Scammers everywhere and I cannot report them or speak to Upwork customer support!!

[7972f3ce]

This is frustrating. I have two issues:

1. Scams. Lots of them. And no way to report them properly.

2. Frustrating experience with Upwork customer support, as I can't seem to find a way to chat with a support agent to tell them about the scam issue.

I keep getting contacted by fake clients offering fake jobs, wasting my time and my connects, trying to scam money out of me and convince me to get in contact with them through external private messaging platforms (which I cannot name, otherwise I will be THE ONE getting flagged as innapropriate), thus CLEARLY violating Upwork policy and terms of service. My job search page is literally flooded with these fakes, so much it has become really hard to find genuine job offers. They are also getting better at finding ways to get around Upwork security so that freelancers like me cannot expose them. But the most frustrating thing about all of this is that even though I have proof and screenshots, I can't seem to find a way to get in contact with an Upwork support agent who can help me solve my problem. Everything about Upwork customer service is frustrating, as there is no real way to contact real people.

What are we supposed to do in this situation? Just ignore the annoying scams and pretend like they're not there (since we cannot report them properly and they can get away with this anyway)? Or endlessly wander in circles inside Upwork Help Center trying to find someone to speak to but always failing at doing so? I wish Upwork was more thorough in his security checks, as well as more efficient when it comes to helping their customers and freelancers.

[spectralua]

Just ignore. Upwork happy with that because other freelancers wasting money there.

[bobafett999]

I was going to say the same thing.  UPwork seems to be having blind eye for them.  Self interest?may be?

[aprovado]

The solution to every problem is to . . . buy more connects.

[feed_my_eyes]

Or not, since you get your connects back if the job is a scam.

[wordpress_dr01]

You can create a support ticket and also add a link to the job on the ticket for better review 

[sein_mac]

Hi Martina,

It's not easy to find an Upwork Support Agent, I usually have to use a search engine to find it.

You can create a ticket for a support agent to help you by first mentioning your issue to the Support Chatbot here:

https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket

or

https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=3964

The bot will try to help, and then ask if your problem is solved or if you need more help by starting a ticket.

[7972f3ce]

Sein, I already tried yesterday to do as you said, but the bot never mentions anything such as opening a suport ticket 😢 It just goes in circles and then eventually asks me to go check out the community for help 😅 I think I'm just going to give up and accept that Upwork is not that good as I thought it would be afterall 😪 Never had such a poor and frustrating experience freelancing in my life before.

[sein_mac]

That's odd Martina. It's working fine for me.

[sein_mac]

.

[sein_mac]

You can click the 3 dots on the top right hand corner of your 1st post and select notify moderator.

[7972f3ce]

Thank you, I just did it! I hope the situation eventually improves in some way.

[sein_mac]

Great Martina 👍

[IvygailJ]

Hello Martina,

I’m sorry to hear about your experience with these clients and the difficulties you faced when trying to reach the support team. Could you please click on my name and send me a PM with the job post links in question? I will be sure to look into your report and escalate it accordingly.

I would also like to let you know that you can use the ‘ Flag as inappropriate’ option throughout the site to report any suspicious activity at any time.

[7972f3ce]

Thank you. I'm gonna see if I can find those few fake postings which have not been removed from the platform yet.

[feed_my_eyes]

There is absolutely no reason to contact support about scams. Use the "flag as inappropriate" link at the top of each job post to report it, or, if the scam isn't obvious until the scammer messages you, report it by clicking the three dots to the right of the message. If the job is taken down, you'll get your connects back.

If you think that contacting support is going to solve the problem of scamming in general, I'm sorry, but you're wasting your time. The scams have been going on for years and aren't going to stop; Upwork removes scammers from the platform, but they just keep coming back using different names and contact details. One thing that might help is to at least change your profile title to "English to Italian translation", because real clients don't do searches for just "translator" - only scammers do that. You're undoubtedly coming up in searches when scammers look for new translators; they're counting on you being desperate and not knowing how to use Upwork. But once you've done a few jobs and have some earnings in your account, they'll stop targeting you, and you'll also learn how to quickly recognise scams in the jobs feed and skip over them. 

[7972f3ce]

Thank you Christine, I'm gonna try to do as you said. Sadly it's almost impossible to flag these accounts and job postings, as the scammers always remove them right after they're done with their scheme, exactly because by doing this they cannot get reported and can continue operating. For many of them I still have the chat and everything but once I click on "view details" it says the posting has been removed from Upwork. I'm gonna implement the changes you suggested to my profile and hope that, as you said, they will stop targeting with time and as I get more experience and more jobs done.

[feed_my_eyes · Accepted solution]

No, the scammers don't remove their posts - why would they do that? - they disappear because another freelancer already reported them and Upwork took the job down. In those cases, there's nothing more that you can do, and there's no point in contacting customer support either.

Reporting the jobs won't make the scammers go away; the only reason that you should bother at all is to get your connects refunded. Scammers will keep coming back no matter how many times you report them.

[7972f3ce]

Thank you for your replies! I'm really new to this whole scamming thing, as it has never happened before in my whole career, so I really didn't know how to approach it 😅 I will follow your advice.

[feed_my_eyes]

It's a little jarring for sure when you're new, but really no different from getting junk email. You'll learn to just ignore it and then it won't bother you any more. Good luck.

[cb749370]

Speak clearly and motivate the coustomer 

[205464bc]

Agreed, I'm getting close to closing this account, it's pointless, all the connects were used up above all we do not credited from contact by scammers, this site is a scam itself. I see payment verified accounts but it still ends up being a scam. Their is no protection for freelancers.