I turned off my filters to see if things had improved, and it seems to be much the same. I noticed there are still people applying for the obvious scam jobs, mostly targeting new freelancers or entry-level skills.
I get it; if someone wants to pay you huge amounts of money for nonsensical tasks, why not? Because no one is going to pay you anything for your efforts, no matter what they promise. There is only one way in this world to make enormous amounts of money for doing unskilled activities, and that is to do something immoral and or illegal.
No matter what economy you live in, there are people desperate for money, with cons and thieves following closely behind.
Many of these jobs are about copywriting, copying images, PDF writing to Word, etc. Ask yourself, why would anyone want you to type words when there is copy, paste, and format? Sure, clients will ask for odd things, but they don't pay you astronomical amounts of money for them.
I guarantee, and I'm sure most experienced freelancers would agree, that no one will ever post a job requiring non-work like rewriting words, hire you, and pay you the enormous fee. It will never, ever happen. Every similar post is a scam. You will never receive a penny. Instead, you will be paying the thieves.
When you engage with someone over the Internet, you do not know who or what you are dealing with, whether surfing or on Upwork. Upwork does not protect anyone, no matter what. You have to be on guard as if you were walking down a street full of strangers. If a random person wants you to go off in a dark alley and offers you lots of cash for a little help, would you go?
If you do, you are taking a hell of a risk, and if there is a job, you know it is not legitimate, or you wouldn't be led into a dark alley. So, you make your choice. You are doing the same thing, only online.
The thieves want you off-platform. If you decide to break Upwork rules, not only is there no help to get your money back, but you can be thrown out of Upwork forever. Any job post that offers extremely high pay is a scam. It's difficult enough for highly skilled freelancers to make top dollar on Upwork, and even they do not bring in the kind of money per job as is offered in the scams. Finding clients who understand the need to pay a freelancer a proper amount for a job can be challenging. Any job that is offering more money than it should must be considered a scam. How can you protect yourself? Don't go down that dark alley - which means, don't leave the Upwork platform. If you follow that TOS rule, you won't get scammed. All of the scam jobs will take you off-platform, then the thieving begins, usually asking you to send money for ID, software, etc., etc.
I understand the answer to so many problems seems like a miracle opportunity - but it is an illusion created by thieves. If it were real, why are there not thousands of applicants? Because most freelancers know the way the platform works and the usual fees.
If you are new to the platform, it will take effort and time to establish yourself. There is no chance you will instantly make huge amounts of money; I don't care what you read. Educate yourself on the ways of Upwork - no one is going to make you. If you need money immediately, Upwork will likely not work for you.
For new freelancers
https://community.upwork.com/t5/New-to-Upwork/Tips-for-Getting-Started-on-Upwork/m-p/793624#M112091
https://community.upwork.com/t5/Community-Blog/From-the-Trust-and-Safety-Team-How-to-Spot-a-Scam/ba-...
