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Tell HN: Upwork has an impersonation problem

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Re: Tell HN: Upwork has an impersonation problem

#111

Post by alasdair_ »

a_simm wrote: post #42

Just wanted chime in with second a second anecdote that I was going to post. We needed a Django developer. Put an ad on Upwork at the high end of the recommended salary range. The ad specified US Eligible worker for legal reasons. Of the 10 or so applicants, seven flat out refused to appear on webcam so I decided to talk to the eighth. This person claim to be in Seattle. Having lived there I asked them two relatively…

>Second, what color is the bubbly music museum next door?

The EMP isn't a music museum any more, it's now the Museum of Pop Culture. I can get being confused by that one :)

Re: Tell HN: Upwork has an impersonation problem

#112

Post by pessimizer »

HWR_14 wrote: post #110
refulgentis wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel this very very very much, I wish we could talk in person, I am tortured every day by this exact problem. I am very jealous of people who are "that rational" "are able to adopt that perspective". To my point, people don't do this even though everyone knows it, and its obvious, because....:(

FYI, it's not a rationality question. This involves ethical questions you can rationally argue about.

Companies don't have moral responsibilities, they have legal ones (and the least they can lobby for.) The only people burdened with moral responsibilities in the employer-employee relationship seem to be the employees.

Re: Tell HN: Upwork has an impersonation problem

#113

Post by pessimizer »

marviel wrote: post #88
throwawaysleep wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't view it as a moral question. My employer doesn't view hiring or firing me or rewarding me as a moral one. I just treat myself like top shareholder of my own company.

Why don't you view it as a moral question?

You should just ask whatever question you have, rather than trying to get somebody else to interrogate themselves about your values. Put yourself out there.

Re: Tell HN: Upwork has an impersonation problem

#114

Post by alasdair_ »

reaperducer wrote: post #90
jamiek88 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I admire your anonymous candor.

I'd call it cowardice since he's hiding behind a pseudonym. Let him tell his employers what's going on and see if he feels the same way. As my grandmother used to say, "If you have to hide it, it's probably wrong."

>As my grandmother used to say, "If you have to hide it, it's probably wrong."

"Anne Frank? Why yes, she's right upstairs..."

Re: Tell HN: Upwork has an impersonation problem

#115

Post by CJefferson »

reaperducer wrote: post #90
jamiek88 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I admire your anonymous candor.

I'd call it cowardice since he's hiding behind a pseudonym. Let him tell his employers what's going on and see if he feels the same way. As my grandmother used to say, "If you have to hide it, it's probably wrong."

Looking at this like the recent Uber leaks, plenty of employers keep a lot of things secret.

Re: Tell HN: Upwork has an impersonation problem

#116

Post by 50 »

dewey wrote: post #15
dijonman2 wrote: post #13

I deleted my LinkedIn, it’s a source of information that the general public doesn’t need to see. I don’t want to broadcast my employment history to the world. I think the value of LinkedIn is diminishing and will continue to decline.

> I think the value of LinkedIn is diminishing and will continue to decline. I don't see how that would be the case, it's the de-facto rolodex for your work-circle and I don't think I know any alternative that is getting popular.

See https://read.cv/ for a viable alternative.

Re: Tell HN: Upwork has an impersonation problem

#117

Post by dvtrn »

dpifke wrote: post #45
impersonated wrote: post #18

I'm looking for advice on a similar issue. Somebody is impersonating me on dating sites and blackmailing women. They convince their victims to send nude photos, and then they threaten to send the photos to their families. The scammer (or scammers) use photos of me that used to be publicly available on social media. They also use my real name, presumably so that the victims see a legitimate LinkedIn profile when they…

If you can prove you've suffered damages due to this (which maybe you can, if it affected your employment), you could sue John Doe, which would get you subpoena power against OKCupid. You probably wouldn't be able to collect from the scammer (who is likely in another country), but I guarantee you'll get OKCupid's legal department's attention, and they might be able to put a stop to it. The lawsuit would also create a…

The lawsuit would also create a paper trail that you can use to exonerate yourself in the future.

Thanks to the tragedy of a common name in my country, I’ve had to petition multiple jurisdictions to procure paperwork for a very similar reason.

Only became a necessity when applying for a job and being asked, once the background check came back for someone who had not only the same name but also birthdate 700 miles away if I had been convicted of extortion and blackmail.

How that had never come up before I hit my late thirties is anyone’s guess, since the conviction was recent enough to get someone looking more closely, but not so long ago that again I’m surprised that moment was the first anyone had asked me about it after doing a background check.

Long story short, a few letters to the jurisdictions in question and $500 worth of help from a local attorney and I soon had official papers saying “No, the Bob Loblaw applying for your job is not THAT Bob Loblaw we threw the book at.”

Re: Tell HN: Upwork has an impersonation problem

#118

Post by refulgentis »

HWR_14 wrote: post #110
refulgentis wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel this very very very much, I wish we could talk in person, I am tortured every day by this exact problem. I am very jealous of people who are "that rational" "are able to adopt that perspective". To my point, people don't do this even though everyone knows it, and its obvious, because....:(

FYI, it's not a rationality question. This involves ethical questions you can rationally argue about.

Yeah, addressed upthread. Acting like there's some abstract dialogue to have here hides the ball. This isn't a common viewpoint, there's a reason why, and it's not because people arent aware

Re: Tell HN: Upwork has an impersonation problem

#119

Post by johnm212 »

I've been hiring on Upwork since 2007. I love the idea of being able to hire people with particular skillsets for a short time. For example, we had a unique issue with elasticsearch. We hired someone on Upwork with a Ph.D. and wrote a book on it. For a few hundred dollars, he was able to resolve our issue in a few hours.

For every good experience, we have had about four bad experiences. The Upwork marketplace is filled with accounts pretending to be in North America and using fake photos. If you start looking at the profile pics on Upwork, you'll see they have the fake teeth from thispersondoesnotexist.

We've accidentally hired some of these fake people. Not only can they code, but they are pretty good. Upwork usually freezes the contractor's account when they try to get their first payout and fail the identity verification. Then we get a request from the contractor to pay by Paypal. It's a mess.

Here's the chat response from one of the contractors when they were found out:

> OK, let me explain. > To be honest, i am based on China. > But i can complete the task really well. > But i can't work with high rate on upwork as Chinese. > I am really sorry for that. > You can confirm me through video call. > Anyway, i am really good developer in Bootstrap 4 and css3, Html5 and etc. > you can check my result.

Upwork should be doing more to fix this. They are very aware of the issue. I once emailed their old CEO about the issue and got a reply from an assistant offering an account credit.

I wish there was a good alternative!

Re: Tell HN: Upwork has an impersonation problem

#120

Post by sixhobbits »

It's a huge problem on some large dev slacks I am part of and one I used to help run. Someone will join and DM every existing member with a sob story about how he cannot join upwork because of his country of origin and asking to use theirs in exchange for 10% of profits he makes.

Not sure if anyone actually responds positively to these DMs but I guess if they do it feeds into the same scam.

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