Main RED FLAGS that should instantly help you to recognize a scam job

Do these people use bots to apply for the jobs ?

Had a frustrating experience that ended up costing me big.

Client started out polite and reasonable. He funded $50 and asked me to build an MVP based on his plan. He wasn’t technical, so I spent a lot of time explaining things—architecture decisions, pros/cons, tech options, etc.

We had several meetings to define requirements, pick the stack (we went with Filament), and fix a messy spreadsheet he gave me to explain the business logic. I basically helped him shape the project from the ground up.

I asked multiple times to move to an hourly contract to keep things fair and transparent. He refused every time.

Once we finalized the plan, I built the first part of the MVP: one core module plus 4–5 connected modules. This took about 40 hours in total, including meetings, planning, setup, dev, and testing.

When I proposed my payment based on my rate ($25/hr = ~$1,000) (You heard it right I only proposed my estimated payment according to the time spent for the project), immediately he ghosted. Then out of nowhere, he accused me of being a scammer. No explanation. No discussion. Just vanished.

He didn't even give me the opportunity to explain the justification for proposed payment. Although, he repeatedly ensured me earlier that the payment will be a non issue.

As a result:

• My Top Rated Plus status is gone
• My JSS dropped to 95%
• I’ve stopped getting new invites
• All this damage came from one bad review, even though most of my reviews are 5 stars

It’s frustrating to see a strong track record get wiped out like that. I gave real effort, acted professionally, and tried to help him succeed. And now I’m left with the fallout.

If you're working with a new client—especially on a fixed-price contract—make sure terms are crystal clear from the start. And if the red flags show up early, don’t ignore them.

Hello everyone!
I payed UpWork's suscription for one month and I've already spent all my connections and no one has messaged me back, even I place an offer of making a full website for just $15.

Is this normal? am I doing something wrong or there is just too much competition on UpWork?

15 per video!

Hi everyone! Last week I posted about how a client asked me to edit some content he does not own. Because of this, I reached out to Upwork and was instructed to end the contract and everything would be fine because what the client wants isn’t legal. Nope, JSS immediately dropped to 50%

Contacted Upwork again and they do not want to do anything about it. I know, classic annoying reddit thing BUT: I’m done with this dumb ass website

I'm really curious about your opinions and advices, because I'm clueless and I don't know how should I continue my Upwork "career"...

\It's important to note, that I have a full time job, so I'm looking for gigs I can complete as a side hustle, but I have around 10-15 hours a week that I can dedicate to Upwork projects.**

So I've been on Upwork for about 5 months now... I expected, that in the beginning, it's gonna be very tough to land jobs - no reviews, no previous jobs, no experience and I know that the market itself is not the best sh*t right now... In this year, I was able to land 2 very short-term projects, completed both... and since these... nothing.

60% of my proposals don't even get viewed, and of the ones that do, only a few have led to client responses. I try to submit at least 1 proposal a day, but the platform is just packed with scam gigs and projects with ridiculous rates, like $3-$6 per hour. Even for jobs where the clients are looking for minimum mid level freelancers, if not seniors. As I mentioned, I have a full-time job, so my initial goal is to earn at least $500/month in this year, but it seems unreachable for me now... (I live in Eastern-Europe, so with a full-time job, I consider it as a good side-hustle money for a beginner freelancer in the first months.)

I boost my proposals, trying to bid higher to gain attention and yes, I have an AI-boosted template that I'm using, but I always customize it and I never send out these generic gpt texts. I also try to craft my intro, I implement potential keywords, look at Top rated Freelancers and check what could I implement from them on my profile, etc. Sometimes I spend 30-40 mins on the "perfect" proposal, sometimes I just send something short that's on my mind and I feel relevant...but I wasn't able to find the winning method yet.

I'm a little bit hopeless, because I just don't know where am I missing the point and what should I do to land more jobs.

I really want this to work out, so I’d love to hear your thoughts:

1. If you had to start over, what’s the ONE THING you’d definitely do from the very beginning or the one thing you’d make your main focus?
2. How would you position yourself? (Like focusing on skills or product or a specific niche industry?)
3. If there's any seasoned freelancers who would dedicate some time to review my profile and props, I would highly appreciate it!

I want to learn from you all!✌🏽

(btw, I have around 6 years of experience in Marketing, Research, and Customer Success- including 2.5 years leading teams and managing projects in these areas, so I’m looking for opportunities that align with that background.)

Hey guys,

This morning I tried withdrawing earnings from my freelancer and agency account and came across this issue.

First, it said "location error" and I thought it might be because my country's name was changed from Macedonia to North Macedonia a few years ago but the platform never bothered to update it so I went to check today and they finally had the new name.

After I updated it on my profile (again, not sure why I had to do it manually), I went in and tried making the withdrawal again only to realize that now I no longer have any of my withdrawal methods lol. What's more, it says I got 0 earnings available and I had more than 1k to transfer.

When I try to add a withdrawal method the pop up doesn't work.

Support finally got back to me, totally useless:

"Thanks for your reply. I've relayed your concerns to our technical support team and we will continue to update you as soon as we hear from them.
 
Thanks for your patience!"

Is anybody else experiencing this? I'm in panic mode.

P.S. I checked their status page and no bugs seem to be reported.

there more than 30 people lose his connects in those two fake jobs

imagine how 600+ fake job

This question is for those who renewed their identity card. I have to renew my ID card in my country as everyone has to renew after a certain age. The ID I used to verify on Upwork when I first started is my current ID which will be not in use after I renew it.

My question is, I’d have to redo the identity verification on Upwork when I get my new ID right? If so, how do i do it? Do i just contact customer support as I don’t see the option to re-identify verification on Upwork? And I wanna know if anyone here ever had to renew their ID card and if or how you redid your identity verification.

I still have a pending balance on Upwork. But it looks like I could not get them. Is there a possibility to get it and get paid? I did try if I can message their customer service but it looks like I could not get to them.

I had upgraded to Freelancer Plus for a month, a couple of years ago. I created a custom URL for my profile, and naturally, it was removed after my one month was over. Now, peculiarly, I can see that my custom URL is back. Is it just for me, or has anyone else seen this too?

CORRECTION TO TITLE: I got a totally anomalous JOB INVITE, not offer!

however it happens to match my wife's capacities very well. How can this be done? I don't need to hear how it can't be done, but if you have any experience or ideas on how, let me know. For example, could she sign up on upwork and then I apply to the job and recommend her instead? Thanks for any how-to responses that are TOS compatible.

Hi Guys, I want some advice on how to get started on UPWORK, I have been working as a Market Researcher and im intrsted in bulding a portfolio and focusing on learning new skills and creating more presentable content to bulid my portfolio with since I was mainly working from a research and consulting base which isn't really showable, any suggestions on what skills I can start doing (learning) or focusing on to get clients! I am open to any remote work, and im looking to bulding my digtal work!! Thanks guys lots of love from Egypt.

At this point, I think the problem isn't upwork. People don't read, they just apply to anything --- or maybe there's a hack for getting free connects.

Can I send my client my phone number or email for him to send me funds via Apple Pay to reimburse me for material costs on his project?

I have an active, accepted contract with him. Fixed contract basis.

I don't want him to pay me for the material costs on UpWork directly or they will take 10% of these funds for what is otherwise a basic reimbursement of my costs to build his design. He can Venmo me or send these funds via ApplePay as well.

I just don't want to risk the wrath of their bots and get banned from the platform.

TIA!

Is there a way to bring client to upwork without them having to pay 5% on every payment they send?

Like other than the direct contract feature?

Any help is appreciated.

like i get the system is to prevent spam (and for upwork to profit off of peoples desperation) but does it really make sense have to spend a dollar for a job listing that pays 3-5$ an hour??

Applied to a job and the first message from the client says that they need my email to invite me to a private job.

To send the invite on Upwork, we’ll just need the email linked to your account.

It makes sense that they want to invite me to a private job because the original job post was more like a screening post, but asking for email to invite is unusual.

The client is new to the platform so I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt but at the same time I don't wanna get in trouble for sharing emails before the contract has started.

So I just want to know if email is the only way to invite freelancers (seems unlikely, but I don't know how things work on the client's side) or you can just go to someone's profile and invite them from there?

Hey guys, I just received the Top Rated Plus badge on Upwork today, and I’m super excited! I was wondering—does this badge really help in landing more projects or standing out to clients? Have any of you noticed a difference in client responses or invite rates after getting it?

Would love to hear your experiences! Thanks in advance.

The casino job hunting. Variable fees. $5 and $10 an hour jobs.....geesh.

I love how people on this subreddit bash freelancers like pinatas.

It's been 18 months since my last gig, I'm a but rusty on how things work please.

Hi,

I'm hoping someone can help me. I work as a freelance web developer and how I usually do business is I get a client, I do the work and then I invoice the client from my limited company. Then the client pays the money to my limited company bank account as instructed on the invoice.

I've tried to see how I replicate this on Upwork and I am not sure if it is possible because it will only let me create msyelf as a freelancer using my real name and nowhere is it asking for my company details, which will be a major issue for my accountant. I get that payments and invoicing will be different with Upwork vs working with clients directly but the most important thing that will be essential for me to do work through Upwork is to make sure my company name appears on any payments for the work I do.

As far as I can tell, I can only set myself up as a limited company if I want to hire people on Upwork, not if I want to do jobs for clients on Upwork. Is this the only way?

I feel like this should be super simple and I am just not getting it. For the record, I haven't done a job on Upwork yet, I want to get this sorted before I start.

I have more than 5 years working on the platform with all great experiences and all positive feedback. I've had really good clients. But this client was so difficult that I'll end the contract. He only released the first $150 for the first milestone. I worked 10 more extra hours for free. He didn't create the milestone for these 10 hours. Then he said he will create and release the funds but I don't care about the 10 hours nor the money at this point. He is so rude that I won't continue working with him.

1. How my JSS is affected? And also my public and private reviews?
2. If he releases the pending 10 hours, could it negatively impact on my JSS if more money was released on the project? Or is it the same? If it's the same I'll try to get the payment done.
3. Why Upwork don't have a way to protect high-rated freelancers? You never know who the client is after started working for at least one week.

I'm sharing some of his Slack messages. I'm so frustrated with this guy. He also pretended to reduce my rates. Incredible this guy!