Upwork is getting worse, Too many fake jobs

[hamza4022]

I see a lot of fake jobs now these days. Too much scammer on Upwork right now. Upwork is Top # 1 freelancing platform now it's getting worse. How to get rid of scammers and fake jobs? 

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

[edesignmk]

I am wondering where are the new real clients.

[hamza4022]

Yeah, I am also looking for new real clients. Are they went to MARS? Common Upwork, do something about this.

[c_tannery]

I am hired but they asked me to make a purchase? On Rakuten ? Should I bow out?

[hamza4022]

Its 100% scam don't buy anything

[c_tannery]

Thank you!  I feel very leary having to connect my bank account or numbers to anything  

what do I do with this contract   nothing?

[hamza4022]

Do nothing. Don't work with this kind of clients.

[lizablau]

Close the contract, and report the scam so it's taken down.

[roberty1y]

There is no contract. Mostly, the scammers don't start a contract or have any payment method registered. They try to get people to pay them money on the promise of a job.

[petra_r]

---

Robert Y wrote:

There is no contract. Mostly, the scammers don't start a contract or have any payment method registered.

---

The "bonus scammers" do hire and have a verified payment method. They start an hourly contract and pay sum X as a bonus, the freelancer sees a payment in Pending and sends the money in some form, but of course, the bonus never clears because the payment method forever declines the charge.

This nonsense started when Upwork started to accept prepaid and virtual cards.

[roberty1y]

Yes, I've seen quite a few of these "bonus" cases too, sometimes with insanely large sums involved. In what universe does it make sense that someone will pay you $5,000 to buy them $4,000 in crypto?

[sofia2008 · Accepted solution]

This is a scam.

Did they change their request after you accepted the offer on Upwork?

As a reminder, paying any amount outside of Upwork is a violation of the Terms of Service. So no purchase for clients ( they can do their own shopping), no buying of crypto, pubg, or any virtual currency, apps, no insurance fee or ID to work. No money should come out of your pockets. You are here to work and earn money. 

Such scams involve the freelancer paying with real money, and their payment on Upwork will be declined because their payment method is fake. The freelancer is left with no earning on Upwork and personal expenses for which they won't be reimbursed and a violation of the Terms of service.

[c_tannery]

Thank you so much. hired me first before exchanging info which I liked. But immediately asked me to purchase $30 on Rokuten to get $30 back plus $30 from him

[a2ul]

Sophie i think these are freelancers who are trying to take advantage of fake job post to get free connects.

[archkram]

lots of fake people with fake success rates here because of Upwork's inability to take into account the true success rate of the freelancer over the span of his career! Building a lasting good  reputation in Upwork is no longer feasible, the  success rate has expiry dates!

[26e09afc]

Your right

[640331df]

but we already spent our connects. it's become useless. 

[the-right-writer]

Elisabeth, you need to read this post, and follow every link. You are not going to get hired, but you will get scammed because you have no profile.

I can operate excel, word, and ppt.I can adapt easily with new app -

This is not a skill title.

It's great that you have hobbies, and enjoy children and dancing, but your professional business profile is not the place for such postings. You need to take a hard look at what marketable skills you have, and create a profile that showcases your work.

If you do not have marketable skills, money to pay for self-employment, including connects, time, patience, motivation, and again, marketable skills, you will fail. I don't tell you that to be mean, or hurt your feelings. I tell you that, because it's better to know the truth than to lose everything.

Before you even look for another job, read the information and learn to protect yourself, because no one, including Upwork, will do it for you.

[hamza4022]

Don't pay them. It's SCAM. Professional companies never ask to pay anything 

[pgiambalvo]

Yes, it is a scam.

[kochubei_valeria]

Hi Hamza,

While I had to remove the screenshot you've attached to your post, I have noted the type of jobs you were referring to and have already forwarded that information to the team. Rest assured, those and other jobs and accounts that may be related will be reviewed and actions taken. 

Thanks!

[hamza4022]

Please, do something there is too many fake jobs

[a913b921]

I agree. I have become suspicious of every employer who responds to my proposal. And when they do prove to be a scammer, I am discouragedi and have to pep talk myself to keep trying. I have been contacted 35 times by scammers and not by 1 real employer.

[gaipnazarov]

Hi Valeria,

Indeed, there are too many fake job postings lately. I have never seen this on Upwork before. They are very similar in text. Is there any way to prevent from such postings?

[AveryO]

Hi Odil, 

I understand where your frustration is coming from and appreciate your participation in this thread. I want to note that we have teams and systems that help identify red flags if a user or a job post is fraudulent. However, I would like to clarify that there are cases where we cannot foresee a violation based on a client's job post itself or their initial communications with the freelancer. We usually receive flags when the interview stage has already commenced, where the client explicitly communicates this (ToS violation) with a freelancer. In cases like these, the teams involved take action immediately against the client's job post and account based on the report.

We will continue to improve the system and processes we have in place. In the meantime, please don't hesitate to report suspicious activity by following the steps here. 

[archkram]

The solution is to remove the current  badge system and let upwork display the true history of success rate of the freelancer . Achievements do not expire! 

[spaintranslator]

I have received more than fifty job invitations in the last two weeks. All of them from people with unverified payment method acc.
When I ask what is the task about as they immediately reply with a Telegram or Whatsapp number. Very annoying.

[PradeepH]

Hi Diana,

Thank you for your message. I am sorry to hear about the job invites received on your Upwork account. Please check out this post for more tips on how to avoid questionable jobs and please use the flag option found on each job post or message anytime you’d like to report a violation.

Thank you

Pradeep

[7319f8e5]

You right ,80% are fake jobs or if you send a proposal they told you to message them on whats'ap or other platforms you do the job and they don't even pay you after ,l did 4 jobs like that and l haven't seen a penny . Just a waste of time 

[chelle_79]

This is true. If I see a typing job that has an hourly rate of $30-$50 an hour, I would just sigh.

If you are a freelancer you can quickly tell if a job is fake or not. Usually, these scam jobs add a Whatsapp number to their posts.

They also invite freelancers to their fake posted jobs. They will tell you to send an email or contact someone on Whatsapp.

I also received an invitation to a  translation job which I had to pay first before getting it.

I hope Upwork finds a way to deal with this. It seems flagging them is not working.

[markoackovski]

I've never received a fake job invite, ever, and honestly... I feel a little left out... 

[the-right-writer]

We can't have you feeling left out.

Congretultions! You are have baen slected! Contact me on sme random mesging program and I wil heire you to build me a nice bog website. I'l pay u $1,000,000 cish if you do a reely good job and I'll evn give you other bonus these are bonses  i m the vice presdent of microsquish I persnally slcte you are the ne fac for r ne for webstes!

Send $2000.00 cesh  for softwere, cmputer, and oficiell microsquish compiny ID.  Biy suplies and mke website nd git $1,000,0000dollers!

[nick_scumaci]

I just took a sample size of 10 jobs listed. HALF were scam job posts. This has been going on for months now. I just don't understand why the issue hasn't been addressed properly. Most of the jobs have tell-tale signs and similarities which SHOULD make it really easy for Upwork to prevent imo.

[pgiambalvo]

Upwork is doing their best to prevent scam posts from appearing in our feeds. Sorry that half of the ones you just saw were scams despite this.

[raisindia]

I am daily flagging 15+ jobs as scam.

[pgiambalvo]

Please keep doing it. I flag more than 50 per day, many of them the EXACT SAME posts that reappear minutes later and multiple times every day. Except for today, because i keep getting a flagging is unavailable message all morning, meaning the posts will stay up longer and more freelencers will apply and potentionally get scammed.

[28425c32]

Oh man, so glad to see it's not jsut me seeing this! There are dozens of scammy audio and video jobs getting posted every day. the verbage in the posts are similar, but contain different specifics so they seem legit. They arrach .rar or or other attachments to all of them and the prices are always $500-$800 flat rate. They're all brand new accounts, though some of them are now going the extra step and "hiring" someone so they can gain credibility. Does Upwork not require verified IDs for job posting the way they do for Freelancers? I ssigned up for Freelancer.com and had to upload photos of my license, plus a photo of myself holding the license with a code. Seems way more secure.

[pgiambalvo]

"Does Upwork not require verified IDs for job posting the way they do for Freelancers?"

They do not but certainly should start.

[fe9b8d82]

I regularly flag posts that are blatant scams - flagged one over 12 hours ago that contained a phone number in the job title, with the text "CALL ME."

Still up as of a few minutes ago.  Several others that I flagged with contact info (emails, etc.) are still up after several days.  And no, these are not Enterprise Clients.

Sort of makes flagging suspicious jobs feel pointless.

[328ecd20]

Not a single proposal approved 

0 profile view 

Lots of connect wested 

Not a single client view my profile 

I m Profesional producer so don't tell may be your profile Not so good no way 

0 view 

0 interview 

O hiring 

I think Is much more fake job is here