scratchycat

Freelancer.com withholds my money

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Quote Originally Posted by scratchycat View Post
A portion of Chaim's latest:


At the very same time Freelancer.com loves to use counterterrorism and anti money laundering laws as an excuse to treat its users like some rightless beasts. Problem with such approach is that sooner or later you will step on wrong hoof… pardon: foot.


Okay, so how does Freelancer.com collide with the Australian law?

One of the answers is simple: hasn’t got Australian Financial Services Licence issued by Australian Securities and Investments Commission, which is required for certain services provided by Freelancer.com.


And under Australian Corporations Act of 2001:

The maximum penalty for carrying on a financial services business without an AFS licence is 200 penalty units ($22,000), two years imprisonment or both.

source: Australian Securities and Investments Commission - 12-196MR ASIC guidance on crowd funding




They know about it and try to dismiss the potential charges in most goofy manner. When asked on open forums, the company people just ignore the question. In terms and conditions they state that:

Freelancer.com is not a bank or other licensed financial institutions and does not provide banking services

source: Freelancer.com | Online Jobs | Freelance Employment | Outsourcing Services | Programmers | Web Design | Freelancers






Yeah, right… this is like selling cocaine and pretending to be in potato starch business. Changing the label doesn’t change the stuff. Subtle difference is that while cocaine is illegal, potato starch isn’t. Sadly, running de facto multinational financial corporation without any permission whatsoever is illegal too. And one doesn’t need any lab to prove what a deposit, money transfer or currency exchange are.


By the way: have those terms and conditions been written by real Australian lawyer or by some cheap Filipino copywriter?



Okay, let’s get on with the evidence. Categorized only the most significant issues. Not willing to quote the Australian regulations (yes, got them analyzed) - to make this document easier to read will compare Freelancer.com with companies providing similar services and do respect the necessity to register themselves. For those who are passionate about the law: please start your research with checking the status of non cash payments as financial products.

Get a Hindu

BTW!!! Chaim - great job on this presentation!! I would like to see US Media pick up on this one - it just might wake up the Austrialian government to what these people are doing. Tweet! Tweet! Twitter!! Get the word out folks and help those who have been scammed!!
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