Scam job posts (Come on Upwork!) 😡

[dreamingfilms]

There's a rapid increase of scam job posts where new clients with no experience and unverified payment method list a job linking to a whatsapp number or telegram chat. Then on private they send you an attach document with a virus or fradulent proposal (attached screenshot)

I think you guys on upwork should have some sort of fitlering because of these adds. You are so innovating in some areas and in this key one, security, it seems like a major flake from you guys. I think it's time that you dismiss the automatic approval of job posts and have people pre-filter them first. And fast.

Or at least have an automatic scam detector that detects phone numbers! I don't know about cybersecurity but you can get creative, as you do in other areas.

This is becoming unacceptable now, as you keep rising fees everytime.

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

[glen-s]

The lack of investment from Upwork in this area is very telling in terms of their priorities.

We can filter them out from manual job searches (I'm not sure about saved searches) but either way that doesn't help new freelancers much.

Surely there are some keywords Upwork can use to block out to slow down the ever increasing flood of fake scam job listings that are rising by the day?

[pgiambalvo]

This keeps being suggested but so far, Upwork won't do that. I just searched for WhatsApp and Telegram and found there are more than 2500 job posts that have those words in them.

[nathliekens]

Totally agree! 9 out of 10 job posts are scams at the moment. 

[emmamclaren]

Agree. I just had another one come in via an invitation..I'm now responding and telling them that no one wants their scammy spam. Might not be so nice soon 

[02d3e798]

The problem is three fold: it doesn't affect clients, Upwork probably don't make any or much loss from a scam post and there is more talent than jobs so some talent being upset isn't such an issue. Upwork openly say their priority is to get more Enterprise and premium clients, thats their focus, so I would just focus on self filtering out the jobs for now. To expect more is likely to end in disappointment.

[ericaandrews]

Look how QUICKLY they 'edited your post for community guidelines' to remove the link you posted.  Now, just imagine how much better this platform would be if they applied the same level of effort and resources to 'screening' the actual job posts as they do to screening what freelancers are saying about the job posts.  The job posts aren't being 'screened' because all the workers are over here on the 'community' board screening what people say about the job boards instead of screening the actual job board.

[AveryO · Accepted solution]

Hi everyone, 

Thank you for reaching out to us and sharing your feedback and concerns. Our teams are working to address the situation around scam and spam jobs, including higher than usual volumes of scam posts, constantly changing methods of scam accounts and gaps in user education around Upwork TOS and safety.

Additionally, I assure you that we'll continue sharing users' feedback with the team and providing updates to the Community about the team's initiatives.

Feel free to check an update in this post for more information about the team's efforts around addressing these issues, and this Terms of Service Reminders test that was recently rolled out.

[nick_scumaci]

Can someone, or a moderator answer this... is a CAPTCHA system used when clients post jobs? I feel this would help curtail some of the spam/scam posts which seem to be using bots to complete these actions. If already used, disregard it. If it isn't, maybe implementing could help.