SPAM ads

[#1]

Lately I discoverd a few ads where email address is provided and in the ad it is required to send email to the email address provided. Is it allowed on Upwork?
I flagged many of these ads but with the same email addresses in the description only a few were removed.
I think its not fair with the upwork users as we are paying for the connects, so all ads should be removed including emails or telephone numbers.
When flagging the same "ads" including the same email address inside why is it not removed?
Just an example from the last days:

**Edited for Community Guidelines** 

These are just my ideas.

[#2]

You are right -- they should be removed. Thanks for flagging them and reporting them here. But the bigger problem is that Upwork should prevent them from being posted at all before we even have to flag them.

[#3]

Thanks for the feedback Peter!

[#4]

I agree.....Upwork should do something with those job posts.   They should not be allowed to be posted at all.

[#5]

They are not doing anything as it seems, except removing the email addresses on this forum

But all the email addresses are visible on the website:

**Edited for community guidelines**

[#6]

I don't understand how they can so easily be removed here, but not in the feeds where people may try to communicate with them, even though they shouldn't.  But they might because they are unaware of the rules and believe that because Upwork allows them to be posted, doing so must be okay.

[#7 · Accepted solution]

That's exactly the problem.  More staff/resources dedicated to screening what gets said  in the forums where people are discussing Upwork than screening what actually  is being posted to Upwork job boards, right now, as we speak.   Using more time/resources  "editing for community guidelines" on the forums than on "editing for community guidelines" on the job boards.  Focusing on manging public perception of a problem instead of the problem itself.

[#8]

Isn't it funny that the "community guidelines" have a better filter/moderation than the Job Listings?

[#9]

You are right:) They keep their privacy and ............................ wasting our time

[#10]

What I don't get, why spammers have privacy when they are spamming to hell the whole website? I could do also, but i don't do.

[#11]

I think if upwork would post an ad to prevent these kind of spam posts, many upworkers would apply and there would be a solution. I could find one, but there might be a faster by someone else:)

[#12]

From the last few weeks have seen the growth of many projects like this. Some everyday things make it even more evident that they are fake projects, such as no previous work history, no reviews, no payment verification, and the project description. I feel upwork should refund the connect if they identify any such project.

[#13]

Yes, but we shouldn't react to these job posts, to. The problem is that upwork thinks the same, so my opinion is to set up a spam protection, but i don't owe upwork, so its not my job. I am just angry because of that. If you mention anything what is not according to TOS, your account is limited, but when you post 1000+ spam job posts you are okay.

[#14]

My last spam job post looked so serious! I even got a task to do and the whole communication was through upwork until they 

Asked me for id number twice (One time I gave it, silly me), ended the contract and requested a refund for the task I have done as described in the contract. The communication as time passed felt very suspicious for me and it smelled like spam. 

[#15]

This is becoming a huge problem, it makes it impossible to wade through the job postings, at the very least it takes up so much more time to sort through as there are 100's of these ad's.  Someone at Upwork needs to put an end to this quickly.

[#16]

Today it is absolutely impossible to check the job postings. In the last few hours, they are practically only spam. Please, Upwork, do something about this and fast! It's seriously harming all those legitimately participating in the Upwork marketplace. 

[#17]

Came here to write exactly the same. Actually, I think it shouldn't be so difficult to filter posts including websites links or email addresses. The whole platform is full of developers able to do this blindfolded. This has been going on for months now and it is really disappointing.

[#18]

I just checked and the 1st 30 jobs in my unfiltered feed are all spam/scams.  I recieved at least 10 unsolicited invitations all for scams in the last week or so.  I always decline the invite and block the client but you can't even see who they are without sending a proposal. Upwork is becoming a waste of time, looking at other freelance sites.

[#19]

I don't know what's happened to UpWork lately but the spam is utterly ridiculous. I'd say 80% of my feeds are complete nonsense. 

I flagged this with support (I'm convinced support are all bots as they never listen to the exact nature of your problem, they just fire off the closest stock answer they have to hand) which went nowhere. They actually seemed surprised.

To be honest, they seem to make the site worse with every update, and less friendly to freelancers with their ridiculous stealth charges (available now button??!!)  and bidding process for jobs. This is a foolish move with the world opening back up and more profitable freelancers now having the option to work in person again. So this combined with the fact that every other job post is gibberish from an unverifed account, I'll be off soon. 

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

[#20]

They've been out of control for months, Upwork has been well-aware of it for months, and yet the problem persists. Those are simply facts.

[#21]

I added "STOP SPAM" at the end of my profile, let's do it together, maybe it will be useful.
I am not linking my profile as i am not willing to make marketing.

[#22]

I thought it was just me, unfortunately, it's not. I feel like in my category (GD and Illustration) it got worse in the last month or so. Before that, I barely saw 1 spammy post every couple of weeks, sometimes months.

+1 to it being increasingly hard to find a legit job in all of the spam noise out there. Out of 20 jobs, at least 10 are spams, at least 5 are "I need [insert deliverable] asap" with a 5$ budget and the rest are something that is sound and legit. It's tiresome, it's stressful, and it's now taking even longer to look for jobs.

[#23]

My impression is every second job ad is a spam so far. I spent most of my connects on spam ads and lost some cash (the last one is on me). I was wondering if upwork has a screening system for it. 

[#24]

I just looked at my job feed and the first 5 Job Ads are spam! By now most of us have developed an eye to immediately spot these from the first glance so I'm just appalled that Upwork does not have the capabilities to block these. I'm all exhausted over it!