The Shady Side of remote work platforms: 3 Tricks People Use to Cheat the System

Doing good work and getting paid good money for it. While most customers and freelancers make money the honest way, there is a small percentage of people who use dirty tricks to game the system.

Cyrus Kioko opens up about the three dirty tricks on remote work platforms that no one is talking about.

Here’s how this goes down: freelancer anaunda personal profile then anasaka kazi. When gigs start coming in, he/she hires a team of freelancers to do the work for pennies. This is common among wasee wanafanya academic and article writing. I’ve been the guy getting paid pennies, na pia niliinterview msee amerun a whole agency using this method.

Here’s his and my story, along with some important lessons for any MESHER looking to make money online.

Back when academic writing ilikua inalipa fiti, I worked for a guy with one of the most interesting setups I’ve ever seen. He had rented a two-bedroom house in Kasarani na akaeka bunk beds nne in total. Tulikua around 15 writers, so apo inabidi mnalala na shift. When you’re not sleeping, unachapa kazi. Working remotely wasn’t an option.

But I didn’t mind the hustle back then.

Shida ilikua payment. Tunalipwa CPP ya 200 bob, na food ni wewe unajisort. Nilipata kaexperience but working conditions zilikua worse than kwa mhindi. Breaks were pretty much non-existent, na unaskumiwa job iko na short deadline ka ata ujamaliza yenye unafanya. And if you miss any deadline, unakula fine!

The article writing gig was a bit better because I could work remotely, but the pay wasn’t great. The guy would get work from Upwork for as much as $0.06 per word alafu sisi tunapewa less than 1 bob per word (50 cents to 80 cents depending on task complexity).

Tip: Want to learn more about how to price your services as a copywriter? Cyrus unpacks histips in this article.

I recently spoke to Mike (name changed for confidentiality purposes) who’s been on the other end of the deal. He ran a small agency using a personal Upwork account, successfully at that. By his admission, alikulia fiti for quite some time, paying writers less than a ⅓ of what the client was offering.

Noma iliingia time one of his writers decided to use Chat GPT. The content was immediately flagged, and Upwork shut down his account, clearing out his entire client base. Hustle yake ilienda tu ivo, and he now works as an Uber driver.

Buying and selling accounts is against the terms of service of most remote work platforms, but that hasn’t stopped thousands of people from doing it. Wasee wameishi kubuy accounts since freelancing became a thing.

Here’s allegedly how it works;

You connect with someone with a solid remote work profile (like on upwork, fiverrr, . Usually, the profile will have glowing reviews, several completed profiles, and probably a top-rated badge. Chances are itakua a US or UK profile pia, because profile ziko na credentials za izi locations ukua na access to more opportunities na higher rates.

You agree on a fee, money changes hands, and the seller hands over the account info. And just like that, you’ve bypassed the hassle of building an account from scratch.

It’s shady business, and it works out sometimes. There are some stories of freelancers successfully making money with bought accounts. Usually, the buyer ukua na enough skill to maintain the seller’s quality of service, so clients don’t suspect that they’re dealing with a different person.

There are even more stories of people getting scammed trying to buy accounts. I recently had a chat with Mark, who fell victim to such scams not too long ago.

Here’s how it went down:

Mark (name changed for confidentiality purposes) alipatana na msee anauza Upwork account kwa Facebook group. They agreed on the price, and to make sure he didn’t get conned, he insisted on meeting the seller face-to-face.

But all that due diligence counted for nothing because in the end, alioshwa!

Soon after he paid for the account, the seller “hacked” back into the account and changed the log-ins. Mark reckons guy likely sold the account to another unsuspecting buyer.

Tip: Don’t let scammers take your hard earned money! David Chege shares how to keep you and your biz safe online.

This is common for fixed-price projects. Here’s how it works: you get hired for a project, deliver the work, the client approves it, and Upwork releases your funds from escrow. The client might even give you positive feedback and a 5-star rating.

Kuoshwa uhappen in one of these two ways: Client anaeza request refund on the Upwork platform ama afile a chargeback request through his/her payment provider.

Here’s how both scams work:

Upwork allows clients to request a refund if they’re not satisfied with the quality of your work. This is the platform’s way of assuring clients they’ll get their money’s worth, but some scammers sometimes abuse this provision to get free work.

Here’s how they do it: you do great work, submit it, and the client requests a refund, falsely citing substandard work. Upwork mediates the dispute, but most times the refund will be successful because hawataki kulose clients (that’s how they make money).

Now here’s where things get murky: despite getting their money refunded, some clients will still use that work. For instance, ka job ilikua ya article writing, they might still go ahead and publish the article even though they’ve been refunded. You can always report this, but Upwork can’t do much if penalizing such a client involves actions outside their jurisdiction, like DMCA takedowns.

In this case, client ufile chargeback request through their payment provider, who in most cases ukua their credit card company ama bank. A chargeback request simply means client anaambia payment provider reverse transaction because it was executed by mistake, or without their authorization.

Obviously, payment provider ataside na customer wao akifile such a request, so they reverse that transaction. Upwork then turns on you, the freelancer, and deducts the reversed amount from your earnings. If you have already withdrawn the money to your local bank account, they’ll freeze withdrawals until they recover the reversed amount.

So in the end, unabaki umefanya kazi for free. The worst part is that clients can file chargebacks months after ushawafanyia job na wakaaprove. It doesn’t matter if they gave you a five-star rating when they received the work.

Tip : a good client relationship starts with negotiating your fee.

There’s a lot you can learn from these stories:

The first lesson ni usikue desperate ka mimi uwork for crappy pay. In my experience, it gets you in that comfort zone where hutaki kupitia hustle ya kusaka clients. Even if you don’t mind the hassle of client hunting, you won’t have much time to do that ju utakua exhausted at the end of each day.

Most of the employers who get work using a personal account and then subcontract it will milk every bit of energy out of you with a ton of workload and unrealistic deadlines. If you’re not careful, it can be years before you break out of that endless loop of living payday-to-payday, barely making ends meet.

Unfortunately, Upwork doesn’t do much to protect freelancers from chargebacks. So client akifile such a request itabidi tu ukubali umechengwa. You can always file complaints with Upwork, but as this freelancer and this freelancer found, that doesn’t do much.

The only thing you can do to avoid falling victim ni kuavoid fixed-price projects, which is easier said than done because there are legit, lucrative, fixed-price projects on the platform. If you must take one of these, take these precautions:

● Avoid unverified clients or new ones.

● Have a contract for all your projects indicating deliverables and payment approval process. This will come in handy in case of disputes.

● Set up milestone payments, and never release work before a milestone is funded and approved.

Izi precautions si fool-proof, but they’ll make you a tougher target for scammers.

If a client requests a refund, gets their money back, and still uses your work, report them to Upwork. If they still don’t pay, file a DMCA takedown request (it’s not that complicated; just Google it or ask chat GPT). Upwork might not be helpful with the DMCA, but search engines and web hosting providers can be.

Usikue greedy. Ukipewa job na client, just do it yourself. And if you must outsource (which I still don’t recommend), at least tafta mtu ako na skill na umlipe what he/she is worth. That way, utakua na some assurance of quality work. Our respondent invested a lot of time building his Upwork account. Sure, alikulia for a while, but can you imagine the stress of suddenly losing your main source of income?