Introduction
Freelancing is one of the most practical ways for Filipinos to earn a strong income, but the demand for virtual assistants has also attracted scammers. Fake job posts, fake employers, and payment traps waste your time and can cost you real money. Upwork and Onlinejobs.ph connect Filipino VAs with clients worldwide, which is exactly why both platforms are heavily targeted.
The good news is that most scams follow a pattern. Once you learn the red flags, you can block them before they reach your inbox. Track Gigs is built for this. It monitors Upwork and Onlinejobs.ph around the clock, applies your filters, and sends matching job alerts to Telegram or a webhook in seconds. This guide walks you through a practical anti-scam setup using Track Gigs and your own judgment.
Know the Red Flags First
Before setting up filters, internalize the warning signs. Scammers usually rush you, flatter you, or dangle money that is too good to be true.
Common red flags include:
- Unrealistic pay for simple work
- Vague job descriptions with no details about tasks
- Requests to move communication off the platform immediately
- Requests to work for free as a "trial"
- Payment through wire transfer, gift cards, or cryptocurrency
- Urgent hiring with no interview
- Clients who ask for personal bank details before any contract
Upwork's own guidance says scammers often lure freelancers with unrealistic pay, vague job descriptions, off-platform communication, or free work requests. Keep all communication and payments on the platform and trust your instincts.
Filipino VAs face a specific version of this problem. Fake employers target Filipino freelancers with fake jobs, fake employers, and payment traps on Onlinejobs.ph, Upwork, and even LinkedIn.
Now let's set up Track Gigs so most of these never reach you in the first place.
Enable the Payment Verified Filter
In your Track Gigs dashboard, go to Setup Filters and toggle on Payment Verified. This is your first and strongest defense. It ensures you only see jobs from clients who have verified a payment method on the platform.
Why this matters: a client with a verified payment method has already gone through an identity and billing check. That is not a guarantee of honesty, but it removes a huge chunk of low-effort scams.
On Onlinejobs.ph, look for the TimeProof indicator. Clients willing to use the platform's time-tracking tool are usually more serious about hiring and paying.
Set Country and Spend Filters
The next layer of protection is client history. In Setup Filters, choose the client countries you want to see. Most Filipino VAs start with the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. You can select multiple countries from the list.
Then set a minimum Total Spent. This filters out brand new client accounts with zero history. A client who has spent thousands of dollars on the platform has a track record that is hard to fake. You can also set a minimum hourly rate or fixed-price minimum so you never see lowball posts that are often spam.
A practical combination looks like this:
| Filter Setting | Recommended Value |
|---|---|
| Countries | US, UK, Canada, Australia |
| Total Spent | $1,000 minimum |
| Hourly Rate | $5 per hour minimum |
| Payment Verified | On |
These settings will not block every scam, but they remove the most obvious ones: new accounts, no spending history, and insulting rates.
Add Targeted Keywords
Track Gigs matches keywords against job titles and content. You get up to 10 keywords per subscription, and the app recommends keeping each keyword to 1 or 2 words for the best match. Broad terms like "assistant" will pull in irrelevant posts. Targeted terms pull in real VA work.
Good starting keywords for a VA:
virtual assistant
VA
executive assistant
admin support
virtual assistant
real estate VA
SEO VA
admin assistant
Avoid generic words like "work" or "job", since they match spam. Instead, think about the niche you serve, such as "customer support", "social media manager", or "bookkeeping". You can update your keywords anytime from the dashboard, so refine them as you learn which postings convert.
Connect Real-Time Alerts
Filters only help if you see the good jobs before the crowd does. Scam postings attract applicants fast, and legitimate posts get flooded within minutes. The freelancers who apply first have the best chance of being read.
Track Gigs sends alerts in under 5 seconds after a job is posted. You can receive them through:
- Telegram, using the dedicated bots for Upwork and Onlinejobs.ph
- A custom webhook for Zapier, Make, Discord, or Slack
- Browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge
Telegram is the fastest to set up. Open the bot for your platform, connect it in the dashboard, and alerts start flowing. During the 7-day free trial, Telegram and the browser extensions are available. Paid channels like webhooks, Discord, and Slack unlock after you subscribe.
Being early matters. Track Gigs reports that many of its users land in the top 5 proposals because they apply within the first minute.
Review Client Profiles Before Applying
Filters do the heavy lifting, but you are the final checkpoint. Before you spend a single Connect or send a proposal, open the client's profile and check:
- Profile age and photo
- Number of jobs posted and hiring history
- Reviews from other freelancers
- Total spent on the platform
- Whether the job description matches the client's industry
Also read the job post itself. Does it describe concrete tasks? Does it mention tools and deliverables? Vague posts are a classic scam signal. A legitimate client writes like they know what they need.
If a client immediately asks you to chat on WhatsApp, Skype, or Telegram before any contract, treat it as a warning. Off-platform communication is exactly how scammers move you outside the platform's protections. Keep payment inside Upwork or Onlinejobs.ph, and never pay a fee to "unlock" a job or receive a "processing" payment.
Top 10 Negative Keywords Every VA Should Use
Track Gigs matches the jobs you want, so it does not use exclusion keywords. But you can keep a mental list of terms that should make you pause before applying. Treat these as automatic caution signals:
- 01Crypto or cryptocurrency
- 02Bitcoin
- 03Data entry with high pay
- 04Money transfer
- 05Western Union
- 06Gift cards
- 07Wire payment
- 08Personal bank details
- 09WhatsApp
- 10Free trial work
If a job post combines two or more of these, skip it. The cost of one bad contract is higher than the earnings you lose by moving on. When you set up Track Gigs, pair these negative signals with your positive keywords. A post that contains "virtual assistant" and "crypto" should be rejected by your own review, even if the filters let it through.
Final Thoughts
Scams on Upwork and Onlinejobs.ph are common, but they are also predictable. Payment Verified filters, client history minimums, targeted keywords, and real-time alerts remove most of the risk before you ever see a posting. Your own review of each client handles the rest.
Track Gigs puts every filter in one dashboard and sends matching jobs to you in seconds. Monitoring starts at ₱180 per month for Upwork and ₱60 per month for Onlinejobs.ph, and every plan includes a 3-day money-back guarantee. That means you stop wasting hours refreshing job boards and start spending that time on the research that actually keeps you safe.
Set up your filters, apply to the right jobs first, and keep every conversation on the platform until a contract exists.
