In the past couple of months, I have been trying really hard to land a job on Upwork. Like everyone else, I get the 0 views on my profile or proposals, but the frustrating part is that when I finally land an interview, it turns out the business hiring is actually running a scam.
The first time it was last November, I got an interview, and I was like "Finally", to get to the interviewer who started with the company being American, run by Pakistanis from Pakistan, and selling books about "alternative medicine," and "herbal cures" printed in China. I immediately withdrew my application.
Today, I got another interview. I was really hopeful; the guy sounded decent on the messages. During the interview, he said something about "not all people would accept what we do," but he did not explain further. he talked about the business model being "Dropshipping," which is OK, and lots of people do that, he showed me the website, and we ended the interview that he thinks that I'm a really good fit for his business.
I started doing my research on his business to be surprised by the number of bad reviews they have and the number of scam reports. The site says they sell US-made jewellery. The truth is that they sell a cheap replica of the photos presented in the store; they say shipping takes 3 days, but it takes no less than 3 weeks, and the is also quality issues, and no refunds. I also withdrew my application on that one.
Here is a risk that Upwork did not consider: by covering business identities and not verifying clients like they do freelancers, they allow scammers to have access to talents, some of these talents might fall for it, thinking it is a legit job, then they can not leave because the client might damage their score with a bad review
I'm just venting, guys, hope I don't offend anyone!
