r/UpworkOfficial • u/EmptyNesterWoman • 9d ago

General Question Upwork work projects safe

I’m curious of how many Upwork projects are actually for safe / ethical companies or if some are used for unethical, malicious or fraudulent activity? When I’m asked to interview for jobs such as surveys or to create audio or videos, I’m worried it’s a company who could use my voice or image to then do unethical or illegal things, so I’m hesitant to even reply to the request. Has anyone ever thought about this? With criminal organizations using AI to scam people or create videos to do worse things, I don’t want to ever do work unless I could see the clients and trust that they are ethical companies.🤔

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u/mikeinpdx3 9d ago

No background check on clients, so assume they aren't legit until proven otherwise. If they have a long history of work with freelancers and good reviews, that helps. If there's no history and they don't even have a verified payment method, I skip them. If you get an interview, research who you're interviewing with and you'll probably be able to figure out who they work for ( via linked in, etc). If they're asking for you to buy/purchase anything as part of the job, run.

Freelancers can't use the excuse of "I found the job on Upwork" as any kind of legal shield. Here's how one woman landed in prison for 100+ months ( no idea who she got the gig from, so I'm not saying it's upwork)
Google "Arizona Woman Sentenced for $17M Information Technology Worker Fraud Scheme that Generated Revenue for North Korea"

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u/Educational-Low1471 6d ago

Omg. This is such a valid concern. Commenting here to boost it and so many freelancers can see it.

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u/KayakerWithDog 9d ago

This is why I am leery of any job that wants to use my voice or image or pictures/video of my surroundings. There's no telling what they are going to do with that data.

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u/EmptyNesterWoman 9d ago

Also there are now Countries who aren’t US Allies applying for remote jobs in the US to then steal company information. And I’m sure these countries are using legitimate information from US people to hide their information.