The freelance platform in the Aktulaev case was Upwork
Assessment
Neither the Department of Justice release nor the indictment names the platform. The indictment describes "Company A" as "a technology company that provided an online platform for freelance employment based in Santa Clara, California" that offered "a means of posting job listings." Upwork relocated its headquarters from Mountain View to Santa Clara in 2019, before the indictment was returned in June 2021, and no other freelance marketplace of comparable size is based there. The inference is reasonable and is not the government's. Upwork has made no statement.
Where this claim appeared
Cloaked · 2026-09-02
https://www.cloaked.com/post/could-you-be-the-next-target-in-a-phishing-campaign-hiding-in-freelance-job-messagesWhat “Unverified” means
Widely repeated, but no supporting evidence was located. This is not a statement that the claim is false — it is a statement that nothing published supports it, which is a different and more common problem.
2 of 5 · rating scale
Assessed in
The Freelance Platform That Delivered TeamSpy: 80,000 Job Invites, 2,169 Infections, One ExtraditionThink this assessment is wrong? Report an error.