Video Verification....

[datasciencewonk]

Guys...

If you're going to place accounts on hold for video verification...it's probably a good idea to make sure your CS knows how to go through the process?

[tolstoydotcom]

Valeria: could you please explain the motivation for video verification?

I've completed several projects and Upwork has my name, address, phone number, email address, PayPal info, and SSN.. That's all Upwork needs to completely verify my identity.

I also have several domains that are older than upwork.com and that have public WHOIS that match the same name/address/phone. Those use a different email, but I can respond to emails sent to that address.

I've been a member of Drupal for over a decade and I'm the author of a project there. I've had an open source project at Sourceforge for several years. A project I wrote got an award from JavaWorld magazine. I'm not even semi-famous in the nerd sense, but I am a known quantity.

Video verification seems nonsensical. It isn't needed to verify I can do the work: the several projects I've completed do that. It isn't a sure method of verification: someone could use someone else's photo and then have that person do the video chat. An SSN and the rest of my info that Upwork has is a sure method of verification.

What video verification would do (assuming someone doesn't use a stand-in) would verify someone's gender, age, race, and physical capabilities. All of which are protected categories here in California (where Upwork is also based). I don't have or want a profile photo: my work speaks for itself.. Requiring people to in effect verify their gender, race, age, and physical capabilities is huge invitation to discrimination both by Upwork and by clients. Further, the idea of picking people out at random for punishment is also how cults and dictatorial regimes operate.

I've called Upwork twice and left messages trying to get an explanation, and no one has returned my calls or sent an email. Can you provide a logical, legitimate explanation for requiring video verification or have someone contact me who can?

[kochubei_valeria]

Hi Chris,

I understand your concerns and I wish we didn't need to verify the information freelancers have on their profiles. Unfortunately, there are a number of freelancers on Upwork who misrepresent their identity and skills which definitely doesn't help build trust on the platform. The new video verification process is meant to help with that and has nothing to do with users' gender or race. 

[tolstoydotcom]

Valeria:

There are a number of shoplifters in any store. That isn't an excuse to stop and frisk everyone leaving the store. That's how you lose customers and it punishes everyone for the actions of a few.

As a means of IDing someone you don't know, video is incredibly faulty, unless you're taking mugshots of your users and then comparing them. If Betty interviews Barney and Wilma interviews Fred, there's no way for Betty and Wilma to know Barney and Fred aren't the same person unless you're doing that.

Since no one has mentioned being asked skills questions, I assume this isn't about determining whether someone is qualified or not. If this is about determining qualifications, then a phone interview would work. Yet, for some reason, Upwork wants to see what their users look like.

In my case, none of these concerns apply: I've already more than fully identified myself, and my completed projects show that I have the skills to do what I claim I can do.

Can I speak to someone at Upwork HQ about this?

[kochubei_valeria]

Chris,

I'll share your feedback with the team. However, I'm afraid we won't be able to bypass our policies as verification is required in order for you to continue submitting proposals on Upwork.

[tolstoydotcom]

Valeria:

I appreciate that. However, in case it wasn't clear:

1. I've already completely verified my ID with Upwork, and

2. Video "verification" is verification of absolutely nothing.

For the reasons I've already discussed in detail, video verification is just "security theater" and obviously it's something Upwork users aren't happy with. It punishes good users, while those who aren't good users will comply by simply having someone else answer questions for them.

Upwork will reduce the average quality of its users by treating people this way.

[vladag]

Hi Chris,

I've checked and it doesn't appear ID verification was requested for your account before. Please make sure you upload a real photo of yourself to your profile and complete profile verification, in order for our team to fully reinstate your account.

[ryanjames]

Locking users out of their account to force a video call is aggressive and an invasion of privacy.

What if I'm a burn victim? What if I don't had a webcam? What if I don't want to take a shower and clean up my room behind me? What if I've got a girl lingering in my bed behind me?

Not to mention taking time out of my day, time I would rather spend working on projects for Upwork clients.

I've been a 5 star provider for oDesk/Elance and now Upwork for 10 years. They have my social security number, passport scan, bank account details, and phone number. I have been "verified" several times.

Then this. Frozen out of my account. I've got to interrupt my workflow with clients, prepare for the call. The call doesn't work. I can't hear the customer support agent, and one of my speakers is now blaring terrible feedback from a bug in the Upwork concerence call software. Dude asks me where I'm from, and what the flag here looks like.

I laugh and name 3 colors. That's it. All good now. He ends the chat, and gets to see me giggling in disbelief.

My account has been restored.

The feedback in my speaker doesn't stop with the end of the call, so I've got to shut down Chrome, After Effects, Photoshop, Word, Excel, Parallels, and a dozen other programs so I can restart my computer.

Thanks for the 30 minute interruption.

PS - Can I force a video call from Upwork, demanding them to verify that someone is actually managing this mess? I really would like to see the face of the person in charge over there.

[kochubei_valeria]

Hi Ryan,

Sorry to hear you were frustrated with the verification call. We understand that it may be inconvenient to take some time off to complete it and that a user may not have access to a webcam right away. If the team is informed about such issues, they are happy to accommodate. This is, however, a necessary step we have to take to identify fake accounts that are unfortunately present on the platform. Additionally, completing verification when requested is something all users agree to when they register and accept Upwork ToS.

[haday]

Please read MY post at:
https://community.upwork.com/t5/Freelancers/Video-Verification/m-p/391104#M238431

[neha-bhardwaj]

Dear Valeria,

I am afraid thats not the case, I have done my Video Verification in November and got Verfied Badge Here you can see it : http://prntscr.com/r1tmrd

But today, Once again I am asked to complete Video Call Verification : http://prntscr.com/r1tn5y

I don't know what's going on and I am feeling a little unsecure at the moment. 

Please guide.
Thank you.

[g_vasilevski]

Hi Neha,

Rest assured that Trust and Safety is our priority on Upwork. Based on various indicators freelancers may occasionally be asked to verify the information on their profiles again. Please, follow the link to chat with an agent and they’ll assist you with the process further. Thank you for your cooperation.

[neha-bhardwaj]

Dear Goran,

I absolutely Love Upwork for everything they are doing to make the platform free from scammers. 

I don't mind doing Video Verification again but Just wanted to share my experience And was a little worried when I saw that notification.

I will go ahead do the needful.

Thank you.

[m_terrazas]

Hi Avery,

I have not received any messages to verify my identity but I have some doubts, in case at any moment I receive it.
The first thing is that I do not speak English, I can read it and write it with a little time. How will I understand the person on the other side of the camera?
And if I do not have a camera? How the verification would be done.

All this to be prepared in case I get one of those messages.

[sufi4]

I already did it but now i get a email for video verification 

[tinker_bell3]

Hi Mehwish, 

I checked your account and I can see that our team already reached out to you via email with a link to proceed with the video verification process. Kindly follow the link shared by our team so that you can complete this step. If you have any questions or need assistance with, please feel free to respond back to the ticket and the agent will assist you directly.

[datasciencewonk]

---

@Tiffany S wrote:

---

@Garnor M wrote:

Hi Tiffany,

We don't want to disrupt your business, particulalry if you're a good freelancer with experience. That said, temporarily stopping the ability to submit new proposals is an action we know will ensure completion of the video verification request. We'll work on improving the process on our end, so the verification can happen more efficiently. 

---

 I can understand the need to incentivize compliance, but perhaps a few days of lead time--instead of shutting it down and then asking, saying "schedule by XX to avoid interruption"?

---

Well. I have to say I was flummoxed a bit by the "do this now." I understand Upwork's reasoning. On the other hand, freezing the proposals process for experienced freelancers with many simultaneous contracts--and I didn't know if that meant clients couldn't send me invites as well, meanwhile I was in mid invite from a client--did create some panic.

I missed a doctor's appointment because CS was having a technical glitch with channeling me to the correct person for the video verification. And, well, I need to be able to send proposals (and receive invites--though are invites also halted?). I'm merely bringing up the human element to consider in streamlining the process? 

Believe me, I'm glad the Upwork Team is installing checks and balances to lessen fraud/scams. I know the "DO THIS NOW OR ELSE" hastens compliance. Maybe allowing more time for compliance?

[tgstudio]

I must confess that I was caught off guard as well. I was in the middle of an interview and trying to wrap up a few time critical projects. Like Kat, I was unsure how it was going to affect my job interviews and invites so I had to drop everything to take care of it. 

I had to apologize to the rep though, I was not presentable for the video verification....battling a cold, no makeup and hair sticking up everywhere. No doubt that is why it took her a second or two longer to verify who I was.

All in all my video verification went smoothly. I didn't run into any hiccups. It took maybe 10 minutes tops. However, it was awful timing.

[dfc323a3]

More than 10 times I contacted the support asking me to make a video call, the only thing they did was asked me for my email address or login ,and once I sent it they immediately ceased to engage in dialogue, and an hour later was in the message was a status of "resolved", leaving me without a single response. 3 days already without an opportunity to respond to the projects.

[prestonhunter]

Maria : the video verification is not an English test. They asked me my name and my address. I don't think you will have any problem answering their questions.

[m_terrazas]

Thanks Preston, this reassures me.

I did not think it was an English test but, if you ask me a couple of questions, beyond my name and my address, I will look so stupid that you will not recognize me 🙂

[awaaz30]

hey. finally sm1 who got the verification process finished.

i m still struggling since one week...

[jchrishume]

I have received one of these pesky verification requests with instructions to click through green button at foot of Help Centre page. Unfortunately, the green button does nothing on click. Nothing, zip, nada.

I have already informed HC of this and received another message telling me where to find the green button. I can see it. I just can't use it.

As I've been with Upwork for years now, since Odesk days, and I have had a verification phone call in the past, I'd say this is a bit of overkill but I don't mind doing it. I am just frustrated that I cannot get it done and out the way.

[kochubei_valeria]

Hi JChris,

It looks like you were able to access chat by clicking on the button. An agent will assist you as soon as possible.

[junaidqmi]

Hello Valeria K

I got the email for video verification. I can't speak English  but I can write very well. Is there is option to verify via video and do live chat during video call.

OR

Is there an option for video verification in some other languages like my mother lanugage is Punjabi.

I am first time writing in community not sure, I am writing in right place.

Looking forward for your response.

Regards,

Junaid

[kochubei_valeria]

Hi Junaid,

An agent will ask you a couple of very simple questions to verify information on your profile and it will only take a few minutes. If you still have concerns about communicating with the team, you can inform them by replying to the notification they sent you.

[avdeeva_dasha]

Hello. In my profile there was such a message"Action required: To avoid additional account restrictions, you must complete your identity verification video call with Upwork. You can initiate this call by chatting with an agent here.". I can not write in support, because the page just does not respond and this problem has been for several days already. My financial transactions are limited, I would like to know the reason and resolve this problem in the near future. Thank you.

[kochubei_valeria]

Hi Dasha,

Could you please clear your cache and cookies or try using a different browser to access this page. I tried replicating the issue you are having and wasn't able to. The button should appear at the bottom of the page:

[afifield]

I just got this as well and I have to give kudos to upworks for doing these to ensure our profiles are safe. the video agent was very nice and just wanted to see that I was myself 🙂 It's a pretty good idea. I can see how it could catch people off guard, I was when I saw it, but when I jumped on the phone it didn't take much to finish the process, just putting my camera and and them seeing it was me. 

[avdeeva_dasha]

I cleaned the cache and cookies on the advice and came from another browser. Thanks, my problem was solved.

[gogyimogyi]

I also got the email about the verification process. While I'm glad to see upwork tries to do something about the security, it really bothers (pisses) me that I'm being handled like a fraud or scammer and it seems I need to prove myself I'm not one. I have been working on upwork for more than 10 years, I have verificated myself with various methods already, eg cards, etc.

Now my financial transactions has been limited until I do not finish the verification? The best part is that: "For the protection and safety of your account we have placed a temporary hold on your account funds."

Really? Then maybe you should implement MFA if you really worries about the security of our accounts.

Or maybe you should automatically remove real names from feedbacks. It is against the policy, yet, I have been contacted by scammers ourside of upwork by googling my real name and the name of the company I have been working with. They even contacted my boss there. That was possible because few clients left my real name in the feedbacks...

and "If you do not pass the profile verification chat successfully, we may have to reverse the funds from your open contracts back to the clients."

Right... How about getting back the refund I have been waiting for years from a freelancer I hired instead? It is still pending...

This whole verification process should result some kind of reward or badge if the freelancer does it, so they would do it happily. But there should not be a time limit or not few days at least. Punishing people because they do not have time or because they are offline or just thinks the whole video verification process is futile is not a good thing to do. You know if you do that it will look like you do not really care about them.

I do not actually mind if you use some kind of limitation, but it should not interrupt the normal, daily workflow. Eg limit the amount of jobs we could apply, put a label on our profile which says unverified, whatever. But not letting us to get the money we worked for is just wrong.

"Interestingly" my client account also has been limited. It seems they still could not manage to separate the two accounts financially. Of course that connection only exists when they are limiting their functionanlity. Moving money between them is not possible.

To be clear: I'm not against of any kind of verification, but I strongly dislike the way it is being conducted on upwork.

[kochubei_valeria]

Thanks for sharing your feedback about the verification process, Arpad. Our intention is certainly not to make honest freelancers feel like they are considered to be fraudulent. On the contrary, we are planing to verify all freelancer accounts to increase trust on the marketplace which should as a result increase chances for honest freelancer to be hired. 

If private information was shared in a feedback comment, please contact customer support with more details and they'll help you correct that.

[g_vasilevski]

Hi Husam,

You can use this link to verify your profile.

[dereklee888]

May I do video verification call using this link?
Is this link only for Husam?

It seems that it allow to me using this link for my video verification call. Right?

[aocumen]

Hi Derek, 

It looks like you don't need to verify your identity at the moment. If there's a need for you to verify your account the team will notify you via email.

[badsharakib]

How to ceate  identity verification video call?

[katrinabeaver]

Upwork will notify you if you need video verification which will probably happen soon since you copied your overview from a business card company on Pinterest. 

[kochubei_valeria]

Rakib,

Please, refer to the notification the team sent you about a week ago for more information and further instructions about the verification.

Thank you.

[phanhao]

Hi,

This is the driver's license informarion of me. you can verify it, and We do not need the video call?

Please let me know your ideas.

Regards

Phan Thu Hao

*** Edited for Community Guidelines ***

[aocumen]

Hi Phan Thu, 

I checked your account and can see that the team has emailed you the instructions on how you can verify your profile. Please check the email associated with your account so that you can initiate the video verification process. 

[likeumr]

I want to verify my profile through Video verification. May I know the process?

Thanks 

Muhibur Rahman