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I've been on the other side of this, hiring fake people. I'm actually going to stop using Upwork after almost 10 years. It's such a cesspool of fraud now that I

by smt88 4y ago

I've been on the other side of this, hiring fake people. I'm actually going to stop using Upwork after almost 10 years. It's such a cesspool of fraud now that I can't figure out how to find the honest people. As an example, I recently hired someone who showed his face on video and had great communication skills. Next time we did a call, he had no video and sounded totally different. It turned out to be a subcontractor impersonating him.

mgkimsal 4y ago
> It's such a cesspool of fraud now that I can't figure out how to find the honest people. now? I've heard similar horror stories going back years. Perhaps you were lucky in that you got more positive than negative out of it earlier?
- smt88 4y ago
  It's very possible I was lucky. I also only worked with people who were willing to appear on video, had long work history, and didn't do more than a single job at a time. Recently I had thought that maybe prices had gone up, and I was just not paying enough for the honest, individual contractors, but even at $120+/hr, we were getting people misrepresenting their skills or trying to trick us with subcontractors.
  - mgkimsal 4y ago
    The few success stories I've known from upwork have been people who managed to find one sharp person, then went direct with them ASAP, and left upwork behind.
yomkippur 4y ago
Seems like this can be solved with a quick address verification no?
- smt88 4y ago
  How? And what would their address tell me?
  - yomkippur 4y ago
    it would be easy to tell apart real vs fake ones
    - smt88 4y ago
      It's very easy to fake an address and almost impossible to verify one.
      - rafael09ed 4y ago
        I could verify your address for 60¢
throwaway67743 4y ago
the other side of that is Upwork exclude legit people for vague and often made up reasons, I tried to sign up as I was curious, almost instantly disabled for "fraud" - thought it was pretty funny, especially after seeing all the obviously bogus tenders etc

by smt88 4y ago

mgkimsal 4y ago

> It's such a cesspool of fraud now that I can't figure out how to find the honest people. now? I've heard similar horror stories going back years. Perhaps you were lucky in that you got more positive than negative out of it earlier?

smt88 4y ago
It's very possible I was lucky. I also only worked with people who were willing to appear on video, had long work history, and didn't do more than a single job at a time. Recently I had thought that maybe prices had gone up, and I was just not paying enough for the honest, individual contractors, but even at $120+/hr, we were getting people misrepresenting their skills or trying to trick us with subcontractors.
- mgkimsal 4y ago
  The few success stories I've known from upwork have been people who managed to find one sharp person, then went direct with them ASAP, and left upwork behind.

yomkippur 4y ago

Seems like this can be solved with a quick address verification no?

smt88 4y ago
How? And what would their address tell me?
- yomkippur 4y ago
  it would be easy to tell apart real vs fake ones
  - smt88 4y ago
    It's very easy to fake an address and almost impossible to verify one.
    - rafael09ed 4y ago
      I could verify your address for 60¢

throwaway67743 4y ago

the other side of that is Upwork exclude legit people for vague and often made up reasons, I tried to sign up as I was curious, almost instantly disabled for "fraud" - thought it was pretty funny, especially after seeing all the obviously bogus tenders etc