Common Upwork scams and how to avoid them

Despite Upwork improving its verification procedure over the last few years, the platform is still full of scammers. Some of the scams are pretty obvious, while others can be very intricate. I have almost fallen for a scam recently, intending to hire a developer who didn’t have any online presence and refused to video chat (obvious red flags). That’s why I decided to do a little investigation and see what are some of the most common Upwork scams for clients.

1. Account fraud
Although Upwork has a reliable account verification system, scammers still manage to find a way around it. They usually buy or hack verified accounts and use them to lie about their location and experience. What is more, some seemingly quality freelancers can outsource your task to someone else with lower pay expectations, which may result in poor delivery (this is especially common with developers).

2. Asking for an alternative payment method
Never trust freelancers who ask to be paid outside of the Upwork payment system (unless you know them through a reliable recommendation). Of course, there is a chance they just want to avoid Upwork fees, but there is even a bigger chance they don’t want to be tied by the contract. Working outside of the Upwork system, the freelancer can avoid any responsibility for ditching the project in the middle or delivering poor quality work.

3. Phishing
There is never a good reason to share any sensitive info with strangers on the internet. So if a freelancer insists on getting some private details about you or the company like e-signatures, personal emails, photos, etc - just move on.

4. Plagiarized content
When dealing with writers or designers of any type - always make sure their work is authentic. It is not just the question of quality and effective marketing, but also - copyright infringement, which may become a huge problem for your business later on. I found an interesting experiment Kyle Byers did to check how authentic is the content the writers deliver on different platforms and the results are surprising:

https://www.indiehackers.com/post/i-hired-content-writers-from-17-different-websites-and-most-of-them-were-scammers-cf4f5fe1cf

So what can you do to reduce your chances of getting scammed to a minimum?

1. Never work with unverified freelancers.
2. Never share sensitive info about the company.
3. Always have a video call with an applicant before hiring - any excuse for not being able to chat is a red flag.
4. Use AI recruitment tools or pay for test tasks to make sure the freelancer is a real deal.
   P.S. If you need a good recruitment tool recommendation - check out my platform here: https://rekruit.net/

Are there any other Upwork scams I didn’t include? Or maybe you can share your own experience with frauds on freelance platforms?