Thread: Freelancer.com withholds my money

Originally Posted by scratchycat

Freelancer.com Scam Artist 2012 | Build a Website | WordPress

Hello Scratchycat!

Would you mind tell Jordan to send me a message with his username and the relevant project? I couldn't find much information on the message that you qouted.

Also, the link you gave is now being handled by my colleague. But, I have already inform them that you have raised it here on our thread.

I'll wait for Jordan's username. Cheers.

Originally Posted by JennaFreelancer

Hello Scratchycat!

Would you mind tell Jordan to send me a message with his username and the relevant project? I couldn't find much information on the message that you qouted.

Also, the link you gave is now being handled by my colleague. But, I have already inform them that you have raised it here on our thread.

I'll wait for Jordan's username. Cheers.

I find that very laughable. You are asking me to do your work for you? Whomever Jordan is they would be well-advised to not send you anymore information. Especially bank account numbers and personal information, which by the way, it is probably already on file since it sounds like they did work through freelancer.com. The message I QUOTED was from the link posted above which you copied. I am sure your colleague is right on it and will get it done!!!!

What is this "raised it here on our thread"? I simply did a Google search, found that link and quoted from the latest update. If it is online, it is public information.

Have any of you answered ChaimS questions or concerns of any of the 1,000's of complaints out there??

Nice of you to drop by and try to make claims that you are really going to help these people but as stated by another person, what you really need to do is PAY THESE PEOPLE THE MONEY THAT IS OWED TO THEM!! Until that happens and we see action by freelancer.com to change some of their policies, then I don't have time to waste on replying to your flimsy comments.

Originally Posted by scratchycat

What is this "raised it here on our thread"? I simply did a Google search, found that link and quoted from the latest update. If it is online, it is public information.

Have any of you answered ChaimS questions or concerns of any of the 1,000's of complaints out there??

Nice of you to drop by and try to make claims that you are really going to help these people but as stated by another person, what you really need to do is PAY THESE PEOPLE THE MONEY THAT IS OWED TO THEM!! Until that happens and we see action by freelancer.com to change some of their policies, then I don't have time to waste on replying to your flimsy comments.[/COLOR]

What Scratchy said X 2!!! I hope this little stunt shows everyone who reads this thread what an unprofessional, dishonest, group of children you get when you deal with Freelancer.

Originally Posted by JennaFreelancer

...

Repeating my questions:
1. Why has Freelancer.com's representatives intentionally and repeatedly compromised customer personal data?
2. Why does Freelancer.com operates using stolen ideas?
3. Why does Freelancer.com try to threaten the victim into silence?

Originally Posted by ChaimS

Repeating my questions:
1. Why has Freelancer.com's representatives intentionally and repeatedly compromised customer personal data?
2. Why does Freelancer.com operates using stolen ideas?
3. Why does Freelancer.com try to threaten the victim into silence?

I gave this a little thought today and here is what I would expect at this point, especially if my company was completely run off the rails in such a corrupt fashion.

Matt himself would show up here, not an employee. Sorry Jenna.

Matt now speaking.

1. ChaimS, those employees have not only been terminated we are pursuing all available legal remedies up to and including filing police report # xxxxxx.
2. We have engaged legal counsel to make certain that anyone who has sustained a financial loss as a result of stolen or misused data will be made whole without question or delay.
3. Please see number 1, we take this very seriously.
4. We have gone back and paid every disputed amount, plus interest in ALL situations where there is no fully substantiated complaint. The employees who played this game have been terminated and this will never happen again.

I humbly apologize for the criminal and unethical behavior of my organization, I except sole responsibility and will be working night and day to make things right for the people we have wronged.

Sincerely
Matt

-------------------------------

That is the severity I see just based on your questions. People at Freelancer broke the law, and there is a razor thin chance Matt is not complicit. The fact that a CSR is showing up that can't even say she has resolved a few rather glaring problems is unconscionable.

What happened to Jenna?? Are they recruiting some of the bigger dogs to come tell us their excuses for stealing money from their members?

Originally Posted by scratchycat

What happened to Jenna?? Are they recruiting some of the bigger dogs to come tell us their excuses for stealing money from their members?

Poof gone like Houdini. But I found some "greatest hits" over at the other site. The first comment takes some serious brass.

http://www.scam.com/showthread.php?t=135356&page=6
http://www.scam.com/showthread.php?t=212798

freelancer2.JPG
freelancer3.JPG
freelancer.jpg
freelancer1.jpg

Looks like the robots are taking a beating over there also!! Thanks for posting, I have not had time to do the rounds lately but did just get an update on one of the blogs.

ALTERNATIVES TO FREELANCER (DOT) COM

Originally Posted by scratchycat

Looks like the robots are taking a beating over there also!! Thanks for posting, I have not had time to do the rounds lately but did just get an update on one of the blogs.

ALTERNATIVES TO FREELANCER (DOT) COM

As I wrote here:
Llovizna: Is Freelancer.com a complete scam, or a partial scam?

...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.

More alternatives? This list is a bit outdated, but you can give it a try:
50 Freelance Job Sites For Designers & Programmers – Best Of


Are you current customer of Freelancer.com? Read the testimony below and reconsider whether you still like to have any contact with such shady enterprise:

I also received notification from Freelancer.com about your account
suspension. Frankly, I am somewhat confused as to what is going on,
especially as I am a first-time user of the service.
Not sure if I will use it again.

Hello everyone, I just have been fooled by Freelancer again. Maybe my situation is not so critical because my account is not suspended, but I won a Logo Contest that was GUARANTEED, that means the contest holder already paid Freelancer for it and once the source files of the project are delivered Freelancer should pay the contest winner (me). Freelancer never paid me, when I contact support they said the contest holder must verify their account, that's something they don't tell you before you work on the designs. The contest holder doesn't answer me back so basically Freelancer stole my money. Is this kind of CORRUPTION common in Australia or what?

Originally Posted by LemuriaDesign

Hello everyone, I just have been fooled by Freelancer again. Maybe my situation is not so critical because my account is not suspended, but I won a Logo Contest that was GUARANTEED, that means the contest holder already paid Freelancer for it and once the source files of the project are delivered Freelancer should pay the contest winner (me). Freelancer never paid me, when I contact support they said the contest holder must verify their account, that's something they don't tell you before you work on the designs. The contest holder doesn't answer me back so basically Freelancer stole my money. Is this kind of CORRUPTION common in Australia or what?

Let's just say, freelancer.com and matt barrie get away with it!

Sorry you also 'got taken'. I know I would not do anything for or with them.

1. Tell them you will expose it:
Stay away from freelancer.com - Page 6
Get a Hindu
Get a Hindu: FIGHT FIRE WITH FIRE - ASK THE MEDIA ABOUT FREELANCER.COM

2. File a report to ACCC:
ACCC

Ask them your last question. This is Australian governmental organization so they should love to answer your last question related to the whole situation.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Freel...89318101158611

For those of you interested, the above is a recent FB page.

Another interesting blog:

Llovizna: Is Freelancer.com a complete scam, or a partial scam?

New Comment about Freelancer.com.

Freelancer.com Scam – Part I : How $10 cost me $14000 – Among other misgivings and apathy of Freelancer.com Staff | Jumbled Mumbling & Fumbled Rumbling

August 9, 2013 at 7:10 AM said:
They are an absolute bunch of scammers everyone, do not trust them. I am an Australian and they are a bunch of criminals. MY freelancer has just spent months developing something and has now finished. I have paid $1150 into Freelancer and he cannot withdraw the money. I am now asking for my money back so I can Paypal it to him and do the honourable thing for this poor guy. An absolute joke. I am taking this further and will let you know how I go.

Don’t use this website at all.

Hope these people will come here and leave comments also.

Not sure right now if the Eccentric Blogger was down for a bit since I rather lost touch lately. Well, it is back and Matt Barrie beware!

Hullo Again!!! | Jumbled Mumbling & Fumbled Rumbling

Update on blog concerning freelancer dot com:
Freelancer.com Scam – Part I : How $10 cost me $14000 – Among other misgivings and apathy of Freelancer.com Staff | Jumbled Mumbling & Fumbled Rumbling

Read comment by Paul on October 14, 2013

What makes me laugh about freelancer is when you see previous work screenshots,is that any proof that they did that?, no its not proof at all,they could be from anywhere,they need to implement something like the request to show passport in a photo with some code written on paper kind of authentication,or let the people who work for freelancer collect screenshots from the people the bidder did work for, dont let the actual bidder show the screenshots lol,that is asking for trouble.

Originally Posted by Anddos

What makes me laugh about freelancer is when you see previous work screenshots,is that any proof that they did that?, no its not proof at all,they could be from anywhere,they need to implement something like the request to show passport in a photo with some code written on paper kind of authentication,or let the people who work for freelancer collect screenshots from the people the bidder did work for, dont let the actual bidder show the screenshots lol,that is asking for trouble.

All I know is that if I were still doing freelancing, I would not get involved with freelancer. com.

There have been some updates on more people being taken by the monster Freelancer dot com and I wanted to also post some here.

Tanas Alexandru Florin on November 24, 2013 at 5:43 AM said:
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.

Read more...

Update from Blog:


In case some of you had problems reading the interesting part:

Freelancer International Pty Limited is an Australian Proprietary Limited Company, regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. Freelancer.com Pte Ltd is a Singapore Company, regulated by the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA). Plendo Sweden AB is a Swedish company regulated by the Swedish Companies Office (Bolagsverket).

source: Stay away from freelancer.com


So the company suddenly ceased to be regulated by Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) or was it the paragraph that became ugly as far as website’s aesthetics is concerned?

What’s the big deal? Well, as you can read here: Australian Securities and Investments Commission - Our role

ASIC is Australia’s corporate, markets and financial services regulator.

Some may say: Freelancer.com Is Australian corporate body, so it is automatically regulated. True, but such statement would be simply redundant. Especially when one removes the redundant part soon after one’s legal grounds got questioned.

When the facts described above are taken in mind, two options are left to be considered:

Freelancer.com hasn’t ever been regulated by ASIC (as financial authority) as it didn’t have to. In such case this governmental organization’s name had been used for illegitimate credibility boost. And this is called a confidence trick… or simply a scam.
Freelancer.com should have been regulated by ASIC (as financial authority), did not care though. That’s a hard one as this would be not only a scam and illegal operations, but potential deliberate spoliation of future evidence as well.


A piece of mind for all the people who have dirty laundry in their closets:

If you do have something to hide, at least don’t bully and blackmail those who seem only to pass you by… otherwise you may attract some really unwanted attention.

Chaim

Posted 16th August 2013 by Chaim Kovalsky

Get a Hindu

Sorry, I have been unable to keep up with what is happening between freelancer and its clients (past & present) but it ties in with the emails I am receiving from Allen and Matt.

Hi honestme,

This is Matt Barrie, Chief Executive of Freelancer.com.

I am pleased to announce that Warrior Forum has joined the Freelancer family.

We are excited and looking forward to working with you to better support the community.

Allen Says founded Warrior Forum in 1997 and I’ve personally watched the community grow to over 730,000 members, becoming the world’s largest Internet marketing forum.

If you haven’t visited the forum in a while make sure you check out all the improvements that have been made at WarriorForum - Internet Marketing Forums!

We will be allocating substantial resources to further grow the site. We will be dedicating engineers to build features and customer experience specialists to interact with the community in order to understand intimately what you like. They’ll be working closely with the moderators moving forward.

The most important thing, however, is that we listen to you- the community. We’ll be going through the suggestions section and would love to hear more about your ideas and feedback.

Also please feel free to email me at matt@freelancer.com with any suggestions, ideas, and thoughts or just to touch base and introduce yourself.

Effective immediately we are making a few permanent improvements to pricing:
* All WSO listings will now be reduced from $40 to $20
* All War Room members will have their 20 year membership extended to lifetime, immediately. Moving forward new memberships will be $20 per year.

Thank you for your support of Warrior Forum in the past and I look forward to working with you to take Warrior Forum to the next phase!

Regards,
Matt Barrie

What exactly does Warrior Forum do??

I am on freelancer website from last 7 months. It was all going fine and I completed 2-3 projects successfully with excellent 5 star ratings when I put a withdraw request and with in 2 weeks Freelancer.com have started their so called verification process then the real image of freelancer has started to come out.
Even then I comply on the same and On their request I have again and again submitted multiple documents from last 1 month for Id, address proof including Driving License, Bank statements, Utility bill, Government issued certificate but all of these documents are rejected without giving any proper logical reason while these documents are accepted by government including VISA processing etc.
It seems they are preoccupied to steal my hard earned money as they have done with many other freelancers before. I found many articles on web and their current actions are again similar. There are no changes in their behaviors.

Please help me in getting back my money. Thanks !!

Originally Posted by cseabhilasha

I am on freelancer website from last 7 months. It was all going fine and I completed 2-3 projects successfully with excellent 5 star ratings when I put a withdraw request and with in 2 weeks Freelancer.com have started their so called verification process then the real image of freelancer has started to come out.
Even then I comply on the same and On their request I have again and again submitted multiple documents from last 1 month for Id, address proof including Driving License, Bank statements, Utility bill, Government issued certificate but all of these documents are rejected without giving any proper logical reason while these documents are accepted by government including VISA processing etc.
It seems they are preoccupied to steal my hard earned money as they have done with many other freelancers before. I found many articles on web and their current actions are again similar. There are no changes in their behaviors.

Please help me in getting back my money. Thanks !!

Wish there was something we could do to help you csea... but all we can do here is inform and try to prevent this from happening at present. You people who are being ripped off by this company need to report it to proper authorities of your origin and also in Australia where their headquarters are. Google search is full of cases just like yours and for some reason freelancer dot com and Matt Barrie continue to get away with it. My advice is anyone who reads this is to stay away from this company and all its affiliates.

Wow this thread has been incredibly informative, thank you!

I used to be a member of Freelancer.com as a translator. Fortunately I didn't get any projects! I bid like crazy for a while but never got chosen; now I'm thankful for that :P

I'll just share that it took me about 5 days to unregister, because they don't let you just cancel your membership, you have to go through their terrible customer service reps. Once the request is made via email, they send you at least two lengthy emails stating the thousands of "benefits" of being a member, "why don't you reconsider", etc. I found this very annoying!

Thanks again.

I've been a freelancer.com's member since 2011. I have completed more than 140 projects and have good feedbacks.

I have done a hard-working and long job for a client of USD$1,500 inside freelancer.com, around 1-2 months ago. Today, he requested a chargeback and now my account balance is USD$1,500 negative. Freelancer.com refuses to send me funds back.

Now, probably my account will be cancelled, and I will have to move to another freelancer website like guru.com, and I will loose all my reputation which I'm building since 2011.... Anyway, there's no way to work on freelancer.com anymore, since I will not cover the negative funds which was "stolen" from me. I'd never do that.

So, I think the only way is to start over again....

Originally Posted by leomedina01

I've been a freelancer.com's member since 2011. I have completed more than 140 projects and have good feedbacks.

I have done a hard-working and long job for a client of USD$1,500 inside freelancer.com, around 1-2 months ago. Today, he requested a chargeback and now my account balance is USD$1,500 negative. Freelancer.com refuses to send me funds back.

Now, probably my account will be cancelled, and I will have to move to another freelancer website like guru.com, and I will loose all my reputation which I'm building since 2011.... Anyway, there's no way to work on freelancer.com anymore, since I will not cover the negative funds which was "stolen" from me. I'd never do that.

So, I think the only way is to start over again....

I do feel for you and you should feel lucky to have accomplished what you have with them for that long without getting burned. There is no way I would trust a company to have advantage of my account where they can deposit or withdraw whenever they want to... Eventually, you will be left with a negative balance as has just happened with you. You need to call up your 'friend' Matt and see if he won't give you some of the money back he stole from you - he has plenty of it and knows how to spend it!!