Suspect Buyers & Job Postings
What's with all the suspect buyers and job postings lately?
I've applied for a number of jobs in the last few days and they either basically ask you to communicate off the platform or, after going through all the trouble of sending a proposal, the job is suddenly canceled. What is going on?
My guess is, that some of these unethical buyers are simply trolling PPH looking for freelancers they can move away from the platform to get them to work and then disappear. Honestly, PPH needs to step up its approval process to ensure these types can't post jobs.
Jobs are hard enough to come by and good ones are even harder to secure. Then you spend 10 - 20 minutes putting a proposal together only to find the project has been canceled and the buyer's profile no longer exists.
Is anyone else experiencing these problems?
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Hi Nancy
You're absolutely right and these are 3 things I always look out for but some have gotten crafty with the details in their posts and the 0 reviews are a hit-and-miss. It could be a legitimate new buyer but it could also be a scammer. Everyone has 0 reviews when they first sign up, including freelancers.
As the process does involve financial transactions, I would like to see sellers and buyers properly identified in much the same way as we need to be when opening a bank account. Let's see if the scammers will register if they need to produce a photo ID when registering. And if it's a company, let the principal show ID.
I believe PPH should implement full identification as this would most definitely start to eliminate the scammers. Yes, I know, ID can be fake, but this would, at least, be a good place to start.
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I'm noticing something else - brand new buyers with zero reviews, but with extremely detailed job listings and sensible budgets. The jobs are never awarded, and the proposals are never read (I even featured one to test my theory...nope). I've never bought services through here, but I understand you can see the price a freelancer has quoted without opening their proposal.
I'm pretty certain buyers are using PPH to test the market rate with no intention of using a PPH freelancer to do the job. They'll then either take the work in house, or go to a temping agency and get someone to do it for minimum wage.
Even up to 2020, I had about a one in three or four hit rate for proposals and jobs. Since then, I've been on repeat work from existing clients only. I can't remember the last time I sold an Offer. Probably 2021.
I have suggested to PPH before that all new buyer jobs should be pre-funded, but the suggestion fell on deaf ears.
And don't get me started on the invitations to connect on Telegram; that's still more prevalent on Fiverr (where I do still seem to be doing okay, strangely), but it's creeping in here at the rate of about two a day now.
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