-
Freelancer - Warning!! Ripoff!
If you are a free lancer please do your homework before signing up with freelancer.com
There are 1,000's of complaints all over the internet about the company and agents who have completed their assignments but do not receive compensation for what they have done because their account is suddenly "Frozen".
BEWARE OF FREELANCER.COM
There are a number of reputable companies with which freelance authors can do business. But I’m about to tell you a tale about one such company that has proved NOT to be. Please note that all experiences related here are my own and may or may not reflect other users’ experiences. However, I would strongly urge anyone contemplating using the company in question as a way of generating revenue to be VERY careful in their dealings.
After doing some homework, I thought Freelancer.com - Hire Freelancers & Find Freelance Jobs Online looked like a legitimate company with decent payouts. There was even a chance I could make a decent living doing three jobs a month for that place! I set up my account, started bidding on jobs…and I scored one! The job was a $600 contract, to be performed within ten days of receipt of the materials I needed. This appeared to be a good deal, so I jumped on it.
Within ten seconds, the account balance on my dashboard showed that I owed them $60, representing a 10% commission on the order price. Okay, I thought. As long as the client pays up, no problem.
However, days went by. And became weeks. No word from the client, no project materials, no payment. I wrote an email to the client; no answer. I wrote an email to Freelancer; standard “we’re looking into it and we’ll get back to you” reply, but no further follow-up.
All this came to a head earlier today. After almost a month of no response from the nominal client, I received an email from Freelancer
Read More
-
Re: Freelancer - Warning!! Ripoff!
Hi Great hub JasonLicerioPH! I am very glad that everybody is aware. My account got also suspended just recently for fixing my friends account suspension. We have suspended both for transferring funds with out any project related. We admit the violation twice and we are trying to fix everything because I still have $100 + $300 milestone for my 2 ongoing projects there, (now unfortunately my Employer disputed the $250 because of my account suspension). However my friend's account was suspended for almost 5 months with $177 and $250 milestone funds. We are trying to fixed everything but the support@freelancer.com sucks! - They might be a scam or not, but freelancer.com is hurting people. Freezing or "STEALING" our funds (which we have worked hard to earn for more than a month) without any mercy. Guys we have already a team (113 people with the same case) to fight out against them and relieve the truth. Let's see a few more months if they still do the same way. please kindly contact our leader to fight these out -- ... TO all with same experience like we had, you are not alone. email us -- epsurv@gmail.com or juliusgalvez12@gmail.com --- or you can seek help and send complaints to ---- http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/cyber/cybe --- and ---- Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) | Home
How to Avoid Scam on Freelancer.com
Freelancer.com has the worse staff and "customer support", if it can be called a "customer support", the staff is VERY rude, totally unprofessional, you can open a ticked and wait untill you die for an answer or you can receive a copy-paste stupid answer. They have the WORSE customer support I EVER seen!!! Also they have A LOT of cases where they "block" users accounts which have quite a lot of money and steal all the money. Don't use freelancer.com!!!
Of course in most cases there is a reply from emir just as we got here in RS and what we are understanding to just be a generic reply to most complaints written about freelancer.com
Come on back to RealScam Matt Barrie and give us your reasons why so many complaints about your company!!
-
Re: Freelancer - Warning!! Ripoff!
I'm a motion graphics designer and animator. I'm going to share with you my experience with the site freelancer.com and let you decide and judge for yourself.
I've been a user of this site since the year 2006, back when it was called getafreelancer.com, I had never had any issues with it whatsoever and I was always able to work and get paid. I have reviews in the site all from different users for projects of different sizes.
I don't use the website all of the time because I have other sources of work. It had been a while since I didn't use it but by the end of 2011 I decided I wanted to star bidding on projects again. I bid on this Marketing video project that I thought fit my skills and sent the employer a link to my portfolio.
I got a personal e-mail from the employer. I know according to freelancer's terms of services that there should be no private communication before the job is awarded. But I can't help it if the client likes my portfolio and finds a way to contact me on the internet by googling my name or my company name.
We got in touch and we agreed to start the project. We could've done it outside freelancer.com but as I've never had any reason not to trust this site, I decided I felt safer if we used the milestone feature. So I was awarded the project, and paid the corresponding fees for a project this size, which in this case was about 100 dollars.
Everything seemed ok, we agreed upon a set of goals, because it was a long project that consisted of three quite long videos. For each one of the goals the employer would do a milestone payment. So the project delayed quite a bit because the employer had to source some assets like voice over, testimonial videos, work on the script, etc, which take some time. As I delivered the storyboard, the first video roughs, etc, I received a series of partial payments and I decided to keep the money on the site until a considerable amount was accumulated. When I had about two thousand five hundred dollars in the site, it was time to withdraw. In case you don't know, this website requires that you make a withdrawal request and wait for it to be processed in order to send you money, this can take up to more than a week.
So I made a withdrawal request for one thousand two hundred dollars.
The day after I did this request I got an email saying that my account had been suspended, and I didn't have access to anything else than the support system. I had an account with two thousand five hundred dollars and suddenly I couldn't even log in to it. They didn't provide a reason or issue any warning before suspending the account.
My employer contacted me saying that he'd also had his account suspended. At that time I wasn't very alarmed, I thought it'd be some verification and everything was going to be ok soon.
In the email sent by freelancer.com support it said that I had to verify y identity by clicking on a link, I clicked on it and it took me to a page where I had to upload a copy of my ID. I did so because I trusted the site, but I waited for about two days and my account was still suspended. I opened a ticket in the support system and asked them what was going on. They said that they acknowledged that I had uploaded my ID but that it was not enough. And they wanted me to give them a full description of the project and send them a picture of myself holding the ID in one hand and a paper with a code in the other. I did everything they asked for.
Once I've done that, they asked me how we had communicated, and questioned that we were using private means like skype or personal email. No explanation why, because in the user agreement it says clearly that you CAN make direct contact with another user if it's for a project you've been picked for. Which is exactly the case. They also asked how did we get our direct contact information. I replied that the employer had found my email address by his own means and therefore I wasn't violating any terms. I also noticed that even though in their website help in the "HOW TO HIRE" article, in the section "Project Start" it says clearly to buyers that "When a freelancer accepts a project, Freelancer.com will send your contact information to the provider and the provider's to you".
So I said, wait a moment! According to this, I should have the contact information of the buyer in the email that was sent to me once we started the project. So I checked my emails and surprise! They don't send that information anymore, even though that procedure is still in their help documents.
After my account had been suspended for almost 10 days I was starting to get really nervous. I was in touch with the employer, I trusted him because he had paid the milestones as we had agreed. We both were very upset about this situation and we thought it'd be best if he disputed the funds and try to pay me by other means. After he started a dispute with paypal , I receive a message from freelancer.com saying that they had enabled my account.
I was sort of happy, I said, well, these guys don't want to keep my money after all!
But then I created a withdrawal request in order to get the funds. Once the request was in place, I waited two days for it to be processed. After two days, when I checked the state of the request, I found it was blank. Nothing.
My employer had already started the dispute for the last payment of a thousand dollars, so they took that money out of my account. Since my request was for two thousand five hundred dollars and now I only had one thousand five hundred dollars then I thought they cancelled it because it surpassed what I had in the account at the time. So I did a new request for one thousands five hundred dollars.
After two days, the request was deleted. Again.
Then I sent a support ticket again and asked them what was going on.
They replied that since my employer's account was still suspended, I wasn't able to withdraw funds from my account because they were concerned about the "security of the funds".
I replied that I couldn't force the employer to comply and if he didn't want to send more ID's or whatever, it was none of my business, if they were so concerned about the security of the funds, why didn't they refund everything to him so he can pay me by other means.
They surprised me saying that it wasn't a problem for them to reimburse the funds to the employer.
I replied, ok, go ahead.
Then I got an email saying "we have reversed all the payments to your employer". Ok I thought! Now it's solved! I asked the employer if the money was in his paypal account already. He sent me a screenshot of his paypal balance showing that there was no money on it.
I asked them, "When will the money be on his paypal balance?"
They replied that they were sorry but that they couldn't process the refund, that they still required that the employer's account be re activated.
The end of this story is that after more than a month of contacting the support system and threatening them with legal actions, we got them to revert all payments and all fees to the client's paypal account, and fortunately the client was able to pay me by other means. Luckily he agreed to do this before the funds were in his account, otherwise I would have had to wait for at least one more month.
This things make me suspicious of freelancer.com keeping or delaying the money withdrawal of relatively big amounts in order to take an advantage, I wonder:
Why do they get concerned about security JUST when you have a considerable amount of money in your account and JUST when you're about to withdraw it?
Why instead of warning you they just SUSPEND your account?
Why don't they check all user's identity before the projects are even posted instead of when the project is quite advanced and there is money in the system?
Why do they get so picky about identity when in their terms and conditions at point 8.3 they say they don't verify user's identities?
Would you be willing to work with a website that handles things like this?
Would you trust a site that withholds funds earned from your hard work?
-
Re: Freelancer - Warning!! Ripoff!
Thank you Mycroplasma for joining and posting your story here. I do want to add another comment you made:
Also freelancer.com is starting to buy all the other freelance companies, soon there will be no options! We have to fight it!
We need to try and make sure that does not happen!!
-
1 Attachment(s)
Re: Freelancer - Warning!! Ripoff!
-
Re: Freelancer - Warning!! Ripoff!
Especially not on a fake magazine cover
-
Re: Freelancer - Warning!! Ripoff!
http://www.realscam.com/f10/freelanc...my-money-1281/
mycoplasma started the above thread 5/15/2012 we really need to get this exposed, people are being ripped off and freelancer.com is stashing the money these people have earned and blocking their accounts. Could we get some more action in here by RS members??
-
Re: Freelancer - Warning!! Ripoff!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Whip
Especially not on a fake magazine cover
Thanks Whip! It seems there are a lot of fake things about Matt Barrie.
-
Re: Freelancer - Warning!! Ripoff!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
scratchycat
http://www.realscam.com/f10/freelanc...my-money-1281/
mycoplasma started the above thread 5/15/2012 we really need to get this exposed, people are being ripped off and freelancer.com is stashing the money these people have earned and blocking their accounts. Could we get some more action in here by RS members??
Where does the story start "scratchy?" It is a bit like watching a film and trying to get the gist of it when you missed the beginning. I will read mycoplasma's posts in more detail after I have cooked my dinner.
-
Re: Freelancer - Warning!! Ripoff!
Well, we have 3 threads now.
http://www.realscam.com/f10/freelanc...my-money-1281/
another I can't remember and this one. I believe it started in May 2012 when mycoplasma posted the one above.
-
Re: Freelancer - Warning!! Ripoff!
Another blog by person scammed by Freelancer.com
Freelancer.com Scam Artist 2012
I hope you found this post by typing ”Freelancer.com Scam” into Google! I want you to know that you’re not alone. I think Freelancer.com is the biggest scam/fraudulent website I have ever dealt with. The freelancers on the website are semi okay, but the owners of Freelancer.com act like crooks. I have no idea how that website is still in business.
Here’s a quick story of what happened to me. I signed up for a Freelancer.com account, posted my first job, got about 11 bids (10 of those bids were clearly scam automated responses) but 1 guy was cool!
So I hired the cool guy, but I had to make a deposit into the Freelancer account to get things going.
The minimum deposit for the job was $30, and it’s supposed to go into an alleged “Escrow” account. The money is to be held there until the hired freelancer completes the job. First off, Freelancer.com charges you an extra $1.01 for a processing fee, so I ended up paying $31.01..not a big deal.
About a week later, I get an email from Freelancer.com saying that my account has a negative balance for the job posted. Turns out these scam artist have a hidden fee of $3 for every job that you post. So my $30 deposit was now $27!
I find that strange because they said I could post my first job for FREE..which I did! But as soon as I made a deposit, I guess they decided it wasn’t free anymore and stole an extra $3…eh still not a big deal.
Anyways, almost 2 months past and the Freelancer that I hired never completed the job. (He said he could complete the job in 4 days, so he had more than enough time! I was patient right?) The Freelancer I hired eventually just cancelled the job which means I should be able to get my deposit back..right? After all, the money is in Escrow.. allegedly.
Read more, there are well over 230 complaints against the company in one blog!
-
1 Attachment(s)
Re: Freelancer - Warning!! Ripoff!
Let's take a look at the real Matt Barrie.
He is a real party person and lover of sexy women. Spending those fortunes made by not paying people for the work they have done.
https://www.facebook.com/mattbarrie
Attachment 1958
Timeline photos
-
2 Attachment(s)
Re: Freelancer - Warning!! Ripoff!
Timeline photos
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sexy-...56608731145276
Attachment 1959
He loves those sexy girls, wonder if he gets to party with any of them??
https://www.facebook.com/mattbarrie/...tes#!/abcqanda
Attachment 1960
The person on FB claims female gender but it is the real Matt Barrie of Freelancer.com. The magazine cover is photoshopped but I cannot verify if it is a legit magazine or not. Anyone else know? This guy is a real rich loser.
How do you think he would do in a courtroom defending his activities with freelancer.com?? Oh course they have the high-powered attorneys to represent him and I know nothing of Australian law. He has sent out letters and emails of Cease and Desist to several people complaining about the company. They are being threatened.
-
Re: Freelancer - Warning!! Ripoff!
Well the magazine is legit, cover probably not. I did not see a cover like that one but there are lots of them!
Oh look they have a FB page also:
https://www.facebook.com/GoodWeekendMagazine
About Good Weekend
Named Newspaper Magazine of the Year in 2010, Good Weekend is Australia’s premier newspaper-inserted magazine and continues to set the benchmark for excellence in Australian journalism.
Every Saturday, Good Weekend is inserted into Australia’s most well respected newspapers, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age – a must read for 1.48 million Australians in two major states.
A confident leader in the inserted magazine market, Good Weekend offers a rare balance found in no other magazine; an even male/female readership and a mass reaching vehicle with premium appeal. Delivering a dedicated, loyal and reliable reader base, Good Weekend is regularly invited into the sanctuary of the weekend, offering advertisers a unique opportunity to play a part in our readers’ weekend routine.
Now with a fresh new look and revamped editorial Good Weekend continues to remain a relevant and trusted source of information for our readers.
Click here to view Good Weekend's Media Kit.
http://www.adcentre.com.au/good-weekend.aspx
Wonder if they know Matt Barrie is flashing this picture around?
-
Re: Freelancer - Warning!! Ripoff!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
scratchycat
For around 2k an hour anyone can party with such girls..
-
Re: Freelancer - Warning!! Ripoff!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scratchycat
I know nothing of Australian law. He has sent out letters and emails of Cease and Desist to several people complaining about the company. They are being threatened.
Cease and desist WHAT, Mr Barrie ??
Telling the truth ???
Offering an opinion ??
The problem with many of these celebrity business leaders is they start believing their own publicity and imagine themselves to be untouchable.
It may be fashionable to think of Australia as some backward, out of the way place, but I can assure readers that is not the case.
Cease and desist letters in Australia are just that, "letters"
Letters which anyone who can afford to pay can have sent out by his/her/their legal representatives.
They carry no legal weight at all.
In fact, should Mr Barrie and Freelancer decide to follow through with their threats, I am in no doubt the internet would have no compunction at all in responding with a complete exposure of the Freelancer practices described both here and on the countless blogs which are already on the Freelancer case.
I am also in no doubt Freelancers' policy of requiring identity verification by means of "someone/anyone" holding up a card will be the subject of endless ridicule when and if it becomes general knowledge.
Add in the hundreds of same/similar complaints currently circulating on the 'net regarding non payment for ridiculous reasons AND the fact 'netizens are notoriously reluctant to accept being bullied by anyone, and I can but imagine the outcome for both Mr Barrie and Freelancer.
Far be it for me to lecture anyone as "famous and well connected" as Mr Barrie or his Freelancer businesses, but, surely it would be far easier and more productive to fix the problem/s at the source instead of unleashing a shi*****m of unwanted publicity ??
Freelancers' "identity verification" procedures, customer service, complaint and payment procedure services are demonstrably inefficient on occasion.
No amount of bullying via "cease and desist" letters can change that and no amount of "cease and desist" letters can remove anyones' right to point out the fact thay are.
"Cease and Desist" THAT, Freelancer lawyers, who ever you are
-
Re: Freelancer - Warning!! Ripoff!
I wonder if the magazine editor for Good Weekend would be interested in doing a story on Freelancer.com and all their customer service problems and issues? With the circulation it gets, I'm sure that would get the attention of Freelancer.com and Barrie. I think it would be harder for Barrie to snow the reporter who would do the story on how these issues are being dealt with and resolved. Might make them actually refund the money to try and save face. Just a thought.
-
Re: Freelancer - Warning!! Ripoff!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
EagleOne
Might make them actually refund the money to try and save face. Just a thought.
Just a thought but a very good thought Eagle. Good journalists are worth their weight in gold.
I have just finished reading Kate Adie's autobiography. It is called "The Kindness of Strangers." It is well worth reading the book. Her reports from places like Tianamen Square and the 1991 Gulf War countries are evidence of how much support complete strangers do give to those who are brave enough to try to bring the eyes of the world to trouble spots.
Perhaps this Australian paper can show us that there are competent journalists covering cyberspace stories.
-
Re: Freelancer - Warning!! Ripoff!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
okosh
For around 2k an hour anyone can party with such girls..
Yes, but using your client's money to hire these party girls should be a crime, don't you think?
Thanks for your support.
-
Re: Freelancer - Warning!! Ripoff!
LRM, this should be a great relief to Chaim and others to hear this. I hope some of the ones being threatened will join us here, some already have and hopefully they have read your statements.
Thank you!
-
Re: Freelancer - Warning!! Ripoff!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
EagleOne
I wonder if the magazine editor for Good Weekend would be interested in doing a story on Freelancer.com and all their customer service problems and issues? With the circulation it gets, I'm sure that would get the attention of Freelancer.com and Barrie. I think it would be harder for Barrie to snow the reporter who would do the story on how these issues are being dealt with and resolved. Might make them actually refund the money to try and save face. Just a thought.
It is a wonderful thought Eagle and maybe we can get their attention to do this. I am sure Karol appreciates your information here and I appreciate your support.
-
Re: Freelancer - Warning!! Ripoff!
Thank you P2P for joining in and it certainly is a great idea to contact this magazine. I could not yet find (time limited here) if the magazine actually did an article on Matt Barrie. We will find out soon I am sure.
-
Re: Freelancer - Warning!! Ripoff!
Chaim could contact BBC World Service to ask for help. On the other hand somebody like Eagle who already contributes to radio and TV programmes could ask for their assistance in exposing the biggest International fraud that he has encountered to date.
BBC World Radio and TV
World Service Contact Form.
-
Re: Freelancer - Warning!! Ripoff!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
littleroundman
Cease and desist letters in Australia are just that, "letters"
Letters which anyone who can afford to pay can have sent out by his/her/their legal representatives.
They carry no legal weight at all.
Spot on.....C&D letters mean nothing here in Aus....Clearly Mr Barrie been watching too much American shows on TV.....
-
Re: Freelancer - Warning!! Ripoff!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
scratchycat
Yes, but using your client's money to hire these party girls should be a crime, don't you think?
Thanks for your support.
Does it really matter where a crook spends the money they stole??....All that matters is that it's stolen money...
-
Re: Freelancer - Warning!! Ripoff!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
okosh
Does it really matter where a crook spends the money they stole??....All that matters is that it's stolen money...
It matters if the gutter press gets hold of the story. "Big wig bonkings" sell more news papers than conniving shareholderr deals.
-
Re: Freelancer - Warning!! Ripoff!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
path2prosperity
Chaim could contact BBC World Service to ask for help. On the other hand somebody like Eagle who already contributes to radio and TV programmes could ask for their assistance in exposing the biggest International fraud that he has encountered to date.
BBC World Radio and TV
World Service Contact Form.
You are too kind with your comments about our abilities, but Freelancer.com is not that big of a scam to warrant TV or radio attention outside of Australia. But I think it could possibly be of interest to the Aussie press and magazines since it is dealing with a local business.
I think the magazine would definitely be interested in doing an article if they did not do an article on Barrie as the cover posted suggests, and if they did it still might be of interest since it is a different viewpoint than what I am sure was in the article. But it is going to take someone who is a victim and especially from Australia to get them even interested in doing an article on them and Barrie.
-
Re: Freelancer - Warning!! Ripoff!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
EagleOne
You are too kind with your comments about our abilities, but Freelancer.com is not that big of a scam to warrant TV or radio attention outside of Australia. But I think it could possibly be of interest to the Aussie press and magazines since it is dealing with a local business.
I think the magazine would definitely be interested in doing an article if they did not do an article on Barrie as the cover posted suggests, and if they did it still might be of interest since it is a different viewpoint than what I am sure was in the article. But it is going to take someone who is a victim and especially from Australia to get them even interested in doing an article on them and Barrie.
True Lynne but they have administrative contacts on the Isle of Man which is in the Irish Sea. I do not have enough understanding of how it works at this stage but I could ring BBC World Service to ask why an Australian scam has its HQ on an island which is off our shores and see if they would read this thread.
Please let me know if an "outraged old woman's" questions about that could get them to this thread. The Isle of Man has been a centre for other online scammers like VLane.
-
Re: Freelancer - Warning!! Ripoff!
If a person would be wise enough to read even a bit of their Terms & Conditions, they would never sign up with this company.
User Agreement for Freelancer.com
This is an important document which you must consider carefully when choosing whether to use the Freelancer.com - Hire Freelancers & Find Freelance Jobs Online website at any time.
This Agreement was last modified on 7th January 2011.
THE FOLLOWING DESCRIBES THE TERMS ON WHICH FREELANCER.COM OFFERS YOU ACCESS TO OUR SERVICES.
Acceptance of User Agreement
This user agreement ("User Agreement" or "Agreement") is a contract between you and Freelancer International Pty Limited (ACN 134 845 748) if you are a user of Freelancer.com - Hire Freelancers & Find Freelance Jobs Online, Freelancer.co.uk - Hire Freelancers & Find Freelance Jobs Online, Freelancer.com - Hire Freelancers & Find Freelance Jobs Online, Freelancer.com.au - Hire Freelancers & Find Freelance Jobs Online or Freelancer.co.nz - Hire Freelancers & Find Freelance Jobs Online. This user agreement is a contract between you and Freelancer.com PTE Limited (Singapore Company 201022717D) if you are a user of Freelancer.hk - Hire Freelancers & Find Freelance Jobs Online, Freelancer.sg - Hire Freelancers & Find Freelance Jobs Online or Freelancer.ph - Hire Freelancers & Find Freelance Jobs Online. trading as the Freelancer Group, ("Freelancer.com", "we" or "us") which operates the Freelancer.com - Hire Freelancers & Find Freelance Jobs Online, Freelancer.co.nz - Hire Freelancers & Find Freelance Jobs Online, Freelancer.com.au - Hire Freelancers & Find Freelance Jobs Online, Freelancer.hk - Hire Freelancers & Find Freelance Jobs Online, Freelancer.ph - Hire Freelancers & Find Freelance Jobs Online, Freelancer.sg - Hire Freelancers & Find Freelance Jobs Online, Freelancer.com - Hire Freelancers & Find Freelance Jobs Online websites ("Site"). The Site is offered to you conditional on your acceptance of the User Agreement. Please review the terms and conditions set out below before using the Site. Your continued use of the Site after such time will signify your acceptance of this User Agreement.
This User Agreement and all policies and terms incorporated by reference constitute the entire agreement between you and Freelancer.com as to its subject matter.
If you do not agree to any of these terms and conditions you should immediately cease to use the Site. Please note that we may close, suspend, or limit your access to your Freelancer.com account ("Account") or the Services provided by us on the Site ("Services"), and/or limit access to your funds if you carry out activities which are in contravention of this User Agreement and its associated policies incorporated by reference.
Amendment of User Agreement
Freelancer.com may amend or modify this User Agreement in whole or in part from time to time, without notice, by posting an amended User Agreement on the Site or any linked information. Such updated version of the User Agreement will be effective at the time we post it.
The rest of it here.
-
Re: Freelancer - Warning!! Ripoff!
Wonder if anyone has ever commenting on not being paid in their Tycoon Talk forum??
Tycoon Talk by Freelancer.com :: Be a Big Fish!
I am sure they would not last long..
-
Re: Freelancer - Warning!! Ripoff!
WARNING!! Freelancer buys up another one!!
A bit of consolidation in the world of online IT outsourcing: Freelancer.com has bought one of its competitors, Canada’s Scriptlance, in an all-cash deal to spearhead its move into the country and expand its global footprint in other new markets. Prior to the acquisition, Scriptlance had been the fifth largest freelance marketplace in the world; adding its 360,000 users to Freelance.com now brings the total number of enterprise and professional users on the main site to 4 million.
Freelancer.com says that to date it has seen 2.3 million projects posted on its site covering areas like website design, graphic design, copywriting and SEO. But as the market for outsourcing has grown, and the economy has continued to remain tight, other skillsets have also entered the mix. These include astrophysics, aerospace engineering, biotechnology, manufacturing and industrial design.
Other financial details of the transaction were not disclosed, but in the deal Freelancer is getting not just a rival IT outsourcing company with global reach — some 600,000 projects across 244 countries, with $43 million paid out to freelancers in that time — but also some IP and customers in the area of crowdfunding.
Scriptlance’s founder and chief exec, René Trescases, developed Scriptlance’s crowdfunding platform himself — one of the world’s first, the company claims — and one recent project saw users putting
continue reading
The acquisition follows several others that Freelancer.com has made since being founded in 2009 to expand into new territories.
The web properties now owned by Freelancer.com include GetAFreelancer (Sweden); LimeExchange (United States); Freelancer.co.uk (United Kingdom); Freelancer.de Booking Center (Germany); Freelancer.com.au (Australia) and Freelancer Hong Kong (China), as well as the Freemarket.com virtual content marketplace (United States) and the Webmaster Talk (United States) forums.
Freelancer.com claims that these user numbers make it almost double the size of its closest competitor. Today people can hire out their services in some 11 currencies, with particular popularity in countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan, home to highly skilled IT workers in countries short in on-the-ground jobs.
Soon they will control the entire freelancing world, what happens then??
-
Re: Freelancer - Warning!! Ripoff!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
okosh
Does it really matter where a crook spends the money they stole??....All that matters is that it's stolen money...
It seems Matt Barrie is a real important person in Australia according to The Sydney Morning Herald and the many articles they have posted about him. I am just going to post my findings here as it is all public information and you can also read from your local paper if you live in Sydney, Australia. One article was included yesterday with Barrie giving his advice for Australian Students and education. It is a lot of info but just take your time and then you decide.
Search Results
Barrie and his mates were also hackers at Sydney Uni, although they are now coy about what it was they hacked into. "I just don't know how much I can say," says one university mate, Tony Jreige. "Most of it was troublesome." Another friend, now Barrie's partner in Freelancer, Darren Williams, tells me there's "still not much we would admit to ... we vaguely knew Julian [Assange], back in the day." Barrie says it was "harmless fun".
Apart from studying, hacking, chasing girls and developing a reputation as a man you couldn't kill with a keg at an engineers' party, he was always looking for ways to turn a buck. His parents set up an art and craft supply business, and in his last year of school Barrie, using his parents' presses, started making mouse pads printed with com-pany logos. He sold tens of thousands and continued the business through university. He also ran supervised underage discos in nightclubs with the city's hottest DJs. "He made money out of it," says Tony Jreige, "but he just loved to be the centre of attention - to be the king of things."
In the middle of the dotcom boom, in 1997 and 1998, Barrie went to Stanford, the world's leading tech university. It opened up a whole new world. "It was where **** happened," he says. The businesses started by his classmates at Stanford, he estimates, "would now have a market capital-isation of at least three to four billion". One of his mates set up PayPal and sold it to eBay in 2002 for $US1.5 billion.
Read more: The Aussie making a motza from offshoring
The Aussie making a motza from offshoring
Matt Barrie's five business secrets
1. Aim for the hole, not the green.
2. Don't spend a dollar unless you know damn sure you're going to make at least a dollar back.
3. Focus, focus, focus.
4. Remember: no one is going to hand you success on a plate. It's up to you to make it happen.
5. If you're not going to do it now, when? When you're 60?
Jobs giant: how Matt Barrie built a global empire
Read more: Jobs giant: how Matt Barrie built a global empire
8. Integrated Port Logistics Systems - Help industry develop an integrated port logistics system to ensure safe and efficient passage of freight from producer to consumer.
Mr Barrie's take: "Not sure what on earth this is doing here ... should be in the infrastructure committee, not this taskforce which is supposed to be working on how we can build up the technology industry in this country. Because representatives from Telstra, Optus, the film industry and Freelancer.com are totally qualified to talk about container terminals. Not."
The 53-page report was circulated to taskforce members last Tuesday and they were given just a day and a half to sign-off. The "final version" was then expected to be handed to the NSW government by the end of last week.
"If no response is received, we'll keep the process moving and will take 'nil' response as your approval to release," wrote Michael Harrington of the NSW Trade and Investment department in an email to taskforce members, seen by this website.
Mr Barrie suggests inviting technology entrepreneurs such as Mike Cannon-Brookes, co-founder of Australian-based global technology powerhouse Atlassian, on to the taskforce ("soon to be, if not already, Australia's next big billion-dollar technology company").
However, he said Mr Cannon-Brookes told him: "Mate, I did that last year, and it was the first, and last government committee I will ever do."
Heavy fog on information superhighway as action plan scorned as 'fluff'
Read more: Heavy fog on information superhighway as action plan scorned as 'fluff'
Freelancer.com was born almost by accident. On ‘'gardening leave'’, after finishing in late 2006 with the computer chip company he once ran, Barrie was searching for a side project and was exploring setting up an online web directory.
He says “I was looking to upload thousands of listings and was prepared to pay someone in Australia $2 per listing. When I couldn’t find someone in Australia I went searching online and came across a Swedish site called Getafreelancer.com”.
“It was a terrible site, every shade of grey, developed by Ukranian designers out of the Cold War. But I posted my job and when I came back to check on it there were 74 responses. People had bid $500, $400, $300 for the project and I eventually got it done perfectly for $100 by a team in Vietnam in three days. I thought ‘this can’t be real’ and I figured out it had the potential to completely disrupt the global labour market”.
Barrie started writing the software for an Australian version of the site, and simultaneously discovered two, similar US businesses had managed to raise tens of millions of dollars to develop their own site.
Realising it would be impossible to compete with the US sites by building a similar business from scratch, he approached Getafreelancer’s Swedish owners to buy the business and was given a first option on it.
Then he had to work out how to finance the deal. Having walked out on 10 venture capital companies in his previous business, Barrie was sceptical he could raise the required funds to finance his venture.
“It was very tough,” reflects Barrie. “The people I did see didn’t understand the business and the fact it was already making money.”
Then in came Simon Clausen, who had just sold a business to IT security firm Symantec and was looking for a project in which to invest. “I was already talking to him about being an independent director for the company and when I showed him what I wanted to do, he came up with the funding,” says Barrie.
Having bought the business, Barrie then set about fixing the business model. At the time, the business received a 10 per cent cut of every job that went through the site, or members could pay a $12 monthly flat fee for an unlimited number of jobs. The problem was that this fee was often rebated. “We were basically offering a free service,” laughs Barrie.
So one of his first decisions was to change the fee structure to a 3 per cent commission model. He says “within months cash flow went through the roof.” At the same time, Barrie bought up 12 competitor sites around the world.
The business has had a phenomenal rise since then and now has 85 staff globally, 2,600,000 users from 234 countries, 930,000 posted projects to date and there has been $90,000,000 spent through site.
But despite the business’s meteoric rise, Barrie says, he’s not preparing Freelancer.com for a listing.
“We’re still at the organic growth stage. Although there’s a fire hose of traffic to our site, there are still hundreds of things we’re working on to make Freelancer.com the next eBay.”
Nevertheless, if they are not doing so already, it’s almost certain it won’t be long before venture capital firms are beating a path to his door.
Dot com II reaches fever pitch
Read more: Dot com II reaches fever pitch
His website put the world in a spin by allowing companies to hawk professional jobs from architecture to copywriting to the lowest bidders around the world.
Now freelancer.com entrepreneur Matt Barrie thinks it's high time the Australian secondary school technology curriculum receives a similar seismic shake-up.
The dwindling number of students enrolling in tertiary information and communications technology (ICT) courses has caused consternation within Australia's high-tech sector and university community.
Recent figures released by the Australian Computer Society showed enrolments had halved in the past decade, entry standards had fallen and one in two students were dropping out before graduation.
Advertisement
While universities and the sector prepare to redouble their efforts to lure the young to a technology career path, Barrie says they're on a hiding to nothing until secondary schools overhaul the way ICT is taught.
He is calling for state and federal funding to create a semester-long ICT module which can be delivered online, administered centrally and assessed via an automated marking system.
The course would teach high schoolers some programming fundamentals, encourage them to write apps and aim to fire their enthusiasm to enter the industry that made Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg a billionaire at 23.
It's a model which the Australian National Computer Science School has used to deliver the NCSS Challenge, its annual high school computer programming competition, for the past seven years.
The five-week competition, which runs under the auspices of the University of Sydney, guides students through a series of programming activities and has seen participant numbers swell from 150 in 2005 to 4200 this year.
Barrie said a longer program could be created by the school for as little as $1 million and used to augment existing high school ICT curricula, which he described as old fashioned, irrelevant and bland.
A draft of the new National Curriculum for Digital Technologies is due for release in February but Barrie said an online course could be developed before the new curriculum is launched and rolled out, without having to retrain teachers.
The introduction of up-to-date course material with real world applications would capture the imagination of students not attracted to the ICT discipline as it is now taught, he said.
“The kids would like to go out there and learn but the curriculum is so stagnant. It's all bureaucracy and the teachers don't want to look like dummies … I don't think the problem is teaching the students, it's teaching the teachers.”
Online learning was no longer the poor cousin of classroom-based lessons and could give students access to better quality support, albeit remotely, than they received in the classroom, Barrie added.
“The tools and online streaming are so good that the experience is superior to sitting in a class.”
A computer science and electrical engineering graduate and part-time lecturer at the University of Sydney, Barrie has earned a reputation for calling a spade a bloody shovel. Earlier this year he spoke out against the NSW government's draft 10-year plan for nurturing a digital economy in the state, condemning its goals as 'fluffy' and irrelevant.
Former executive dean of science and technology at QUT Simon Kaplan agreed that secondary ICT courses needed a major overhaul.
“One of the key problems with the school ICT curriculum is that it is taught badly by people who don't really understand what ICT is about so they employ a kind of shallow, rote teaching that doesn't take them outside their limited comfort zone,” Kaplan said.
But he questioned whether online courses would engage the unmotivated majority or appeal primarily to geeky types whose course was already set on the high-tech route.
“If our goal is to take students with an existing predisposition towards computer science and make sure they are taught extremely well and remain engaged with computing then it could work very well indeed,” Kaplan said.
Associate professor at the University of Sydney and a director of NCSS James Curran said schools had historically invested in infrastructure and equipment ahead of teacher training and up-to-date materials.
Hooking up to high-speed broadband or handing out a batch of late model iPads did not aid students' understanding of computing concepts or pique their interest to learn more about the underlying technologies, Curran said.
Read more: ICT Curriculum | ICT career | NCSS | National Curriculum
Jobs go begging as students shun IT courses
-
Re: Freelancer - Warning!! Ripoff!
Freelancer.com Buys Another IT Job Site, vWorker (aka RentACoder.com), For A Price In The Millions | TechCrunch
"Freelancer.com, the job outsourcing and freelance IT worker marketplace, has made another acquisition: it has bought vWorker, a job site for freelance coders and other tech professionals. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed but TechCrunch has heard from a source that it is in the region of millions of dollars. vWorker was formerly known as RentACoder, and is said to be the fourth-biggest IT recruitment marketplace of its kind globally, with 2.5 million enterprise and professional users from around the world, and altogether processing $139 million from 1.3 million projects.
The deal is a sign of ongoing consolidation in the area of online freelance IT recruitment: it follows another acquisition made in July 2012, when Freelancer.com bought the world’s fifth-largest IT marketplace, Scriptlance.
Together with vWorker, Freelancer.com now has 6.6 million IT and tech professionals on its books globally covering some 600 categories of IT-related work. Freelancer says this makes it the world’s biggest IT outsourcing site for freelancers. Other competitors in the space include eLance and ODesk.
Freelancer.com lets companies post jobs to freelancers, but, in a hat tip to the big trend these days for crowdsourcing, it also has structured its site to let individual workers collaborate together on projects. Freelancer.com says the average job on the site is $200 or less — an interesting price point, considering how hard and expensive it can be these days to hire full-time engineers and other IT staff.
The deal will give Freelancer.com — originally founded in Australia by Matt Barrie, who still runs the company — further inroads into the U.S., with vWorker headquartered in Tampa, Florida. While vWorker focused mainly on programming and other IT work when it first opened for business in 2001, in 2010 it expanded into other areas of tech business, such as graphic design. Hence, the rebranding to vWorker, which the company says stands for “virtual worker.”
Originally focusing on programming and IT-based work, in 2010 the site expanded to include a wide selection of work categories including graphic design, writing and more. To reflect this expansion, the company changed its name to vWorker – short for “virtual worker”.
In a post announcing the news, Freelancer.com says that existing people on vWorker’s books will be automatically transitioned to Freelancer.com, effective immediately. “We will transfer over your account balances, user profiles, reputation history, messages, employer escrow payments, active projects and past projects, so rest assured that it will be business as usual once you arrive on our platform,” it says.
This will also mean a lot more competition for existing people in the Freelancer.com pool"
Freelancer Buys vWorker, Potential Freelancing Domination Looms - Technorati Small Business
-
Re: Freelancer - Warning!! Ripoff!
Here are some of the comments on that blog:
Matt Barrie · Top Commenter · Sydney, Australia
You'd be surprised what you can get done.
Reply · 4 · Like
· November 19 at 7:26am
.
Seth Eheart · Subscribe · Top Commenter · Product Manager at Straight North
Why are you hating?
Reply · Like
· November 19 at 9:18am
.
Joao Correia · Universidade Aberta
I have won ONE job in 5 days... and the guy scammed me. Face this against 30+ jobs in one month in vWorker (that was my first month, 30 jobs awarded and successfully finished and payed) and you see where this is going. In my first month I got $591... this month, it's not even 250... and IT ALL CAME FROM VWORKER's projects I had finished and was awaiting payment... I'm seriously considering contacting my lawyer regarding the unauthorized sale of my personal data to a company I didn't accept the dat6a to be transferred to, and I think you all should do the same.
Reply · Like
· Follow Post · Friday at 8:03pm
Syed Raza Ali · Web Designer & Developer at Leicester Square Television
That's bad man I have different email account in vworker and different email account in freelancer, freelancer said they will create your multiple accounts and will close the 1 how sham is it that they are not merging my vworker account into my freelancer account just because of different email and trying to pull down my ranking of vworker, F OFF freelancer.
Reply · Like
· Follow Post · November 22 at 1:25am
Freelancer.com Buys Another IT Job Site, vWorker (aka RentACoder.com), For A Price In The Millions | TechCrunch
-
Re: Freelancer - Warning!! Ripoff!
More news on being scammed by Freelancer.com!
"How Freelancer.com scams your money
I have used Elance.com before, and still do, but I wanted to try out another service to compare after hearing the hype about freelancer.com.
I decided to try freelancer and had a good response to the work I wanted.
I accepted a quote and proceeded with the project. I deposited the money and was charged 2.5% in addition to the winning quote… OK, so I guess someone has to pay for the transaction, I gritted my teeth and moved forward.
After I had set everything up I noticed a button that said ‘Go to Design Studio’ wondering what it was I clicked it, that was my first mistake. I was told in a blurb that it was to project manage my project and … Quote:
“To ensure you get the most out of your contest make sure you give feedback to designers, rate entries and reject entries you don’t like.”
then an email came into my inbox and I had been charged for the service $21.70. I was not asked if I wanted the service nor that by clicking the button I would be charged and that I had been charged (scammers).
I emailed in my displeasure and was given a refund, they did not even ask my about it so I figure that this happens all the time and they are so used to it they dont even ask you about it.
This is a job that was quoted 3 days work but the developer went on holidays and stopped answering my emails so I went to the dispute centre, mistake number 2.
I got a message saying I had no credit and could not lodge a dispute, and then my email poped up with an email from Paypal and one from Freelancer that said ‘thanks for the $256.19. … What?
Again without asking me and without any notification I am billed without my permission.
I sent of a complaint to Freelancer and after not hearing back from them after several hours I went to Paypal and lodged a complaint and within 30 seconds I had an email from Freelancer saying I was partially locked out of my account.
I will never use Freelancer again and warn you not to either. If a company needs to scam you in the ways I have described then they need to be reported to the Fair Trading Commission, which is what I intend to do.
There are a lot of reputable businesses providing the same service and its rotten apples like Freelancer that spoil the good name of online services. Beware of Freelancer. I will be going back to Elance and will never use Freelancer again just on ethical grounds if nothing else."
Source:
report scams » Blog Archive » How www.Freelancer.com scam your money
-
1 Attachment(s)
Re: Freelancer - Warning!! Ripoff!
Attachment 2357
Has anyone else been losing money like this to Freelancer.com?? We welcome you to come to RS and comment on this??
-
Re: Freelancer - Warning!! Ripoff!
Freelancer.com Is a SCAM
List of Scams From Freelancer.com
As if the latest scheme wasn't bad enough, here are some others who have yet to pay me a cent for any of the work that I've done. Here's more evidence that Freelancer.com is a scam! I will not post backlinks to Freelancer, as that would only boost their SEO standings. They deserve to be dragged through the mud. They do not deserve to be rewarded by search engines! I will only list the names, then. Any of these people should come forth if they want to be removed from the list.
-
Re: Freelancer - Warning!! Ripoff!
Why is nothing being done about this company and the obvious ways they are scamming people?
What do the thieves do next?
They suspend my account! I still have 6 projects open, and I can still work on them, but that would be outright foolish! I can still get paid, but I can't access any of the money! I can't withdraw or transfer funds! Thus, they've taken another $42 dollars of my earnings illegally! It is against US law to suspend an account with money on it for "verification purposes", which aren't really useful at all given that I'm not the one responsible for suspicious activity here. I'm the one getting robbed!
I've already left various notes on Reviewopedia, RipOff Report, SiteJabber, ComplaintsBoard, and even an Internet crime monitor recommended by the FBI website. I'm making as much noise as I can. If they are attempting illegal activity, the world should know about it. Freelancer.com is a scam site, and its insidious practices need to stop!
Freelancer.com Is a SCAM
-
Re: Freelancer - Warning!! Ripoff!
More denials by Matt Barrie -
Stay away from freelancer.com
mattbarrie
mattbarrie is offline Newbies
Join Date:Jan 2013Posts:0Reputation:39 Thanks:0Thanked 3 Times in 3 Posts
Default Re: Stay away from freelancer.com
Solid Snake, simply ask support for a refund. They will be happy to do this.
----
LOL Blaster
Default Re: Stay away from freelancer.com
Quote Originally Posted by entrecote View Post
Blah Blah Blah freelancer.com affiliate bulls**t
Oh hey there freelancer.com affiliate
How much do they pay you for selling your soul?
Another place that I think I have posted here already gives a review of freelancer -
think Freelancer.com makes money by charging people excessive fees and flat out stealing peoples money. Before I wrote this article, I searched “Freelancer.com scam” on Google and read how Freelancer.com wasn’t even paying there freelancers after the jobs were complete.
Freelancer.com was asking people to fax over Passports, Birth Certificates, SSN’s, or pictures of themselves in the mirror holding a sign with there username and password on a piece of paper. That’s crazy and unprofessional.
Freelancer.com Scam Artist 2012 | Creative Marketing Ideas
-
Re: Freelancer - Warning!! Ripoff!
More from the site with complaints and replies by Matt -
01-14-2013, 10:51 AM #23
mattbarrie
mattbarrie is offline Newbies
Join Date:Jan 2013Posts:0Reputation:39 Thanks:0Thanked 3 Times in 3 Posts
Default Re: Stay away from freelancer.com
Hi Guys
I'm Matt Barrie, the CEO of Freelancer. Someone passed on this thread and I though I'd respond.
I see a few of you have had some issues and I'm here to answer any questions you may have and help with any support or billing issues.
Fire away. If you supply your username it will make things easy to fix quickly.
Regards
Matt
Stay away from freelancer.com
Hi Matt,
I have tried contact support for many times, your sales guy just removed me from skype.
It was SEO category.
Your sales guy was good of SELLING this thing, but when i started asking why he do not want me provide numbers - views for this category, he just ignored it.
If you Matt are real, i think you should prove it here! Not just coming and say that you are CEO of freelancer, I wouldn't work again with people who JUST support website, or try sell and promise wonders, in result we get nothing.
We learned the lesson.
And if you want help, i would work with you ONLY after you will prove that you are REAL CEO under this account. If you just want send me to your support, then i will pass, it is not worth my time...
AND HERE IS THE GUY EMAIL WHO SOLD AD AND SUPPORTED US - erick@freelancer.com
I hope you will speak with him.
Last edited by djp371; 01-14-2013 at 06:20 PM.
Why do people continue to even use this freelancer.com?? They are total rip-offs! How can they get away with taking money from a person's PP account without the person being aware of it??