Thursday, November 1, 2012

Is Freelancer.com a Scam?

Reviewing a website or service is mostly not the target of Llovizna. However, due to the increased population of Freelancer.com, I wanted to provide some feedback and cautions on using this site.

Freelancer.com, as its name suggests, a web site that lets the freelancers meet the employers, or task/job/project providers. It is based on Australia, and has grown to a very high level that no other freelance company or organization can even reach. The strength of such web sites is its users. Freelancer has plenty of it. You can compare this strength with that of Facebook to some extent. While everyone complains about the Facebook's policies, no one bothers to switch. Why? Other websites do not have the users! (I am not underestimating the user base of elance.com or Odesk. They have a huge user base. So unlike Facebook, freelancer.com has a huge competition).

If you search the Internet as a user who got annoyed by the scammers in Freelancer.com, you may find multiple complaints. I hope a few of the suggestions I give here will be useful to you.

1) Chances are high that you may just lose money, instead of earning
After a several bids, you are awarded a project from an employer. Now you gladly accept the project. Freelancer will charge 10%, 5%, or 3% of the full amount immediately, based on your subscription. Most of the beginners start with a free account, and hence are charged 10% of the full amount from Freelancer.com.

As a newbie, chances are high that the experienced employers will not hire you. That means, you are getting your project from a newbie employer. In other words, an employer without any reviews. He may be a fraud. He may just try to get the job done, and leave without paying a cent. Freelancer suggest requesting a mile stone payment model for this, where you request at least 20% (suggested is 50%) of the complete amount. You start work only after getting the mile stone created. Once the mile stone created, the money will transfer from the employer's account to the Freelancer.com's bank account. So the chance of the employer cheating will be minimal. Once you have completed the job, the employer will inform Freelancer.com that the project is completed and hence the payment can be released.

However, say, the employer decides to stop communicating with you, as soon as you accept the project. As Freelancer.com suggests, you will not start working till he creates the milestone. You may avoid working without getting paid, in this manner. However, even if you decide to abort the project, Freelancer will not refund its charges, in ANY case. This is clearly mentioned in its FAQ. That means, if you accept a project worth 500 USD, your credit card will be immediately charged 50 USD. Whether the employer is genuine or not is not the question.

2 Possibilities:
Worst Case: You will not be completely paid the 500 USD, as you are new, and hence met with an evil employer. You will end up with a loss of 50 USD, and with an incomplete project which will ruin your freelancer.com profile for eternity.
Best Case: You got an awesome project and an awesome employer, who promptly pays 500 USD. Note that your card was charged 50 USD in day-0, and say you complete the task in day-2. You will have to wait for a month or even two, to get the first payment from Freelancer.com. Check the next point (Point-2) given below to see why!

2) Getting your first payment out of Freelancer is a nightmare.
Let's say, you have successfully completed your first project and want to get paid. Now comes the troubles. For some unknown security reasons, they have included a 3 week period of verification, before the first payment. That means, employer pays the complete amount, fully satisfied with your job. This broker (i.e. Freelancer.com), decides to keep your amount in 3 weeks, in their bank accounts.

Let's think of a few cases.
Case 1:
You get paid for a project - 200 USD. You request withdrawal via paypal for 200 USD. Reducing 1 USD, they schedule 199 USD, to pay in 3 weeks. Now, within that three weeks period, you are awarded another project worth 100 USD, from the same or another employer. As you accept the project, Freelancer will immediately charge you 10 USD (or according to your subscription). Where will they charge from? Not from your credit card this time. They will charge from your Freelacer.com balance instead. Now the balance will be 200 USD - 10 USD = 190 USD in your account, where your previous request for the transaction was 200 USD. With the below message, Freelancer.com will cancel your payment request! "Not enough funds to complete your withdrawal request!"

You may request for 190 USD again now. They will schedule your payment now. But it will be scheduled again for a day after 3 weeks, again! Wait for 3 more weeks!

Case 2:
You have a basic subscription. You, as in case 1, have asked a transfer. Since you know that accepting a project at this moment will cancel your payment request, now you are cautious. You will try not to withdraw the complete amount. Say, you request just 100 USD, to avoid facing the above mentioned issue repeatedly, or you decide not to work with Freelancer.com till you receive your first 200 USD withdrawal request. Now, assuming that you have a subscription with a monthly fees (not a free account). Within 3 weeks, the next month will come and Freelancer.com will charge the monthly fees from your balance, and cancel the transaction request as in Case-1. Freelancer.com will give an evil smile to you, as a big troll!

How to avoid these?
1) Once you have received your first payment from Freelancer.com, the consequent payments are done twice a week, and hence will not take much time. Just be cautious, if you are a new user. Once you received the payment for the first job, do not try to withdraw the entire amount. Chances are pretty high that the balance will go negative, and your payment request will be cancelled, as we saw in previous cases. Request withdrawal for just a part of it. Say, 150 USD (75%), instead of the entire 200 USD. Avoid accepting any big scale project, till you receive your first payment. Once you have received your first payment, you will become a master, and will not require to read this blog post at all.

2) Avoid having multiple currencies in your account, and try to keep USD as your default. Say you keep Euro as your primary currency. When you are awarded 200 USD, you decide to change half of it (100 USD) to Euro. You will have to face additional hurdles by this.
* Freelancer.com money conversion facility is not free. It will charge you.
* Say you have 100 USD and 60 Euro in your Freelancer.com, as you have transferred a 100 USD to Euro, as above. Now you have requested the withdrawal of 60 USD, and your primary currency is Euro. At this moment, if a project is awarded, or if Freelancer.com decides to charge you the monthly subscription fee, they will surely charge from the 70 Euro, as it is your primary currency, and they will not touch the 100 USD. That means, though you felt that you have balance in your account, so that your transaction is safe, it is not safe, in real. Freelancer.com will get an additional chance to delay your payment by further 3 weeks. It is better to keep the balance in a single currency, which is also your primary currency, to avoid this. In other words, better to stick to USD.

3) Avoid accepting suspicious projects.
A few cheats open jobs with very high amounts, targeting the newbies to cheat. In these cases, the employers themselves too will be new, or at least will have negative ratings. It is always better to avoid the first project with a higher value to reduce the risk of immediate money loss to Freelancer.com in the name of bidding charges. Within a few days of testing, I just lost 50 USD to Freelance.com, just because I accepted a project from a suspicious employer, who didn't bother to respond further, after I accepted the project. Probably, he must have thought that I am clueless, and would work without getting the milestone payment requests accepted (without getting paid).

An update made on the 6th of August 2013: Always Google for the project title and the description.  Some of the employers themselves are freelancers in freelancer.com or similar sites. I was contacted by an 'employer' in Freelancer.com to complete a task for 80 USD. He was sending me the information over personal email instead of using Freelancer.com, against the Freelancer policies. I asked him to create a project in Freelancer.com with milestone, and also let him know that my budget is 200 Euro. He rejected the offer, as it is beyond his budget. A quick Google revealed me that, he was hired by another employer to do the project for 200 USD, and now he is trying to subcontract me for 80 USD! Obviously 200 Euro is greater than 200 USD. So he didn't hire me.

In this case, the original genuine employer has offered him a reasonable amount to do the task. Now this freelancer himself has become an 'employer', and is trying to get an innocent freelancer to do the same task for peanuts! Now he will be able to finish the task and earn 120 USD without any effort, while securing good reviews on Freelancer.com for the quality job. Seems many of these 100 - 150 Words for 1 USD article deals are made this way. Some experienced freelancers prey on the novice/new freelancers, who are otherwise talented. It is a shortcoming of the freelancing sites that they focus only on the reputation on the site, and not the experience and qualification of the freelancer, outside the website or network.

By being extra careful, you will be able to receive your first payment within a month, escaping the dirty tricks of the scam users of freelancer.com, and once you have received your first payment, you will be fine with the game! Hope this long blog post was useful for you. Wish you all the best, and hope to see you soon with the critical analysis of yet another service.

You may read the sequel of this post titled, "Freelancer.com exams and reviews - why you should not trust them.." for a more recent analysis and review.

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202 comments:

  1. Hi. Nice to see there is another person decided to expose scams of Freelancer.com. Used to be their customer and have to say that website is dangerous - no matter how long you are with them.

    What's more, comparing Freelancer.com with Facebook is most erroneous. Facebook (I don't like the website to be clear, not having a profile) is a real giant and (so far) you don't see any site of the kind comparable with it.

    In case of Freelancer.com the situation is totally different:

    1. Freelancer.com is NOT unique. There was no special concept involved in it. The fact that website's personnel (with special place for its CEO, Matt Barrie) pretends to be so great doesn't mean anything apart from owergrown egos. If you checked company's finance or even web ratings (remember that the quantity is not the quality), you could be quite surprized that there is nothing special about Freelancer.com.

    2. Freelancer.com is quite big as far as marketing and PR fluff is concerned. This fact seems to be quite misleading for most users and makes them feel small when the company messes up with their rights. Problem is that any good investigator would be able to see this is merely paint coating, not a solid house behind (quite a long story about it).

    3. The fact that a considerable number of people accuse the website of scamming and other misbehaviors doesn't make Freelancer.com any way comparable to Facebook (if you said that both Bernie Maddoff and Madonna are controversial, you would just miss the point). You may not like Facebook's policies, but you are aware of them. In case of Freelancer.com there are no clear policies or single table of fees. Customer service's quality is something like random walk, especially as far as money is concerned. I can promise you: if there was only a half as many legitimate claims against Facebook as against Freelancer.com, Facebook would collapse instantly. Freelancer.com is nothing compared to it, so they are operational. However, such policies would prevent Matt Barrie's dream to have an "eBay of jobs" to come true (provided that Barrie is serious about it, which I highly doubt).

    4. Have you seen Facebook spamming the Google search engine, abusing the social media or threatening (sic) the whistleblowers just to cover the ugly truth about it? I haven't. And Freelancer.com does it - this is a sign they are just desperate.


    You gave a few clues for people who are customers of Freelancer.com. Want to know the ultimate one? GET AWAY! You got a huge number of freelancing portals of better quality. What's more, it would be good to be prepared to live in the world without Freelancer.com. Haven't states this will happen. The problem is that since they found a brand new excuse to withold freelancers' funds (issues with customers' accounts) is a strong warning that there is something really bad going on with company's financial situation...


    You are most welcome on my blog, discussing some issues concerning Freelancer.com:

    http://getahindu.blogspot.com/2012/08/can-freelancer.html




    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. DO NOT USE FREELANCER.COM.

      1. I have heard about freelancer.com a lot and started using it. Things were going fine when I used to have $100 or less in my account. The day I crossed $500 in my account, I got to see a SCAMMER face of them.

      2. They wanted me verify myself, wow! that was not a issue. I verified myself and gave them all the necessary details. Now what they say? Yeah, they say my identity does not match. Amazing that was, I gave all the details correctly as per asked. They asked me questions which I replied as well. and then they keep on asking me questions after questions. Should I have used any other site? Surely, this is the worst place I could ever imagine. I know their security matures should be taken in such sites, but y they are asking me questions after questions every time which I already answered in brief?


      3. I consulted some of my mates and told them the story. What's funny is that they say exactly the same thing happened to me. They say freelancer.com keep watching you until you have good amount in your account. The day they see your account is doing them business, they do this to you.

      4. I hired people to work for me over there. Now not just freelancer has eaten my money, but also not allowing me to pay my workers. Oh Christ, what do my employees have to do with this. The next funny thing is, all those employees I paid are re not able to withdraw the funds I paid. WTF!

      5. If you're really looking for such kinda business, I would suggest DO NOT USE FREELANCER.COM. It will burn you and kill you badly. I hope you will not like to be cheated. I know many people will reply to my comment as what am saying is all fake. Yeah, because these are freelancer.com people and surely want you to attract you to use their site.

      If anyone has extra money to waste, I would suggest use freelancer.com and here you can waste as much you can. Though am not the one in need to waste my earning and so quit working there.

      Huh, that was the worst experience of my life which I would never want to think of. Just a simple suggestion, NEVER USE FREELANCER.COM UNLESS YOU HAVE A LOT OF EXTRA BUGS TO WASTE.

      Delete
    2. Hi Sadya,
      Thanks for your feedback on their service.

      Really sad to hear. Yes, they should instead do all these verification at the beginning, to avoid further delays in the payments. Were you able to find an alternative site such as elance.com that works better for you?

      Regards,
      Pradeeban.

      Delete
    3. Sadya. We know your story is true!

      Please, see the manual for all the people mistreated by Freelancer.com:
      http://getahindu.blogspot.com/2012/08/can-freelancer.html

      ...give it to your friends too!

      This works. Not only more and more people are warned, but we see that the company starts to feel our anger.

      Fight with us and do not give up!

      Chaim

      Delete
    4. I'm very grateful for the advises. Thanks a lot.

      Delete
  2. Hi Chaim,
    Thanks for your comments and concerns. Regarding the popularity, I agree that comparing with Facebook is a bit exaggeration. I was just trying to compare the population (number of users), in their field. Probably, I will polish my post more to be clearer. I am a fan of Facebook, and an annoyed user of Freelancer. However, I am not a regular Freelancer user, but I used it mostly for fun and testing purposes. I have read your blog post well before. It was interesting.

    http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/50-freelance-job-sites-for-designers-programmers-best-of/ lists some sites on freelancing. You can see how many of them have been acquired by freelancer lately. So it is really difficult for anyone into freelancing to miss freelancer.com.

    During my testing period, I actually tried elance.com and a few other sites listed above. Except freelancer.com, it was not possible for me to get a project awarded. Why? less population (user count) in the other sites, to get a project pretty quick.

    On the other hand, earning online is mostly a myth. Most of the sites just ask you to do petty jobs, while paying nothing. Freelancer.com (and the similar sites like elance) is promising, as it is not an employer, but a mere agent.

    Freelancer.com is a money machine for its founders. They earn 10% from the employees, and 3% from the employers, and also hold a huge amount of fund of the users for 3 weeks or more for some hidden "security" reasons.

    If you have experience with a site that really works better than freelance.com, please suggest for that for the users.

    Regards,
    Pradeeban.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. so i have a user on freelance and still i dont buy those exams realy if i didnt se this i allready charged 100 USD to all hose i must to start woking but now i vhange my mind and i must tink what shoud i doo to win money from internet and to be amething safe plase send me a e-mail with response on ciroco_msf@yahoo.com thanks.

      Delete
  3. Dear Kathiravelu,

    I agree that Freelancer.com has a considerable number of users. But even here you can see some issues:

    1. Quantity is not quality. Problem with Freelancer.com is that they decided to get MANY, preferably poor freelancers. This fact means you will see website 'living', but getting hardly any valuable customers there. Sad fact about it is that they know most of you are poor and humble Indians, Pakistanis or Bangladeshis... and take advantage of it while playing with their dirty tricks. If Freelancer.com was a website that was, say, German or French (de facto eliminating those who don't know the language), it would be down long time ago. Angry customers would just have grilled it in courts and local media.

    2. Numbers, numbers, numbers... do not consider those produced by Freelancer.com too seriously. Apart from the fact I have evidence that they may be tweaked, Freelancer.com likes less serious users. Example? All the contests, new experience scheme, badges and so on... they are not intended to improve your experience as a service buyer or provider. They are just desperate attempts to withhold the users they have. Genuine freelancing market does it by acquiring more and better class of buyers (how to it is another story) not to mention the website's reliability and customer service they just ignore. Freelancer.com preferred to become some 'Mafia Wars' - great to boost the amount of spam, fake bids etc., but nothing to build a safe and respectable market for the global community.
    Almost forgot: the big competitors and new kids in the town aren't asleep. And so far they aren't engaging in a major mistake... declaring a war on some of users.

    3. Outlook. Contrary to all the marketing messages, press releases and even spamming the Google, this website seems to be losing (not getting) the tune. This what you see on discussion forums is one thing. Data provided by Alexa say a lot. Being a little more insightful would say even more: Freelancer.com pays good money for quality small markets and... attaches them to its rotting model. Former Scriptlance's members complain not only about disgraceful overall quality of market and customer service, but about Freelancer.com defaulting on deals they had with Scriptlance. It gets even more grim when having in mind that all the bad karma seems to be returning to the bad company. Spoiled repututation may be enough to kill. What would happen if civil and/or criminal prosecutions would have arrived on top of it?

    [to be continued]

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. well...no worries. there is a new thing coming. maybe IT will fix some of the problems. :D

      Delete
    2. Yes Brenda. I too have the same question.

      Delete
    3. Almost a year now. I don't see any 'new thing'.

      Delete
  4. [continued]

    What may it mean for you as Freelancer.com's customer?

    I do understand you may "like" (quite a tricky word in this context) Freelancer.com. Winning one or some assignements there feels to be a point stronger than the above presented by me. To keep my thoughts in order here, let me use seprate paragraphs again:

    - Earning online is NOT a myth. The fact that covers of popular freelancing websites are full of $10/day jobs does not mean this is best the world has to offer. This is a long way to go. Matter is that sticking to dangerous website with penny or fake jobs hoping one day a miracle will happen may leave you stuck there forever. So I do not consider Freeancer.com to be decent not only in terms in customer service, but as a good marketplace at large.

    - Getting ANY job on Freelancer.com is easy... problem is for what money and what kind of 'employers'. In my case remember getting invitations to some junk 'jobs' from people who not only have no decent money to offer, but have low intellectual capacities. Sometimes I think that if Freelancer.com stuck to markets of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh (as a local portal closed for the Westerners), it would do its trick. Remember man: it is not about 'any' job. It is about a decent job.

    - The fact you won a job on Freelancer.com and there was no success anywhere else may be a matter of coincidence or... your attitude. I mean, acquring the real customer is an art. Don't know what you specialyze in, your expectations, experience, portfolio and so forth, but can promise you that you that you can be successful somewhere else. Merely a matter of your behavior, not the very website!

    - Website you showed me is impressive (when it comes to work someone put into data collection). Sad thing it is at least two years oudated. But remember: this is not a matter of me recommending you any particular website (not willing to recomment since I am not walking in your shoes). I can promise those listed do the trick; and you don't have stick to one or a group of websites as freelancing is much more.



    You have to find your own way. Way without Freelancer.com. I created a few articles exposing their scammeries. After that they have tracked me down, send me a threatening email, revealed my personal data (name and surname; Chaim Kovalsky is my pen name) and... deleted my account. Yes, just like that. Am I still a freelancer? Yes, I am!

    But you (and every other user) need to keep in mind that you are dealing with crooks there and one day they can do something similar to you (or anyone else). If you were stuck to them without any knowledge and skills of acquiring jobs online, it could be quite nasty experience for you.

    You know what happened to Scriptlance's users who have been sold to Freelancer.com (as you probably know, Scriptlance had been acquired by Freelancer.com)? All the records concerning their experience etc. got just DELETED. I was quite disturbed reading the testimonies on Facebook, later thought "yeah, this is the style of Freelancer.com".



    To summarize:

    I do not know your situation, but as far as I am concerned, Freelancer.com is just a bad choice. Having in mind the website is just dangerous (I can testify about it), I would just say: escape at all costs.

    Imagine there is no Freelancer.com and you want to freelance. What would you do?
    The answer is yours.


    God bless

    Chaim
    www.getahindu.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Chaim,
    Thanks again for your feedback.

    A few points to clarify.
    I am not a freelancer, and just a postgraduate student following my masters in Lisbon. My testing with the freelancing sites were solely for blogging purposes. Probably, like you said, it might have needed more effort on the other sites. Anyway, I don't think I have anymore time to invest on these, as freelancing is not my or my blog's niche.

    Since you have made some strong points, I (and probably the readers of this blog post) will take them as facts, unless someone who is a supporter or employee of Freelancer.com decided to disprove your points here.

    I agree with one point - Freelancer.com (and many other similar sites), is full of junk or petty jobs. Some offer as low as 1$ for 500 words. I can't even imagine, people accepting them!

    When you google for 'freelancing', Freelancer.com tops the list. Probably, because of its great SEO, and the name itself says freelancer.com, where elance.com has no 'freelance' in its url. Annoyed users of freelancer.com are supporting elance.com or odesk, but no one decided to explain why would they go for them. Probably, if you have time, you may consider a blog post on alternative web sites to Freelancer, instead of talking about them extensively on your blog. I am not sure about the goal of your blog. If it is just to expose the scams of freelancer.com, that is fine. But if that has a broader vision or niche on freelancing, better to talk more on other sides, to give them some light and links. Many people are lazy, accept them or not. So they may tend to go where others go.

    Like I said, freelancing is not my niche. Many users must have been annoyed by the policies of freelancer.com. But since they got their money 'eventually', they must have decided to keep silence, unlike you and me.

    oh, and I don't think I would use freelancer.com (and sites alike) again, even for testing. However, thanks for sharing your thoughts with me and the readers of this blog.

    Regards,
    Pradeeban.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Pradeeban, you are very impressive. I like the way you tell it like it is! So, have you ever tried to create music on websites that have free virtual instruments and sample sounds? I'd be interested in knowing what you think of Audacity, Looplabs, MuLab, Tunes2Tube, and
      FL Studio, all of which are websites where you can create music and then supposedly upload it to YouTube.

      Delete
  6. Hello again Kathiravelu,

    Being a freelancer is quite... challenging. And it requires extreme patience combined with endurance. So surely, this is not for everyone. But, well... let's say I am used to. And it helps me to go on with spreading the word about Freelancer.com. Most scammed folks just bite the bullet or write a few bad reviews - assuming this is part of scammers' operational plan. To speak the truth I would have probably given up after two articles ("CAN THE FREELANCER.COM'S MICE ROAR?" and "WHY ARE YOU LYING, MATT BARRIE?").

    Their personnel's panic and most unprofessional reaction (sending me a mail with threats that would go true provided that I don't shut up, revealing my name and surname to general public, deleting my account, distributing a smear note among my customers and more) just took it onto very personal level, so not feeling bored at all.

    I wouldn't say my points are strong. You just feel like this while confronting them with all the corporate fluff and lies. Anyway, Freelancer.com is so spoiled, you don't have to be blunt or exaggerating: just research, collect the evidence and write the truth. Anyway, as George Orwell said, "In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act".

    Google was (and still is) the critical part of Freelancer.com's existence (sic). It was great for head start; problem was that this great advantage had been blown out by poor managament not interested in making company's internal processes to be a fine example for the world. And the biggest warning is that they know all about it (allow me not to develop that point so far).
    Currently they are in phase of more and more desperate attempts to cover the ugly truth. However, this is short run strategy. Even best make-up won't make the dead person alive again - you will just see more expensive and ineffective attempts to cover the sad truth. Very impressive in the short run though.
    Another issue is that apart from Google you got the whole living world: journalists, mouth-to mouth opinions and... officials. Do you think all the controversies around Goldman Sachs would be covered if they had best SEO strategy? You know they wouldn't.
    And a cherry on top of it: Freelancer.com's SEO are agressive to the point when they seem spammy and abusive. This mean that only one click at Google may put the company out of business - no matter how many "expose our logo" contests they run and how many photos of Mr. Barrie will be published in the media.

    This means that one day you may either see totally different website at the top or... Freelancer.com will be totally transformed and in need of long time to make up all the sins of the past.

    I see you really would like me to engage in recommendations. You are giving me a hard time since I hate supporting for profit businesses while getting nothing in exchange from them, but let it be. You can try oDesk and Elance provided that you are patient and know how to be a good seller of your services. Also saw a bunch of new and really promising freelancing websites around. Issues like your profession, job model preferences and many more would be suuitable for totally different report.

    Could you contact me directly?

    Chaim

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks Chaim for your views.
    While this blog post discusses on the issues faced by the freelancers, it seems the employers face more difficulty dealing with Freelancer.com. http://read2learn.net/freelancer-com-scam-2012/comment-page-3/#comment-8081 discusses from the view point of the employers.

    ReplyDelete
  8. This site is total rip off, a scam. They always find a pretext to hold your money.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks all for your thoughts. I suggest anyone who wants to use that site to have a look at http://www.scam.com/showthread.php?t=135356

    ReplyDelete
  10. I did get the largest amount of money scammed from me yet when I tried to start a project! Freelancer charged me for a service that I did not authorize ($199 total), and then when I tried to stop it via Paypal I was suspended! I was suspended for trying to stop Freelancer from robbing me further! Read more at the page that I started- http://freelancerscams.blogspot.com/

    It's time to fight with the truth!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Thanks for your message. I am sorry to hear what happened to you..

    ReplyDelete
  12. Now Im really scared. Please help me how do I kill my freelancer account. All my data is there.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hi Abby,
    I don't think you have to worry much. You can just stop using it, if you are unhappy about them, and also can remove your paypal/credit card from your account. You don't really have to worry about your data - I don't think they would sell them. Anyone here has any other opinion?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have to disagree my friend. ALL your data, including personal record, your IPs during login, archived auctions etc. do remain in company's database. How long? Not sure, but in my case they have used those about a YEAR after recording. What's more, they have no problems with publishing them and using them aginst you if they fancy it. Some proofs:
      http://getahindu.blogspot.com/2012/11/freelancercom-privacy-policy-and.html

      Delete
    2. Hi Chaim,
      In that case, would you mind sharing information on deleting the Freelancer account to Abby? I have never tried that, and not sure whether it is even possible.

      Regards,
      Pradeeban.

      Delete
    3. Respected Kathiravelu Pradeeban

      sir I am new for freelance online work,I want to get online job to earn some money with the help of academic writing related MBA subject(Marketing and HR) please give the suggestion which site is better fulfil my goal.

      Delete
    4. How do you remove your paypal /debit card info ? I have been looking and I can´t find a way to do it. also I can´t cancel my account because they say I owe them money !

      Delete
  14. I haven't ever been deleting Freelancer.com account myself. Personnel did it after I refused to remove my two articles criticizing them. But if I ever would like to, I would just file a support ticket with such request.

    This girl cooperated with Freelancer.com; guessing she knows more about the stuff:
    http://lisaamartin.wordpress.com/2010/11/10/faq-how-do-i-cancel-my-freelancer-account/


    The problem is that even if an account gets deleted, they still withhold the acquired data, which is quite scary. Also be advised that they havee no problems with sending the data outside Australia. What to do about it? No idea. If you gave them any personal info already, my best guess is you are toast.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Hi Chaim,
    Thanks for posting the link. It will help Abby and other readers.

    Regards,
    Pradeeban.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I have had my battles with the freelancer.com customer service as well. They may have 120 people working there 24/7 365 days a year but nothing good is coming out of there. I probably received the same answer like 10 times, always stating the obvious and not helping me at all. On top of that freelancer.com has turned into the biggest screw job ever, screwing people as good as they can.

    Freelancer.com used to offer a good service but now it looks more and more like a pure money making business that's doesn't care about the freelancer. There is no user-friendliness anymore and no transparency.

    I contacted freelancer.com because I had an issue with the exam payment. I got free exam coupons and thus I decided to take a few exams. Logic would say that once I get those rewards, that I can use them right away, that's at least how ANY other website does it.

    But logic doesn't seem to apply at freelancer.com, instead the company aims at screwing freelancers as good as they can. Because one has the first activate one free exam coupon after the other before taking the exam. This should be explained much better but again, freelancer.com is not user-friendly and not transparent. On top of that the actual section where those coupons need to be activated is well hidden.

    What should be is that either the coupons are immediately activated after they have been ordered. If that's too difficult, then at least give freelancers the choice when doing the exam, if they either want to pay or use a coupon.

    But currently it only looks like freelancer.com is looking for any possible way to screw its users, plain and simple. I wouldn't care if it was 1 exam, but I took 3 and never has freelancer.com reminded me about using one of my coupons. When do they think I wanted to use them? 50 exams later?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree. The coupons are not so friendly. They are actually targeted towards making a free user to a paying user. For example, say, you have 5000 Credits. To utilize them, you have to be a paying user. These credits/coupons give nothing for a free user. I recall, after making my account a free account, I received thousands of credits free, in the new year, and I was tempted to make my account a paying account, just to use those credits! Anyway, I didn't do that, as freelancing was not my thing.

      Delete
  17. BEWARE, never user Freelancer!
    They are other services and definetely other ways how to get a person to do your job.

    The problem with Freelancer is, they let you create an account as employer, deposit money and THEN they start blackmailing you. They take the person you are supposed to pay as kind of hostage, they do not pay him and they refuse to refund you money.

    Their support is just shit, it looks almost like auto reply, not sure if they are real people cause I never met someone so stupid. They start blackmailing you to verify and they ask for more documents than a bank does when opening your account!
    They have no right for this and since this is without warning, if they were legit they would refund the money rightaway. I suspect them they STEAL a good amount of money from people who refuse to verify.
    If you verify you giving your sensitive personal data to bunch of scammes like this and dont be surprised when your card data are stolen and used or even something worse.

    Again, beware, very bad epxerience with them!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Probably, the affected users should consider publishing these information to some reliable news source. Currently, the affected users are trying to post their information on their personal blog posts or sites, or on Wikipedia. Without a verifiable source, we can not add any information to Wikipedia. Though we are tempted to add these information to wikipedia, considering this a common knowledge, the reality is, verifiable sources backing these claims are lacking. We need Wikipedia-quality sources, to educate the users. I would suggest those who are cheated or affected by Freelancer.com or its policies, to publish your case studies on reliable sources, probably even on printed news papers. In this way, we will be able to include this information on Wikipedia, and spread the information in a more reliable way.

      Delete
  18. Even though I don't believe in such stuff, I have signed this:

    http://www.change.org/en-IN/petitions/australian-government-stop-the-attrocities-of-freelancer-com



    Of course all of you are most welcome on my blog (as usually); updated it 2 hours ago:

    http://getahindu.blogspot.com/2013/03/how-fcking-dare-you.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I signed the petition! I joined freelancer 3 hours ago. They upgraded my membership and transacted via my paypal without my authorisation. I complained to paypal, they stopped the transfer and an investigation is pending. Ironically, within a minute of paypal notifying me of their investigation, freelancer blocked my account and sent me a "please explain". I've never dealt with a company like this before and am genuinely shocked at all the negative feedback I've found. I hope more people sign the petition.

      Delete
    2. HERE IS THE REPLY I JUST RECEIVED FROM FREELANCER: To resolve the issue, please contact PayPal to cancel the dispute you have filed and then respond back so the proper department can confirm further and process the refund to your PayPal account. To further explain, the funds you have deposited has been properly allocated as fee for taking an exam. Since you have an active billing agreement, the payment has been processed from your verified payment source. A Billing Agreement gets activated on a Freelancer.com account once it gets linked to a verified PayPal account. The feature works in a way that the system processes an automatic deposit to cover any Milestone Payment or fees charged on the account. As a courtesy, fees incurred for taking the exams can be refunded provided that the dispute with PayPal is cancelled.

      PLEASE NOTE - THE ONLY EXAM I TOOK WAS THE *FREE* 'FREELANCER ORIENTATION'.

      Delete
  19. Welcome Chaim, and thanks for your links.

    I can understand the pain of the Freelancer user who created this petition. She has lost her hard-earned 14,000 USD to Freelancer.com (http://omnipresentwords.wordpress.com/2013/02/05/freelancer-com-scam-part-i-how-10-cost-me-14000-among-other-misgivings-and-apathy-of-freelancer-com-staff/). Like Chaim mentioned, I don't think the online petitions work well. But I really hope someone will bring justice on these issues.

    Regards,
    Pradeeban.

    ReplyDelete
  20. I'm a new user looking for ways to earn online, and I just signed up on Freelancer.com. I've been awarded my first job and another one from the same employer.
    Out of curiosity I've found out about the reviews and negative claims about it.

    I'm looking for your advice since you've had experience with the site before.
    I've earned 35.00 USD so far and will receive more payment from my employer tomorrow. A very trustworthy employer, although chances are, he doesn't know about the negative claims from others to the site. Looking at all these bad claims, of course I don't want to LOSE my hard-earned money.

    I just want to make sure I withdraw my hard-earned money safely. 35 USD (and will receive about 25 USD more from employer tomorrow)

    What should I do? Please respond. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi,
      I hope you have completed both projects successfully. Make sure to be extra careful when withdrawing the money from Freelancer.com, for the first time. Like I have mentioned in this blog post, I myself had a hard time getting the money out of their system, for the first time. For the first payment, they impose a 3 week delay for 'security' reasons. If your transfer, for any reason, fail in the first attempt, you will have to wait for 3 more weeks!

      The amounts you have stated are pretty much under the 'safe' level. When you have more money, be extra-careful. Though what Chaim suggested (using paypal and other means of payments) work well, make sure not to use them with the Freelancer.com, when you have a pending payment via Freelancer.com. Usually, they will block your account and money, when they got to know that you have transferred money via a third party. Sounds irrational - but that was the reality, according to the experience of many users.

      As long as you use Freelancer.com, you will have to obey their terms and conditions, no matter how annoying they are. Probably, you may consider leaving Freelancer.com in the future and find better or safer alternatives, like Chaim suggested.

      Regards,
      Pradeeban.

      Delete
  21. 1. If your employer doesn't know about problems associated with Freelancer.com, do warn him. There is just too many angry people around the web to be silent about this stuff.

    2. Amounts you state are negligible, so I wouldn't be that afraid. But take precautions:
    a) never leave any considerable sum of money on Freelancer.com account ($100 or more) they can always freeze your funds under any excuse
    b) prefer direct settlements (PayPal, bank transfer, Skrill etc.) instead of Freelancer.com transfers. Not only your income will be subject to shaving, but your account may be suspended or even deleted together with the deposit
    c) consider your options. If Freelancer.com frozen your, say, $150 and demands you undergo their humiliating verification procedure (official instruction: http://oi56.tinypic.com/2ufam4i.jpg ), think whether you really want to do it. Your personal data may be exported to various countries and be used against you.

    3. Lots of alternatives for Freelancer.com. There is oDesk.com, there is Elance.com, there is Craigslist.com, there are local (country-specific) ads boards... spare yourself a lot of potential frustration and just delete your Freelancer.com account (submit a ticket and this is it).

    ReplyDelete
  22. Among dozens of won contests, I have participated in a contest on Freelancer.com in December 2012. The contest was "guaranteed", which should tell that the prize WILL be shared between top freelancers based on design ratings, even if no winner might be selected. The prize of the contest was $690, and since the contest was "guaranteed", I have put my best efforts in it to make a decent video for Contest Holder, and even hired a 3D designer to design certain elements of video. I was the one among 2 other contestants. I have never heard back from the contest holder and got no private message in return ever since.

    The contest end date was 31st of December 2012.

    After exactly one month of contest end date, my account was deducted by $11.50, which is exactly 5% (standard membership freelancer fee) of $230, which is exactly the third of $690. But my $230 is nowhere to be found. I have contacted Freelancer.com customer support and got a feeling that I was chatting with a robot instead of human being. Instead of getting answers to my questions, I got thrown at with a bunch of side things that have nothing to do with my problem. All they were saying is that they are unable to disclose any more information due to circumstances and that they cannot disclose any information for security purposes, although I have clearly stated that I have made all the screenshots regarding my issue.

    At some point they will tell me that a locked contest can occur when: - a refund is requested. I asked them if they refunded the prize to contest holder, but got the same answer as before.

    I have been reading about scams Freelancer.com is capable of doing and found out that this is not the first time FREELANCER.COM IS TAKING AWAY YOUR MONEY INSTEAD OF DEALING WITH THEIR PROBLEMS IN ORDER TO CLEANSE THEMSELVES.

    This is a screenshot of the contest while it was locked:
    http://zveki.com/work/freelancer.gif

    Here it is now:
    https://www.freelancer.com/contest/contest.php?project_id=12274

    This is a screenshot of my transaction history page:
    http://zveki.com/work/freelancer2.gif

    They simply shut my mouth and deleted the contest.

    So, after seeing this, I have lost all the confidence in so-called "guaranteed" contests, and no matter what is the prize, I will hardly participate in one of them again. Freelancer.com should really ask themselves what a term "guaranteed" actually means. Unfortunately for me - absolutely nothing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Scary! And the number of negative reviews on Freelancer.com on this blog post makes me surprise how this site even survives! Seriously. I didn't moderate or delete a single comment on this post. But I couldn't find a single comment stating that Freelancer.com is not a scam, at least from its employees or the happy/successful users.

      Zveki, apart from the guaranteed contests, how was your over all experience with Freelancer.com? Are you still using it?

      Delete
    2. @Kathiravelu Pradeeban

      Freelancer.com is the first and, so far, the only freelancing website I have been registered to. I have managed to make thousands of bucks and gather over 50 positive reviews. But if I'd be aware of their absolute unprofessionalism before and the WORST customer support, I'd certainly wouldn't build up my reputation on it. Because, once you see their true face when you need their help and rely on their professionalism, they just turn their back to you.

      Right now I am still using it, but also looking for other similar website with a mission to build reputation on it. Elance.com seems nice. Once I accomplish that, I won't mind leaving Freelancer.com for good.

      Delete
    3. Thanks Zveki for your response. I guess it should be the case for many of the users of Freelancer.com.

      Delete
    4. Dear Zveki, It take s few minutes to open a blogspot or wordpress blog. It will be better if you put your above mentioned comment their. You comment includes screenshots with a vividly described case study. To reach more people and let them know your story you should do that. Moreover I saw that you have a domain already - http://zveki.com. It will be more appealing if you write about your experience there too.

      @Pradeeban thanks for this post. Your post helped many people in finding a place to share their experience.

      Delete
  23. @Zveki: oDesk is good too. So may be Craigslist. There are other techniques as well. Such as offering you services when you see that you may do it for some website. For example: seeing a tacky website? Send an email! Tell them you can help!
    Some people may ridicule it, but that's what freelancing is all about: selling.
    Professional forums, LinkedIn and Facebook are ways to go too. All a matter of patience...

    ReplyDelete
  24. Good one, thanks. I have experienced a really bad one once on freelancer.com. I don't know why this happened, and it seems ridiculous. I have award from an employer on freelancer.com, and he paid 30$ after I complete his project - to fix several bugs on his wordpress site. I was really happy to get the money first time, and he didn't give me any review, I think he forget, so I didn't bother him anymore. After I withdrawal the money, and it's success. But after few month, when I check my freelancer account, I found out the freelancer charged "30$" from my account because it told me that "the emplyer has withdrawl his payment", I feel it was totally no-sense. The employer didn't give me any message, and I asked the service of freelancer.com to query it, he told me he contacted with the employer and he didn't respond, and he can't give me "30$" back to my account!! Finally I am afraid to lose my account because it had some reviews on it, so I have to pay the money back to get my account back to work. I didn't ask milestone from the employer that time, but how did he withdraw his money back after he paid, and that money was already withdrawal on my account? I have no idea....

    ReplyDelete
  25. Hello. I came across to your website to learn more about freelancer.com.
    It is quite scary to learn all about this.

    I am the newbie for this website and just accepted the first job which is about 250USD.
    Actually, the site has already deducted the 10% commission from my account-25USD.
    So my account is on negative balance.
    It took about 3 weeks for the employer to contact back to me and the project I suppose to do may postpone.
    So then the employer may not transfer any milestone payment for me.

    However, I did not deposit anything to the website nor verify my payment method.
    In this case, is it possible I close my account or just leave it as it is and forget about it?
    Can they do something to me?

    In case, the project is ongoing is it possible I receive payment outside freelancer.com account?
    For example, receive cash payment directly from the employer?

    Thank you for the advice!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Katharine,
      By using the other payment methods, chances are high that Freelancer may try to suspend your account, than using their own milestone payment scheme. However, as this is your first job, even if they suspend or freeze your account, it will not be a big loss for you. But make sure the employer is not a fraud. Freelancer.com's milestone payment at least provides 'some' security against the frauds. What if he takes your project and never pays? Just be careful, as there are many scammers online as employers and freelancers.

      I don't think freelancer.com will let you close the account with a negative balance. Since you didn't add any payment method, it should be fine to just abandon the account, after removing your personal information, if you are never going to use it again. Having a negative balance for a long time may induce them to freeze your account. So if you plan to work with the employer and receive payment via freelancer.com, you may have to make sure to settle down the negative balance first, to avoid them freezing your account, while you are working on the project.

      On a end note, though there are many scary stories, many freelancers are still successful online. I wish you success in your journey. :)

      Delete
  26. Hi Kathiravelu Pradeeban,

    Thank you for your advice.
    That is so clear for me. :)
    I'd better try my luck somewhere else ;)




    ReplyDelete
  27. Wow so many scam reports! Actually there's not even one person who says that he's happy. I was ready to start investing on that site, i was ready to do an exam and spend 5$ lol. Can you recomend any other sites? In previous posts people mentionted elancer and odesk. Are they really good? Does anyone have any experience with those sites? Have they ever scammed you like freelancer? Should i invest time to make a name on these sites? Do you know any other site that is better than those 2?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have not much experience with odesk. Elance has its identity verification (http://kkpradeeban.blogspot.pt/2012/09/lisbon-week4.html), which I really like, and in my opinion makes the verified projects a bit more safer. You may try to create a name on it, and see how it goes.

      Delete
  28. It's true that freelancer.com is running some fake projects. I've been a victim of two of them..they come at high price range usually ..let's say 3000-5000 USD budget range.. Please inform everyone. THis freelancer is playing serious scam with no consequence.

    Such a sad thing:(

    ReplyDelete
  29. Hi,

    I'm a newbie at freelancing. I have heard of "Odesk" (www.odesk.com), "Elance" (www.elance.com), "Vworker" (www.vworker.com) and "Freelancer". Will you please suggest which one is the safest to use?
    Will surely appreciate your help.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi,
      vworker has been acquired by freelancer.com, and is integrated into it. So it is identical to using freelancer.com now. Elance.com has its identity verification using Integrity Aristotle (http://kkpradeeban.blogspot.pt/2012/09/lisbon-week4.html), hence the verified accounts are bit more reliable in Elance. However, each site his its own user base who can contain the bogus employers and freelancers. It is your responsibility to be careful, not to get tricked.
      Regards,
      Pradeeban.

      Delete
  30. I am mostly an employer and it's very interesting to hear the freelancer side of this story. So do you prefer odesk or elance to freelancer?

    ReplyDelete
  31. I am mostly an employer and it's very interesting to hear the freelancer side of this story. So do you prefer odesk or elance to freelancer?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi,
      I haven't worked with the freelancing sites much, lately. But from the reviews I see, they seem to have less negative views. However, as of now, it seems freelancer.com has a bigger user base than the competitors.
      Do you have an employer side of the story to share with us?

      Regards,
      Pradeeban.

      Delete
  32. The Freelancer side of the story can be found on their blog. They have a blog post with the title: Don’t believe everything you read on the Internet

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am providing the link to the article you mentioned here, for the interested readers.
      http://corporate.freelancer.com/uncategorized/dont-believe-everything-you-read-on-the-internet-lies-scams-and-freelancer-com/

      Hope this will give some neutral air to my blog post. I have no personal feelings against freelancer.com. Neither I am a supporter of its competitors. When I have some time, I will try the elance and odesk, and will write posts on them too. Currently my experience with the other sites are very limited.

      Regards,
      Pradeeban.

      Delete
    2. Well... Freelancer.com and its managers don't have problems with public trashing the people who criticize them. What I can tell you is they accused me of scamming when I published my articles. So wouldn't be surprized if they are trying this same tactics again. Barrie hasn't supplied ANY proof apart from that her avatar picture was fake.

      Please read my testimony: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=210440.msg2417113#msg2417113

      Delete
  33. Sebastian,
    Do you have any personal experience to share with us, as a freelancer or employer of the freelancer.com? Whoever commented here are sharing their personal opinions and experiences. Though these are our own experiences and may not be the common experience, no one can just blindly ignore these comments. Why do you think no single user bothered to comment positively here, considering the fact that the comments are not moderated here?
    Regards,
    Pradeeban.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi, I would like to share an important experience with you about freelancer.com, they charged me 5.71% from transfer. I would like to give you all details and proof with screenshots of my bank statement and you post it on your blog as new article. People should know how bad they can do business. I'm using elance.com at same time and I can tell you that their wire transfer was made correctly, i have received exactly amount of money and elance is a lot more pleasure to wirk with. I'm using freelancer.com since 2010 and I have received 52 reviews with 5 stars, and have completed big projects with a big budget. I just want to warn other people to do not use it... such site should die.

      Delete
  34. I am a newly registered of that site. I want to have a work out of the office environment and tried out freelance.com. Im kinda dubious of things out there even just after setting up my account. There was this Php200 by english exam things posted there saying i could increase my potential of being hired if I passed the exam. There was also one for british english.
    Seeing fees after fees made me hesitant to try to find a project. I want to cancel my account but I need to contact the customer support of the website for that.

    ReplyDelete
  35. I am new to this freelancer thing. Can anybody help me with this issue. Can we withdraw money to a same Skrill account from two different freelancer account ? Is it something illegal?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. From my personal opinion, this is a risky thing to do. By doing so, you are admitting that you own both accounts, and I don't think Freelancer.com allows you to have multiple accounts for the same person.

      Regards,
      Pradeeban.

      Delete
  36. Hi! Someone please help me out here. Can you tell me if freelancer charges us after one month for sure, or do we have to subscribe to something in order for freelancer to do that?
    And can we delete our account? How?
    Oh, and do they charge us to connect freelancer to paypal?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you are in the "Basic" account, it will be free. For all the other account types, it will charge for sure. You should confirm this from them, actually. Deleting should again be done by contacting them, it seems. Pls refer to http://lisaamartin.wordpress.com/2010/11/10/faq-how-do-i-cancel-my-freelancer-account/ before deleting your account. They don't charge to connect Freelancer to Paypal. I did it once without any issue.

      Delete
    2. Oh hey, thanks for mentioning my blog! :-)

      Delete
  37. I have had a bad experience as well. I created a freelancer account to hire webpage design firm or individual to code my project and topped up my freelancer balance 100$. I was not aware of their hidden fees, and some of their options were pre-checked. I thought, OK, no biggie, I could look professional with my paid services. Then again I realized I had to re-post my ad adding some details. Then it so seems the term "re-post" is another scam, they re-post the whole ad, with new applicable fees to make it featured or make it verified, WHAT? OK, this time I blamed it upon my ignorance and went on deleting the first hiring ad. All of the fees they charged me vanished in thin air, not even partial refunds. Then a weird problem happened, a freelancer contacted me inviting me to work for his project so that we could communicate regarding the cancelled project, seems like this is a way to communicate in freelancer.com. Ignorantly and innocently I accepted the project, and BAM! 5$ off my account. At this point I started to have this eery feeling about the scam game side of the website targeting the newbie like me and tried withdrawing money from my credit to my Skrill. BUT, seems like I need 2 reviews to actually withdraw my money. This is the point where I googled "freelancer.com scam stories" and landed up in your page.

    Now I'm not even sure about the additional hidden fees, IF I decide to hire a freelancer from the website, and now that I've read about all the freezing of money on hardworking freelancer's account, I'm on moral dilemma where as to actually use the website for my work?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi,
      Thanks for sharing the employer side of the story. Mostly we were discussing the freelancer side so far. Hope you will find the right solution for this issue.

      Regards,
      Pradeeban.

      Delete
  38. i dont think freelancr.com is a scam i have been working over there since more than a year and i am earning good.
    i haven't faced any of the problems mentioned above.....!!!!!
    maybe these guys couldn't have established a good profile on freelancer.com
    But from my point of view its really a good site to earn good money......

    Yes i do agree on fees they charge its too much per project.......
    but look at it as many of guys dont get job after there college and what if these sites were not there !!!!???

    Some of these free guys would have remained free forever :D

    To be honest i earn about 30-40K INR per month(after deducting freelancer fees) .......
    Does anyone feels that its bad.............?????????

    Well i don't think so i love it........... and i ma really happy :) :)

    Regards,
    Sushant Pratap

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Sushant,
      Glad to hear that you are doing great with Freelancer. I assume you are being very careful in which projects to accept and which employers to work with. If you accept a project and the employer fails to release the mile stone, you can stop working; but at the time, you would have lost the 10% to freelancer.com already, which is never refunded.

      Also I do not support your claim, "maybe these guys couldn't have established a good profile on freelancer.com". Freelancers like Chaim Kovalsky above had a very good profile, and they just got disappointed with some Freelancer.com policies later. Just go through their respective blog pages, if you are interested.

      Delete
  39. Hi there.
    I just completed one of many project on freelancer.com only that this time the sealed contest holder likes my design. He suggested a few changes which I want to make sure of a few things and then hand over files to him. But he mentioned something in his feedback messsage I quote: If you are interested in working on this we can see if we can award the prize once we get a solid design.

    I dont want to be scammed. I want to get paid for my time. How do I request this milestone thingy? Can I? Sorry I couldnt read every post above as Im in a bit of a rush. Help would be appreciated.
    Cheers

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Zavangar,
      Make sure you ask for the milestone payment. Start working only after the mile stone (say, 50%) is released. In this way, in the worst case you will just lose the 10% charge that Freelancer takes from you, and not your effort.
      Release your complete work, only when all the money (100%) is deposited to Freelancer. Once you have released your work to the employer, he can pay you.
      Regards,
      Pradeeban.

      Delete
  40. Replies
    1. Hi Akshat,
      I haven't monetized my blog except displaying some google adwords advertisements. Sponsored blog posts can be a good idea. But I have never done that yet. Google adds up some money for the displayed advertisements and for the clicks. But till it reach 100 USD, it won't send its first payment. So to answer your question, I haven't earned anything from my blog, literally. :-)

      Delete
  41. I have given all my credit account details to freelancer.in and also all my personal information, will my credit account be vulnerable? I already want to change my credit account? Please reply,..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, of course not (as long as you haven't provided too sensitive personal information that do not belong to the Internet anyway). Freelancer.com has a huge user base, and the scam reports are mostly about the con artists (both employers and freelancers). As long as you don't violate the Terms and Conditions of Freelancer.com, you are pretty good with them.

      Delete
  42. Hi there. My name is Satish. I signed up on freelancer.com about 10 days ago. As I am a very cautious person by nature I started bidding only on low cost projects. I own and maintain a website and I am not new to web world and its scams. I research thoroughly before committing to anything. I noticed while bidding that freelancer keeps encouraging us to improve our bidding chances by taking exams. I found out that we can use 500 credits to pass these exams. So for 3 days I bid on XP projects, completed objectives, my profile etc and earned enough credits to reach 500. I was about to take up the exam today but when I went use my 500 credits it says I need to upgrade my membership! It asked me to link up my credit card or Paypal account and offered me 30 days of free membership if I verified my account. There was also another line which sounded suspicious "By clicking 'Continue', you authorize the use of your credit card for future payments." I didn't proceed further and I wanted to research more about freelancer before committing and in the process I found this blog! Thank goodness I didnt proceed further with the credit card stuff! After reading all the above comments I have decided to be a free member as of now. Also its a good thing I learnt more about the Milestone crap and how they charge the initial amount from our own pockets! Do they actually charge it to our credit card geez? Anyway I am never going to link up mine. I will stay a free member and observe more for now..Glad I found this site though...Thanks Kathiravelu Pradeeban and Chaim Kovalsky.

    ReplyDelete
  43. Wonderful article! I can also understand the freelancer now I will be the regular guest of your web page plus get pleasure from people making the effort which keeps it a superb…
    odesk review 2013

    ReplyDelete
  44. Hi All
    the big Mafia of 'freelancer.com' have stolen my money.
    What I must do to return it back?

    I'm a freelancer

    Thank you much
    Abdou

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. contact them and ask to give you instruction to remove your account and request from they the money to be transfered to your bank account. Make screenshots of every detail, because you will need it if things go bad. You can always find an attorney in your country, he will know what to do. The last thing you can do yourself is to post screenshots, and everything about your issue so users will read and know what to do, when a lot of negative feedbacks will be subbmited about freelancer.com then the site will die

      Delete
    2. Hello Abdou,

      My name is Eleanor and I am from Freelancer.com.
      I have come across your post and I'd like to help you out
      and understand what happened with your recent transaction.
      Send me an email at eleanorl@freelancer.com, along with your username
      and I'll make sure this issue gets addressed.

      Delete
  45. i lost $500 with them yesterday on scam projects. read my review here:
    http://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.freelancer.com#147

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Alaa,

      I understand what has happened and I am confident that my colleague is looking into this for you.
      A ticket has been logged and be assured that we will get back to you about this and have it resolved once and for all.

      Thanks,

      Eleanor

      Delete
  46. Freelancer is really an incredible marketplace but I found them a bit poor in SEO services. I prefer SEOClerks for SEO and website related services.

    ReplyDelete
  47. Usually, ? if you want to check whether a site is legit or not ,You can do a whois search using this site WhoisXY.com and find out the owner details,email id and etc...Because while registering a owner of the website need to give a original id,address to the registrar. So if you can contact the website owner in case of any problem. If they response soon. It is a good website.Other wise if you find the information is fake please don't make order or use this site.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Very carefully with this site !!! Now I'm lost $ 400 !!! I was paid by someone to sell a facebook group with many likes 30K.I was paid all right,but after one hour my balance was below minus $ -400.This customer have account for 40 per month Premium and i think it is a user that is part of staff,I say that because the project was not locked at the time of her (staff freelancer) but it was locked after all the transaction was carried through (after one hour) !!! When I published a project that was not under terms and conditions was blocked and put in pedding within max 5 min and NOW ??? why after more one hour ??? We highly recommend that you very carefully with freelance.com !!! I hope to be understood.

    ReplyDelete
  49. Hi,

    Although I agree to the fact that the 3 week wait for the first withdraw is BS, I had no such problems with Freelancer.com. What I do, is ALWAYS wait for the employer to contact me BEFORE accepting the project and also make sure his payment method is VERIFIED. These two things can pretty much insure you. Also, don't accept projects that have high budgets from people that are new to Freelancer.com. I have been using Freelancer.com for 5 weeks and honestly, if you're decently cautious, nothing bad can happen. Further tips include not bidding on projects that have a very badly written description and NEVER bidding on projects that offer a lot of $$$ for very simple work. Those are dead giveaways. Hope this helps.

    ReplyDelete
  50. Freelancer.com is generally not so bad but you have to know how to use it. Some things are not obvious.

    1) Support often replies with generic responses since they follow instructions but they reply very fast, within minutes. If your issue is typical you can get it resolved very quickly, otherwise it takes some time to make them think before they write back :-D

    A BIG PLUS - they often give back money to you if you ask. For example they refunded me a project fee several times when I forgot to upgrade to premium account in time. This saved me more then $1000 in total and strictly speaking they didn't have to do that for me. Big thanks!

    2) Payment approvals, especially big amounts, especially for new users. This is a nightmare! As a freelancer I may see money arrived to my account but then it comes out they cannot be withdrawn because employer account is not approved/payment not confirmed. I have to ping my employers to pass approvals, confirmations etc. I understand security matters and all that but they really need to inform me properly which of my funds are approved and which are not yet, so that I don't suddenly figure out my withdrawal doesn't arrive. I raised that issue many times but they still didn't fix it. This is the major problem with the site from my point - they need more transparency with the status of my funds. Still it is not money stealing as people say.

    Other then that Freelancer.com is fine. I am able to make more with them then I previously did with vWorker.com (which is acquired by them).

    My verdict - there are some flaws but still Freelancer.com is worth using.

    ReplyDelete
  51. SultanContest.com is a best logo design contest Website. Post a Contest and Get over thousand of designers to complete your logo design contest. Quality, unique and custom made designs with 100% money back guarantee. You decide how much you want to pay for a logo design competition and you choose the winner. Only pay for the design that you choose! Let’s start

    ReplyDelete
  52. GetFreelancer24.com is a largest online market place in the world. Hire freelancers and find freelance job instantly. We offer to buyer 100% service charge off. As you will see it is a completely new look, design & feel. We hope that you will find it much easier to Post a job, Post a contest, Find jobs, get job and find freelancers 24 hours. We offer to buyer 100% service charge off. Any buyer faces any problem talk to our support person. We are solving that right way. We are always there for buyers and freelancers. We are did not accept any violation. Our goal is to bring find easily freelancers 24 hours 365 days, any time any where you can post a job in this site and easily pay to the workers with minimum fees. Freelancer work with us anywhere in the world and Get payment easily. Let’s join our nice community. Thanks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. yeah it's awesome! In every categorie the job count is at insane ZERO :-)

      Delete
  53. This blog just seems to be filled with bad experiences, caused from not reading everything on the site of freelancer.com, being new and not doing the right thing with the site, doing what is instructed, and/or breaking their rules. Also never give up work that was done until payment has been given to you. I see several complaints that you get charged your membership fee automatically, if you read when going to pay it tells you that by submitting payment that you agree to be charged your membership fees and any fee that is charged for you using their system.

    I have been with frellancer.com for a few years and i make money with their site as well as other freelance sites. Like ebay there are scammers in it, you can't blame ebay, it wasn't ebay that did that. If you don't follow rules, then you have to deal with the consequences that come from it. period. Freelancer is a good site, but you need to read everything and understand that they are like ebay but for freelancers like myself. When you buy from ebay you read the sellers profile, see their ratings, and so on. This is a blogg full of people not following the rules. If you can't use your points towards exams without having to upgrade your account, then you cant use your points. Business is Buisiness, and is powered by making money.

    And for those who are upset that they get scammed, it's because you did not pay attention. For those who are upset at their customer support that happens everywhere including reputable companies.

    I love freelancer, and i have been paid on time, my money has been released to my paypal over and over without problems. You can't work for Taco Bell, go into work, forget to clock in, not report it to the boss, and then get mad at Taco Bell for not paying you for the time you worked. Plain and simple people read the rules, guidelines, all the fees, and pay attention to who the employer for the project is, and you'll do fine with freelancer.com, if you don't, then you will be screwed, and it will be your fault not the freelance site.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. After 2 years on Freelancer.com I must agree with everything you have wrote. I just want to add a few more things. I had some problematic situation such as blocked funds because my employer account was currently under review, overpaid projects when employer demanded funds back and I have asking back funds from increased fee, ruined reputation % by others mistake, problems with verification process... In every single case, replies and help from their staff was very good and everything was solved as it should be.

      Thanks to Freelancer.com I've meet a couple serious employers with whom I have today a long term contracts. In some moments I had a serious funds on my account and never was a problem to withdraw money or ever lost a single $.

      This site isn't safe in the same way as you're not safe when you go out on the street. You must be careful with who you making a deal and how you will organize your workflow. Freelancer.com itself gives you a guidelines what you can expect from a bad people and how to acting in a problematic situations.

      It is true that the most projects are for cheap money and there is a lot of amateurs among employers as well as freelancers. But if you are patient, sooner or later you'll find a nice project so I can only recommend to work via this site to everyone who is sharp and persistent. I wish you all good luck!

      Delete
  54. hi.am new to freelancer , am hear to work can any one giud to me....thanks for advance...

    ReplyDelete
  55. Hi.Am new to freelancer , am hear to work can any one giud to me....thanks for advance...
    AM Familier with website design , browser scripting , server scripting , XML Languages , HTML & CSS , C programming , C Objectives , Object Oriented languages , windows , linux , Unix ,Andriod , ios ,oracle .

    ReplyDelete
  56. Sorry I coudn't get U , May U please translate ur words in English......

    ReplyDelete
  57. Your heading made me laugh so hard :-) Is freelancer.com complete scam or just partial scam :-)

    ReplyDelete
  58. Sir Elroy Habbard is really freelancer is a scam

    ReplyDelete
  59. hey Sadya , , ,

    Accept my condolences on losing ur hard earned money . . And i appreciate your effort to awaken the masses . . yes u read it right , masses, as scores of people have faced the situation as you have . . The case studies cited by the blogger is absolutely true & it can happen to anyone of us trying to make some money out of it . . .
    I was about to take up an offer on similar lines from freelancer & after reading this post i would pull up my socks cautiously & i would appreciate if you can guide me thru the process . . . m new member of this club & have got a project on SEO to work upon . .i look forward to hear from my colleagues & help me take this forward

    Goodluck

    Happy Freelancing

    ReplyDelete
  60. Hello All, I bid for a IPSec VPN project for 100 USD and I won it. After I successfully complete the project the employer (He had around 15 positive feedbacks) paid the total with 5 star positive feedback. Later I tried to withdraw the funds which I earned from this project and freelancer rejected the withdrawal saying that "Unfortunately we were unable to process your withdrawal request. Decline reason: Funds originated from an account that is currently under review." Therefore I contacted freelancer through their support ticket system and they asked me to contact the employer and ask him to resolve his account issue. Next I contacted him and begged him to resolve his account issue because I'm burning for nothing I did. What he said is, Now the Project is over and he paid the total. He doesn't want his freelancer account anymore, Simply he left freelancer. Again I contacted freelancer and said what he mentioned. The reply was "For security reasons, the funds on the employer's account has been put on hold until the account issues have been resolved.". I know I will never receive my funds because the employer will never resolve his account issues by submitting the documents which freelancer asked him to submit. Finally he got what he want, freelancer got what they want (Freelancer fees. They refund the fees but I can't withdraw it because minimal withdrawal amount is 30 USD) and I lost my money. This is for you mates, don't use their site. I don't want to see this thing happening to you. If you want proofs, please type your email address, I will forward what I got.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Yasitha,
      Machan, I am sorry this happened to you. I can understand. Obviously the employer is a scammer - that is why he was unwilling to resolve the issue with his account. Nevertheless, Freelancer.com doesn't think from its users' side, from what we hear in the comments of this blog post. It just shows we should move away from Freelancer.com, unless they are willing to be listening to their genuine users.

      Ideally, Freelancer.com should communicate with the employer themselves and resolve the issue. Or at least they should give the money that you deserve, instead of holding the money to themselves. This is not their money, and they are not the international police. Hope someone listens.

      Regards,
      Pradeeban.

      Delete
  61. If you are a professional freelancer then you better avoid freelancer.com, it is ok for students who want to get experience and don't care about money.
    Once you accept project you pay 10% and if the buyer of the project cancelled for any reason you will never get any money. (It is familiar there that buyer can take your work and cancel the job and you will never succeed to get any money through dispute or anything)
    rarely, you may get some decent people to work with but they are rare, otherwise you will lose money and time for the website and for employers

    ReplyDelete
  62. It's amazing how many of us have been scammed by freelancer.com, yet they continue to grow. I was using that site for more than 3 years and at first it was a good freelancing site to find decent paid projects. My latest project ended up with a dispute. I went for arbitration, got email stating they have released milestone funds and that I won a dispute. I went to withdraw funds and got another email saying that withdrawal was cancelled as money will be returned to a source. Which source is that I do not know. All I know is that money was taken and whats worse my account was showing negative balance. I am waiting to sort this issue out then closing my account on freelancer.com for good.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello ! Did you solve these issue ? I was having a negative balance and I was able to close my account. Now is closed. Is these a chance for freelancer to follow me to recover that negative balance ? Thanks !

      Delete
  63. This website is a complete SCAM. This is the full story of my experience with this site:
    Freelancer.com Review

    Basically, be aware of section 3.1 of the terms and conditions of this site. It says:

    "Freelancer.com reserves the right to terminate the participation of any User without reason..."

    And that is exactly what happened to me. One day they decided to close my account, without providing any reason for this closure. I've contacted them many times, but everytime I got the same copy paste response:


    Hello,
    Thank you for mailing us back.
    Unfortunately, the decision regarding the closure of your account was reviewed and final. Note that this has been carefully decided. Also, please note of the site's Terms and Conditions, section 3.1. Please visit http://www.freelancer.com/page.php?p=info/terms

    ---
    Sincerely,
    Chase
    Freelancer.com Support


    WORST SITE EVER , Don't waste time on it

    ReplyDelete
  64. Are you looking for a part-time job? Be a home-based data entry specialist. For more information, kindly visit www.unemployedpinoys.com. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  65. Hi i tried using this and i found that they keep asking me to take exams or verify my oayment method. When i verify my payment they immediately charge money from my card.

    ReplyDelete
  66. Hi pradeeban I am already doing some online odd jobs like Ptcs,Traffic exchanges and Megatypers.But I want ur help in finding out good freelancer and survey websites.Can u please provide the information about those.... Waiting for ur response....

    ReplyDelete
  67. I want to know, if i awarded a project so where data i get in freelancer.com???.

    ReplyDelete
  68. Have you been victim of freelancer.com?

    Me too :( I have the case opened .... with not respond from freelancer.com

    Do you know that: “Freelancer founder earns $235 million – while customers of the site are ripped off “

    Freelancer, an Australian registered Internet company makes millions while abusing Australian consumer laws. Caution – use this site at your own risk as Freelancer takes no responsibility.

    If you want to try to contact the management team: http://www.freelancer.com/info/management.php

    Here is their direct email address and phone numbers:

    Nikki Parker, Regional Director, North America, Australia & New Zealand, Tel +61 427 173 025, Email nikki@freelancer.com, or Evan Tan, Regional Director, South East Asia, Tel +63 908 882 8519, Email evan@freelancer.com, or Jorge Azurin, Regional Director, Continental Asia, Tel +63-908-867-3373, Email jorge.azurin@freelancer.com, or Bill Little, Regional Director, Europe, Tel +44 (0) 7940 924555, Email bill@freelancer.com, or Sebastian Siseles, Director Regional para Latinoamerica, Tel +54 911 32 60 07 30, Email sebastian@freelancer.com



    If there is not result them please follow this direction below:

    1. File a government internet crime complaint with: ic3.gov/default.aspx

    2. Report fraud, visit: stopfraud.gov/report.html

    3. File an online complaint with State Attorney General: oag.ca.gov/contact/consumer-complaint-against-business-or-company

    4. File a government consumer complaint with econsumer.gov/english/report/overview.shtm

    5. Report to Australian Competition Consumer Commission: accc.gov.au/consumers/complaints-problems

    6. Report to Law Enforcement: aclei.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

    7. Report to Scam watch: scamwatch.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/693900 ; ALSO asic.gov.au/asic/asic.nsf/byheadline/Complaining+about+sales+offers+and+promotions+of+consumer+goods+and+services+ASIC+site+version?openDocument#State or territory consumer affairs
    8. Report computer, internet-related, or intellectual property crime: justice.gov/criminal/cybercrime/reporting.html#C4

    9. File a complaint with Office of Fair Trading: fairtrading.qld.gov.au/make-a-complaint.htm also: acma.gov.au/Citizen/Take-action/Complaints

    10. Contact investigative reporters from TV Channels and Newspapers / magazines and all you guys will provide evidences to them. Please save all your email received from freelancer.com

    11. Register complaints with as many review sites as you can "Google Reviews, Yelp, Business reporters and other private organizations .... etc"

    12. Post Blogs. Minimum 1 SEO article per day till you will see the result on google, yahoo and bing.com. Spread the word by posting on your blogs, create new blogs, Blog Comments, Guess Posts and invite others to share their similar stories they faced with freelancer.com etc. Please keep posting on all social media....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks. That was an informative (and long) comment. :)

      Regards,
      Pradeeban.

      Delete
  69. Hi I am another victim of Freelance.com but instead of just writing and expressing my anger through reviews I have decided to file a case of 1 million AUD as compensation against them in the Australian court to change it illegal TOS and behavior. If you are a victim of this site kindly contact me at socinternational2000@gmail.com. It will save thousands of people to be the victim of this site.

    ReplyDelete
  70. Freelancer will close a project for you in the event that an employer disappears and is unfair. So you will not be left for all eternity as described above. I understand the other problems but I and my partner have both had freelancer close a project in the event of an employer disappearing.
    Freelancer staff are quick and helpful if you ask them for assistance.

    ReplyDelete
  71. you are the master!! I don't have any word to say you thanks!!!.

    I think you should be the owner of the freelancer.com

    ReplyDelete
  72. This post and the other posts in this blog are moderated for spam. Any spam comments or comments pointing to random web sites are deleted. If you want to advertise your businesses in the blog, please contact the blog administrator.

    Regular conversations and thoughts are always welcome. :)

    ReplyDelete
  73. If an employer posts a task,after you get the project,you will pay %10 for sure,even your account balance is under zero,the balance will go lower.

    And today I've taken a task,the employer had 15 completed taks,except one task he had all five stars.He agreed on javascript problem but he accepted that it is a server problem later.Also he told me that he will be back in 2-3 hours(Which is nonsense for a ten dollar task,we both should be on to solve the task).He came back 5 hours later.

    I've applied to freelancer.com support,the more I've tried to save my profile,the more he spit on my profile,unfortunately.When I asked the freelancer.com support,and provide the proofs that I've already told,they always kept to telling the same thing:
    We can not change employer's comment,we can't change incomplete report.

    This is actually means this:
    An employer can take a project and he can give any comment he want on you regardless he is right or not but you can't do anything.

    ReplyDelete
  74. Freelancer.com is the worst site in this world. I did many works in freelancer.com and I got payments and 5 star review.. After some days freelancer.com reversed all amounts to the employers and when I contact to freelancer.com they said me that there was a problem with employer's profile and also said me for payment contact employers outside freelancer.com.

    In one of my project they reversed amount to employer because after some months employer wanted the amount, even after I got review and 5 star from the employer.

    I loss more than $1000 because of this. Freelancer.com is a fraud and a big scammer.

    ReplyDelete
  75. TIPS TO WIN BID .......


    1. Read the project description carefully. After all, if the employer doesn’t feel you understand the project, you’re not likely to win the bidding. Besides, many employers will ask for specific details that you need to be aware of. In fact, employers often include a phrase that must be included in your bid in order to have it considered. The bottom line is, you should always take the time to go through the description thoroughly.
    2. If you have questions, use the Project Clarification Board. Winning a project without knowing exactly what you’re getting into isn’t a good situation for you or the service buyer.
    3. Keep your bid clear, concise and to the point. Remember that the employer may have dozens or even hundreds of bids to consider. It’s very likely that every word of every bid isn’t going to be read. Bids with unnecessarily long descriptions may be skipped over completely. Don’t invite the employer to ignore your bid by making it too wordy.


    Visit to get Latest SKill test 2015 Visit Here

    ReplyDelete
  76. It would seem to me that the two-week delay in freelancer.com's transfer of payment to the employee might be unlawful under the Section 20 of the Australian Consumer Law, and it might also violate other legal requirements, of both the Competition & Consumer Act 2010 and the Banking Act 1959. I admit that I'm not a lawyer, but I can't find anything in the statutes or the Australian case law that would make it legal for a non-party of a business transaction between an employer and an employee to arbitrarily delay transfer of the payment for services rendered. After all, the freelancer.com contract makes it very clear that it is not a party to these transactions.

    Out of curiosity, have you talked to a relevant regulator — I guess the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission would be the most likely to apply — or consulted a lawyer? Considering the volume of transactions that freelancer.com handles, even the mere interest accruing on money that does not belong to it, yet sits on its bank accounts for weeks during this delay, might be sufficient for an Australian attorney to pursue a class action claim of unjust enrichment on a contingency basis.

    ReplyDelete
  77. While we're on the topic, I am pretty sure that Australian law considers the provisions of the Freelancer.com User Agreement that seek to block users' access to courts unconscionable, and therefore, unenforceable. This might also apply to the provision regarding class actions.

    ReplyDelete
  78. Hello…what is the fun of sitting at home and working all alone on an impersonal machine? I am a very social person and like to get out and mingle. Maybe you should try some more, to convince a person like me to give up a day job. There are wonderful blogs on sites like www.zopcodes.com , free online at home jobs, and www.envato.com which speak highly of work-from-home freelancers. I find them quite interesting to read. I will keep freelancing work for a rainy day. At present though, I am happy working 9 to 5.

    ReplyDelete
  79. After spending far too much money and time, I hate this site.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello HLSS CO,

      My name's Victor and I'm from Freelancer.com.

      We're sorry to hear that your experience on the site has been less than satisfactory. Let us assure you that we're more than eager to help you with your site- and/or account-related concerns.

      If it's not much of an inconvenience, please email us at vicc@freelancer.com and we'll help you in any way we can. Thanks!

      Delete
  80. --- Freelancer.com ---- the BIG SCAM --- This video shows how Freelancer.com will smoke away your money ---

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eESrvA6daG8

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello there. My name's Victor, and I'm from Freelancer.com. We're sorry to hear that your experience with the site has been less than satisfactory. If it's not much of an inconvenience, please email us at vicc@freelancer.com regarding what happened to your account. My colleagues and I will then try to clarify the matter for you. We'll wait for your email. Thanks.

      Delete
    2. Freelancer.com is NOT a scam. Of course the website takes a cut, we are told this when we sign up. Of course they have to verify you have a real account. You have to make sure you are paying the right person. To call the system itself a scam is totally misleading I have only earned money through this website and I have only been a member for less than two months. If you have a great skill, a proper means of communication, and understand and abide by the system-then freelancer is the place for you. If you are missing one of the above mentioned, you don't belong in freelancer.com... If you had a bad experience with a freelancer, you CHOSE the wrong guy lol...All I am saying is much of the issues I have read on these comments are purely human error not a scam of the system. I do apparel design for the NFL, I have won several contests in Freelancer.com, and I have gained some great networks I would never have-had it not been for the freelancer.com platform. Freelancer.com has a very comprehensive system of rank and skill for employers to be able to make the right choice. The system might not be perfect whoever it has evolved greatly since it's infancy. I set up my account with no problems, I verified my information with no problems and I waited my initial grace period with no problems and guess what...MY BANK ACCOUNT HAS REAL MONEY IN IT FROM FREELANCER :)

      Delete
    3. CreativEnthusiast,
      You said "I have only been a member for less than two months." It is too early to judge in that case. Wait and see when one day Freelancer.com decides to block your account with money in it, when your employer was somehow suspected for some reason.

      Many people here who commented before have well-established Google profile. On the other hand, your profile had no views, and mine was the first profile view. So it seems you created your account just to comment on this blog post. Thanks for that. :P

      If you are not an employee of Freelancer.com itself, you may one day find its evil face as well. You are probably still in the honeymoon phase if you are just two months in that site.

      Regards,
      Pradeeban.

      Delete
  81. Hello, due to all the problems you mentioned I heard that a new website about freelancing was recently launched.
    It's name is FreelanceTarget.com I checked their price list and comparison table and it's really cheap. Nothing to be paid for the workers!!
    The site is populating right now but I think we can give to them a chance, personally I have to revenge alla the money that Freelancer.com took from my account with noreason at all!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unknown, there are existing alternatives such as elance.com. I will be sceptical of any new site that is launched.
      Regarding the price list, of course they have to be cheap to get some initial customers. Have to wait and see how they progress eventually.

      Moreover, you cannot "revenge" freelancer.com or any other site. The Internet does not work that way. ;) If more and more people face issues with the site, the site by itself will eventually lose its popularity. So far, it is working despite its issues.

      Also we have Victor Casas from Freelancer.com attending to your issues in this comments section. He may be able to contact you further if you need assistance.

      Regards,
      Pradeeban.

      Delete
  82. Thank you for your reply Pradeeban. What I meant with revenge is to leave Freelancer.com, everyone should.. So I decided to find another website which is offering the possibility to work online. I find my freelancer.com really negative, I'm here to work online not to pay money for nothing, I repeat all the people should migrate to other site, in my case I decided for FreelanceTarget.com, I prefer a brand new fair and honest site..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ramius, there were many decent freelancing sites that were later acquired by freelancer.com. I would avoid labelling any site "fair and honest" that quick. I hope your experience with the new site remains positive. Good luck.

      Regards,
      Pradeeban.

      Delete
    2. You are right, let's see what happens. I hope this site will not also be aquired!
      Regards.

      Delete
  83. Hi. I've been a member of Freelancer.com for almost one and a half year, and my only negative experience was due to my stupidity (or lack of knowledge), where I lost $ 500 because I accepted a $5000 project then the employer just vanished. But, in that past 18 months, I can assure you that I've gained way more than those $500. Maybe the changed their point of view and the way they treat their "employees". Or maybe I just had luck, don't know...

    ReplyDelete
  84. Hi, I'm here to recommend WorkingFreelancer if you are interested and can check

    ReplyDelete
  85. 4 years later, when last was this article updated?

    Freelance has a lot of flaws and It's concerning that they need so much of your personal documents, but then again it's a good safety measure against all the online fraud that goes on. They've almost made it impossible to create a new Profile after closing the previous without getting a new identity, which i like and makes me feel safer...

    Back to my original question, do you still stand by what you've written here and is the payment system still an issue?

    Can we just charge the x% upfront, before we start any work?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello. My name's Victor, and I'm from Freelancer.com. Thanks for your vote of confidence on the site's stringent security protocols. We felt they were necessary to ensure the safety of users' accounts and their financial transactions on the site.

      You may read more about the site's fees and charges (including the project fees) by checking the link "http://www.freelancer.com/feesandcharges/"

      The site uses the Milestone Payment System to enable employers to pay for the work done for them by freelancers. It works akin to an escrow. You may read more about it by checking the link "http://www.freelancer.com/page.php?p=info/escrow"

      Delete
    2. Hi "Unknown",
      It is good to hear that they have improved on security aspects, and fake detection.

      However, I do not think they really have updated anything that was mentioned as the negative aspects in this article and elsewhere (this review was mostly about losing money in/to freelancer.com itself). You may find recent complaints from the users as well. However, I have not worked on Freelancer.com myself recently.

      Regards,
      Pradeeban.

      Delete
    3. I was just scammed by a fake employer in freelancer.com, he disappeared mysteriously and I instantly got charged with 250 drls and the balance on my favor for previous jobs got to zero ! I didn´t get a cent and now I also owe them money ??' this is a scamm !

      Delete
  86. Just because the guy who gave me the project, did not complete the verification they took my money.

    But the craziest thing was, they also ask me to pay back the money for the project that was completed long ago and successfully completed. I told Freelancer clearly, that the previous money you wiped out from my account was not at all refund to the client. So please send me the proof that this has been done and he really received the money.

    And they did not even willing to answer my question and started repeating the message like, please deposit money, please deposit money. Then it strikes me, why they are not answering my questions and keep repeating, maybe I am talking to a chatter bot. All the while i thought I was talking to a real human being who has same emotions and feelings like me.

    By repeating what it can achieve? Or by avoiding not answering my question if it thinks, it can achieve anything let it keep thinking that. No smart person will think, by repeating same question again and again he can achieve anything. This is really a dumb bot.
    So either Freelancer is having chatter bot to resolve customer support issues, or maybe they put people from junior high school as their support staff. No mature person will avoid answering a question.

    Apart from the above funny bot issue, my question is what happened to the money they wiped from my account ? It is not in my account, my client also did not receive it. So where it went? I am sure any body can make some educated guess on that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello Suresh

      My name is Steven from Freelancer.com.

      We understand your concern.

      Furthermore, we always make sure that we exhaust all avenues in investigating every issue; hence, for an impartial and unbiased conclusion. We may discuss your concern regarding this issue by sending an email to us.

      If you are experiencing difficulties, or in need of our help, you may always shoot an email to stevene@freelancer.com.

      We are always ready to address all your concerns.

      Delete
  87. Yes. It's not site for professionals. Yesterday i was awarded project for $800. We agreed that i will take $400 for project. My employer did milestone and i was charged $80. THEN i opened freelancer.com and guess what? Project was deleted and employer account was deleted! it happened 2 hours after he paid milestone. There was 14 hours ok, but then he paid milestone, after 2 hours they deleted his account, taking $400 to their thieve pocket. Sorry, maybe in Australia it is legal, but in my country, they would go to jail. And now i was charged $80, which means i lost money from previous work which was on their account. My employer probably lost $400. It happend on 18 February 2016. I made screenshots. I can't take milestone - it is written that milestone does not exist. I received e-mail from freelancer.com support, here it is: "Hi Grzegorz,

    Thank you for contacting Freelancer.com Support.

    Once a project has been awarded and accepted by a freelancer, whether the project would be completed or not, you will be immediately charged for the project fee. Be informed that these project fees are non-refundable whether a project is completed, not completed, canceled or aborted since they serve as payment for the online facility that was utilized by the users.

    Kindly refer to our Fees and Charges page for a complete guide on how our system charge our users.

    Fees and Charges
    https://www.freelancer.com/feesandcharges/

    The project was deleted as well as the account of your employer was closed by our site administrators due to their account's issues. As per our Privacy Policy, we cannot disclose any detailed information about the specific issues. We offer no recourse to lift their penalty.

    At this point, I advise you to contact your employer directly by any means available since the payment cannot be returned through our site anymore.

    Further investigation shows that there is an exchange of contact details between you and the employer. We advise you to keep all communications within the site. When you go off-site, we will have very limited options when issues arise. Also, going off-site may result in permanent sanctions against your account and it is a serious violation against our Freelancer.com Terms and Condition Section 13. We are unable to refund the project fees.

    Terms and Condition
    http://www.freelancer.com/page.php?p=info/terms". For professionals simple conclusion ( don't be like me ) : I made three projects on freelancer and my balance is -$70.

    ReplyDelete
  88. My project was awarded yesterday. They charged me $80. They deleted employer account, immediately after he paid milestone to me. I am -$70 balance right now. My employer is probably ever more angry. Do You know how to make legal case against freelancer remotely?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Happened to me last time - 4 years ago. I was awarded a project of 500 USD. Once I accepted, I was charged 50 USD immediately. Once my money is gone, the employer never got back to me. I did not do any work for him either, since he never responded. However, my 50 USD was forever gone to freelancer.com. As of the terms and conditions, I am not eligible for any refund. So I just lost. Who knows - may be freelancer.com partners with rogue employers to retrieve funds from unsuspecting employee - victims (or with rogue employees to scam employers). The cases we hear are numerous than the success stories. Even the success stories seem to be from repeat commenters somehow affiliated with freelancer.com itself.

      Delete
    2. Hello, Grzegorz. My name's Victor, and I'm from Freelancer.com. We've updated your ticket with the ID "ZKJ-839-40572." Kindly refer to it. Thanks.

      Delete
    3. Hi Grzegorz, please let us know whether your issue is resolved in a positive manner. We hope to hear from you.

      Delete
    4. Hello!
      Good news! Freelancer team changed my balance from ($83) to 0 as a last courtesy. Thank You!

      Delete
    5. Nice to hear! Thanks for letting us know how everything settled down as well. Usually people who complain does not come back to comment when their issue is eventually resolved.

      Delete
  89. First name : Abdullah
    Last name : Bin Shahjahan
    Address : Khulna, Bangladesh
    postal code--9000

    Skrill email: msadman14@gmail.com


    This is his facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mesuk.abdullahbinshahjahan?fref=ts

    and on freelancer he even uses his facebook friends picture: Faruk Hossain
    This is the picture of his facebook friend: http://prntscr.com/aebwr3
    And this is his nick on freelancer: Coredot and his picture on freelancer http://prntscr.com/aebxng

    We had an agreement of me paying him 50 eur in advance and then he will start working on application but as soon As i payed to him he was saying he want 30 more and that he will not start project unless i pay him which i refused and soon after we stopped conversation. These are parts of conversation and him saying he don't want to start and soon he blocked me.

    I know all of these details cause he wanted me to pay to him via Western Union so he gave me all his data. I had some problems with card and after that we tried with bitcoins and couldn't do it also but after few days I payed to him with SKRILL
    Here are screenshots of part of conversation and skrill proof of paying to him

    Skrill payment:
    http://prntscr.com/aec6r9

    Conversation:
    http://prntscr.com/aec0wj

    http://prntscr.com/aec3ac

    http://prntscr.com/aec3pw

    http://prntscr.com/aec4uk

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is unfortunate.
      Also you have paid through Skrill. Not through the Freelancer mile stone payment system.

      I hate Freelancer.com for,
      1) randomly eating the money.
      2) delaying payments.
      3) charging fees even when the project was not even started or the employer/freelancer disappeared.

      However, Freelancer.com indeed offers you some form of support. Now you have not used their milestone payment system, things are much complicated. You may try to communicate to Freelancer.com or the Freelancer.com employee (or a bot, not sure about that) known as Victor Casas who frequents the blog posts.

      Keep us updated.

      Regards,
      Pradeeban.

      Delete
    2. Also see this ugly face of the freelancer sites. You will be dealing with complete morons. You should have researched a bit more before paying.

      Probably where he lives, your 50 Euro would be enough for him to live a happy life for the whole month. I even suspect he has the right abilities to complete the task you assigned him. I am sure even if you pay him another 30 Euro, he would just disappear with that.

      Please post his Freelancer.com profile link and also try to leave a negative review on freelancer.com as well, if at all possible.

      Delete
    3. Please try to post the entire chat log. With no complete logs, it is a bit hard to judge. I see you have paid 50 Euro using Skrill, and I also see him asking for another 30 Euro. He claims that you have changed the proposal. A complete log would assist us in a more fair view, whether your changes are trivial, or major enough for a potential increase in the payment. In any case, you have already paid a considerable amount. So the employee should not expect you to pay more at least till he completes the task he initially agreed upon.

      It is also sad that you were using Skype - not the freelancer.com chat/message system for communication.

      It is strange and weird that he refers to you as 'dear', as if you were his partner or a friend.

      Delete
    4. You may just copy-paste the entire logs (removing any sensitive data, of course), as text in the blog. It is better than image captures, as this would help people to find your comment easier through search engines.

      Delete
  90. Hello Everyone,

    My name is Steven from Freelancer.com.

    We understand your concern.

    Furthermore, we always make sure that we exhaust all avenues in investigating every issue; hence, for an impartial and unbiased conclusion. We may discuss your concern regarding this issue by sending an email to us.

    If you are experiencing difficulties, or in need of our help, you may always shoot an email to stevene@freelancer.com.

    We are always ready to address all your concerns.

    ReplyDelete
  91. I have a brother that works for the FTC in the US, and he tells me to read the online reviews about freelancer.com, and that you should trust your money on this site. My first reaction was like shock, I asked why?? And this was minutes before I accepted my first job from a client. He response, just quit and don't touch the website, the company is in real trouble.

    So I just can't believe even though I accepets a job, don't use Freelancer.com, they're up to no good and I'm the US government will eventually get the people behind this site. Just stop and unsubscribe and close your account.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's nonsense. I'm using Freelancer since 2013. and had no problems. Thanks to Freelancer.com I establish a lot useful business connections and earned good. Big regards to you and your brother.

      Delete
    2. Have to agree with Darko on this. Despite its shortcomings (discussed in this review), Freelancer.com is useful as long as you know the rules of the game and are careful. Good luck with your work.

      Delete
    3. That's right. Knowing rules well and following these with caution. With some experience, the sense for the scum employers and fake projects will come in time.

      Delete
    4. Always check employer's payment method is verified and ask for create milestones before accept a project. Freelancer.com do not have any fraud behavior according to my 6 years experience. But there may be fraud users.

      Delete
  92. I have filed a petition against freelancer. I think all of you should sig it and also direct it towards your governments and other regulatory authorities https://www.change.org/p/speou9del-cbi-gov-in-block-freelancer-com-scam?recruiter=548716574&utm_source=share_for_starters&utm_medium=copyLink

    ReplyDelete
  93. I have moved my 3 clients to freelancer after closing elance.com, first two months I faced problems but resolved, and now I am unable to withdraw my money from the freelancer account, see how they are doing fraud now:
    On my first withdrawal request, they accepted the withdrawal request for paypal but unknowingly they hold money untill last date of withdrawal passed, I went to their support, and they told me due to security reasons you cannot withdraw it we are in contact of your client once they reply us we will clear it, I requested to my client please spend some time contacting them for me so I can get paid. And he did this for me then freelancer.com said it is clear now, you can withdraw.
    Then I went for second request after first 7 days hold, and when date arrive for withdrawal I got notification from freelancer.com that paypla rejected your request, so money stand still in your freelancer.com. I contacted their support what is the problem they replied contact paypal, they don't know why rejected. I am sure there is no reason paypal denied to accept money and yes freelancer are eating this money. Then I asked their support to tell me is there any other way I can get this money instantly, they said yes, withdraw with payoneer card, so this is my third attempt to withdraw in 10 days.
    When I requested withdrawal on payoneer instead of instant it made it 3 further days to get this money to my account, now I am sure I will not get paid my money from them as they are making it harder and harder even voilating their terms of instant for payoneer debit card they have given more 3 days time.
    upwork is expensive but I never ever face such problems like facing here on freelancer.com it was my biggest error working online going through them. I should not have done this foolish thing. Now I will wait for next three days to make it possible for me get money then I will close freelancer.com account forver

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello, Muzamil. My name's Victor, and I'm from Freelancer.com. We're sorry to hear you've had a less than satisfactory experience with the site. If it's not much of an inconvenience, we'd appreciate it if you can email us at vicc@freelancer.com, and provide us your username and more information regarding your complaint. We will then look into the matter, and provide you with the appropriate recommendations. Thanks for bearing with us.

      Delete
    2. - Yes, they have right to hold on payment in some cases. Read terms.

      - You should contacted a PayPal support, not Freelancer, because it is obvious that problem is there.

      - I think there's no instant transfer to Payoneer Master Card. Not in the options or in their terms. All people need to wait a few days so please do not confuse people here. When money arrive at Payoneer, Payonner itself offers you instant load, or to wait some short time.

      Delete
  94. freelancer.com website cheated with me for payment, actually i'm freelancer(worker) and i have account on freelancer.com website since 2010, i was done work before 2 month with one employer and unfortunately his account deleted (proxy problem) but main pint is i was done one work for employer and budget is $90 USD but after 2 month freelancer.com website deducted payment without ask me even inform me and freelancer.com website not get back to employer and deducted from account, request you don't work with this type of cheater website, i have 60+ 5starts review but freelancer not see it, and lost $90 usd and this is 4th time before 3 times i was lost balance on freelancer.com, thanks for read and aware about this type of websites.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi, Chetan. My name's Victor, and I'm from Freelancer.com. We're sorry to hear about what happened to your project. We'd appreciate the opportunity to clarify all of your concerns regarding your reversed payment. If it's okay with you, please email us at vicc@freelancer.com, and provide us your username and more details regarding your complaint. We'll look into the matter immediately, and provide you with the appropriate recommendations. Thanks for your understanding.

      Delete
  95. freelancer.com website cheated with me for payment, actually i'm freelancer(worker) and i have account on freelancer.com website since 2010, i was done work before 2 month with one employer and unfortunately his account deleted (proxy problem) but main pint is i was done one work for employer and budget is $90 USD but after 2 month freelancer.com website deducted payment without ask me even inform me and freelancer.com website not get back to employer and deducted from account, request you don't work with this type of cheater website, i have 60+ 5starts review but freelancer not see it, and lost $90 usd and this is 4th time before 3 times i was lost balance on freelancer.com, thanks for read and aware about this type of websites.

    ReplyDelete
  96. Hello I read your review. I TOTALLY agree. a Similar thing happened to me. I got so angry I set up a petition to NASA for them to boycott Freelancer.com.
    Can you sign it and share it please?
    The more people who sign it the better our chances!
    Thanks!

    https://www.change.org/p/nasa-tell-nasa-to-boycott-freelancer-com

    ReplyDelete
  97. Hi all, I am a freelancer as well as employer on freelancer.com. According to my experience, (I have more than 6 years’ experience with freelancer.com) freelancer.com do not have any fraud behavior.
    They will charge project fee upfront once awarded. That is true. It is freelancer’s responsibility to make sure that the employer’s payment method is verified and ask for milestones. There are many fraud people (both freelancer and employer) may be using the site. We cannot blame freelancer.com for that reason. That is up to users.
    I got some very bad experience from some fraud employers and one false review also which made my business down. I have profile on freelancer.com, elance.com, odesk.com (now elance.com and odesk.com are merged to upwork.com) and guru.com.
    The support from freelancer.com support is not good compared to upwork.com. Freelancer.com do not have the feature to reply to a comment/feedback we received which will display on same place. The feedback will be displayed on receiver party profile only. But upwork.com has this feature.
    Freelancer.com asks for identity verification sometimes. That is required because the site may be misused to pay or transfer money for illegal activities like terrorism.
    The site needs to protect both freelancer and employer in terms of money matters. So there is escrow system and time tracker for hourly projects.
    I got the money transferred to my bank account based on the selected withdrawal method and as per the descriptions and time they mentioned to be process the withdrawal. There are different types of withdrawal methods and supported currencies.
    Freelancer.com has express withdrawal option with no processing fee. But we need at least some review on our profile. I am not sure how many reviews we need for express withdrawal.
    Even if there are some minor drawbacks, I am happy with freelancer.com because of it features and jobs I am getting.
    I am getting extra bid balances. For example, I have standard account for one month and that allows 200 bids per month (the bid count is only for example), after using 50 bids, I am getting more bid balances added to my account.
    For basic membership, which allows 8 bids per month, I am getting more than 8. After using bids, some bid balances are automatically added to my account.
    I have very clear experience in the matters I described. If anyone need any clarification, I am ready to give evidence only by obeying freelancer.com terms and conditions.

    ReplyDelete
  98. So tell us of all the sites better than freelancer.com?

    The site seems pretty good (a few years later) but I'm totally open to better options if you know some.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Justin,
      If the site works good for you, feel free to continue using it. Despite the article title, I did not claim it to be a scam. Rather, it is full of scam users and some weird policies. Upwork.com may be slightly better based on the number of less complaints. However, that may also mean that it lacks popularity. I have not tried upwork.com. I previously tried elance.com before it was acquired by upwork, and somewhat liked it. It had better policies. Much better than freelancer.com. I am not sure of the current situation of upwork.com.

      I checked with Freelancer.com. Nothing much changed lately. Same attitude of employers and employees.

      Delete
    2. Have you tried guru.com? Someone mentioned that as well. As a employer there is a ton of proposals for projects almost instantly, so I was pretty impressed by that.

      That said I was unimpressed that they couldn't shorten the duration of a contest I posted which would seem to be a pretty simple request.

      Delete
  99. Freelancer is complete scam, I have lost huge amount there, what I think:
    they have hired teams who are just posting fake pejects, they will post prject award you the projects, They will transfer payment to your account but with in next hour freelancer will take that money from your account by stating that project was fake/scam and we dont allow such projects that why we have taken money back from your account and transffered to employer's account.
    I have asked for emaployer's details but they are not ready to give anything not enen the IP address/email address/country nothing..

    Another case: people will come with projects and you will bid those now they will award you that project as soon as you accept that Freelancer will charge fee to your account and after that employer will just disappear you will loose the money here as well.

    This is complete SCAM and there to just eat people's money.

    ReplyDelete
  100. I guess I almost read all the comments and I am glad that I am not the only one being scammed.

    I too think that they have a team who post project and award you and once you accept the project, the employer never gets back to you and freelancer had already charge you with their fee. I mean how come a person, perhaps new to the site, get to know you out of billions of freelancers and award you the project and then vanishes. This is all a part of scam.

    I completed a few projects, but was never able to withdraw a single penny from the freelancer account.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for confirming my suspicions. I very recently created a profile, placed three or four bids, found that there is almost no space (200 chars) to write, and the only way around that appears to be to opt into everything that freelancer.com want you to pay for. (For my first bid, I was not even allowed to bid at USD 100, but obliged to bid at USD 155. Why?) I also received messages about my "bid quality score" being low at 77 and 76 with this warning that I'd be sanctioned if it dropped below 75, but at the same time being told that my chance of getting the project is high every time I submitted a bid. I get spammy e-mails such as "Oh the places you will go". (Thanks, already been there, done that. Highlight, I suppose, was being called by a NATO agency about providing services, which resulted in two workshops.) Freelancer.com strikes me as wanting to take as much advantage as possible from people who are desperate for income.

      Delete
  101. So i just started with freelancer.in, before this I worked with truelancer.com, the company which only charge 10%(less on subscription) for every project completed.

    Now back to freelancer.in, I got accepted by a project with my $15 bid (very small and easy work), the project approved and here goes my $5 (for what?) in negative. My goodness I have not done any credit card attachment. I received another project of $25 and goes my another $5 in Australian Mafia pocket.
    Now the question is. What are their calculation, $15 10% is not = $5?
    $25 10% is not = $5 too. Why are the deducting that huge sum?
    Question no.2 - Is there any chance that I earn money on this site or waste my time?
    For what? Reputation which are reviews?
    The other freelance system I presumed like truelancer, peopleperhour are less populated. Most of the project their are either by freelancer or by fake scammer too?
    How should I make money in freelancing?

    ReplyDelete
  102. freelance could be good enough when you get hired for your first project directly by the first tier employer itself.
    Ask him to work on any other freelance website, (pph, truelancer) and work for him. If everything goes great for once and twice. Start taking advance payment or 30%-50% for the first. That's how everyone is doing (for those who are new, I am new too but learned from a company).

    ReplyDelete
  103. Rahul did you read anything about how Freelancer site works, before you posted your comments here? I recommend you to read how Freelancer charging their fee on awarded projects. (10% or $5 whatever is bigger)

    ReplyDelete
  104. Hi, Very Useful post in deed, for a beginner. Is freelancer.in any different or all policies are same?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, I believe they are same. If not, that would be even more confusing.

      Delete
  105. This is exactly why you should not trust the Freelancer Exams. http://kkpradeeban.blogspot.com/2014/06/freelancercom-exams-and-reviews-why-you.html

    The above comment is a spam from a scammer. Do not use it. They are illegal and unethical, just waiting to steal money from the unsuspecting victims. I accepted the comment just to show an example of a spam comment from a Freelancer.com scammer.

    Pradeeban Kathiravelu,
    The blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  106. Yeah, I've also noticed that other websites are better. For example, my favorite freelance job board is XPlace. It has a wide range of freelance jobs to apply for, higher hourly rates than other freelance marketplaces, and is commission-free. And I've never come across a scam there, that should count!

    ReplyDelete
  107. ชื่อที่แสดง has left a new comment on your post "Is Freelancer.com a complete scam, or a partial sc...":

    freelance could be good enough when you get hired for your first project directly by the first tier employer itself.
    Ask him to work on any other freelance website,

    thanks for sharing...

    ReplyDelete
  108. I am working as a preferred freelancer in freelancer.com and a 2 level freelancer on fiverr too. I don't think that every post over here is fully correct specially regarding these websites are scammer. I even got such situation where the buyer or client was a fake and he didn't paid me and even after work delivered not milestone was created. But those mistakes were never repeated by me and i learned from them. Every website can't catch such fake people as their techniques change with time. We must be aware of not to indulge ourself in situations. My techniques to outcome this are:

    1. I always talk buyer or client what he wants and what type of work he expect from me with reference before accepting the project as many users don't know anything about this sites.

    2. I always ask him to create milestone instantly after before my acceptance of project.
    3. I keep constant communication with client during all phases of project and immediately launch a dispute if he or she is vanish for a week or so.
    4. If any money is deducted from my account i immediately ask for reasons from support team which seems justified most of the time.

    These measures are keeping me safe for now.

    ReplyDelete
  109. I created a Freelance acccount today, sent out a bid and the employer asked for my poersoonal Email address. did a quick google search and found this article. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  110. I recently signed up for it and am also noticing strange behaviors. I receive many "warning" messages from freelancer.com and am being asked to pay for something at just about any mouse click. That's odd. I have been self-employed, providing services of a very high quality, for a long time and am getting the feeling that freelancer.com is merely wasting my time and effort.

    ReplyDelete
  111. It is unfortunate. As much as we hate middlemen like Freelancer.com, using their payment option is safer than sending money online to random people online.

    Using a payment option outside freelancer.com is breach of their usage policy.

    Please update us whether he got back to you.

    I know a few success stories that goes like this:
    1. You find a match (employer-employee) in a site like Freelancer.com.
    2. Payment is managed outside freelancer.com (to avoid their hefty fees).
    3. The employee rejects your offer in freelancer.com (so that you do not have to pay her through freelancer.com again as you have already done the payments).
    4. The employee completes and returns your task.

    Just check with your employee (farouki.email@gmail.com) and see whether he is actually working on your project (regardless of rejecting your project in freelancer.com).

    I discourage you from following this workflow in the future, unless you already trust the employee and are willing to lose the money you send her.

    ReplyDelete
  112. Besides, farouki.email@gmail.com seems to be someone from Morocco based on https://domainbigdata.com/gmail.com/mj/Q6O-9VCY6_WiC2AD-Bd5VQ

    Assuming some random person in the Internet as an "Indian" (unless he/she said so) does not help.

    ReplyDelete
  113. Sorry you've had to face such a situation, lot of the freelancer employee and employers both are scammers however i work as a freelancer there and trust me i have completed all the projects on time on budget and have 5 star review, and granted freelancer has lot restrictions and takes alot of commision and is money hungry although it is still possible to make passive income or even stable income in some cases

    ReplyDelete
  114. I have same issues, I accepted one job and it deduct 10%, 50 USD, now employer do not contact. What should I do? can I stop transection from bank. How to protect or anything I can do?

    ReplyDelete
  115. Nha Nam, unfortunately, you cannot do much. That is freelancer.com's business model. Interestingly, I also lost exactly the same amount. Accepted a 500$ project (which seemed like a decent pay for the job - not too difficult - ideal case). But the employer disappeared after I lost 50$ to Freelancer.com. They refused to return me despite me explaining to them clearly. That was what prompted me to write this post.

    You can dispute with bank and see. But most likely it won't succeed (unless your bank is too nice and decides to refund you as a dispute credit from their money anyway as 50$ is not too much for them).

    ReplyDelete

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