Upwork - Here are your scams. Enough.

[the-right-writer]

Since flagging jobs is more than a full-time effort for even an agency, here is an update. Of course, the terms

(t OR me OR telegram OR whatsapp OR message OR me OR gmail or ***@***)

Hourly

Fixed-Price

Less than $100

$100 - $500

$500 - $1k

$1k - $5k

$5k+

Category: Writing

5,734 jobs found

do not find every scam, including the "make a million retyping words" cons. However, this shows 99.8% on average of writing scams with blatant contact information.

It is painfully apparent that nothing is being done. Despite the claims that Upwork has no responsibility for the safety of freelancers, Upwork alone makes it possible for freelancers to be exposed to criminals. I don't run into jobs for sex workers and scams when I visit my preferred websites. Upwork has sent me invitations to jobs that were scams. Freelancers are being forced to deal with criminals because of Upwork's non-action. It is time to stop this heinous activity before some freelancer loses more than thousands of dollars.

If all the tech people employed can't figure out this less than rocket science problem, then use the fantastic, cheap, and simple fixes offered by the generous freelancers here in the forums.

Unfortunately, I predict the scams will continue because it serves Upwork. Is it to vastly inflate the number of jobs? Only Upwork can tell us the truth. Meanwhile, the number of actual jobs is continually shrinking, the platform is primarily scams, and the platform's reputation is taking a hard hit. That last fact is hurting freelancers in yet another way. How long will Upwork continue this mad rush for dollars with little thought or care about repercussions? Apparently, until it is too late.

[pgiambalvo · Accepted solution]

5,734 jobs that Upwork could have easily blocked if they wanted to.

[renata101]

Jeanne,

Excellent Boolean search. And yes, it is painful that you found over 5,700 jobs with it.  It really seems like someone could be doing more. A lot of times they're targeting people who are new to the board and are unfamiliar with the way Upwork operates.

[glen-s]

You make a good point about the fake posts also contributing to the 'amount' of jobs Upwork can say is available on their platform.

Clearly, Upwork do not want to tackle this issue. It is being raised everyday by people on this forum and has been for some time by the sounds of it and yet it's radio silence in return. No notice or statement to say they are looking to address it, just letting people lose money, while their own reputation goes down the toilet.

It's a definite choice they are making here and it demonstrates what they really think of freelancers - and buyers.

[gilbert-phyllis]

---

Glen S wrote:

You make a good point about the fake posts also contributing to the 'amount' of jobs Upwork can say is available on their platform.

Clearly, Upwork do not want to tackle this issue. It is being raised everyday by people on this forum and has been for some time by the sounds of it and yet it's radio silence in return. No notice or statement to say they are looking to address it, just letting people lose money, while their own reputation goes down the toilet.

It's a definite choice they are making here and it demonstrates what they really think of freelancers - and buyers.

---

This is not true. UW has acknowledged the problem and stated they are working on countermeasures. It's reasonable to expect they won't discuss details. 

I'm personally not bothered much by the situation but I get that in some categories it's become untenable. But it seems more constructive to keep the discussion factually accurate. 

[glen-s]

I would suggest that the vast majority of freelancers on Upwork are completely unaware that Upwork have made any sort of statement about looking into this. If it was sent out to everyone's email or made across the site as a whole, I definitely missed it too. The community section is quite niche and only ever used by the majority of freelancers when they have a problem that needs resolving.

So, while it's good news this is happening (out of interest, when did they make this announcement?) their communication about it is not up to par. Which, again, is disappointing, as this is an issue affecting a lot of people.

However, today I see my search listings appear to be a lot less cluttered with scam junk, so hopefully the new 'measures' being introduced are already starting to be implemented. Hopefully this is the case for everyone else using the site too.

[bundie702]

I also haven't seen any announcement addressing the huge growth of scam job postings. I did see that they are testing a new feature that will help freelancers from communicating off platform (which are likely to be scams), but that doesn't address the job postings. 

[coreywinfield]

I had someone offer me way more than what the ad said. Plus, they were going to ship me equipment and pay me $70 an hour (which I have to send back before I get paid). As soon as they offered me "Whatever" they pulled the ad from Upwork. When it's too good to be true, it's too good to be true. I'm going to tread very carefully with these people who say they're from TJX, the company that represents **Edited for Community Guidelines**