Upwork generates fake jobs to scam freelancers for money?

[spectralua]

I'm already tired of it, the situation has crossed all boundaries.

Fake jobs to scam freelancers for connects (money). This happens all the time. I want to show with an example:

12 hours ago the client creates a job. I spend time and $ for application. 20 other freelancer also boosted and applied. Nothing happening with job, client never checkig it.

After 12 hrs same client creating same job again.

Fake works are generated time after time, this is not a single sample. Does the job violate ToS? I want the fake to be deleted and the connects returned. But the Upwork ignores my complaint each time and leaves the work active.

I conclude that the fake works are generated by the Upwork itself. The goal is to waste connects and get fake "active jobs" counter and show site look like alive. In reality there is no client or job. Otherwise action would have been taken. This is true?

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

[luce-neidert]

The scammers are not Americans. When you look at the time zone, you can see that they might be from an African country famous for scam farms.

Sometimes, they pretend to be from European countries, sometimes from the States or Canada, sometimes from Australia... Once in a while, they forget to use the VPN and say they are from the above mentioned country.

[yofazza]

Yes, I was responding to the post above it, about "Upwork is a Scam Company".

Let's say it's a lot easier and safer to establish a scamming company in my country than in the US. Our openness has improved significantly over the past decades, people has becoming less-afraid on voicing their concerns, but I'll say that the law enforcement still has plenty of rooms for improvement.

There's actually quite a few scam/fraud companies here, where some of them can get arrested, but some don't.

[luce-neidert]

To tell you the truth, I feel sorry for those who need to work in a scamming company, it really shows that there's something terribly wrong with their country.

Now, I can compare Upwork to another european freelance platform I know well. For a few months, I would get "invitations" to scam jobs. Suddenly, this stopped. One of my usual clients there told me he had sent a job offer, but it was taking a long time for it to be cleared. By a long time, I mean hours. Upwork could probably do the same if they meant to fight scammers.

[spectralua]

But i didnt say that "Upwork is a Scam Company", have no evidences a while. Working on it.

I say that the "duck test" passed. 🙂

[spectralua]

Timezone dont matter realy. Bots working 24hrs, all scripted and automated.

Yep, cheap bad bots messed times but good bots works as expected.

[luce-neidert]

Well, when I'm in doubt about a job that looks like a scam, I compare the country the job is supposed to be coming from and what I suppose would be a realistic hour in that country. You should do that, it's interesting. I don't believe all the scammers use bots, they don't always use the same text, or they use variations. When they see job offers that seem interesting, they occasionally copy the text. They are interesting to observe, at least in the translation sector.

By the way, I'm in France, and it's easy to observe the time zone as there is usually only one hour difference between my time zone and theirs.

[spectralua]

Yes, there are a lot of stereotyped scammers. If newbies read the forum, they would avoid 90%.

In my work, if a person creates a request to fix a server at three in the morning, then this is not suspicious: he needs to fix it asap. Or he himself tried all day and gave up at night and decided to hire someone. For example, you can find my posts here at 4 am today. But that doesn't make me a scammer. 🙂

But back to the topic: when a person creates copies every 12 hours then I understand that either a machine(bot) or upwork is using his account. And since this is against the rules and the work is not deleted, it looks like there is an upwork behind it.

[luce-neidert]

Well, I'm just a plain linguist, I don't know much about the computer world, so you can tell me what you want about it, I won't know what to believe. 🙄 However I do agree that a job posted at 3am would make sense if it were about fixing some server problem.

One good thing about these scams is that it's teaching newbies to read details in job offers - or at least it's teaching the smart ones !

[mcgooligan]

They do do this, but now they are being more insidious. I applied for a job recently that had been 'bid boosted' twice from 4 conects to 50 conects. The irony (and stupidity by upwork) is, that the 50 connects cost more than the actual payment being offered by the client! Upwork's goons really are stupid.

[the-right-writer]

Upwork isn't the one boosting like an insane person; it's the desperate and unskilled freelancers. Upwork's fault, is allowing anyone who can kind of use a keyboard to be a rising talent or freelancer.

For some, they are so desperate to trick clients, they will do anything for a job, including paying for it. If freelancers stopped acting as if they can compensate for no skills by throwing connects, there wouldn't be a problem.

[5e1db22e]

I think they'll have second thoughts on that since more Connects converts to more revenue. But I do agree getting a gig is somehow hard with the Connects issue. 

[alexandernovikov]

I understand those clients and it makes sense. People think it makes no sense to bid on "old" jobs and they frequently don't even get into their view. Best freelancers don't keep looking for jobs 24x7, they come at best once in few days and look for what's been posted recently. So if you want to really sift through the market and find good ones, re-create project several times every 12 hours and one of those people will ping you.

You don't understand how difficult it it is to get an attention of of a qualified freelancer, and how few of them are here. Clients are simply going out of their way to beg for their attention, and almost everyone who bids is not worthy of consideration.

[spectralua]

In my work it is important to work quickly. I monitor work 16-7, react instantly, work quickly and efficiently, that's why I'm the best. If I take a week to repair the server my client may close the business.

The mogerators have erased last examples but I will briefly describe them. The client's certificate on the site has expired. This is not a difficult job, but it must be done quickly: customers will leave your site and not return. This client created 4 copies (maybe more, I didn’t keep track), collected more than 200 proposals, including mine, and didn’t hire anyone. He didn't read proposal. Do you really believe that he was waiting for that divine freelancer who comes once a week? And all this time were losing money\reputation with broken site. Most likely this is just a fake to lure connects. No?

[yofazza]

I never been on the client's side, but looking at what some clients have wrote, in some niche, where they can tell more than 90% proposals are obvious bot or copypasta, it's still possible if what they ever saw on the proposals are only suspicious new freelancers with unconvincing first two lines, so they never open any of the proposal.

They could also only read their email for this.

So to me, their 4-times repost still makes sense, although, they might scare away some freelancers that way, like me, who think the connects are too precious to gamble in their (partly) created mess.

--

My thinking about why it's not an Upwork scam is simply because it will be hard for them to bring so many different people, clients with $500k, even if they're friends or even Upwork's or employee's account, to collaborate on such a blatant scam. Too risky, someone could simply disagree and leak it.

[spectralua]

Did you saw that email, how it look like? Also 2 lines or full cover letter there? Have no client's account to take a look.

[yofazza]

No, I only deduced it from what many people, including a mod, have said. I assume it's basically the same as the proposal snippet on the web, not a full cover letter.

I'm still not 100% certain though. If it does contain more information than the proposal snippet on the web, it would explain a lot about "lack of views", the client "not coming back to the proposal", etc. But, this would also render their 'viewed' stats nearly useless, so I don't think it's the case.

[adrian29630]

Yes.  Fake jobs just to fool freelancers into wasting connects which are really money extorted and also conning freelancers to bid above the rate in the hope that their proposal will be placed on top of the list.

All of this is a con. When you see a job advertised at $5 and someone is supposed to have bid 50 connects - a cost of $7.50 - and if they get the job after commission earning $4.50 so a net loss you can be sure it is a con

[alexandernovikov]

$5 price can be a placeholder. I once had a project that ended up being over $120,000 broken into several contracts while it was originally advertised for $2000.

In general, if you see a project you don't like - just don't bid on it. Don't bid on more than 2-3 best matching projects per day. You'll never waste too many connects.

[spectralua]

Thats why clients gone. Freelancers don't wasting money for job not fully fit and client see only bots. Then spamming with copies and again bots applied.

I've previously applied for jobs that had unmach requirements such as fluency in English (doesn't match my skills) or a lower price (my 100 vs. the original 50). In many cases I was hired and the client was happy with the work completed. I will not be applying for such a job at this time. Others too. Thus, the client has no one to choose. And because of the profile boost the client also cannot find someone to invite.

Freelancers see fake jobs, clients see fake profiles and bots, nothing useful here - only money and time wasting. And scammers.

[fred-derf]

To put a "placeholder" of such an insulting amount is good practice? Well, maybe the freelancer should bid $5/hr. as a placeholder too.

It's dishonest and misleading. For certain a teensy "placeholder" amount will get the cockroaches to bid.

Yeah, it is great to see you won a "low proposal" amount of $2000 job that turned into a huge pile more. Two thousand dollars is mighty huge compared to $5.

In using common sense on this platform, stay away from the crumb totals. Just look at the client's history. Almost guaranteed there will be a list of little $10-15 jobs.

In conclusion: the odds of the $5-placeholder job bilowing into a hundred-thousand dollar ongoing job is about 100000000-1. Better odds for the Toronto Maple Leafs winning the NFL Super Bowl.

[yofazza]

"Boosts that doesn't make sense" has been discussed. I don't believe it's a blatant scam by Upwork, so:

1. The advertised value is just a placeholder (freelancer will bid higher).
2. Freelancer aim for 'next jobs' from the client.
3. Freelancer found a way to not pay for the connects.

Those three conclusions were drawn quite a long time ago, before the now-obvious many bids from "botted new accounts". So, point #3 is now the more likely one. We've also seen clients reporting that freelancers direct them to go outside, or to another account, when interviewed.

[alexandernovikov]

Overall, my point of view is that good freelancers will always be happy about having to spend more connects/connects being more expensive, because it reduces their competition and their time spent on writing numerous good quality cover letters (which they, with less competition, will have to write fewer of), is more expensive than connects.

In fact, i'd happily just pay a lump $10,000 per month to just be able to write to every client directly and always be on top of the list of his proposals.

[c9e6b83c]

yes i think so. i am super qualified and no ones contact me. lol/ i have been thinking about this everytime i apply, i refill my connects and i think it is a scam. Very weird. 

[c9e6b83c]

it used to be 12 conencts now it is 16 lol. am not sure about the payment verified thing. Upwork should make it mandatory the name of the company to double verify the legitimacy

[42af73c5]

Well for my own case. I got tonns of job invitation. No reply was made.

[feed_my_eyes]

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Oluwamayowa O wrote:

Well for my own case. I got tonns of job invitation. No reply was made.

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How would it benefit Upwork if they invite you to bid on a fake job? They don't earn any money from connects when freelancers respond to invitations. This entire thread is nonsense.

[42af73c5]

When subscribed to a premium plan and maintaining a well-optimized profile, one tends to receive a multitude of invitations on the platform. However, a significant portion of these invitations may not elicit any response. Additionally, the nature of your responses is one-sided. You said how does Upwork benefits from this?

what tangible benefits does a freelancer derive from an abundance of invitations that often culminate in limited or no further communication? It becomes a scenario where a freelancer is presented with job opportunities, initiates communication to delve further into the details, only to find the interaction stagnating at that initial point without any substantive follow-up. This raises concerns about the meaningful advantages and opportunities available to freelancers in such instances.

That my point here, well I will not lie to you. while on other freelance platforms there is always immediate follow up when a client message you.

[spectralua]

Jobs posted again and again. I spent some time for sceenshots and will refresh with another example. 

Screenshots with all private info removed.

Job 1 (8 hours ago)

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

Job 2 (3 hours ago)

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

The first is from France, the second from Bangladesh.

I would really like to hear an answer from the Upwork team, what is happening?

Links to originals:

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

[the-right-writer]

It seems no matter what you do to remove identifiers, Upwork doesn't want anyone to see the scams.

[spectralua]

Yes, it's strange. The screenshots showed two vacancies containing exactly the same text.

Luce and Clark managed to watch it. The screenshots did not contain any identifiers and are not at all contrary to the forum rules. I specifically separated them from links to vacancies.

The fraudulent vacancy is currently active. It alive 10 hours after my complaint. The scammer continues to scam freelancers. Now he has already cheated for $500 (money that will never be paid) and continues.

We can see the total amount in a week when the billing cycle ends. Moreover, these defrauded freelancers will receive a forced refund and may also be banned under the pretext of participating in fraud.

[759e32fa]

Hi Mykola,

We shared your report with the relevant team for review. We can't share any details or results of the investigation but rest assured that when a job post is taken down for violating ToS, the Connects of those who applied will be returned.

[luce-neidert]

I had a look at the job from France.

Are you sure a job with so many reviews is a scam? The only fishy thing about is is that the time is one hour behind French time (I'm in France).

[spectralua]

I think the first job is legal. It is well described and low budget proposed. That budget fit average client's expences.

The second one worries me. The scammer(?) clearly copied it and the upwork does nothing about it. This one posted 5 hours ago from now and still alive. Of corse i reported it asap when posted.

[celgins]

I agree--the first job from France appears completely legitimate. The second job is obviously a copy and designed to scam freelancers.

The scammer posting the second job was at least smart enough to change the title and add a worthless line of text to the beginning of the message. This way, any auto-detection algorithms looking for duplicates won't flag it.

For what it's worth, the duplicate detection mechanism used for these forums is quite good at preventing users from typing the same message. If you try to type the exact message, you will get a "post flooding" error. You must change only one character in your message to avoid the error. I think this only applies within a thread, and not across all threads in the forums.

[luce-neidert]

Oh, I've already noticed the same thing in the translation offers. All of a sudden, a job post appears that is exactly worded as one that was legit and posted earlier. Then you notice that the country is different, no payments have been done by the client...

This is a good way to avoid posting a job that doesn't make sense, is full of spelling mistakes and so on.

[miriam-ocampo]

That is correct. That is how I identify a scam in translation if the job is coming from Nigeria, Bangladesh, Peru, etc. and they are requesting an English-to-Spanish translator and they have never hired anyone, I'm sorry it's a scam, another thing you can do is look at the other jobs they have posted, and it's just a copy paste or a bunch of crap. The bad thing is even if you report them Upwork is not going to be doing anything "because they are not breaking any rules", so we are just perpetuating scammers with this system. 

[ravi_iitian]

This post is both mind-boggling and disheartening.

No matter what the truth is, the “accusations” and insinuations made in this post do not inspire confidence.

Allowing the boosting of a proposal is bad idea. All applicants should have an equal chance of being viewed. No one should be allowed to jump the line.

Gaming can be a two-way street.

Upwork used to give free connects if a freelancer applied for a job and the potential client initiated a conversation. Then Upwork felt some freelancers were gaming the system and abruptly ended this scheme of providing free connects. That unfortunately was a shortcut. Instead of trying to catch the gamers, Upwork simply discontinued that scheme. Remember when people were reluctant to apply for jobs when the client had no history? The scheme of providing free connects did motivate some freelancers to take a chance with new clients.

As stated above, gaming can be a two-way street. Unfortunately, when Upwork scaled up the number of connects (initially ranging from 1 to 5) to a range of 4 to 16, it was bound to create some apprehension that perhaps the freelancers were being gamed.

Has Upwork really gained much by the boosting of proposals and by the raising the number of connects required to apply to a job?

Maybe (probably?) Upwork has collected more money than earlier from the sale of connects.

But has this caused a deleterious affect on the morale and trust of freelancers?

Bottom line: Is it beneficial to Upwork in the long run to engage in proposal-boosting and scaling up of the number of connects required to apply for a job?

[yofazza]

Has Upwork really gained much by the boosting of proposals

At least they made their first profitable quarter after years of losses.

But has this caused a deleterious affect on the morale and trust of freelancers?

There's nothing wrong with that from Upwork's perspective, at least until there are no more good/real freelancers here who can or are willing to work on projects, which I doubt will happen anytime soon. And, they must already have some contingency plans when they see it starts to happen.

Freelancers should put themselves accordingly to not get caught in the game.

And btw, I buy connects only from the money I keep here when I get jobs. I never use my card here, as I only use it on sites I trust, like Google, Amazon, some hosting/domain providers, where Upwork is not one of them. Yesterday, I ran out of connects and was thinking of buying more for real, then I saw this post, where it reminded me to stick with my principles. I don't want to yell to get my rights.

I'll just focus on my jobs and opportunities outside. You all should or try to do the same. Don't get caught in the game, and don't become  victim of 3rd party's policy change.

[ravi_iitian]

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Radia L wrote:

Has Upwork really gained much by the boosting of proposals

At least they made their first profitable quarter after years of losses.

But has this caused a deleterious affect on the morale and trust of freelancers?

There's nothing wrong with that from Upwork's perspective, at least until there are no more good/real freelancers here who can or are willing to work on projects, which I doubt will happen anytime soon. And, they must already have some contingency plans when they see it starts to happen.

---

I think this is a short-term gain but a long-term loss.

I simply think Upwork is on the wrong track.

A healthy, vibrant, and trustworthy Upwork is what we freelancers need.

[amlasikandar]

I believe that Upwork has undergone a shift primarily focused on financial aspects, neglecting ethical considerations. Consequently, I've chosen to discontinue using Upwork for job applications due to concerns about the authenticity of many listings. Instead, I find it more reliable to connect with companies and secure work opportunities through platforms like LinkedIn.