Trust & Safety request: your relationship with this user.

[#1]

I just got the request where Upwork Trust & Safety team requested me to describe my relationship with another user...

Honestly, I believe that my relationship with someone else is not the business of any team in the whole world ( I wrote about not the crime things 🙂 ). 

Btw, they asked me about the user which was invited by me to Upwork and that account was suspended about 3 years ago by the same "safety" team after they roasted me and this user about our relations 🙂 

Yeah, "Upwork Trust & Safety" did a "great" job - after that, I decided to never ever invite someone else to Upwork. 

What is the "groundhog" day! 🙂 

[#2]

Hi Pavel, 

I'm sorry to learn that this process has inconvenienced you. Please know that we have these processes in place so that we can make sure that the Upwork marketplace is safe for all users. 

I checked and it looks like you already have recently updated your ticket with more information. I will go ahead and follow up with the team handling your case so that they can get back to you with more information about your account. 

[#3]

Avery,

There is nothing about "inconvenience" and "safe", but something about the privacy. I am not sure about what the "trust team" means with "your relationship" - shared business? or are they going to start asking us about the shared bed?

[#4]

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Pavel T wrote:

There is nothing about "inconvenience" and "safe", but something about the privacy. I am not sure about what the "trust team" means with "your relationship" - shared business? or are they going to start asking us about the shared bed?

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Don't even joke about this.

People have been get permanently suspended for creating contracts with "close friends"

At worst such stuff can be money laundering and worse, at best it's feedback manipulation so just answer the damned questions without throwing a tantrum.

[#5]

So, "Bring your own client" is the greatest opportunity to get suspended account 🙂

Actually, it was clear for me since 2015 (or 2016) ...when I invited my client to Upwork 🙂

[#6]

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Pavel T wrote:
So, "Bring your own client" is the greatest opportunity to get suspended account 🙂

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You're being deliberately obtuse.

"Bring your own client" is one thing.

"Bring your best pal / dad / wife / neighbour / cat / alter ego / imaginary friend posing as the client" is another.

Obviously it throws up questions when there appears to be a link between a so-called client and a freelancer that goes clearly beyond a freelancer-client relationship.

[#7]

just for the example - if the my client started to call me bro ...and I call his bro too. But we still collaborate via Upwork. And recently we started the new contract here.

Is he still a client ? or so-client? should "trust" team start investigation against us?
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My question is - where is the line?

[#8]

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Pavel T wrote:
just for the example - if the my client started to call me bro ...and I call his bro too. But we still collaborate via Upwork. And recently we started the new contract here.

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I doubt the client calling you "bro" would have any effect. Using the same IP or computer (among other things) would...

Also, didn't you say your bro client was suspended 3 years ago? Hopefully they weren't dumb enough to create a new account...

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Pavel T wrote:
Is he still a client ? or so-client? should "trust" team start investigation against us?

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They clearly can investigate ....as you see.

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Pavel T wrote:
My question is - where is the line?

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Whatever it is, let's hope you haven't crossed it.

[#9]

I believe I didn't.  Also, I wrote above about a few different clients 🙂

But, please - https://www.upwork.com/legal -

1. Are there some rules or some regulations which describe the allowed relationships between clients (who is definitely NOT alter ego / imaginary friend)  and freelancers?

2. Are there the rules which deny me to hire my friend, neighbor, relative via Upwork?  

Just want to understand how we should sort the clients here 🙂

[#10]

Pavel, I think you are doing yourself a disservice with your posts.

You might have heard the saying: "When in a hole, stop digging."

I strongly suggest you stop digging rightly now.

[#11]

re: "Are there the rules which deny me to hire my friend, neighbor, relative via Upwork?"

You referenced the Upwork TOS document at /legal

The following general notes are NOT about the original poster and do not refer to any participant in this thread:

I can assure you that the countermeasures used by Upwork's Trust & Safety Team and by Upwork's automated algorithms are NOT necessarily documented in publicly posted TOS documents.

Punitive actions, including account termination, can indeed be taken without regard to the presence of explicit language in TOS which meets any individual freelancer's requirements.

In other words, it doesn't matter if Upwork never posts a rule stating you can't hired your brother. You still can't hire your brother, and Upwork can terminate your account if you do.

[#12]

Thanks, Preston!

[#13]

Nothing to hide for me there. And I don't think that I do something wrong there with my post or I asked about the wrong things. 

Btw, thank you for the advice! 🙂