Scams

[acevedo_lynn]

I decline more post that look like scams than actually getting real honest work. This is so discouraging and a waste of my time. Does Upwork have a proactive plan to prevent scammers from posting on the site?

[jaiclahar]

I am also receiving a lot of weird responses. 

[prestonhunter]

re: "Does Upwork have a proactive plan to prevent scammers from posting on the site?"

No, not much of a plan any way.

You already know that scammers ARE posting jobs on the site, so you already know that if Upwork is doing anything, their efforts are far from foolproof.

The problem is: This is a tough problem to solve. Upwork wants to do its best on this front... they try... but it is impossible given today's available technology to block scammers from posting without severely changing and damaging the platform.

We don't want to add barriers to posting jobs which cause real paying clients to be decide to not use the site.

So currently Upwork uses a few key word search algorithms to flag or blog some obviously offending job posts. But that doesn't block most scammers, because the scammers constantly evolve their scripts and always try to post job postings which look real and innocent.

So Upwork primarily relies on freelancers to report scammers, so that they can take down those scammers' job postings. And Upwork removes those scammers from the platform... terminates their accounts. This means that the scammers must create new fake accounts in order to post new scam jobs. This means that scammers are unable to build up impressive client histories.

It may not seem sufficient, but that is where we are at.

The good news for you:

Once you gain experience on the platform, you can easily identify scams, and scammers stop bothering you. Scammers never contact me. Scammers don't waste their time with experienced freelancers.

[acevedo_lynn]

Thank you for your prompt response. It is a bit disappointing there is no proactive plan. The feed is flooded with red flags. I think Upwork can do a better job putting safeguards in place to prevent this. Freelancers want an honest platform to work on. You have a good point about easily identifying scams when I have gained more experience on the platform, but the Freelancer experience shouldn't have to encounter all these barriers in finding work. Seems the scammers that no longer contact you are contacting me. Thanks again for your response. 

[martina_plaschka]

The reality is, this is the largest online platform of its kind. It is very reasonable from the point of view of scammers to come here, and it's unreasonable to expect it to be perfectly safe and every job to be legit. Upwork can scan for certain words in a job post, and put rules in place to stay safe, but that's about it. What else could they do? Nobody has found a great solution yet that would not punish freelancers by clients staying away from upwork. 

[pgiambalvo]

The key word there is "yet," isn't it? I'm sure UW and freelancers will continue working on new and improved ways to decrease the amount of scam posts that show up in our feeds.

[prestonhunter]

re: "I think Upwork can do a better job putting safeguards in place to prevent this."

How?

[alekseevpavel78]

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Preston H wrote:

re: "I think Upwork can do a better job putting safeguards in place to prevent this."

How?

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For example, UW could request clients to provide 2 IDs that must be under the same name as the credit card, before they will be allowed to create any contract here. Exactly the same as freelancers do to approve the personality.

[pgiambalvo]

Beats me. But one has to imagine Sisyphus happy.

[pgiambalvo]

How about UW doesn't let scam posts get "Featured," or "Upwork Plus" client status? Both of those things lend legitimacy to the posts. It seems like a teeny bit more of checking before those designations could happen might help at least just a little. Hard to believe a scam can get "Featured," but I see it happening repeatedly.

[alekseevpavel78]

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Peter G wrote:

How about UW doesn't let scam posts get "Featured,"

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As I understand any client just needs to pay for that to UW - and not too much, and a job announcement will be marked as "Featured".

[pgiambalvo]

So if someone wants to plop down a few bucks to get featured or to be ID'd as an Upwork Plus client, it doesn;t seem unreasonable to me that that should alos require a little more verification that they are legit. How that added level of verification couid happen, I don't know.

[martina_plaschka]

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Peter G wrote:

How about UW doesn't let scam posts get "Featured," or "Upwork Plus" client status? Both of those things lend legitimacy to the posts. It seems like a teeny bit more of checking before those designations could happen might help at least just a little. Hard to believe a scam can get "Featured," but I see it happening repeatedly.

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That sounds like an unneccessary step after somebody has been identified as a scammer. 

[pgiambalvo]

No, this would occur before they are given those designations. After they are identified as scammer, the post is taken down so it's too late by then.

[feed_my_eyes]

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Peter G wrote:

How about UW doesn't let scam posts get "Featured," or "Upwork Plus" client status? Both of those things lend legitimacy to the posts. It seems like a teeny bit more of checking before those designations could happen might help at least just a little. Hard to believe a scam can get "Featured," but I see it happening repeatedly.

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It's not a matter of "letting" or "allowing" them, as you continually insist on saying - clients pay a bit of money and then their jobs get that designation automatically. The jobs no doubt look legit up until the point where the scammer contacts freelancers and requests interviews on Skype. In order to put a stop to it, Upwork would need a fleet of undercover staff with fake freelance profiles to bid on every job and wait to be contacted by the scammers - and hope that the scammer contacts them before they contact any real freelancers. And keep in mind that the scam posts you're seeing in your feed are only a small fraction of the jobs being posted every minute. Do you want to pay extra money in service charges in order for Upwork to hire additional staff to combat the problem? Because I certainly don't.

[joansands]

Preston - I have given up even reporting a job post that I believe is a scam - because when I do, the screen freezes and then I have to leave Upwork and go someplace else and then come back. That all just takes too much of my time so I just say I am not interested in the job post. It is still a big waste of time to have to read these scam posts and figure out if they are legit.

[pgiambalvo]

Joan S, I sympathize and agree. “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”