Upwork just stole $10k from me

>Provided the documents, went through the visual verification with a webcam, answered the questions, and solved the programming task live, ...

Excuse me, WTF? You have to code something in order to get verified? (!)

When I did it it was form questions like how to do an SQL join. The questions were not related at all to the work you were trying to do.

I have already heard of one story close to me of a company that had to fire someone because they faked their interview coding assignment.

Fortunately my experience was just me talking about skills I'd listed I had experience with for maybe a minute or less. All on camera while I couldn't see them of course.

I have had a CBP officer asking me very light questions around python.

Fraud is likely a huge issue on Upwork

- Set up fake profile

- Set up a bot army to vote you up

- Take clients money, never deliver or deliver some random crap duct taped together with ChatGPT README

If clients keep paying it means they are happy with the work delivered.

But if upwork really wants to implement coding tests they have to do it BEFORE assigning customers to the developer. Especially before $10K have been spent.

Do they do coding test? I have not heard that before.

There are blackhat hacking forums with a better reputation and fraud protection system than Upwork. If all it takes is a “bot army” to make a profile seem legit, they’ve created this problem for themselves.

> - Take clients money

This part is usually solved with escrow systems so the scammer wouldn't get anything until the client confirms they're happy, so why isn't that what Upwork is doing?