The plague of scams and fake jobs

valdeir1004 · ‎02-03-2022

Lately Upwork is full of scams and fake jobs. There should be a better way to block these swindlers. Upwork needs to create a mechanism to identify these criminals.

edesignmk · ‎02-03-2022

Nowadays it looks like there are more fake jobs than real ones, which makes it difficult to get jobs awarded. For 40+ proposals sent, I have received just 3-4 interviews, and 3 of these interviews were fake jobs.
Let's hope everything will be back in normal very soon.

pgiambalvo · ‎02-03-2022

Yes, you may have noticed I and others have been complaining about this for months. I see in Upwork's tips for spotting scams, they brought on additional people to help stop this plague. That was in mid-December, so let's hope we'll see some results very soon, because so far, I've seen no reduction in them and even an increase.

JoanneP · ‎02-03-2022

Hi Valdeir,

If you see a job or a profile that seems suspicious, please feel free to report it to us using the flagging option. Please read more on this help article and also, kindly check out Tips to avoid questionable jobs. You might also want to check out the information here to learn more about staying safe on Upwork.

~ Joanne

valdeir1004 · ‎02-06-2022

I have already done that.

Thanks for the tip anyway.

7f9b79df · ‎02-06-2022

Flagging rarely works; the job remains on the site for several days after flagging. The Upwork teams needs to find a better method of purging the site of scammers who prey upon Freelancers. Less words; more action. Several good suggestions in this thread: https://community.upwork.com/t5/Freelancers/Continuous-Spam-Links-in-Jobs/m-p/991614

pgiambalvo · ‎02-06-2022

Just a hunch here, but maybe it takes them so long to take them down just because there are so darn many of them. So, if they would reduce so many from being able to be posted in the first place, they might get taken down quicker.

abinadab-agbo · ‎02-06-2022

How much are you paying us to flag jobs all day?

Also, why can't the team work on a fix to grey out the "Post Job" button where Telegram link, email or phone number is detected in description?

Is it too hard?

moonraker · ‎02-06-2022

Abinadab A wrote:
How much are you paying us to flag jobs all day?

... and for nothing to be done about them much of the time.

gilbert-phyllis · ‎02-06-2022

Abinadab A wrote:
How much are you paying us to flag jobs all day?
Also, why can't the team work on a fix to grey out the "Post Job" button where Telegram link, email or phone number is detected in description?

Is it too hard?

If only there were a way for FLs to avoid involvement with those scammers. For instance, UW could have a rule against using Telegram, email, or any other off-platform communication channels until a contract is in place. That would protect Fls. Oh, wait...

petra_r · ‎02-06-2022

Yes, but they could oh-so-esily have filters that funnel job posts that include certain words for human review, and regularly change or add the terms that trigger this to keep up to date with the latest tricks.

These days, they don't even have the little yellow warnings we used to see when people add numbers or typed "skype" etc etc.

Let's make no mistake: Every freelancer who lost money through this particular scam acted recklessly (at best) and violated the terms of service.

As usual, it would be impossible to fall victim to this if thinking logically and not violating the terms of service.