Receiving overwhelming amount of offers and invitations from scammers

[k_ndou]

Hi everyone,

Not sure if this is something happening to everyone or just an issue of the new accounts or accounts on the rise but I am receiving an overwhelming amount of invitations and job offers (they send the offer of my exact hourly rate on my profile) from scammers.

Initially was quite time-consuming to answer and filter those prospects as I have had clients who interacted the same way as the scammers are doing.

However, now I am able to distinguish a scammer quite soon but I am worried that all these job invitation declinings could be harming my account as Upwork probably is not showing my profile so much for real jobs. Also, could this damage my top-rated badge possibility (I am progressing toward 13/16 weeks)?

Thanks 🙂

[e571b8ad · Accepted solution]

Hello Klodiana,

I too am new to Upwork, but I had the same question as you. Through a little research, it appears that you can harm your profile stats by not resonding, even though it may be a scammer, but it will not affect your JSS if you do not accept the proposal invitation.

So my suggestion would be to send a "canned" response...perhaps something simple like, "Thank you for the offer, but I am not interested at this time." That way you can quickly end the conversation, maintain a good response time, boost your stats and rest easy...Scammers Suck! 

Here is what Upwork states regarding freelancer communication (note the bold text): 

Communication Effectiveness

Communication stats can help you see how responsive and communicative you are.

Responsiveness — Your average invitation response time also shows on your profile. Freelancers who respond quickly often get better results.
Invitation response rate — Freelancers who are successful and available for new work often try to accept or decline invitations within a day, every time.
Availability — If you’re not available for new work, you can let prospective clients know. See and edit your availability under Hours per week on your profile or Find Work home page. If you get any invitations while marked unavailable, we won’t count those toward your communication effectiveness rate.

I hope this helps and I wish you success!

-Kevan

[k_ndou]

Hi Kevan,

Thank you for letting me know about this. I actually didn't know this and was straight declining the offers and just signalizing them as scams. Will send a general response from now on. 

Also thank you for the other details shared :). Appreciate that a lot!

Thanks,

Klodi.

[e571b8ad]

You're very welcome Klodiana and I've very glad that I was able to provide assistance!