some simple surveys to earn

[maryamsalman46]

the client **Edited for Community Guidelines** is working from Pakistan and has updated it as he is from USA. Secondly the client is not ready to pay via upwork, though he posted the job there. Finally the client is asking to survey some **Edited for Community Guidelines** content without any disclaimer or anything. Some files are tagged for reference ko

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

[martina_plaschka]

Largest red flag: nobody pays $1000 for filling out 12 questionnaires. 

[maryamsalman46]

why could upwork allow these people to upload these jobs

[ericaandrews · Accepted solution]

They've always allowed it because it benefits their business model.  Clients are not 'vetted' to the degree freelancers are before getting on the site - ID checks, bank/payment verification, etc.  Literally anybody can simply create an UW account and just start 'posting' stuff as 'jobs': Most of the 'clients' using the site with 'payment method unverified' never hire anybody and are using the site for spam and scams.  However, UW allows it because it benefits THEIR business model: For every 100-200 new unvetted 'clients'  allowed to quickly and conveniently post 'jobs', 1 or 2 of those 200 are actually serious and might become REAL clients that actually hire and pay, making the potential for profit/benefit worth the inconvenience/frustration caused to freelancers in UW's estimation.   They COULD require clients to be 'vetted' first, verify their payment method, and start having to by 'connects' to post jobs after the client has post 3-5 jobs without hiring anybody to help eliminate this problem, but they WON'T. 

My suggestion: Filter out any client that shows as 'payment method unverified' and/or "$0 spent" - Also LOOK at their profile and see how long they've been on UW.  If they just started using UW within the same day or past few days, I'd leave it alone.  Yes, you could end up being their 'first' hire, but 99% of the time, you're just wasting time with a 'client' playing on the site and 'experimenting' to see what's 'out there'.  If they have no hires, no money spent, or have only a couple small 'fixed priced' jobs on their profile, skip them.   If they have also been on UW for a number of years and have hired nobody or only a couple after posting many jobs, I wouldn't bother with them.  Those people are usually not serious clients and are just 'playing' on the site and creating 'exploratory' job posts, scams, and spam, or worse, they are using upwork just to get get 'leads' and hiring folks OUTSIDE of upwork.   You'll get the hang of it and eventually learn how to spot the REAL clients from people just posting 'junk' & playing games on the platform

[pgiambalvo]

Maryam S, I totally agree with everything CJ said about why they allow this, and follow the advice about evaluating clients and their posts. It's a shame so many scam posts are here that we have to weed through, but that's just the way it is and it doesn't seem like it ever going to change, despite our dissatisfaction with that. Flag them as inappropropriate and read Upwork's tips on how to avoid scams. Best of luck to you.

[martina_plaschka]

How can they know it's a scam?

[pgiambalvo]

Well, once someone's applied to a job and was asked to buy something or asked to communicate off of Upwork, or to provide personal information, and then they flagged it and saw it removed and were notified by Upwork that they removed it because it violated the ToS, and then they see the EXACT same post reappear again, and see it taken down again, then reappear again, they can be pretty sure it is a scam.

[prestonhunter]

For what it is worth, I have hired people on Upwork to fill out questionnaires.

I simply paid them their hourly rate.

It can be a real type of job.

It is certainly nothing that Upwork prohibits.

Is it possible that a scammer is postsing questionnaire-oriented jobs as part of a scheme or scam?

Of course.

If you have any questions at all, just ask us here in the Forum.

People here are knowledgeable about how to avoid scams, and can help any uncertain freelancer to avoid getting scammed.

[martina_plaschka]

Agree Peter. My reply was directed to this: why could upwork allow these people to upload these jobs

When they upload it (it gets posted) they (upwork) don't know it's a scam. The first person to notice is the targeted freelancer. 

[pgiambalvo]

Martina, considering it was repeatedly identified as a scam before, they should be able to detect that the exact same post is a scam again. Of course they can do that, they just don't want to. Geez, at the the very least, it should raise a red flag that would prompt them to better verify the client in the unlikely chance that multiple legit clients were posting multiple identical posts, day after day.