User abruptly closed job.

[akash_kumar-bisw]

Greetings,
I recently applied to a job for 6 articles. After the user reached out to me, he asked me to write one article as a sample, the topic of which was given by him. I submitted the article within a few hours. I suspected something fishy about the user, so I stalked his profile, here is what I found-
1- he joined UpWork this month (August 2020).
2- 14% hire rate.

3- 3 open jobs.
4- $5 total spent.
The most striking fact was, he was interviewing 11 other freelancers for the same job I applied for. Now, if he asks all 11 of them to write an article of a given topic of his choice, he could easily get his 6 articles done without having to pay anyone. I was still optimistic, however, this morning he closed the job. 

[feed_my_eyes]

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You could have put a stop to this by refusing to work for free, and reported the client instead. As long as freelancers are willing to give away their work, clients will keep on scamming them.

[akash_kumar-bisw]

Hi, 
Thanks for the reply. I wasn't aware that clients aren't allowed to solicit unpaid work as a screening measure. I am still new to this community, yet a lot to learn.

[g_vasilevski]

Hi Akash,

I`m sorry to hear about the bad experience you had. Just to clarify, asking for free work is a violation of our TOS. 
Our team will investigate the client further and will take proper actions. Thank you.

[astepanov83]

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Goran V wrote:

Hi Akash,

I`m sorry to hear about the bad experience you had. Just to clarify, asking for free work is a violation of our TOS. 
Our team will investigate the client further and will take proper actions. Thank you.

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This where you could apply you "smart" Data from support. Instead of making freelancers talk to machine to get human support, you could set it on messaging and get alerted when it detects a client asking for free work.

Unless you have already done so.

[feed_my_eyes]

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Aleksandr S wrote:

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This where you could apply you "smart" Data from support. Instead of making freelancers talk to machine to get human support, you could set it on messaging and get alerted when it detects a client asking for free work.

Unless you have already done so.

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There's no need to talk to a machine nor a human about this - there's a "flag as inappropriate" link right at the top of every job listing. (Although I continue to question the wisdom of removing "Client is asking for free work" from the dropdown menu.) A warning in the messages isn't a bad idea either, but I'm willing to bet that it wouldn't deter most clients; many are repeat offenders, like the OP's client.

[astepanov83]

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Christine A wrote:

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Aleksandr S wrote:

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This where you could apply you "smart" Data from support. Instead of making freelancers talk to machine to get human support, you could set it on messaging and get alerted when it detects a client asking for free work.

Unless you have already done so.

---

There's no need to talk to a machine nor a human about this - there's a "flag as inappropriate" link right at the top of every job listing. (Although I continue to question the wisdom of removing "Client is asking for free work" from the dropdown menu.) A warning in the messages isn't a bad idea either, but I'm willing to bet that it wouldn't deter most clients; many are repeat offenders, like the OP's client.

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What I actually meant is when you go to support.upwork to create a ticket (for whatever reason), you will have to talk to a machine at first: type your request, then click "Show me more" (why would they think I want more?), etc. Only after several steps you are allowed to create a ticket. Some AI is involved here that can be adapted to read messages and detect some forms of ToS violation.

[martina_plaschka]

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Akash Kumar B wrote:

Greetings,
I recently applied to a job for 6 articles. After the user reached out to me, he asked me to write one article as a sample, the topic of which was given by him. I submitted the article within a few hours. I suspected something fishy about the user, so I stalked his profile, here is what I found-
1- he joined UpWork this month (August 2020).
2- 14% hire rate.

3- 3 open jobs.
4- $5 total spent.
The most striking fact was, he was interviewing 11 other freelancers for the same job I applied for. Now, if he asks all 11 of them to write an article of a given topic of his choice, he could easily get his 6 articles done without having to pay anyone. I was still optimistic, however, this morning he closed the job. 

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Well, that's not stalking, that's looking at a client's data. Which you should always do before you even send a proposal, would have saved you a lot of time and aggravation.