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edesignmk
Community Member

Where are the real clients?

I have noticed nowadays there are more fake projects than real ones. I can detect when a project is a scam, and I don't mind if there are scams as well, it's normal to have scams, they are everywhere.

But I am more worried about the new clients. The number of scams VS real projects is bigger, and I think the number of new projects and clients dramatically fell, that's what I am worried.

Does this happen in your category? ( I am graphic designer) 

7 REPLIES 7
241ce784
Community Member

I just got on upwork and I am trying to figure out the scams between the real jobs. How can you tell?

Hi Samuel,

 

Welcome to Upwork! You may want to check this out if you're exploring remote jobs available.

iamejbioneda
Community Member

Hi Goran,

 

You may want to check this out if you're exploring remote jobs available. Also, here are some online safety best practices in order to identify and avoid potential phising, malware or scam attacks.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Elonah

martina_plaschka
Community Member

Oh yes. 6 out 10 in my feed (translation) are scams. Most annoying, they even invite me. I don't flag them any more, there are just too many. 

ericaandrews
Community Member

Yes: it is happening in my industry as well (IT: Programming / Project Management).  It has gotten REALLY bad with inflation and the cost of labor/services going up. I've seen an increase in job posts from clients desperately trying to 'scheme' up various ways to get free/cheap work to cut their operating costs. There is also a huge LABOR shortage in the U.S. and many other countries, so people needing workers are getting desperate and pulling out all stops to 'bait' and 'trick' people to look their way.

 

The "We have high standards" scam: Asking people to do free 'sample' work or 'evaluations' or system problem 'investigations', likely with no intention to pay afterwards.

 

The "Damsel in Distress" scam:  Asking for quick "1 hour" jobs to fix an 'emergency' issue with no payment method verified, hoping somebody will be foolish enough to begin DOING the actual work while the client is allegedly 'adding their payment method' and then split and disappear after the work is done. 

 

The "Click bait"  scam: People offering 'big' budgets and hourly rates then during the 'interview' trying to talk you into accepting $3/hour, getting paid "later", or getting paid with something other than money on Upwork. They either don't intend to pay at all or asking for better quality than what they can AFFORD. 

 

IT services are expensive, so the inclination to find a way to steal services or 'cheat' to reduce costs is HIGH with inflation what it is.  Even so, I still see plenty of REAL clients in the IT category and simply now ignore/filter all the 'new' and unproven clients out because of the increased volume of scams. 

 

The scams/cheaters used to make up about 20% of the posts I would see months ago without 'filtering' the search.  Now, they make up 60%-70% easily of the posts I see - almost all, allegedly 'new' clients.  I hate to have to exclude all the 'new' clients from searches, but it has simply gotten too RISKY to even consider them.  If I don't see 'payment verified' + 4 or more stars +  money spent over $1k, I don't even bother to click the job anymore - let alone submit a proposal- and will decline an invitation from a client that doesn't meet that criteria. That's the minimum requirement for me to even bother to READ a client's job post/invitation.

 

I simply don't have time for the games and will only communicate with PROVEN, serious clients for my OWN safety until Upwork does something to reduce the flood of scams overruning the site. Somebody else can 'test' out the 'new' clients. I don't have time for it

The same thing, I don't focus on scam projects and I would not waste my time to flag them, as they are many of them. I am worried about the new "real" clients. I don't see them often in the last time. 
Fewer projects = Less work

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