/good feedback.

It comes under profile manipulation and feedback manipulation. 

[ac45726c]

But that's not what the TOS says.

The User Agreement says that you can't offer services for the sole pupose of receiving positive feedback.  Which is fine because that's not what I did (all I did was to accept a job for money) I haven't even received any feedback of any kind for the work I provided. 

Is is approriate for Upwork to hold users to standards that they do not outline in the User Agreement?

[NikolaS]

Hi Steven,

I checked and it seems that you are already in correspondence with our team on your support ticket. Please allow more time for our team to review your case and respond accordingly to your ticket. You will be notified of their response.