EpiqEDEM 😎 Freelancers got scammed to almost an amount of $5000 and you guys are here praising Upwork that they acted swiftly.
What's stopping Upwork from proactively warning freelancers about such clients, or doing away with such badly designed feature called a bonus, expense or whatever it is.
They know the formula of this so-called clients but are looking past it, hiding behind their so-called ToS, which they add up day to day.
I understand where you're coming from with this comment and the frustration is valid. However, having seen the inner-working and systems Upwork is using, without being their advocate, I can say that Upwork has greatly improved their efficiency in addressing scam jobs. As a matter of fact I did pull in some of the interested Group Guides and experienced freelancers interested in this topic into a small test with Upwork's Trust and Safety Team. Across the board freelancers have found the rate of suspicious jobs (not confirmed scam jobs but those which might warrant a review) has decreased substantially. Also, out of the job posts flagged by the participants for review and those that were identified as inappropriate, most of them have already been flagged by the system.
This might not mean much but if you take my word for it, the job post in question was addressed in a timely manner. While I'm fairly certain there wasn't a financial loss for the affected freelancers, they are non-the-less affected negatively.
The purpose of my post isn't to stop any criticism or the conversation around scam jobs, but to highlight the importance of freelancers being aware of the risk and following the correct steps, like from Petra's post, in order to work safely on Upwork. And no, I'm not saying it's the freelancers' fault. We all need to keep our focus and not just when it comes to Upwork. I'm not going to stop using my email just because I occasionally get spam messages. It's on me to learn how to identify them and then build muscle memory to help stay aware even when I might not be fully focused.
