View the information below to determine which drop-down process to view.
CE-Specific Suspensions
Zero Tolerance:
OBO CSS Note -
Email Notification -
“I am writing to let you know that your account has been permanently deactivated because you have asked to be paid outside of Upwork.
This is considered “circumvention” and is against the Upwork User Agreement you agreed to when you joined Upwork.
Unfortunately, we must close your account, effective immediately, due to this behavior. You will be able to finish all open contracts, but you will not be able to work on any new jobs.
Please know our decision is final and cannot be reversed, and we are unlikely to respond to any correspondence regarding this matter. Please be advised that we may not respond to further requests regarding this issue.”
Freelancer Time Wasters:
OBO CSS Note -
Email Notification -
“After reviewing your account history, we noticed that you have bid on an extremely high number of jobs, none of which has led to earnings on Upwork. This signals to us that work is potentially being taken off the platform, which violates our Terms of Service. It may also indicate that there are no client opportunities on Upwork that meet your skillset.
In either case, we have decided to close your Upwork account, effective immediately.”
Unsuccessful Freelancers:
OBO CSS Note -
Email Notification (snippet of email; view previous tickets to see in full) -
“We are contacting you to let you know we have suspended your access to Upwork indefinitely.
Our decision is based on a careful review and the fact that you have submitted a high number of proposals for jobs on our site without many contracts or earnings. Unfortunately, this means the jobs posted by clients are not a good match for your skills.
I know this news is likely disappointing to you. But our goal at Upwork is to enable freelancers to successfully connect and collaborate with clients who need their skills and expertise. Unfortunately, this means we must part ways with freelancers whose skills are not in demand in our marketplace.
If you want to appeal this decision, you can email us at marketplace-appeals@upwork.com. Please note each case will be manually reviewed by our Trust & Safety team to decide if your account can be reinstated.
Please know we don’t make decisions like these lightly and wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors.”
Lookie Loo:
OBO CSS Note -
Email Notification:
"We are writing today to let you know we’ve unfortunately had to suspend your Upwork account.
Why? Following a report of unusual site activity, we reviewed your account and have determined you are not using Upwork for permitted purposes as provided in our Terms of Service. This has resulted in your account being suspended.
We are sorry to have to take this step, however, we must require our users to follow our Terms of Service so Upwork remains a trusted marketplace."
Internal Information Only: share with users only what’s explained in their ticket per CE.
Any freelancers caught circumventing and have earned less than $500 will be permanently suspended with no chance of appeal per CE.
How to Handle:
Attempt to resolve by reiterating the suspension message within the ticket sent to the user
- If user accepts response - merge ticket into the original ticket and do not re-open ticket
- If user persists - reiterate the decision, if user really insist consult your TL.
If CL reaches out on behalf of FL - Send a ticket with CL’s plea for the FL to Content_Engagement_Tier_1_TS425 with as many details as possible i.e. FL name, contract (if any), etc. Do NOT merge CL’s ticket with FL’s ticket and do NOT read CE’s info that was given to the FL.
Internal Information Only: share with users only what’s explained in their ticket per CE and Legal approved info below. Do not use “Freelancer Time Wasters” verbiage.
We are closing freelancer accounts that have an extremely high number of proposal submissions, yet no earnings. We suspect that these freelancers are engaging in circumvention and we are closing their accounts as a result.
How to Handle: (Legally approved verbiage)
Give following response to user:We recently reviewed freelancer account histories and flagged accounts where a freelancer has bid on an extremely high number of jobs, none of which has led to earnings on Upwork. We cannot support these types of accounts. To maintain a trustworthy community, we proactively close accounts that incur costs to support, yet do not result in productive work for Upwork clients and other freelancers.
IMPORTANT: We previously permanently suspended accounts of freelancers who applied to a high number of jobs but never or rarely won contracts. Previously, we took this activity as a signal that the jobs on Upwork are not a match for the freelancer’s skills.
As of around September 2020, we are no longer actively suspending FLs for this. While we are not actively doing a mass reinstatement for all FLs with this suspension, if a FL reaches out, we can send them to Special Projects for review for possible reinstatement.
CS Agents - If contact comes through to CS related to this campaign:
- Add Internal Note stating “UNF”
- Update Assignee to “Special Projects”
- Save ticket as “Open”
Note: If user contacts using a different email address, add internal note "UNF" with related details.
SP Agent Only
- Access queue here
- If the user has other suspensions (aside from UFL) or anything is off, please escalate to Content and Engagement team.
IMPORTANT: We no longer do Lookie Loo suspensions. Below is how we used to process them. While we do not perform any mass reinstatement, if a freelancer reaches out about it, please send it to the Circumvention team for review.
INTERNAL INFORMATION ONLY - NOT TO BE SHARED WITH USERS
Program Goal: To remove freelancers who use the platform merely to find and connect with clients and work with them off platform (circumvention).
Program History: It was noticed that there were users who would log into the platform and look (or “click”) through job postings at incredibly high rates. Jumping into this further, we discovered that there are thousands of users who regularly log in, click through job postings with either no or little earn. This behavior can only be for:
- Finding clients with whom to circumvent
- Finding the “right” jobs that are fed to other people in their fraud network (confirmed by the number of NDF suspended users with this behavior), or
- They aren’t able to find jobs that meet their needs
All behaviors that are not supportive of our platform. The specific thresholds and logic used have varied as we have worked to perfect the program. Past runs have provided further clarity and allowed us to more effectively target the groups we are most concerned with.
Profile Rejections
Limited Admission (non-admission):
OBO CSS Note -
Message on Profile (view in sudo) -
Email Notification (snippet of email; view previous tickets to see in full) -
“Thank you for submitting your profile to Upwork as part of the registration process. As we do with everyone who wishes to join Upwork, we carefully reviewed your profile to determine whether there is sufficient need for your skills and experience in the marketplace. Unfortunately, at this time there are already many freelancers with a similar skillset to yours and we cannot accept your registration…”
Low Quality Profile (LQP):
OBO CSS Note -
The “Cause” starts with “Low Quality Profile”, but the following text varies case by case.
Message on Profile (view in sudo) -
Email Notification -
“After carefully reviewing your profile, we cannot accept your registration on Upwork. Unfortunately, our marketplace does not have opportunities for you based on your combination of skills and experience. As a result, you will not be able to use the marketplace nor submit any proposals.
If you have more relevant skills or experience to add, you can update and re-submit your profile and we'll take another look. This will help identify if opportunities are available for you in the marketplace. You can learn more about this decision and tips on how to present your skills and experience in your profile on our help page: https://support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/214180797.”
IMPORTANT: Below (old process) is what we previously did with Limited admissions. Limited admission or non-admission is no longer cause for suspension. While we are not doing mass reinstatement, please re-assign to Content_Engagement_Tier_1_TS425 for review if a freelancer reaches out.
This rejection meant that our marketplace didn’t have opportunities for the freelancer, based on their combination of skills and experience. Due to this, their registration to Upwork wasn't accepted.
CS Agents - If contact comes through to CS related to this campaign:
- Update Assignee to “Content_Engagement_Tier_1_TS425”
- Save ticket as “Open”
This rejection is due to a manual review process led by CE. In these cases, freelancers just need to do make some updates in their profile to be officially accepted. See process map.
Process Map
Guide Section (Internal)
This is internal info. Only give FL the specific info that will help them and customize it to be appropriate for the situation. DO NOT copy and paste this entire section to the FL.Sample: Profile - external link to help FLs, if needed.
Image (Profile picture)-
Rejected if: image is blank, does not clearly show the user’s face, contains text, or user is topless, naked or sexually suggestive. Please note the exception to this policy below.
EXCEPTION (internal info - do not copy/paste to user)
If either situation listed, see the EXCEPTION drop-down.
- Face covered due to religion
- People with a medical condition that requires them to cover their eye(s) (e.g., blind people who wear sunglasses, people who need to wear an eyepatch
Photo Quality Standards:
- Main features of the face - nose, mouth and at least one eye. Long shots are okay as long as we can make out the features of the face
- Some religions do not allow women to show their faces publicly, in these cases, we will not send the generic profile pic macro. Please see the "Exception" dropdown, instead
- Side angle photos should be allowed as long as we can clearly make out the predominant features of the face - one eye, nose and half the mouth.
- Filters: We allow color altering and photo editing as long as the photo has not been edited to the point that it appears to be a drawing
- Sunglasses: We no longer allow photos where the FL is wearing sunglasses
- Low quality/pixelated photo: We should allow these unless the pixelation is so severe and purposeful that the photo looks like a drawing
- Should clearly summarize the FLs skills or experience
- Should be name which is relevant to a job, skill or talent
- Should describe the work the FL plans to accomplish on the platform or contain skills/knowledge a FL could offer a CL
- All spelling should be correct in title
It’s okay if the title is blank and that’s the only issue - CE may still approve this.
- Should clearly describe the FLs skills or experience
- Should describe the work the FL plans to accomplish on the platform or contain skills/knowledge a FL could offer a CL
- Should be related to the Title
Title & Overview -
- Have 3 or more combined grammar, spelling or composition errors
- Does not describe the work the FL plans to accomplish on the platform nor contain skills/knowledge a freelancer could offer a client
- State generic language about freelancing, working, etc. with nothing that is specific to any job or skill or experience (basically, those that are willing to do anything, but have no skills to speak of)
- Written in all capital letters (this includes FL’s name)
The Image (Profile Picture) Rule is - image will be rejected if image is blank, does not clearly show the user’s face, contains text, or user is topless, naked or sexually suggestive
EXCEPTION TO THIS RULE
- Face covered due to religion
- Blind individuals with sunglasses
In the above cases, the user will most likely contact CS. CS agents can set up Profile Photo Exempt per OPS-7313, then the FL can upload their image again. The exemption set per CS will automatically remove the FL suspension once they upload their new photo. (Also, note the macro below the steps provided below).
No email/notification will be triggered for anyone to review the image that the user uploads and if the user wants to change their image in the future, they need to contact CS again.
CS Agent Profile Photo Exempt per OPS-7313 Process
- Access account in OBO and hover mouse in the wrench icon and click “Other…”
- Select Suspend/Resume tab
- In the Exemptions section, place a check mark in the “Profile Photo Exempt per OPS-7313”
- Add a CSS Note, using this sample format:
[ACTION] Profile photo check exempted
[DEPARTMENT] CS
[REASON] Image with hijab, religion reasons
[RELATED TICKET] https://upwork.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/123456789 - Click “Apply”
Macro for the photo exceptions mentioned above:
CS > Profile Photo Exception > Religious/Medical/Other ---
Thanks for letting us know so we could help.
Going forward, you should have no issue when you upload your profile picture.
Should you have any questions or need further assistance, please don't hesitate to get in touch. Thanks for using Upwork.
Can I be reconsidered for admission to Upwork?
You can update your profile as you further develop your experience and skills. Doing so will help us identify whether there are other opportunities for you. You can find more information on how to make a great profile here. Once you’ve updated your experience and skills, you can resubmit your profile for a fresh review by going to Find Work > Profile.
I have a client already on the site who wants to hire me. What can I do?
Clients can directly hire freelancers not currently on Upwork through the “Bring Your Own Freelancer” program. Your profile will be reviewed for approval when you accept the client’s invitation. Your client can find more information on how to work with you on Upwork here.
An agency manager wants me to join their team to work on a project. What can I do?
We'll forward your request to the appropriate team so they can review if your account is eligible for profile approval.