Is Upwork Posting Fake Jobs to Keep Freelancers Bidding?

This would explain the template spam I recently came across.

Here are a couple samples:

Full stack web developer for {type of app or your company name}

About us: {Description of your company and target audience}

What we're looking for: develop a website for independent living program. An experienced full stack developer to help kick-start/build on {description of website or platform}. We need someone to work on {specific project requirements}. The project is based on {software platforms, frameworks, languages, databases used by your company}.

We need the following deliverables: - Deliverable #1 by {date} - Deliverable #2 by {date} - ...

To complete all the deliverables, the right developer will have experience in the following: - Experience translating designer mock-ups and wireframes into front-end code - {Software platforms, frameworks, languages, databases, unit tests, version control, APIs}

In your proposal, please share a brief summary of your experience and tell us about a recent full stack web development project you worked on.

*

Copywriting for {type of product or your company name} Email Marketing

About us: Funnel marketing and landing pages

We're currently on the lookout for a world-class copywriter to help us write {types of assets}. The copy will highlight {brand benefits or business objectives}.

Deliverables: - Copy for {assets needed for the campaign} - Copy suggestions to conceptualize marketing campaigns - One potential round of rewrites based on client feedback

This project requires: - Copywriting expertise - Background at {list agency, in-house, etc.} - Creativity and ability to conceptualize - Familiarity with {your company or industry}

In your proposal, please share a brief summary of your experience and tell us about your most successful copywriting project to date.

If this is true (which I highly suspect it is) I cannot in good conscience ever give another dollar to Upwork, and will actively spread the word of what is happening. To play games with individuals who generally have no safety net, in a time like this, is reprehensible. I'll be following this closely and hope there is a better explanation for this.

Wouldn't surprise me, freelancer.com seems to do the same, there's lots of requests that receive many offers but never choose any and are left undone.

Reminds me of when Reddit's founders would post under a variety of usernames to make it seem there was interest and build SEO.

For those who don't read all the way down in the article, the disclaimers are relevant:

> Disclaimer: The author has based his analyses and inferences on conversations between the author and an Upwork Insider.

> Disclaimer: The author works for goLance, an UpWork competitor.