There was also the anecdote of some people (mostly freelancers based in Africa or Asia) using stock photos of smiling blonde caucasian models to create a fake sense of trust (and the other freelancers disclosing it for fun again and again). I remember stock photos taken directly from the web of a dental clinic for example, or appearing in the first positions in google under the tag "entrepreneur" and so. It was an arms race, with upwork banning each time and the fake accounts reappearing and refining their methods each time
As general rule of thumb, If it looks handsome, young and dressed like a model in a studio of photography, is probably fake.