Again and again...... Scam jobs

[debi-f]

Today, Sunday, May 21st, 2023

Jobs in the last half an hour, among the last 10 jobs:

Translation to different native languages

Translation to different native languages

A good translator in All languages

Translation from English to 20+ languages

Translation to different native languages

Translation to different native languages

Translation to different native languages

Many translators needed for mobile football game

Impossible to find a real job.

Thank you 

Hello,

You edited the  previous chat about the scam job "Translation to 20+ languages" that was posted at least 10 times every day, without hiring a freelancer, and with payment unverified. Some time from one country and sometime from the other. It seems a scam or a spam. 

Now, I find another similar job, that seems a new scam. It appears 3 times in the last hour. 

Could you, Upwork Team, do something about it?

Thanks!

[miriam-ocampo · Accepted solution]

It is a scam, they never hire anyone. I reported it too, but Upwork doesn't do anything with the reports. I have been seeing it for weeks now. 

[ArjayM]

Hi Debora,

We truly appreciate you sharing and reporting this suspicious job. I checked the job post you were referring to and it seems that it's already been taken down because it was in violation of Upwork ToS and action will surely be taken on the client's account. Please continue reporting jobs if a TOS violation has happened by using the Flag as Inappropriate option throughout the platform. You can learn more about user reporting here.

You may want to check this help article and this thread for more information on how to stay safe on Upwork.

[debi-f]

Arjay

It appeared in the last minutes again with a different title, "Translation"

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

Is not solved yet.

I work for 12 years here (Elance / Upwork), I know some of the rules, I report these jobs, but it doesn't work.  

Thanks!

[ArjayM]

Hi Débora,

Thank you for the details. I'll have this reviewed by the appropriate team. Rest assured that our team is working on minimizing scam/spam jobs on the platform but we also need your cooperation. As we discussed in my previous response, please continue reporting jobs if a TOS violation has happened. Thank you!

[luce-neidert]

Arjay, how come scam jobs I scammed yesterday are still on line today? This is the worst about this situation: Upwork lack of quick reaction.

It only discourages freelancer to take the time to flag.

[759e32fa]

Hi Luce,

I'm sorry for the inconvenience as our team is receiving a high volume of reports and these reports are dealt with in the order that they were received. Rest assured that our team will look into your reports as soon as possible.

[debi-f]

Today again.....

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

General Translation Services

Posted 42 minutes ago

[debi-f]

After 9 months the same problem still appears.

These jobs are published now by clients that are Members since Today and with payment method verified!!?? Is there a Technical team working in @Upwork? 

You will delete my links, but will not delete the scammers!! There are not serious jobs in Upwork! 

1. General translation to 20+ languages
2. Translation from English to European languages needed
3. Quick translation job from English to 20+ languages.
4. Translate a PowerPoint presentation into 20 different languages
5. Major language translation task
6. I Need A Translator
7. Document translation and retyping of documents
8. Translation from English to European languages needed

[miriam-ocampo]

Yes, I have always wondered how they delete so fast the comments on the community but the scams could be there for days and no one does anything about it... It must be an automated system generating all those messages, but still...

[19fdf818]

Hlo

[h_honcharenko]

The same job offer was posted 7 minutes ago!?

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

Job Feedback

Save Job

Hourly: $14.00-$30.00 - Entry level - Est. Time: Less than 1 month, Less than 30 hrs/week - Posted 7 minutes ago

[759e32fa]

Hi Heorhii,

Thank you for reaching out to us. I shared your report with our team to investigate and take action based on our internal processes.

I understand the frustration but I'd like to assure you that our Trust & Safety team is aware of the problem and is taking it seriously. They are working to address the issues, including higher than usual volumes of scam posts, and constantly changing methods of scam accounts.

[debi-f]

11 minutes ago, 7 minutes ago, 5 minutes ago... again and again

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

[debi-f]

We can help, but I'm searching real and good jobs, not scammers!

I don't want to waste my time doing other's job. 

[luce-neidert]

It is a scam. When you apply for the job, you are asked to contact the "client" on Instagram. There are variations of the scam, but usually you are requested to pay in order to get a job. Obviously, you never get paid for the job.

[c4e453ac]

I can't believe this is STILL GOING ON.  The irony is they censor URLs on this forum, but magically they are unable to censor links when "hirers" are messaging freelancers.  And so you get Telegram links and other such links to lure people off the platform.  Then you get the gaslighting being told "it's your fault for breaking the ToS".  NO. It's UpWork's fault for allowing "hirers" (scammers) to break the ToS first by luring people off-platform via links that could so easily be censored.  Even obfuscated links can easily be censored via a regex.

This scam is 100% avoidable via the censoring of links, and/or shutting down a job as soon as a "hirer" (scammer) uses such links.

No wonder UPWK's share price is in the toilet.

[PradeepH]

Hi Andrew,

We appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback and concerns. We understand the challenges you face with scam and spam jobs on our platform, and we are committed to resolving them. Our teams are working hard to detect and remove scam posts, adapt to the changing tactics of scam accounts and educate users on Upwork TOS and safety. We also welcome your suggestions and input, and we will keep you updated on our progress and initiatives through the Community. Feel free to check this post for an update from our Trust & Safety team and their efforts around addressing these issues.

Thank you,

Pradeep

[c4e453ac]

I would like you to acknowledge my points rather than merely reply with a canned response.  A canned response is meaningless in a forum where we listen to what someone says, and reply to their specific points. Why not engage with people posting here? What about the points I raised? This very forum has censorship, yet jobs postings don't.  Heck, the first job I saw in my jobs feed right now (moments ago) has an EMAIL ADDRESS in the job description, asking freelancers to apply via email! You seriously can't make this up.  How is it UpWork can't censor email addresses in job descriptions?! The reason isn't "technically it's impossible", that's for sure.  I'd love for you to respond as to WHY this kind of censorship isn't performed on so-called "hiring companies" job descriptions, and also messaging to freelancers. Why are you giving them free reign to post URLs and email addresses, when there are trivial technical solutions to avoid these situations in the first place? Rather than spend countless man hours manually flagging such jobs, your system could so very easily just either censor such emails/links, OR even better, auto-flag the job description and prevent it being posted in the first place.   An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure.

[elisa_b]

---

Pradeep H wrote:

adapt to the changing tactics of scam accounts

---

"Changing tactics"? With all due respect, but are you being serious?

Would you call email addresses, telegram links, and phone numbers "new tactics"? They have been around for ages and Upwork has not done a single thing to prevent them! 

[c4e453ac]

---

Elisa B wrote:

---

Pradeep H wrote:

adapt to the changing tactics of scam accounts

---

"Changing tactics"? With all due respect, but are you being serious?

Would you call email addresses, telegram links, and phone numbers "new tactics"? They have been around for ages and Upwork has not done a single thing to prevent them! 

---

I don't know how they don't see how embarrassing this looks for them when they make excuses like that, and we know very basic data hygeine (with a couple of lines of code) can fix preventing people posting email addresses in job descriptions.

[motyduke]

there are hundreds jobs like this since many days. We need to flag them all ? Or upwork team can clean that. It is a nightmare in job feed

[debi-f]

It's Upwork work to solve it, but they can't do it!!! 

[debi-f]

Still the same job, again and again..... with different titles, usually from Netherlands. I copy here some of them that I reported. 

Upwork Team, could you please take care?

 **Edited for Community Guidelines**

[LuiggiR]

Hi Débora,

I checked the job posts you were referring to and it appears that they were already taken down because they were in violation of the Upwork TOS. Thank you for flagging them!

[debi-f]

Taken down?

I reported right now these jobs: 

 **Edited for Community Guidelines**

[LuiggiR]

Hi Débora,

Thank you for reporting these. Note that as you flag them, the team may not take them down immediately, as their review takes time and they keep receiving higher than usual volumes of scam posts. I shared your report with our team to investigate and take action based on our internal processes. Feel free to continue using the "Flag as Inappropriate" option throughout the site to report any suspicious activity.

[c4e453ac]

Do these fake jobs get included in the jobs postings stats that shareholders read? I'm trying to find the reason why UpWork still have this problem that's fairly trivial to solve technically.

[c4e453ac]

You implying "ah no worries, the job's been taken down, we did a good job there!" is the wrong conclusion.  If someone is complaining about a scam job on the forum, it's already too late.

[luce-neidert]

They are not really from the Netherlands. They are all from the same place, if you look at the time indicated by Upwork, so these people are using VPNs. They sometimes say Brazil, Japan, Canada, Switzerland, England... If you look at the time, you can tell whether the offer is not coming from where it's supposed to come from.

In one of the two videos I've seen of freelancers who pretended to be seriously applying to these fake jobs, the freelancer has proof of where the "client" was. That country's time zone corresponds to the time zone where these job offers come from.

[motyduke]

Hi Luiggi,

Taken down ? it seems that they have many accounts and they still continue to post these scam jobs.

[spectralua]

Client ID verification is a must to avoid this flow of scam. Anyone able to re-register in few clicks then continue.

[ba575c7f]

I submitted a proposal for this job a few days ago, and they requested me to contact a product manager via telegram. It's forbidden to communicate outside Upwork before creating a contract and I believe that is obviously a scam. His telegram account was michXXlscottX2 (I replaced some characters with X), but they must have a lot of accounts. Watch out!

[PradeepH]

Hi Ayumi,

I checked the job post you were referring to and it appears that it's already been taken down because it was in violation of Upwork TOS.

Please check out this course for more tips on staying safe on Upwork and please use the flag option found on each job post or message anytime you’d like to report a violation.

Thank you,

Pradeep

[debi-f]

We, as freelancer, don't have to report anymore.

It is Upwork's job/responsability to avoid scammers.

We have to check serious and real offers, and not waste time reporting scammers.

So, Upwork Team... do your job!

Thank you!

[25005175]

Appears the scammer may be a fan of The Office.

[h_honcharenko]

Guess what? This job is now renamed "Translation to different languages (native translators)"

 

[luce-neidert]

Well, there are various variants of the offer. The best way to check is the time zone (always the same, they are using a VPN to pretend to be in other countries).

[PradeepH]

Hi Heorhii,

Thank you for reaching out to us. I shared your report with our team to investigate and take action based on our internal processes. 

Thank you,

Pradeep

[paywell]

Scammers are "cheesing" the system. They know its weaknesses and use them amply. 

Knowing the system means being aware of the "flagging" system and "cheesing" it as well: 

Spamming "flags" in order to create a backlog too long to look into all "flagged" jobs.

If the clients are "untouchable" and cannot be bothered by complicating the job posting and/or registration process, then maybe the abovementioned issues need to be addressed: 

1. Broadening the security team (without hiring). By giving specific users more flagging privileges. Jobs flagged by them would be addressed first.

2. Allowing only "privileged" users to flag posts. Making it harder for a group of freshly registered "flag" spammers to create a backlog.

3. "Muting" ferocious flaggers,  who contribute to the backlog. Those would be the users flagging real jobs, in which a moderator cannot find any issues.