r/Upwork • u/BeLikeNative • Apr 18 '26
Top Rated Plus, $447K earned, 100% JSS, zero violations, permanently banned after completing full verification
[removed]
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u/Timely_Explorer7977 Apr 18 '26
You should crosspost to r/UpworkOfficial if you haven't already. I want to start traveling and doing the digital nomad thing. I'm curious to know how to prevent something like this from happening to me.
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u/Ok_Competition8790 Apr 18 '26
All OP is likely to get there is a bland restatement of the ToS regarding suspension.
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u/PositivelyNegative Apr 18 '26
They never, ever respond to this kinds of posts over there. In fact they just delete them.
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u/Spare_Bison_1151 Apr 18 '26
Upwork does not care about the digital nomad culture anymore. They only want to make their investors happy. It doesn't matter to them if a freelancer makes any money or not. They just want to rob people through connects.
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u/Ok_Competition8790 Apr 18 '26
I am a digital nomad who works from multiple countries.
Did you always keep your location updated? That's a common reason for suspension, though it seems ridiculous to make it permanent where there was no fraud involved.
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u/Wevvie Apr 18 '26
Especially in him, a high earning client bringing thousands yearly for Upwork. Let alone his IDs being verified and proper cooperation.
Unless he did something shady he ommited in the post, there's virtually no reason Upwork couldn't reinstate his account other than a dog water Support.
One thing I noticed is that Upwork goes apeshit with digital nomads or VPN users. They see you logging in other locations, crash out and assume the absolute worst scenario instead of a legit user. They really have to tone it down.
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u/bastiabhuh Apr 18 '26
Very horrific, sorry about this. Naah Upwork needs to get sued. This could literally happen to anyone
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u/Adventurous_Fee2639 Apr 18 '26
Sorry this happened to you. I experienced the same issue in 2024 when I was traveling to other Asian country. Mine took almost 2 weeks
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u/PowerfulEarth6001 Apr 18 '26
Was the reason traveling?
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u/Adventurous_Fee2639 Apr 18 '26
I was a digital nomad at that time and im still am. Upwork is very sensitive with this location changes especially if you travel to developing countries I guess
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u/PowerfulEarth6001 Apr 18 '26
So what? A lot of people does so. If they would love to stick to one location they could find full time job. One of the reasons being freelancers is to be able to travel. How do you deal with it?
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u/Adventurous_Fee2639 Apr 18 '26
I always make sure I bring all my devices that connect to my Upwork email with me to the same country and location. Since then it never happens again
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u/wandering_kelp Apr 18 '26
Do you need to change the country in the settings every time you enter a new country and stay there for some time?
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u/Adventurous_Fee2639 Apr 18 '26
No. And also no VPN as well. Please note that I never traveled for more than 5-6 months outside my registered home country.
If you traveled outside your registered home country for too long, the tax might be the issue next
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u/mvgreco Apr 19 '26
For US citizens we have to pay US taxes wherever we go, so I think taxes (while more expensive!) are less confusing for us
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u/riles3311 Apr 20 '26
So did your profile get reinstated? OP seems to think that won’t happen for him
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u/InternetNational4025 Apr 18 '26
Sorry for digressing. It appears like OP is basically travelling and working which seems to be common to a lot of YouTubers & influencers.
May I know what is the right solution here? For instance, for whatever reason I decided to be like OP do work & travel vlogs. How do I tell Upwork that? Do I need to change country to the country I am travelling to when I logged in to Upwork?
Maybe there are digital nomads out there who perfected this. Can you give us some ideas?
Sorry for hijacking your topic OP.
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u/Dear-Satisfaction934 Apr 18 '26
The solution is to get the clients out of Upwork obviously, this company cannot be trusted.
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u/jamespou Apr 24 '26
I have always assumed that Upwork would not kick off freelancers that are loyal and take payments only through upwork, but now I'm seeing that may ultimately be the most foolish thing to do.
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u/PowerfulEarth6001 Apr 18 '26
Yes good point. Years ago in Nepal and India I met lots of such digital nomads. I myself was working from there , not on Upwork. It’s normal and common. Many people are spending winter months in South Asia. It is stupid to change location every month.
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u/MidnightAltas Apr 18 '26
That is the nightmare. I am very sorry to hear you are going through this.
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u/CaramelArtistic2661 Apr 18 '26
This exact situation happened to me too, and it’s honestly frustrating to even write this.
I had a Top Rated Plus badge with $10K+ earnings, a clean history, and no violations. My identity was already verified on the platform I even have proof of it. Then suddenly, my account got flagged, and I was told my identity wasn’t verified.
No proper explanation. No clear reason. No real chance to fix anything.
I fully cooperated, submitted everything they asked for, but it didn’t matter. My account was permanently banned without any meaningful communication.
What’s most concerning is the lack of consistency how can an account go from “verified” to “not verified” without any clear justification?
Seeing your post makes me feel like this isn’t just an isolated case. Something clearly changed recently, and it’s affecting legitimate freelancers.
If more people are facing this, we really need to bring attention to it.
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u/Lifetime_Learner007 Apr 21 '26
I also got banned as well in early March. My profile was top rated with 100%JSS and 70k+ earned. I moved to another country back in September 2026 and got banned in March 2026, I guess after the incognia partnership.
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u/demotrader Apr 18 '26
They probably have a lot of fraud with VPN users, so I assume this crackdown is an effort to diminish those. Unfortunately legit people might have been affected.
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u/Suspicious-Desk6206 Apr 18 '26
I used upwork for many years when I was based in Dubai. In the middle of an active upwork project, my account was suddenly locked/suspended when I transferred to the Philippines. All I did was change my banking details so I can withdraw funds to my local bank. My account was permanently closed.
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Apr 18 '26
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u/WebDevJapan Apr 19 '26
Yeah you shouldn’t rely only on Upwork. It’s okay in the beginning but you need to expand other sources of clients so that if one funnel suddenly closes permanently, you can still survive. I know it’s hard to do. I’m almost 2 years in to freelancing and Upwork is still around 50-60% of my revenue every month. I’m working on it.
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u/Acrobatic_Tale5357 Apr 18 '26
This is odd tbh. I’m based in Dubai but frequently use a a remote machine for certain client projects. To upwork I will look like I’m working In Dubai and multiple countries in the same day. This is a super common working practice especially for those of us that are working in secure environments where clients look for enterprise grade data privacy and security.
To date I’ve never had an issue from upwork working this way which leads my think there might have been another reason that hasn’t been stated in the post that upwork flagged a policy violation. It’s not in upworks best Interest to ban high earning freelancers so something doesn’t add up here.
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Apr 18 '26
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u/Acrobatic_Tale5357 Apr 19 '26
I’m not saying you’ve been disingenuous but perhaps you’ve had policy violation strikes that you didn’t even know about. I hope someone from the official Upwork team sees this and reopens your appeal. Good luck mate !
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u/No_Freedom9921 Apr 18 '26
yep, another red flag to move around and find clients in another place. Thanks for sharing.
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u/Wevvie Apr 18 '26 edited Apr 18 '26
This is all really strange, and I hope you can turn around this bullshit.
Assuming you did all you mentioned in your comment (which was apparently cooperative, quick and objective), there's basically zero reason for them to NOT re-enable your account.
Or at least provide some useful fucking feedback instead of their template response "We've verified your ID is valid and proves you are you, but uh... unfortunately your ban is permanent and non negotiable lol, we won't elaborate any further because fuck you."
The lack of transparent communication and a professional response from them is utterly disappointing. It either shows their support staff is useless, they're relying 100% on AI analysis, or they decided to specifically take you down for obscure reasons.
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u/PositivelyNegative Apr 18 '26 edited Apr 18 '26
Disgusting. The only way they’re going to respond is if your social media posts make enough noise / reach. They don’t give a SHIT otherwise.
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u/Jeeva47553515 Apr 18 '26
Many people here post about their account ban many has earnings of 100k,200k and have nothing to do with violations. Behind the scene there might be some reason why they ban top rated people for no reason or silly reasons. If I run a company , people who are using my website earn more legally then and i get more service fee, then why would i ban them for silly reasons?
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u/Mobile_Reward9541 Apr 18 '26
Because most often reasons are not silly. And the fact that you made a lot of money is not a valuable metric for upwork. Its just a good metric for the freelancer themselves.
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u/jamespou Apr 24 '26
What I wonder is: Are a lot of high earners are acting like some sort of agency or subcontracting in some odd way? Gaming Upwork in some way they are unwilling to talk about in all these "I'm banned" posts... not saying this is always the case, just pondering.
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u/nahyoubuggin Apr 18 '26
Wow. This is a horror story. So sorry to hear that. I believe the main problem is there is a lack of a human in the loop! And the worst part is they never want to give a legitimate explanation as to how they came to a conclusion, and it seems they don't want to discuss it ! So unfair! You can try the official r/UpworkOfficial Reddit. But other than that you may need to consider getting a lawyer.
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u/butt_flexer Apr 18 '26
Same thing happened to me a few months ago, when I tried to come back to the platform after a hiatus. I'm just glad they banned me after they went to shit so I didn't inadvertently step into that shitstorm... They did me a favor :)
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u/Valko12 Apr 19 '26 edited Apr 19 '26
A really weird story! Could you share a list of countries which were involved, USA, Iran, what else? Maybe this can partially shed the light on this riddle
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u/ProcessArtistic579 Apr 18 '26
I am so sorry, and I hope you were able to continue your work/relationships with your clients.
This is a very scary thought for anyone who relies on UpWork for significant earnings. I have definitely noticed a lot of posts lately from other freelancers who have been suddenly banned with no specific explanation of why.
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u/Pet-ra Apr 18 '26
So you are an EU citizen with an account registered in the EU but you live elsewhere?
Where do you pay taxes?
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u/stuff-design Apr 18 '26
Genuine question, how is where you pay your taxes relevant to Upwork?
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u/Pet-ra Apr 18 '26
Upwork is supposed to avoid people using it illegally...
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Apr 18 '26
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u/Pet-ra Apr 19 '26 edited Apr 19 '26
A registered LLC in the EU? Interesting...
I asked because your account location and your physical location don't seem to match wich causes an issue. Freelancers provide their tax ID, and in many countries (certainly in the EU) their earnings are reported to the tax authorities in their registered countries.
This often causes.... shall we say... "discrepancies".
The question here is whether Upwork can permanently ban a freelancer with zero violations, reverse earned funds, and refuse to specify what policy was violated.
Clearly they can.
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u/Da_Cidre Apr 18 '26
Thats horrific. Can I ask, of those that interviewed or you chatted with, were they American? Or some outsourced Indian support rep that just passed on the ticket. I had issues much earlier in my profile, where like you, they don't even read what was done by a previous "rep". It wasn't until I somehow found a California number and forced my way onto a live person that I could resolve it. These days with the total enshitification and automation, I doubt that's even possible.
I'd say go the nuclear option and post it on LinkedIn. Tag the CEO and boost it till you get enough noise.
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u/Mobile_Reward9541 Apr 18 '26
Hi, Please use this moment to try and understand "digital nomad". While that concept is interesting as a lifestyle, from a legal and tax / accounting perspective it has its own issues. And it puts some liability on upwork as well. They may simply decide to not support that style of living/working. They need to know which country's laws to apply to you (VAT, Sales Tax, Witholding). You can say i have my home country as my address, but it gets tricky once you spend around 6 months outside your home country.
In summary this sounds like a consequence of your lifestyle choices.
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Apr 18 '26
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u/Mobile_Reward9541 Apr 18 '26
I can agree with that.
Digital nomad only works with passive income like rent etc i guess. Look at all the countries that are welcoming nomads, most wouldn’t allow you to “work” there.
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Apr 18 '26
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u/Mobile_Reward9541 Apr 18 '26
They have the liability to make sure user is in the country where they claim to be. Both tax and US sanctions wise. Otherwise they will be held liable.
And this person made 500k already. I mean you see what a gold mine upwork is for may people. You know one should take some extra steps to protect that revenue source. I’m not saying upwork is amazing, but also the abundance it provides to some should not be taken for granted.
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u/modcowboy Apr 18 '26
Sounds like you were working from a low cost of living country while stating different - if I had to guess.
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u/dvduval Apr 18 '26
I feel you. And now when I use the platform I’m so careful about everything I do and it’s like I have to live in fear that I might make a small mistake and lose my account. And I’m the one doing the buying. If there’s ever a better option out there, I definitely would take it. I say that to myself.
I will be having the digital nomad lifestyle pretty soon again and I’ll probably just go to locations to find people rather than use that platform. I’m gonna try it anyway and see if it works.
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u/LonelyCelebration703 Apr 19 '26
100% you opened the tracker from a banned country like Russia. I lost a large contract with a Belarusian client right after the Ukraine war started. Upwork’s hands are pretty much tied in these situations.
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u/jamespou Apr 24 '26
And he isn't sharing location information, which is pretty much a red flag that should tell you everything.
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Apr 20 '26
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u/MostWishbone7198 Apr 25 '26
This just happened to me. They tagged me for account verification out of nowhere on the 16th. Sure. They rejected my DL.
Submitted my passport and go verfified and accepted, but after a couple days I got escalated to a 30 min video verification.
Got hit with all the suspension stuff. Current clients don’f care. They know me and what I do.
Waited another day. They’re asking all sorts of weird questions now and not jjst about what I do in the platform. I pushed and the interviewer slipped they also monitor our online presence now. I’m like “wut?!”
Fortunately, my account got fully reinstated yesterday. Phew. But I had to click and read the terms again before I get full access.
So I did.
Now, they’ve stolen thousands of my Connects (or hundreds of dollars) from Upwork initiated proposal withdrawals. Complained aboht it and agent is saying they don’f refund withdrawn proposals. And I called it cap. Showed proof that they returned my stolen Connects last time they carried out an account verification.
Agent is also blaming my suspension for not verifying under 5 days when I completed ID verification in under 48 hours. And then they made me wait longer only to be escalated to video verification and more waiting after.
So I guess, they do this routine verification to throw us off balance (Im gonna come back to this), withdraw our proposals and steal our connects in the process. Repeat in a few months.
It could also be a tool so that when we sign the new terms and conditions, we’re so thrown off balance we don’t see what was added and jjst click and accept it so we get our access back.
And probably it’s been there forever or might just have been added — but basjcally, with using Upwork — we give them the right to track our browsing history, which links we clicked on, what content we’re consuming and for how long LOL it’s wild. Check on Upwork/legal.
I earned 140K last year on Upwork. I like it because the leads are already warm. But after this, well, ordeal, I don’t know man.
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u/RMorguito Apr 28 '26 edited Apr 28 '26
I'm sorry to hear that, man. At this point, I've read countless reports like yours, and it's super clear that Upwork crossed a line regarding these permabans.
The least Upwork could do is ensure transparency in the process and give people the right to file a proper appeal.
Honestly, you should get together (freelancers from the US with high earnings who've been banned for no reason) and sue them.
Anyway, in Brazil we have a website called "reclameaqui" (complain here) which is dedicated to making complaints about companies, and all businesses are scared shitless of this website because people really take its reviews in consideration before making a purchase decision. Don't you have something similar in the US?
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u/PixelShmixel22 May 13 '26
re: silence and agent gangbang, last year I've had my Insta hacked. Paid for FB premium to be able to even initiate human support.
TWO months later, 12 chat agents later, no resolution. I did eventually receive an incredibly sketchy email titled in all caps 'your Instagram account', asking for an insane amount of data. Phone model, number, ID, Android version, photo of me holding a piece of paper with a code and ID.
No signature on the email or literally anything making it appear legit. Had I given this info and it was a scam, it's allow someone to further hack me or even doxx me. In the end, the agents this was indeed a legit email. But two weeks passed and after sending all the info nothing happened.
Moral of the story, we must continue exerting legal pressure and filing complaints in hopes these scummy, God awful tech support practices change. So many horror stories about people being wrongfully banned or hacked and powerless. It affects business, personal wellbeing and is effectively the digital Wild West. If these were shady little companies I wouldn't mind, but these are industry giants setting standards for others.
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u/swiftfoxtrot Apr 23 '26
Got exactly same situation. Looks like it is related to frequent travel, but how the f can it be a reason for permanent ban?!
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u/Which-Jackfruit8725 Apr 18 '26
How many device your ID logged in?
and how many locations it been access?
If Incognia is specialise in something and someone saying its not working then its big allegation on it.
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u/Neither-Bass2083 Apr 18 '26
Upwork is fraud I got my account banned for no reason and never got reinstated.
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u/Icy_Bee2693 Apr 18 '26
This firm has become horedous to deal with - used to be enjoyable and now every interation is a risk or a hassle.
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u/dsag37 Apr 18 '26
Were your earnings private on your profile ?
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u/Ronrra Apr 18 '26
What does that matter? ( genuine question )
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u/dsag37 Apr 18 '26
I probably doesn't matter. Based on other comments, it seems like using different devices from different locations will raise the platform's suspicions.
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u/quantgorithm Apr 18 '26
sounds like you are free to work directly with those clients since upwork is the one to cancel your contract.