Account Suspension

[acb26467]

As a Top Rated Plus freelancer for over a year, I have consistently provided exceptional service to all of my clients. However, I am currently uncertain as to what irregular activities may have caused the suspension of my account. 

I would greatly appreciate it if I could get more information about the situation so that I can ensure that I am following all proper guidelines. Working with top clients through Upwork has been an incredibly rewarding experience for me, and I am eager to continue doing so.

In the meantime, I have submitted all of the required documents to the link provided, and I am hopeful that this issue will be resolved soon.

P.S. My driver's license was issued while I was living at my previous address which is different from the address on my profile which is my current address. But I have also uploaded a utility bill that shows my current address (profile address). 

I would really appreciate any update on this matter. 

[NikolaS]

Hi Sanjan, 

Thank you for reaching out to us. Please know that we can't share any information regarding your case here in Community. However, I shared your concern with the team handling your case and one of our agents will follow up with you on your support ticket as soon as possible to assist you further. 

[acb26467]

Great, thanks for the update. 

[acb26467]

It's been 24 hours since I uploaded my documents for verification but there has been no response from the team handling my case. It's really making me restless and I  would really appreciate any update from Upwork.  

[759e32fa]

Hi Sanjan,

Apologies for the delay as our support teams are currently experiencing a higher number of contacts than usual. Rest assured the team will address your concerns and questions in the ticket as soon as possible.

[acb26467]

I understand but I'm just worried that they mentioned it needs to be resolved in 5 days to not result in permanent suspension but it's already been 2 days and  I have not still gotten a response from them. 

The weekend's approaching and I do not know if my case will be resolved before that. This has only added to my stress and I can not focus properly on my work due to the uncertainty. I would really appreciate it if it can be resolved soon. 

[PradeepH · Accepted solution]

Hi Sanjan,

I understand your concern. I see that the team has already responded to the support ticket. You can access your support tickets here. Please don't hesitate to follow up with them on the same support ticket if you have additional questions regarding your concern. Note that support requests are responded to in the order they are received. Kindly allow 24-48 hours for the team to follow up with you and assist you further.

Thank you,
Pradeep

[acb26467]

Yes, I got in touch with the team. Thanks for the update!

[nudratgondal]

A colleague on Upwork received an invitation from a client who spent about $1k on Upwork and was looking for people with Forex trading experience…. She has experience in crypto and crypto exchanges, so she accepted the invitation and agreed to work. She started the time tracker for writing the crypto exchange related article and then she came to know that the person was insisting on purchasing and sending him crypto via a crypto exchange app. He doesn’t care about writing or not. She contacted me and informed me about the situation and asked her not to do it. It’s a scam and is also against upwork policy.

He sent a $600 bonus prior to starting the work (which she is never going to get).

She excused him that she couldn’t send him the crypto. He got offended and started to abuse and threaten her. Asked to remove time hours, he said “now you’ll see what I’ll do to you” He sent her a $50k bonus to alarm the company about a suspicious activity. 

She contacted Upwork and reported the job and explained the situation. They said you don’t have to remove the time activity. We’ll see if it lies under our hourly contract protection or not. Also, don’t worry, we’ll look into this client's matter. 

Later, she contacted all the people her client hired and asked them not to send him any money (one of them sent $70 already) but they were saved. Upwork should appreciate this act and try to implement more freelance protective policies. But Upwork rewarded them by suspending all the freelancers' accounts (who were hired by that client). 

It’s been about 2 weeks and there is still no progress. @upwork is neither responding to their queries nor letting them withdraw their funds.

All 6-7 freelancers earned nothing from this contract, not even $5, but the suspension of their accounts. Even though they reported the client scam and job already.

 What should they do now? Is it their fault that your platform is scam-friendly?

I have a request. On behalf of these newbie freelancers, please restore their accounts. They are helping platform to identify scammers as well.

Also, I have a request to all new and other freelancers to always check the Upwork community if someone is asking for money or any other project you find suspicious. 

[759e32fa]

Hi Nudrat,

We understand you're concerned about the freelancers' accounts. We won't be able to provide any update on their accounts for privacy reasons so we highly suggest that they continue communicating with our support team via their support tickets. 

Please understand that there are internal processes in place in accordance with our ToS to help keep the marketplace safe. And if an investigation needs to be done in order to avoid this from happening moving forward, our team would need to take precautionary measures and check all the accounts involved. 

Please have them reach out to our team through their respective support tickets so our team can move forward with the next steps. 

[asifacca4]

Hi,
I am writing this on behalf of my agency owner. He is also a freelancer and agency owner on Upwork. The issue is that his account is suspended. He is saying that he only changed his paying method last night but the next day he could not log in to his account because it was suspended.

Now he can neither log in nor reach customer support. Even though he can not log in and yet I can see his and agency's profile from my profile.

Can anybody please look into this matter because he believes he did not violate any terms of service?
His profile link is below:
**Edited for community guidelines**

Thanks

[JoanneP]

Hi Asif,

We won't be able to discuss the status of another user's account for privacy and security reasons. However, rest assured that decisions to suspend a user's account are not taken lightly and without fully investigating for TOS violations.

Please, refer to this help article for general reasons why our Trust & Safety team may take action on an account.

[asifacca4]

Hi Joanne,

I understand that you can not discuss the status of another user's account. However, the problem is that he did not get any email and he did not even know why his account was suspended. Moreover, he has no option left to talk it through with customer support. Because he can not log in and neither does he get any emails.

Could you please show me where he can contact customer support?

Also, his agency is still shown when I check it from my profile. It also gives me an option to bid through the agency's connects. If the agency's owner is suspended, how would his agency work, and who will supervise and pay me if I get the work through his agency?

One more thing, I noticed that even I can't bid on some projects. The 'Apply Now' button does not show there and instead of it a pop-up shows stating "You can not bid on this project because your client is suspended". Why is this also happening to my profile even when the job posted is from someone else, given that my account is active?

Best, 
Asif

[LuiggiR]

Asif, if the agency owner needs to contact support for assistance, they can do so by following the steps below: 

1. Navigate to the Help Center's navigation bar and select the "Contact Support" option.
2. Choose the "Chat with Upwork" option to initiate a conversation with our chatbot.
3. Type in a question or topic and click "Send." The chatbot will provide relevant articles related to your question.

Regarding the message you see when you try applying to specific jobs, it is not an issue with your profile but with the client's account preventing you from applying. If there's an issue with their account, you won't be able to apply to their jobs until they resolve it. 

[villar88]

Hello Community. I need help. I have an account in upwork from 2014 or less, i had worked in 98 job complete, i have 12,671 hours. Really good feedbacks, i never have problems with any client. Everything really good. I was top rated plus for some years too. And 21 days ago i receive ACCOUNT SUSPENSION. Then they request to me verify my identity. I already give the information to suport to get verify. Then some days later. i get an email and notification in upwork telling me "Your ID has been verified, and now you're good to go!". I think with that my account will be restore. But not. 21 days after that i am still suspended. I have two tickets in the request support in OPEN. I already write a lot of times in these tickets trying to get an answer but nothing happend. I already lose a really good offer from a client for this problem. I dont know what more to do. I all the time purchase connections, have a good history and feedback, how is possible that after all these years working in this platform. I dont get support if i need to continue working. I need help, anyone can help me please. 

[ArjayM]

Hi Jose Manuel,

I'm sorry for the inconvenience and trouble your account issue may have caused. I can see two support tickets and the team has sent you an email with more information and instructions for resolving the issue. Don't hesitate to coordinate and update your ticket on this page if you need further assistance; they'll gladly help.

[villar88]

Hello Arjay, Thanks a lot for answer my ticket.  Sorry but i check again my email and i dont see an email from upwork requesting more information. And if you see the tickets #46414842 and #46330899 that are opens. The last response was from me. How i can get the email that you are talking about. I need to write over these tickets again something else? Please i need to solve my problem. I really need to work again with my account. Pleaseee