pointless re-verify

[Slawomir R]

Hello,

I'm a top rated freelancer and I verified my identity last month. Now I have got the same request again.

Taking 10 minutes to do it is not a big deal, although I would prefer that Upwork respects my time rather then feeling entitled to waste it on pointless excercises.
I have passed it and it was no different then the previous one.

The bigger issue is that my account is on temporary hold and it lasts longer then 10 minutes. Upwork claims that it has up to 48 hours to release it.
I'm worried about how this is presented to the clients.

The main question is - why do Upwork even does it so often? Do you think that my identity changed within a month?

Kind regards

Slawek

[Petra R]

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Slawomir R wrote:

why do Upwork even does it so often? Do you think that my identity changed within a month?

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You have no idea how many accounts change owner in any given month.

[Slawomir R]

I understand then that it's not about my security, but about the enforcement of Upwork terms of service, which disallow the users from selling their accounts.

That may be understandable, but it probably doesn't work anyway.

In any case Upwork should release the hold on the account immediately, not within 48 hours. That makes no sense at all. If they are willing to tilt at the windmills then that's their decision, but they should limit the impact on the people trying to earn the money for them

[Rene K]

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Slawomir R wrote:

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> That may be understandable, but it probably doesn't work anyway.

Extraordinary claims need extraordinary proofs.

> In any case Upwork should release the hold on the account immediately, not within 48 hours.

I was lucky, I got cleared within minutes, but I totally agree that they should clear people immediately. Freezing accounts of honest people is not acceptable.

[Christine A]

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Rene K wrote:

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Slawomir R wrote:

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> That may be understandable, but it probably doesn't work anyway.

Extraordinary claims need extraordinary proofs.

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You have doubts that loads of scammers are getting past the system? I guess you don't see the multiple posts every single day from people saying things like, "I accidentally uploaded the wrong photo to my profile and now I need to change it," or "I accidentally typed in the wrong name" or "I accidentally entered the wrong bank information". I would wager that only a tiny fraction of these people are genuinely poor typists. Not to mention all of the buying and selling of accounts online by people who already know that they'll have to pass the video verification and identity checks on behalf of the new account owner, and offer that as part of their fee. It sucks that some legit people end up with frozen accounts, but I don't think it can be argued that Upwork should be doing fewer, quicker or less thorough identity checks.

[Olga Q]

I agree. I did this in February, now I had to go through the same process.

When I told them that I had already done the video call they said they knew I had recently gone "through badge verification" but that this new process for "ID verifying" my account was "separate from this video verification request.", concluding that the process I completed  3 months ago was "a quick verification to qualify for badge, only.". Here's the message I received after completing the call a few minutes ago:

I already had the badge.

[Rene K]

People who are verified can be randomly verified again. Happened to me. I'm happy they are doing this especially with TR profiles. Just saw and add on Reddit for **Edited for Community Guidelines** who is selling UW approved accounts.

Go Upwork, **Edited for Community Guidelines**

[Slawomir R]

If I wanted to sell my account this whole procedure would do nothing to prevent the deception.

I would change the email account few months earlier to some throw away one. Then I would have waited for the video interview to happen. After it I would just pass the access to the throwaway email account to the new owner.

He would have plenty of time to deceive the clients before the next interview. I assume the account reputation would be ruined much earlier then the new interview request. 

This whole procedure is just a waste of time. Not to mention that Upwork is something like 90% deception anyway, both clients and freelancers, and fixing account selling will not change much in that anyway.

[Rene K]

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Slawomir R wrote:

Not to mention that Upwork is something like 90% deception anyway, 

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Oh man I feel you, that sucks. If I had 90% of bad experiences on Upwork like you did, I would have left already.

[Slawomir R]

I don't see a reason to do that as long as the 10% makes me enough money, and I'm able to differentiate between the two.

I'm more annoyed by the treatment by Upwork and this is something which may lead me to moving somewhere else.