Scam attempts

[joanasous]

Hello everyone,

I'm also a freelancer and I've been working on this platform for about 2 years. For a few months now, I've been feeling that it's not safe to work here, because my feed is constantly loaded with "jobs" that ask for external contact, the publication of the same work more than 5 times, or in conversation with the client, trying to scam/theft of information.
I think Upwork should start protecting the freelancer more. I don't know if identity verification is done like it is done to us, but many pyramid schemes are on this platform.

[pgiambalvo]

Everything you said is correct.

[joanasous]

I don't know what else we can do. It just seems like an open door for scams. Many of them are obvious, but there are also artists in all areas. Many of us are innocent, we don't understand certain things well. We just want to ascend, to have our money.

[renata101]

Hi Joana, 



I agree with everything you mentioned. These are issues that Upwork should put some time and energy into addressing.
 It's important for people to feel safe using the platform.


I don't know if it helps, but people have been discussing this on other threads. There's a big discussion here:
https://community.upwork.com/t5/Freelancers/Is-Upwork-losing-the-battle-against-scammers/m-p/1043708...


Wes, one of the other freelancers, has put together a post about avoiding scams that includes a lot of helpful information. Even if we weren't seeing as many obvious scams, this would good information to have for the ones that aren't obvious. Also, if you have any questions or concerns, you can always post them on the forum to see what people think.
https://community.upwork.com/t5/Community-Blog/Top-Red-Flags-for-Scams-From-Community-Member-Wes-C/b...


This is only a bandaid solution, but I put together some instructions for using the Advanced Search feature to filter out posts with contact information. This should help a bit if you have to search through the job posts. 


https://community.upwork.com/t5/New-to-Upwork/Filtering-Scam-Posts-How-to-use-the-Upwork-Advanced-Se...





Since Upwork didn't seem to be addressing the situation quickly, Wassim developed a Chrome app to address the problem. I'm not sure when this might be available.
https://community.upwork.com/t5/Freelancers/Upwork-Scam-Post-Detector-Chrome-Extension/m-p/1049054#M...

[seozark]

This is really getting worse now!

Please check this search to have an idea about one specific spam.

https://www.upwork.com/nx/jobs/search/?q=https%3A%2F%2Fhvacshoppers.com%2Frequirements%2F&sort=recen...

You will find 523 different types of jobs all posted from Singapore and all the job contains a specific link!!

I am not sure what the spammer is trying to achieve here! Many some traffic to his page/site. Or maybe he is running some kind of offer to generate money from the visits and clicks he is getting posting it here on Upwork.

Too bad for us that he choose this wonderful platform to play his dirty tricks! 😞

[renata101]

Zaqir,

Wow. That looks like the search Ravi did on another thread.

https://www.upwork.com/nx/jobs/search/?q=Please%20don%E2%80%99t%20apply%20if%20you%E2%80%99re%20not%...

I'm going to point out something about your search Zaqir. One quick way of filtering is to look at the hiring histories for the postings. You got 523 hits, and there are 523 postings where the client has never hired.

[seozark]

Renata,

Let me show you a few more search results (you will get scared);

Telegram - 583 jobs found
https://www.upwork.com/nx/jobs/search/?q=Telegram&sort=recency

WhatsApp - 1,593 jobs found

https://www.upwork.com/nx/jobs/search/?q=WhatsApp&sort=recency

https://t.me/ - 319 jobs found
https://www.upwork.com/nx/jobs/search/?q=https%3A%2F%2Ft.me%2F&sort=recency

20-30 minutes - 289 jobs found
https://www.upwork.com/nx/jobs/search/?q=20-30%20minutes&sort=recency

$5-500 per day - 244 jobs found
https://www.upwork.com/nx/jobs/search/?q=%245-500%20per%20day&sort=recency

$10-300 per day - 61 jobs found
https://www.upwork.com/nx/jobs/search/?q=%2410-300%20per%20day&sort=recency

$10-500 per day - 5 jobs found
https://www.upwork.com/nx/jobs/search/?q=%2410-500%20per%20day&sort=recency

I could only figure out these few. I am sure there is a lot more going on.

With spammers, there are scammers now. There are some groups who are getting people on WhatsApp and Telegram and getting money as a security deposit!! I have followed a few out of curiosity to see what they are up to.

I found a few threads about this fraud in this community. This is really very bad now!! New freelancers will lose hope, confidence, and motivation if they fall into this sort of trap.

I never posted here before. I had to come here and share my findings to get noticed with this. I hope everyone else will contribute and bring this to Upwork authority to help them solve it.

[pgiambalvo]

Very scary. If we can do those searches, so can Upwork. And even if they are, they take way too long to remove the posts.

[f4d91305]

Wow this is very helpful I was just asking Kevni about this on another thread. Thank you so much for the info very helpful! 

[NikolaS]

Hi Zaqir,

Thank you for reaching out to us and bringing this to our attention. I shared your report with our team for further investigation and appropriate actions will be taken according to our internal processes.

Thank you,

[seozark]

Hi Nikola,

Thanks a lot for taking this seriously. This really is serious now. I tried to flag many but it is not possible to flag this much of posts for one person. It would be difficult for a group of freelancers too if they do not notice the pattern.

Please take some steps and do something to stop this.

Thank you again
Zaqir

[pgiambalvo]

Too bad new clients with no history or a verified payment method are being forced to be filtered out and ignored by us because of the number of scam and spam posts. We are of course missing out on working with some good and legitimate clients, and making money. And the clients are missing out on the chance to work with some great freelancers. But we really have no choice because it's just too time consuming to wade through the unfiltered posts, let alone waste time applying to them or flagging them.

[seozark]

That is a great point Peter.

Potential new clients who come to see and check the system will lose interest for sure. And as a result, we will get fewer jobs to compete with.

[feed_my_eyes]

---

Peter G wrote:

Too bad new clients with no history or a verified payment method are being forced to be filtered out and ignored by us because of the number of scam and spam posts. We are of course missing out on working with some good and legitimate clients, and making money. 

---

"We" are? Speak for yourself. I'm happy to keep bidding on jobs from new clients. I very much doubt that too few proposals is actually a problem; at least in my jobs feed, every post that's been up for more than an hour has 20-50 bids. 

[pgiambalvo]

"We" means the freelancers who are doing this.

[joanasous]

https://www.upwork.com/nx/jobs/search/?q=hello.%20I%20am%20in%20need%20of%20digital%20marketing%20to...

Caution