Freelancer.com Reviews

A PURE SCAM SITE - WAVE YOUR MONEY GOODBYE

I have been hiring freelancers for at least 5 years now. I have tried and used all the websites out there which provide services of this kind. But let me tell you what I have experienced at Freelancer.com

2 weeks ago I posted a job on Freelancer.com. I then uploaded money to Freelancer.com, in order to pay one freelancer for a completed translation job. However, Freelancer.com DID NOT pay out the money to my freelancer. No - what they did, was to follow their usual routine of trying all the tricks in the book, in order to hold the money on their account.

My freelancer had to face a myriad of various verifications, unreasonable and even ridiculous requests and requirements - but even though she complied with them all, money WERE NOT PAID OUT, till this very day. My freelancer finally wrote to me, that she had lost any hope to get the money from Freelancer, and that she will rather let Freelancer keep the money. However, I have conscience, and cannot let someone do the job without getting paid - so I encouraged her not to give up, and now took the matter into my own hands.

I submitted a support ticket, in which I clearly demanded Freelance.com to either pay my money to my freelancer, or to return the money to my credit card. 2 business days have past since then - no answer whatsoever - a complete silence.

What I can tell with 100% certainty, is that Freelancer.com staff has a very clear set of instructions, set up and given to them by the very top-leadership of the company. Since the majority of freelancers come from the 3rd world countries such as India and Pakistan, Indonesia etc., this scam site Freelancer.com knows that an average person from these countries, with poor English skills and zero knowledge of relevant laws, has no chance to fight back and force Freelancer.com to pay out the money. So what Freelancer.com does - they gladly allow freelancers to sign-up and immediately participate and place bid on the projects. They also gladly accept money from the hiring parties, such as me - no verification needed. Just send the money, man! But once the money are uploaded to their account - oh boy - that's when the party starts. Suddenly they become very concerned with security (allegedly - your own security!) and now need to "verify" both the freelancer and the hiring agent. Again - they didn't need any verifications in order to accept your money.

So - after they receive your money, they immediately create a "Wall of Verification". First they demand an ID copy (which, by the way, is illegal under both Australian law, and law of the most countries - private companies HAVE NO LEGAL RIGHT to demand copies of one's ID, as long the customer does not ask for services or products in credit). Now, if a freelancer from Pakistan or India complies with the illegal demand, and indeed sends their ID copy, Freelancer.com starts to demand for an ID in English letters - despite having the many years practice, and despite already knowing very well that IDs from these countries are only issued in native script. Then they ask for bank statements, and if a freelancer has no bank account (for example, a teenager or a woman from Asian countries) - sorry, we can't give you your money. Then, if by a miracle a freelancer somehow manages to satisfy all they demands, Freelancer.com then starts from the other end - starts "verifying" the hiring agent. Now, if the hiring agent has some understanding of the relevant laws, and refuses to send any sensitive IDs - they will simply keep the money.

Like I said - all of this is done deliberately, hoping that freelancers, especially those from 3rd world countries, after many unsuccessful attempts will finally lose patience and hope, and give up on their money held by Freelancer.com. Because, as in my case, if the payment is around 250, then the chances are slim that the average freelancer will ever get enough projects to generate the same amount in form of fees. And even if Freelancer.com is finally forced to pay out the money ( I guess 1 out 20 Asians probably manage achieve this), most often Freelancer.com will have kept the money for significant amounts of time, without paying the money owner any interest. In practice, this means that they daily get massive free loans, which, very often, are not even paid back. I assume, this strategy alone generates around 50% of Freelancer.com revenue.

So now, as of today, Freelancer.com official excuse to hold my freelancer's money, is that they are "reviewing" my - the hiring agent's account. They asked me to send them a copy of my ID - something that no private company can demand. Of course, I am not going to send any copies of my IDs or other sensitive documents, because of 2 reasons:

1. such request is simply illegal - IDs are highly sensitive personal documents, and only official state institutions can demand for it - not private companies as this one.

2. at least ninety percent (90%) of Freelancer.com customer support are outsourced to namely India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, etc. This means that their customer support is based in these countries. Any documents that you upload to Freelancer.com, can be accessed with one click by hundreds of 3rd world nationals, who can (and will) easily abuse and forge your ID and use it for financial crimes or terrorism.

Like I said, I have been hiring freelancers for many years, and I know these tactics in and out. However, I must say that Freelancer.com scores highest, as the most fraudulent site of them all. I am going to draw their criminal practices into the daylight. Already in 2015 they were sued and sentenced to pay a compensation to one freelancer whom they were abusing.

If you are a freelancer or a hiring party, remember, that I and my freelancer are not the only people whose money have been literally stolen - Google up "Freelancer.com“ and „scam", read Wikipedia and all the review-websites out there- there‘s only negative reviews, mixed up with some very few positive reviews, usually written in poor English, and certainly not by Freelancer.com itself. A pure scam site.

An update will follow.

They charged me for services not rendered. It took 30 days for my bank to refund my monies ( yes, I said monies because they took what I had offered the developer plus an $81 fee that I never agreed to ).

I will be wary of such sites in the future.

I posted two projects. One I got back numerous proposals and the dialogue with the prospective software developers was just plain dismal. Everybody was willing to show you dozens of web page graphics but nobody could show any evidence they could build any form of app. These are dabblers wannabes who know very little if anything at all about software and are basing their profiles on creating cutsie graphics. There is no substance nor experience behind most of the service offerings on the site.

And don't bother with the contests unless all you're looking for is a picture of cats pasted over a heart. I posted a contest and scrolled the value of the contest up and up based on their indicator. It suggested that at $100 I should get over 80 responses.

I attached a clear definition of the design I wanted some initial suggestions for, a very clear definition of the goals, and was looking for some indication from the review of my concept of the developer's skill level. I was also looking for suggestions of technologies that might be used to construct a solution, something any qualified developers should have lots of opinions on.

They took my money and I got zero -- not a single reply -- to the contest.

Freelancer quite clearly stole my money.

Really, If you work for client on Freelancer for 2 years and during this you got payment from client and you can withdraw successfully, BUT, after 2 years if your employer account got limited they will block all of your funds from that project for last 2 years, Strange!

YES, They will block all your funds for that project. Even you withdraw all your funds and they will block your payments from other projects and will take it from you from other projects

I will not recommend this to any one

Thanks

fahadm

i get double charge on my credit card for a project. In their system transaction it is showing single charge. Even after i send my credit card statement they still deny it and asked me check with bank. So please do not use it, you will never get back your money. Don waste time argue with them as well, maybe they will revenge and charge a couple more times. If you still have account on it, close it immediately as you might not aware they charge additional fess later.

A reviewer wrote: "Do not leave your Credit Card with Freelancer". That is the truth summary. No matter how genuine Freelancer.com site may claim, you should ask yourself; how genuine is a site that I can't leave my credit card details with?

In my case, they keep circulating a fictitious project. Freelancer floated this “mis” project which was awarded to me about 1-2 minutes after I bid (almost automatically which is unusual). Now, they knew the employer of the project wasn’t going to respond to me after the project is awarded and this will obviously make me not to accept the project, they move quickly to claim their project fee. Since they have a so-called policy that project fees are non-refundable and are charged after a project is “accepted, Freelancer.com immediately charged me a project fee. When they noticed hours later that I didn’t accept the project they quickly accepted it ‘on my behalf’ (they changed my status to “accept” on their site). I thank God that in their scam, they goofed by sending me two email notifications one advising me to accept the project and the other advising me of the project fee charge which contradicts your policy. It was this email evidence that I used in contesting the dispute with Paypal and won my money back.

Since this project is not going to be undertaken by me, I know freelancer obviously plan to re-float the same project on your system for another unfortunate freelancer bidder. Little wonder I was basically the only one (amongst probably thousands of freelancers on your database) bidding for the ‘simple project’. So in a nutshell, you freelancer.com keep collecting non-refundable project fees from different unfortunate freelancers for the same project that will never be undertaken. Well, it’s a matter of time before the regulators catch up with them,

Without my approval they charged me Php14,025.00. This is after I've been a free member for a number of years. They said that I had a trial membership of 1 month and was charged after it expired. The thing is that I have been a free member already so why the sudden charge of trial expiry all of a sudden. Are they losing money or did they just thought that I WOULD NOT NOTICE it in my credit card statement. I didn't even authenticate my credit card yet so why would they even charge me a professional FEE! I'd say they are scamming people unknowingly and should be reported to the proper AUTHORITIES. They are stealing money and fraud is a federal offense.

Sometimes i win contests, sometimes i complete projects, this is the good side of freelancer.com, but there are some fake contests and fake projects and i don't know who's behind them except freelancer team unless they clear this up!, for example last week only 3 different clients hired me for 3 different projects which every one was for same amount ($250), now if i press accept they will withdraw some fees from your linked payment email address (those are un-refunded) so i learned my lesson and hope this will help, don't accept until you chat with the client and make sure he's real and have a brief, plus be careful of 0 reviews or bad reviews clients.

I've been working on freelancer for around 18 months now. Every now and they they dip into my account. Just steal a little bit of money and refuse to refund it. I make a reasonable amount through their site so usually don't kick up much of a fuss.

However this time they have stolen £111 GBP. I live in a developing world country and this is too much to lose. This is 2 weeks wages. Not only that but they charge a fee for every project you take on so they have actually charged me a fee to have this money stolen, by them. Not to mention time wasted by doing work they stole the money for.

To go into more detail the money was paid by the employer to freelancer and after the work was done the employer released the funds. Freelancer gave me the funds. Then 2 weeks later took the funds back. They won't tell me why. Just saying an external dispute that has nothing to do with me. The thing is even after contacting their customer support they are very open about the money being stolen. Here is them openly admitting to the theft:

23:08 (my name removed): Yes. So as a summery. Freelancer have stolen money from me and charged me a fee for stealing this money from me. All i can do is wait. I'm not allowed any information on when or if they will return the money they have stolen. And i just have to take their word for it that they are telling the truth about the illegal reason they gave for stealing this money from me. Is that right?

23:09 Stephanie M.: Yes, that is correct.

*I have the entire conversation and admission of guilt in an email sent directly from their website. Again. This is by far not the first time they have done this to me. Just usually for much smaller amounts.

In the last year they have stolen money like this from just myself to the sum of £340 give or take a few pounds. Then there are fees on top of that so i guess it's more like £450 (rough estimate). If they do this to 10,000+ users (they claim to have over 10 million users) a year that's a shockingly large amount of money they are illegally obtaining every year.

From a quick google search i get the impression that Freelancer are well known for doing this to their users. I'm looking for fellow victims to come together in creating a class action law suit against them. Please get in contact if you've had any money/earnings stolen from this site.

I had a good experience hiring a developer on here, I recommend them.

Started a logo contest. There were many submissions. Using their private chat facility, I first chat with one designer, then another, and I was horrified to see the history of the first chat appeared in the chat history of the second chat! So the second designer could actually see what I said to the first designer, privately!

I was horrified. So I asked to cancel the project and get refund. And it was then I realized that using their own USD and AUD conversion rate that is much higher than the bank's, I lost US$150! That was on top of the US$50 non-refundable "feature upgrades".

So my experience with Freelancer was a horrible nightmare. I wasted a lot of time, delayed my project for three weeks, and they charged me US$200 for having those horrible security bugs.

Firstly, google the term "freelancer.com scam" http://bit.ly/2hweSTq

and "freelancer.com fake" http://bit.ly/2hwckF2

or just simply "freelancer.com reviews" http://bit.ly/2hwfxEx

and checkout how many one & two stars there are.

then

Very poorly designed service that has limited functionality. In addition deceptive billing arrangement, unhelpful and rude support who openly admit their signup design is to charge people fees they don't agree to or realise. #scam #freelancer.com

Just to give you guys an idea of Freelancer.com commission: freelancers looking for work through www.freelancer.com If an employer hires the freelancer to complete a project, and is willing to pay $100 for it, then freelancer.com will take $10 (10% commission) from it for the service of online platform, and the freelancer will receive $90.

As a new freelancer, new to freelancer.com, myself, I have been offered a project. Since it is relating to my career field, I accepted his offer, and contacted the employer how to proceed the project. However, the employer never speaks eventhough he is online.

It soon becomes apparent that this is a fake project. But due to this, Freelancer.com has taken the 10% commission straight away from my bank account.

I have informed freelancer.com about the fake project on that day, reported the fake project and asked them to refund me back the money. They have claimed, 1. Commission is non-refundable according to their policy; 2. They may review my case under the following condition: after 28 days, i.e the number of days to complete the project plus another 7 days in my case, a ‘cancel button’ will appear, then, I can click that button, and then, the employer will have another 28 days to respond whether or not to accept the cancellation of that project. If he does not reply, which will be the case, as both him and the project is fake, this project will be automatically cancelled from the site. And then, freelancer.com MAY consider whether or not refund me back the money.

This means, I MIGHT have the possibility to have my money back after 56 days (28 + 28 = 56), and still, this is not certain.

There are 2 key factors I need to mention:

1. Freelancers like me, are informed they will be charged 10% for the project awarded, but it does not state WHEN, and under what CONDITION they will be charged. On their site, there is no indication whatsoever to inform freelancers, after clicking the 'Accept' button, commission will be automatically deducted from your account prior to starting the project, and I was very surprised receiving the payment notification from Paypal. This is very misleading, and I am not the only victim, as various similar cases have already happened when I made some research about it afterwards. I had no prior knowledge that this commission will be charged straight away once I hit the ‘Accept’ button. The 'Accept' button is not a 'Pay' button on an online store, which clearly inform the payer what is about to happen, but it is of the same function, and many have been falling under this trap.

2. Their policy of non-refundable commission is not feasible. On their site, it's full of scammed projects. I believe it is freelancer.com’s responsibility to verify whether or not these employers really have projects to offer and not bogus ones, and not simply taking commissions over no responsibility. At least, put effort to keep them at a minimum. If this project is offered to somebody else, not me, the victim will be him/her just the same.

To be frank, I am so disgusted by its service, and never went back to their site again. I left my information there still, because I am waiting for these 56 days to pass and get my money back.

Yesterday, they charged me another $10.48 USD for the membership, as I still hold an account with them. But, I am only holding it there for my refund. So, to summarize, I have incurred ｃｏｍｍｉｓｓｉｏｎ plus ｍｅｍｂｅｒｓｈｉｐ due to that scammed project.

I told them I want to close my account, and refuse to having them continue ripping me off from that case, but I CANT, because I need to pay the $10.48 USD membership, and my account has been limited. They can see I am not using their services as my monthly bid is zero !!

They have wasted so much time of mine !! Case still not solved !!!

Beware, Paypal cannnot help you much as you agreed with their　ｔｅｒｍｓ　ａｎｄ　ｃｏｎｄｉｔｉｏｎ．

Ｐｌｅａｓｅ，　ｗｈｏｅｖｅｒ　ｈａｖｅ　ｓｕｆｆｅｒｅｄ　ｆｒｏｍ　ｔｈｉｓ　ｓｉｔｅ　ｎｅｅｄｓ　ｔｏ　ｓｐｅａｋ　ｕｐ！　Ｉｔ＇ｓ　ｏｕｒ　ｃｏｌｌｅｃｔｉｖｅ　ｓｏｃｉａｌ　ｒｅｓｐｏｎｓｉｂｉｌｉｔｙ　ｔｏ　ｍａｋｅ　ｐｅｏｐｌｅ　ａｗａｒｅ，　ａｎｄ　ａｖｏｉｄ　ｈａｖｉｎｇ　ｆｕｒｔｈｅｒ　ｖｉｃｔｉｍｓ　ｌｉｋｅ　ｕｓ　！！！

Everything about how Freelancer operates has always made me skeptical and weary of it being fraudulent: the way they handle charging freelancers and employers a fee per project, the fact that freelancers have to pay commission up-front, the countless stories of people's earnings being frozen in their accounts, the long lists of upgrades (which are mostly useless) available to both employers and freelancers, all for a price. Despite this, I had still had a decent experience on Freelancer, just using it off and on for a few months on small projects here and there.

But today the curtain was pulled back. I entered a "guaranteed" contest to design a website for $1000 prize. Then after the entry period ended, the contest was deleted by the holder. That's not acceptable. The promise of a "guaranteed" contest, in Freelancer's own words, is exactly this: "Guarantee freelancers that a winner will be chosen and awarded the prize. This will attract better entries from more freelancers." They should not be allowed to cancel. That's the opposite of a guarantee.

I only enter guaranteed contests for this reason, and I worked hard on my entries. So did everyone else. The help section of their website also says, "If in any case the Guaranteed contest is still not awarded after 30 days of closing date, the prize money will then be automatically distributed among the qualified participants."

When I contacted their support team, a lady named Wanda F. simply stated the obvious: "I can see the contest was deleted as requested by the user, and no prize will distributed." While I was typing a reply to point out why that conflicts with the purpose of a guarantee and ask that the prize be distributed as promised, she waited literally about 3 seconds to say, "It seems you are away from your computer and I will be ending this chat session."

I am going to follow-up to hold them accountable, but the best thing to happen would be for anyone reading these reviews to not sign up for the platform. I also encourage those who are doing relatively well on the site to find another platform. This company is fraudulent and should not be supported.

This page has a terrible disorganization as customers who hire a freelancer and contests when paying. Especially in contests with the method of delivery is literally a SCAM ...

THE CLIENT DISAPPEARS when one goes up the files after winning the contest. Then the freelancer ends WORKING FOR FREE.

And not only that is the problem with the page, for more they charge a membership that I have not asked.. for one month trying to put it down and I always continued with the same then as could I call that? THIEVES the only word that comes to my mind.

If you want to offer a better service, have better control of employers! because THIS PAGE DOENS'T PROYECT THE FREELANCER.

Be responsible and pay the freelancer for those customers who do not pay and disappear in the contests.

WE (FREELANCERS) SPEND TIME AND OUR HABILITIES WORKING FOR THIS PAGE FREE!!!, CAUSE THE MOST OF CLIENT NEVER PAY. I suggest you DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME on this page because they're fu#$%# SCAMMERS.

I hope my review has been made to understand.

Thank you!

I am over Freelancer.com. I have been scammed so many times. So I started a petition to NASA. They use the site for contests etc so I thought it would a good idea to ask them to STOP supporting this scam website.

Hopefully if enough people sign it, they will and that will shake up freelancer.com (I doubt it though!!!! They seem to be beyond repair!!)

Anyway, please sign it, share it, support it. You know the drill. Thanks.

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

Ps sorry if you see this cut and pasted on other posts, I want to get this message out super duper quick and as far as possible. Cut and paste saves me time!!

Pss Please help spread the word!!

Once again today my project payments (1090 usd) are locked by their support stating that buyer who had paid you is not verified. I had worked for more than a month and what I have earned is just waste of time, energy and zero penny.

Just few weeks ago freelancer.com reversed all the payments done in one more project stating that buyer has complained.

around 1 year ago these people reversed almost 2500 usd.

In all i have lost more than 5000 usd on this website and also lost lot of time and energy.

I AM LEFT WITH NO CHOICE OTHER THAN GOING TO CYBER LAW AND I AM FILING CASE AGAINST THEM FOR DOING FRAUD AGAINST ME. THEY HAD STOLEN MORE THAN 5000 USD FROM ME. COMPLETELY BIASED AND BIGGEST FRAUD.

IF YOU ARE A CURRENT USER PLEASE TRY TO SWITCH TO SOME OTHER WEBSITE.

DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME AND ENERGY THERE. THEY ARE CHEATERS.

Really tired and disappointed with this website, they had steal more than $5000 till now from me just by these cheap policies.

I was a new freelancer on the site when I got a message saying I was awarded a job by a company called Faithartistry for $600. I accepted the position, Freelancer exacted a $60 fee and then the offer and company completely disappeared. I was contacted again by Faithartistry in the exact same manner, exact same wording, they even sent a text message to my phone, I figured out Freelancer was using an algorithm to trick new clients into accepting non existent jobs so they can collect bogus fees.

I complained to customer service (figuring out how to do that is a job in itself) but I knew they wouldn't do anything as in this case it seemed pretty obvious Freelancer was committing this fraud. So, beware. Curious if anyone had any similar experiences.

I have had better luck with Upwork which is not perfect but at least honest.

Is the Aussie Govt so greedy that it would allow a company like Freelancer operate despite their countless violations. Matt Barrie would have been behind bar had he been in EU or US. Obnoxious policies and manipulative procedures. They should be offline asap.

For 2 years I have been making some few projects on freelancers.com with most of the money goes to this scammer website. Today I found my account suspended after I have received the money from my employer. I have received an email telling me that the money was successful released. But when I logged to my account I was checked how I was suspended for login to my account; telling me that I have broken its rules.

Wake up freelancer! wake up employers! don't waste you time!

One day you will be checked like me. I was already warned by many friends but I could not take that in consideration. But with the first time with a project with good budget, I got deceived by this scammer website.

They know everything about you, once they feel that they want take your money and get ride of you, they will do that without hesitation or a pre-warning!

Don"t use their desktop App, it records everything on your computer to help them spy on you if you have some trouble with them. I mean, this App is a spyware!!!!!!

Freelancer is losing its business. Its situation is going worst everyday. They make up new scamming rules everyday to control their users money. They will use any scamming, hacking or every legal power to take rid of you. Be aware!!!! The founder of Freelancer.com, Matt Barrie, is a thief