overwhelming number of spams and scams

[00137e0a]

Hi,

Scammers are on a roll today.

I've flagged 12 scams in just a couple of minutes. You'll find a screenshot attached.

Is Upwork planning to do something about this? It feels like this is getting out of control really fast.

It's very time-consuming to browse for possible jobs when a big part of your feed is made of scams. 

All the best,

Rafael

[g_vasilevski · Accepted solution]

Hi Rafael,

Thank you for flagging this. I will also escalate this further and ask our team to investigate it further and take proper actions. 

[00137e0a]

Thanks, Goran,

I'm not counting, but I think I've flagged 20+ scams like this since my first post.

I'm curious to know if Upwork is doing something to prevent these things from happening. 

[AndreaG]

Hi Rafael,

Thanks for your question! You may be interested to check out this blog post from our Trust and Safety Team. 

[sullivanliz]

It really has gone wild since the last time I was looking for jobs a few months ago. Also so many more clueless 'give me a job' posts (tbh these annoy me more than the scams). I know this issue is discussed a lot on here and there is a limited amount Upwork can do, but surely there's something more? We're up to our oxters here and it's getting difficult to wade through the mud!

[a_lipsey]

Have you considered refining your search filters and using negative filters? 

[00137e0a]

Hi Amanda,

Yes, of course. I have saved a few custom searches and use them all the time.

However, I still find interesting jobs on My Feed/Best Matches/Most Recent, and the number of scams and spams of freelancers pretending to be clients have become really concerning there, lately.

Today, specifically, they're really on a roll. I've reported the same scammer 25+ times right now, and it just keeps coming back. The same description, the same budget, the same skills list...It's like reporting it didn't even make a difference.

[a_lipsey]

---

Rafael M wrote:

Hi Amanda,

Yes, of course. I have saved a few custom searches and use them all the time.

However, I still find interesting jobs on My Feed/Best Matches/Most Recent, and the number of scams and spams of freelancers pretending to be clients have become really concerning there, lately.

Today, specifically, they're really on a roll. I've reported the same scammer 25+ times right now, and it just keeps coming back. The same description, the same budget, the same skills list...It's like reporting it didn't even make a difference.

---

Just saw your response. I understand. I'm getting a little frustrated as well. A job I reported over a week ago because it contains contact information is still active and with the contact information STILL in the job post. I reported it again last night. 

I understand the complexities of screening job posts even with AI, but if we are going to take the time to legitimately flag posts that outight violate TOS, why aren't they taken down?

[fd3b8a5f]

Hi Rafael.

This is not on. Thabks for flagging. Just one question, how would you know that these are scams.

Thanks

Lebo

[00137e0a]

Hi Lebo.

Some of them are quite obvious.

If you see a job posting with a vague description, most likely written in bad English, asking you to click on a link from some URL shortening service, it's very likely to be a scam.

I've flagged a couple of job postings today that directly ask people to contact them via whatsapp number, which is obviously a TOS violation and most probably scams as well.

There are more refined scams, too. If you apply to an apparently regular job and they reply with a copy/paste text asking you to contact them through telegram/whatsapp, it's most likely a scam as well (and a TOS violation), and you should report it immediately. Most commonly, these jobs have, for example, 15 proposals and 15 replies, which is another probable scam mark. 

In general, avoid clicking on any suspicious link (unidentifiable URL) and most especially, never download anything from an external source unless you're absolutely sure you're dealing with a reliable client. 

Upwork could solve most of these problems by not allowing people to post shortened URLs and Phone Numbers on job proposals.

Also, they shouldn't allow people to post the exact same job several times like it's happening today. 

Actually, some super basic classifieds on internet forums have security features in place to prevent things like this from happening. 

[dsxxx]

I fully agree with you! Administration have to add a filter to the jobs description to avoid tinyurl.com, bit.ly links and @ for emails, because there a lot of auto-generated emails like random name + numbers**Edited for Community Guidelines**

I think these tiny urls are for free search engines optimization and emails are for work outside the Upwork.

[a2ab9f1e]

---

Rafael M wrote:

If you see a job posting with a vague description, most likely written in bad English, asking you to click on a link from some URL shortening service, it's very likely to be a scam.

Do you mean

**Edited for community guidelines**

And I expended 6 connect on this...

[a_lipsey]

---

Łukasz W wrote:

---

Rafael M wrote:

If you see a job posting with a vague description, most likely written in bad English, asking you to click on a link from some URL shortening service, it's very likely to be a scam.

Do you mean

**Edited for community guidelines**

And I expended 6 connect on this...

---

If you reported it, hopefully they will close it for TOS violation and you will receive those connects back. Hopefully.

[59995aa9]

All great pointers, Rafael!

HEY UPWORK, Read these & follow suit! ⬆⬆⬆

[00137e0a]

Guess what's all over the place today (check attachment)?

Unbelievable...

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

[00137e0a]

Good morning everyone,

Guess who's all over my feed again today (attachment)?

Plus, another one asking for direct whatsapp contact.

It's embarrassing how Upwork is apparently incapable of implementing some basic filtering in their job post session to prevent these. 

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

[g_vasilevski]

Hi Rafael,

I'm sorry for the inconvenience this is causing you and for flagging this. Our team will take proper action as soon as possible. 

[neshaz]

I'm seeying these all the time, and it looks like only I am noticing what's obvious...

[PradeepH]

Hi Nenad,

Thank you for your message. I am sorry about the inconvenience this may have caused you. I have forwarded your report to the relevant team and appropriate action will be taken as defined in our TOS as soon as possible. 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

[pgiambalvo]

By now it should be clear to everyone that Upwork changed something in their filtering process that enabled this incredible increase in the number of scam posts to start appearing in our feeds. It is also clear that they do not want to unchange their change to reduce them again.

[tlbp]

---

Peter G wrote:

By now it should be clear to everyone that Upwork changed something in their filtering process that enabled this incredible increase in the number of scam posts to start appearing in our feeds. It is also clear that they do not want to unchange their change to reduce them again.

---

Yup, you've won me over Peter. I don't know how to code. But even so, I know it isn't hard to filter out phone numbers and the names of app used for scammers or flag them for inspection. This is just a failure to execute. 

[pgiambalvo]

Thank you, Tonya. Let's just hope the saying about "squeeky wheels" is true, or something like that.

[feed_my_eyes]

---

Tonya P wrote:

---

Yup, you've won me over Peter. I don't know how to code. But even so, I know it isn't hard to filter out phone numbers and the names of app used for scammers or flag them for inspection. This is just a failure to execute. 

---

If Upwork filters contact info out of the jobs feed, scammers will just attach it as a document. In fact, this is already starting to happen - I've seen several job posts in which a client asks applicants to refer to an attachment, which ended up containing nothing but a bitly link.

Personally, I'd rather that the scammers continue to post their contact information directly in the jobs feed so that I can report them immediately, instead of having my time wasted downloading attachments before finding out that it's a scam.

[59995aa9]

YES Christine it is one big terrible headache! 😣

[neshaz]

Just to make a note, for the record - this is not solved. Spammer is very much active, and operating without distractions...

It's kinda funny and scary how this spammer can ridicule huge business like Upwork... 

**Edited for community guidelines**

[pgiambalvo]

Nenad, thank you for your tenacity. We freelancers are doing our part and our best to alert Upwork to scams as soon as we see them so that they can quickly be removed as they advise us we should.

[BojanS]

Thanks for flagging this for us, Nenad. 

I'm going to escalate this to the correct team for their review. 

Please use the Report Suspicious User Activity feature whenever you see a violation of the Upwork Terms of Service.

[neshaz]

Thanks Bojan, but as I mentioned - point is missed. We are on this platform to make money/sell our services... not to report spammers or to write endless number of proposals.

[bitsharma10p]

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

I want to flag this, you can see 54 times this link has been posted in various job post from various contries and different jobs with very detailed job discription to fool a person

[PradeepH]

Hi Shobhit,

Thank you for your message. I will forward your report to the relevant team to review and take action on the flagged jobs if appropriate.

Thank you

Pradeep

[pgiambalvo]

Are they still there?

[410a9e59]

I'm seeing a lot of spam today too. The same title and description posted repeatedly, with "$5000 Estimated Budget" and then $5 per project in the description. 

[pgiambalvo]

Did you flag them? Please report back here for how long it takes them to be removed. Thanks.

[neshaz]

That's the real issue I see here... That's not our 'job', right? Upwork does this work for compensation, it's not pro bono as far as I know... ours is to do freelancing, not chasing spammers on their platform.

[410a9e59]

Yeah I've reported a few. Not sure if or when they'll get removed, unless I recieve a notification?

[59995aa9]

Or NO verified payments at all, or previous spending amounts! I mean..... Really?

[k_rodman]

So, I did some searches but can't find anything that addresses this issue specifically, but I apologize if I am duplicating a previous topic.

As I am reviewing potential jobs, about 25% of them have contact information included, usually a telegram address but sometimes gmail.  The telegram addresses are the same ones over and over..  I flag this as not appropriate but it's a bit frustrating that this is not something that is screened out before we ever see it.  Am I wrong to think that it wouldn't be hard to stop this?  While I continue to flag so that I'm "part of the solution", I'm frustrated that it continues to happen.  I also find that it's not just "new" posts - I find them that are days old sometimes.

THoughts?

[martina_plaschka]

It should be really really easy for upwork to zap these and not even get them to be posted. Or zap the address at least. 

Nobody (and I don't usually speak for anybody else, but here goes) understands why upwork doesn't do that. Nobody. Scammers are happy they don't. 

[tagrendy]

You're most definitely not wrong that it isn't technically a hard thing to do, it is actually quite simple. Why it's not done, one can only speculate.

[pgiambalvo]

Yes, as opposed to Upwork actually telling us why they don't. But I'm sure they are doing their best. I wish that the Trust and Safety Team did as good a job as the moderators here do. They are always quick to respond with reasonable with helpful answers to our concerns and issues. Seriously, they are. And I'm sure it must be tough on them to have to deal with all the complaints about scams and spam but not be able to do anything about it.