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petra_r
Community Member

Sooooo many "The Aussie Voice" freelancers from all over the world...

There are literally dozens of profiles, all exactly the same (apart from names, location, photo). All have the title "The Aussie Voice" and share the same overview (stolen from a top-rated New York-based freelancer) Most share an hourly rate of $ 35 and went to Harvard University between 2012 and 2016. They own micro-studio based in New York

 

 

Run a google search for the keywords The Aussie Voice Upwork

 

Just found one who even has a Rising Talent Badge...

 

120 REPLIES 120
sergio-soria
Community Member

Oh, sí! Smiley LOL

 

And it sounds like a scam...


Sergio S wrote:

Oh, sí! Smiley LOL

 

And it sounds like a scam...


🤣 You 🙃 reckon? 🤣

 

They started popping up months ago.  One after the other. Some even post on the forum, and I just got a PM from one. Timezone Iran. Profile says the Philippines, he says he is in Turkey but could he use a UK SIMM card to verify his phone number. And he has a micro-studio too.....

 

yitwail
Community Member

The really strange thing is that there are freelancers with that title who offer services completely unrelated to voice/audio work. Perhaps they took a freelancer course that guaranteed profile approval if they used that title. However, out of 400+ freelancers, only 7 have actually earned any money. (◔_◔)

__________________________________________________
"No good deed goes unpunished." -- Clare Boothe Luce
JoanneP
Moderator
Moderator

Hi Petra,

 

I've shared this with the team for review. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. 

~ Joanne
Upwork

How do you get rising talent status without listing anything that clearly supports knowledge of or previous experience doing voiceover work? The ones with rising talent status don't seem to list anything different.   

petra_r
Community Member


Joanne Marie P wrote:

 

I've shared this with the team for review. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. 


I've been flagging them for months, Joanne. Some get removed, some don't.

 


Petra R wrote:

Joanne Marie P wrote:

 

I've shared this with the team for review. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. 


I've been flagging them for months, Joanne. Some get removed, some don't.

 


Considering the fact that you can pull up more than 40 pages of freelancers by simply searching "The Aussie Voice" and everyone of them has a master's degree from Harvard, this seems utterly ridicious. 

... and everyone of them has a master's degree from Harvard, this seems utterly ridicious. 


So, that's how you get into Harvard....


Wes C wrote:

... and everyone of them has a master's degree from Harvard, this seems utterly ridicious. 


So, that's how you get into Harvard....


Yeah. You write your own ticket. Literally. 

I think the outstanding question is why UpWork isn't freezing all of these accounts because the 100+ freelancers from Canada, India, Pakistan, Germany, Tunisia, Kazakhstan and at least ten other countries can't all have been there from 2012 to 2016. And if they did graduate from Harvard with master's degrees, I imagine their hourly rates would be somewhat higher. 

versailles
Community Member

This one has a fake photo lifted from another website. I flagged her and provided the URL of the site, but no reaction from Upwork.

 

**Edited for community guidelines**

 

Also the first line of her his overview is very popular:

 

"As one of the top voice over and audio providers on freelancing sites"

 

Ticket 25734338 opened.

 

I don't even understand why Upwork doesn't run an automated similarity check across the database from time to time...

 

 

-----------
"Where darkness shines like dazzling light"   —William Ashbless

I reported some loser on Reddit who was dumb enough to advertise his profile. Posted on reddit that it's a purchased account.  He deleted the thread but I reported the profile and even left in the notes that in his reviews he has someone calling "her" "Edna" and the country changed to Kenya. Profile still up.

 

 

Jennifer, I flagged the same "Edna" person, too.

BojanS
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Rene,

 

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I'll share this with our team and appropriate actions will be taken according to our internal processes.

~ Bojan
Upwork
kat303
Community Member

This was originally posted on May 25. And it's now June 3 and I'm still reading on this message that the job(s) are STILL up???????  

AveryO
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Kathy, 
Could you please clarify the jobs you are referring to here?

 

Hi Jennifer, and Mary, 
May I request that you please send me the profile of the freelancer you are referring to here, so that I can follow up on your reports. Thank you for your time!

 

Hi Rene, 
I have also followed up on your ticket, and have escalated it to the team for their review, and have added some other freelancers that I have found through the freelancer search you shared, and through Google search.


~ Avery
Upwork

Can please someone have a look at the ticket number 25734338?

 

The person who answered needs training.

-----------
"Where darkness shines like dazzling light"   —William Ashbless

Let me follow up on it, Rene. We appreciate the information you've provided and will take it from here. 

Sorry about the misunderstanding.

~ Valeria
Upwork
kat303
Community Member


Avery O wrote:

Hi Kathy, 
Could you please clarify the jobs you are referring to here?  

I'm referring to all of the jobs starting with the OP on May 25 until the last reply on June 3. It took 10 days to do something to all of these same profiles? I'm also referring to the very last post ( Renata) where now some of the jobs have just changed the dates of graduation and are still up.

 

Hi Jennifer, and Mary, 
May I request that you please send me the profile of the freelancer you are referring to here, so that I can follow up on your reports. Thank you for your time!

 

Hi Rene, 
I have also followed up on your ticket, and have escalated it to the team for their review, and have added some other freelancers that I have found through the freelancer search you shared, and through Google search.


 

renata101
Community Member


Kathy T wrote:

Avery O wrote:

Hi Kathy, 
Could you please clarify the jobs you are referring to here?  

I'm referring to all of the jobs starting with the OP on May 25 until the last reply on June 3. It took 10 days to do something to all of these same profiles? I'm also referring to the very last post ( Renata) where now some of the jobs have just changed the dates of graduation and are still up.

 

Hi Jennifer, and Mary, 
May I request that you please send me the profile of the freelancer you are referring to here, so that I can follow up on your reports. Thank you for your time!

 

Hi Rene, 
I have also followed up on your ticket, and have escalated it to the team for their review, and have added some other freelancers that I have found through the freelancer search you shared, and through Google search.


 




Kathy T wrote:

Avery O wrote:

Hi Kathy, 
Could you please clarify the jobs you are referring to here?  

I'm referring to all of the jobs starting with the OP on May 25 until the last reply on June 3. It took 10 days to do something to all of these same profiles? I'm also referring to the very last post ( Renata) where now some of the jobs have just changed the dates of graduation and are still up.

The one we identified is now set to private. 

A bigger issue with a few of these is that they have been using stolen photos. I contacted someone in Australia because the person who stole her photo for a UW account also set up a LinkedIn account under the same name (probably fake), also using her photo. 

It makes me wonder if there's an article or a video circulating about how to get your profile approved that includes a profile template. 

 

petra_r
Community Member


Kathy T wrote:

Avery O wrote:

Hi Kathy, 
Could you please clarify the jobs you are referring to here?  

I'm referring to all of the jobs starting with the OP on May 25 until the last reply on June 3.



Kathy, I was talking about profiles, not jobs.

Also, just because google still indexes something, does not mean it's not gone.

It also looks like most of those profiles were never approved anyway (why Upwork leaves rejected profiles up at all is another question, of course.)

 

kat303
Community Member


Petra R wrote:

Kathy T wrote:

Avery O wrote:

Hi Kathy, 
Could you please clarify the jobs you are referring to here?  

I'm referring to all of the jobs starting with the OP on May 25 until the last reply on June 3.



Kathy, I was talking about profiles, not jobs.

Also, just because google still indexes something, does not mean it's not gone.

It also looks like most of those profiles were never approved anyway (why Upwork leaves rejected profiles up at all is another question, of course.)

 


Petra. Profiles is what I was referring to. not jobs as I typedl. My brain isn't working tonight. I was thinking profiles, but my fingers typed jobs. 

petra_r
Community Member


Kathy T wrote:


Petra. Profiles is what I was referring to. not jobs as I typedl. My brain isn't working tonight. I was thinking profiles, but my fingers typed jobs. 


My brain and fingers do that to me all the time 😄


Rene K wrote:

This one has a fake photo lifted from another website. I flagged her and provided the URL of the site, but no reaction from Upwork.

 

**Edited for community guidelines**

 

Also the first line of her his overview is very popular:

 

"As one of the top voice over and audio providers on freelancing sites"

 

Ticket 25734338 opened.

 

I don't even understand why Upwork doesn't run an automated similarity check across the database from time to time...

 

 


It makes me wonder what's going on. I wrote in one of my comments that master's degrees don't generally take four years. And it appears that on the profile you flagged the dates have now been changed.

It seems that all that's happened is that the freelancer has been informed how to make the profile appear more realistic. What gives?

Screen Shot 2019-06-03 at 6.14.36 PM.png

renata101
Community Member

I think I've located the source of all of those Aussie Voices. Five seconds to profile approval. And, as we've seen, it's completely effective. 

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

You can jump to 2:50 to find the skills instructions, 4:19 for the education instructions and 5:05 to edit your title.

Thank you for sharing the video Renata,

 

Just to confirm, I`ve already added your information to the report and escalated it further. 

~ Goran
Upwork

That one's from India. Another from Pakistan lists the account's direct email. It's an active email address. 

 

It's a fairly common name but not one (when amended slightly to take account of changes made for an original email) that appears often in the list of freelancers as far as I can see. 

 

I'm obviously not posting it here, but have kept a note of it in case anyone wants it.


Renata S wrote:

I think I've located the source of all of those Aussie Voices. Five seconds to profile approval. And, as we've seen, it's completely effective. 


Actually, not so effective, most of the ones I took a closer look at were rejected.


And one of the Aussie voices, the nice looking one with the old established account here and on other sites, is real.


Petra R wrote:

Renata S wrote:

I think I've located the source of all of those Aussie Voices. Five seconds to profile approval. And, as we've seen, it's completely effective. 


Actually, not so effective, most of the ones I took a closer look at were rejected.


I flagged a bunch. Some were taken down (mainly if the profile photo was proven to be a fake). However quite a few remain. 

Once approved, the FL simply changed the information. You can see a bunch that still have the "Aussie Voice" title with new information. And there seems to still be a lot of people who have been to Harvard. Considering that it's been over a week and people know exactly what text to search, you can still find quite a few of them. It doesn't seem like UW really considers people being approved with fake information to be much of an issue.

 It makes you wonder what the approval process actually consists of. 


Renata S wrote:

It doesn't seem like UW really considers people being approved with fake information to be much of an issue.

Again.

Most of them I checked were **NOT** approved.

Why Upwork leaves rejected profiles searchable and allows them to be indexed by Google is another question.

 

Rejected profiles should be set private and removed after 30 days or whatever.

 

 


Petra R wrote:

Renata S wrote:

It doesn't seem like UW really considers people being approved with fake information to be much of an issue.

Again.

Most of them I checked were **NOT** approved.

Why Upwork leaves rejected profiles searchable and allows them to be indexed by Google is another question.

 

Rejected profiles should be set private and removed after 30 days or whatever.

 

 


For the ones that have not been set to private, I am assuming that they are approved if they are visible in a freelancer search. Why would the unapproved ones be searchable?

If I can see them, presumably the clients can as well. 

 


Renata S wrote:


For the ones that have not been set to private, I am assuming that they are approved if they are visible in a freelancer search. Why would the unapproved ones be searchable?

If I can see them, presumably the clients can as well. 

 


Assuming is a dangerous game.

And yes, clients can *see* them, but neither invite them nor hire them.

 

This one is rejected. (seen from client account) There is neither a Hire nor an Invite to job button

 

The bit below is proof of a rejected account - when people set their availability to "not available" it looks different.

 

not approved.jpg

 


Petra R wrote:

Renata S wrote:


For the ones that have not been set to private, I am assuming that they are approved if they are visible in a freelancer search. Why would the unapproved ones be searchable?

If I can see them, presumably the clients can as well. 

 


Assuming is a dangerous game.

And yes, clients can *see* them, but neither invite them nor hire them.

 

This one is rejected. (seen from client account) There is neither a Hire nor an Invite to job button

 

The bit below is proof of a rejected account - when people set their availability to "not available" it looks different.

 

not approved.jpg

 


Thanks, Petra. I didn't know that even existed. 

As of this afternoon, it looks like there's only about three of them left. So it looks like the problem has been resolved and maybe they'll have some way of identifying any more that are incoming. 


Renata S wrote:

Petra R wrote:

As of this afternoon, it looks like there's only about three of them left. So it looks like the problem has been resolved and maybe they'll have some way of identifying any more that are incoming. 

One step at a time.

Small steps are still steps.

The flow of fake profiles continues:

 

The voice overs...

 

And the Aussie voices...

 

The support ticket number today is 25943105. Have a good day Upwork.

-----------
"Where darkness shines like dazzling light"   —William Ashbless


Rene K wrote:

The flow of fake profiles continues:

 

The voice overs...

 

And the Aussie voices...

 

The support ticket number today is 25943105. Have a good day Upwork.


What are those links supposed to go to, Rene? The first one goes to a blank page, the second to one UW profile.

BojanS
Community Manager
Community Manager

Thank you for providing this report, Rene. I'll go ahead and share it with our team for further investigation.

~ Bojan
Upwork


Rene K wrote:

The flow of fake profiles continues:

 

The voice overs...

 

And the Aussie voices...

 

The support ticket number today is 25943105. Have a good day Upwork.


René, I think your thread got eaten by this one. 

You can have even more fun by searching for freelancers using the string "micro studio based in". It's possible to install a micro studio in places you can't even imagine. 

Did you see this one - this is literally what it looks like. And the location? Parisot, France  - 8:12 pm local time - 1 hr behind:

 

As one of the top video editors and script writers on freelancing sites for over 10 years. we have a micro studio based in New York, owned and operated by team of video and audio editors producers.

As one of the top video editors and script writers on freelancing sites for over 10 years. we have a micro studio based in New York, owned and operated by team of video and audio editors producers

As one of the top video editors and script writers on freelancing sites for over 10 years. we have a micro studio based in New York, owned and operated by team of video and audio editors producers

As one of the top video editors and script writers on freelancing sites for over 10 years. we have a micro studio based in New York, owned and operated by team of video and audio editors producers

As one of the top video editors and script writers on freelancing sites for over 10 years. we have a micro studio based in New York, owned and operated by team of video and audio editors producers

 

Makes me wonder what the (non-existent) process is for profile approval ...  Smiley Indifferent


Virginia F wrote:

 

Makes me wonder what the (non-existent) process is for profile approval ...  Smiley Indifferent


If all of the online advice about getting profile approval is to be believed, the process is simply to claim possession of a skill that isn't oversubscribed already, and boom, you're in. Or, you can purchase a profile from somebody else (which I believe is the motivation behind many of the "I've forgotten my username and password" and "I need access to my old account" posts in the forum). And even if you're blatantly caught red-handed doing either of these things, it seems unlikely that you'll be permanently banned. 

 

I think that Upwork should consider charging an application fee; that would sort out a lot of the scamming and reduce the number of new applicants per day.

 

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