Freelancer.com review: Account closed, stole my money 53

Hi,
My Account has been suspended since one month after my client paid me 370 dollar. I have emailed them many time to solve the issue but they suspended my account and block my money telling that suspicious transaction. My employer also emailed them to verify this and also told to reverse the money back so that he can pay in other way, but they are giving weird mail that they have not received any email when my client emailed them kept me on CC. I just wonder I told them to reverse the money to the account where it comes from and release my account, but are not doing this still now...! Whats their problem! Is this any way to suspend one's account with money since 1 month!
Thanks
Enamul

This has happened to me too. I'm an employer, and freelancer is demanding I upload a copy of my passport or driver's license to them. I am very uneasy about this since this has ALL my personal information on it. I also know that they do NOT do this to all accounts so why are picking some and not all. I am still waiting for paypal and my attorney to get back to me. I a few good reviews that I pay my developers on time so I do not know why they are targeting me and a few others. Additionally, if I have money in their account and they can access my freelance account there is nothing to hide. Why do they need my very private information. Even my paypal is linked to them. I don't even upload my private information to paypal why would I do that with freelancer.com. I just want access to my freelance account so I can send my money back to paypal where it belongs. This happened to me once before, but it was so little for me to care. Now I'm pissed. Oh yes, I contacted customer-support@freelancer.com. I am also contacting paypal dispute. I am going to research and see if I can file a complaint to a few others. People need to be warned. Imagine how many other people has their account suspended even if it is only $5 or $10 per account those add up.. to millions of dollars of stolen money 'cause most folks just walk away from a few dollars here and there. I would have it it wasn't my second time being suspended.

freelancer.com i think u r scammer and eat money .. u always suspend or limited account when account has money
my username is socialpluto.
we have 500 feedback and got in 2-3 month we are company ..
but when i have 3000$ in account, scammer freelancer suspended and closed account and i never violated any terms .. why i will violate ? i am working good and earning .. so this is not possible that i kick off my earning
pease dont scam people

Hi Tazeem,

Is your account reinstated now?

Thanks

Account Closed

Account of socialpluto has been closed.

not yet

Bunch of scammers. I got paid my first payment, the milestone was released to me. $1350 in my account, i was waiting for the money to withdraw to my skrill account when i try to log in to Freelancer the next day the account is closed and they did not even tell me that they had done it. I have sent numerous emails but all they respond with is 'the account is closed and irreversible, contact your employer if you want your money back'.

Well this employer has now ran off with the money thanks to you, Freelancer. Bunch of scammers. NOBODY use this company because even when your milestone is paid they close your account and send the money back to employer (supposedly). It is a website facilitating scam artists. So if you want to be scammed then please go sign up.

And all of this happens without any contact from freelancer, i only got a response when i emailed them and even then they gave me no information other than it is closed.

I was one Freelancer and I immediately stopped receiving money for the first time.

Freelancer.com These idiots are my 2500$ in my profile today and my account was closed. i dont know why the hell this happened. Earlier they changed my password also and when i reset it back they closed my account..whatthe hell is this, what legal steps shoould be taken for this website, , i am goinf to clain to lawyer billion dollars clain on freelancer for making my account closed in which my project was about to be finish...

Freelancer.com closed our account with 500+ reviews, including some of milestone, they don't respond from the support or customer support emails

Freelancer is just a scam, they closed my account with no reason and to top it off they ripped off my payments that I waiting to withdraw, move to upwork or 99designs or elance, they are better than this scam company.

Just today I made a similar experience. Freelancer.com seems to be a scam. They have closed my account while I was running a project. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY THEY ARE CHEATING YOU! After I have paid the necessary fee, they just took off my account.

I had around $500+ in my account and monday night (IST) was suppose to me my withdrawal, and these people just closed my account like that. First of all, no warnings were issues, obviously why would they do it, they want to eat the money!
Bloody losers have just closed the account and as always they say" we offer no recourse for this" i mean really? What the hell. Atleast let the person know. and If i am earning good, why in the world would I do anything which would lead into such circumstances.

My account also has been closed with 1900 USD worth of milestones from our clients. Plus $500 worth of withdrawable funds... they closed our account without notifying us the reasons why. this happened twice already. at first they froze $300 worth or funds from us, their reason is that, we are not verified. after we verified the account still our money was frozen... now the second time, they scammed us again... For all freelancers out there. Be careful with your money... Don't use freelancer.com.. they are scammers.

My Account also closed, I dont Know why, I pay for upgrade Member ship also, Freelancer.com is scam, Dont waste money & Time for This kind of website .

Thanks
Tharanga

this site is BIG fraud, i think they steam people money, i am a bit scared,

they stole my 1000 USD, client released money, they blocked my account and my client too, after that my client runaway saying i am scammer, i dont know what they did, but yes i know they are bigfckng robbers, i wish to reach matt and sue him.

this site is just SCAM SCAM SCAM, STAY AWAY

Same here, 60 USD are stolen.

Dear all,

This freelancer is a big cheat, it does not favor the freelancers, they are bias.

My account DISHANIMJE has been made limited by the freelancer support system, just because the client has made a complaint against me that the project is not complete.

In real the client has not provided me the 3rd party approvals which are necessary for the completion of the project. It was always client side responsibility to provide the approvals for smooth development.

I have explained this to the client and freelancer support system several times but they are not understanding it.They are continues pressurizing me to refund the money...Why should i do that, i have worked hard to complete milestones and because of that the client has released milestone money.

I am committed to complete this project, i need approvals..my account has been made limited i cant even withdraw money..Life is hard and nobody is understanding it on freelancer..

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

My Freelancer account is closed with 22k INR and 450 GBP total money in INR was 62K. How can i get my account back

Me too, I also stolen 23, 200$ from them.
Freelancer Site is really Spam Site. I can't believe Why freelancer site is existed. This site is really SPAM SITE, DIRTY SITE.
We must give STRONG Stress to them. It's time to punish them, distory them.
Until now, they close our account But now we start to close their Website.

They closed my account for no reason, saying I signed up for a second account, even though I never did. Luckily, I had no money owed at the time...they sound like a bunch of scammers.

FREELANCER.COM are thieves, there is no other word to describe that company. I do not even know how they are allowed to operate like that. They are basically stealing money from people. They took money from my credit card several times without my consent that means they are storing people's credit card details even though that's completely illegal. Just look at the CEO Matt Barry he looks like a gangster. Do not use that company it's a total scam. They take money when you create deposit money, when you create a project, when you create a milestone and when you release a milestone. On the top of that they close people's accounts and keep the money, they steal money from people's credit cards. No wonder it's valuated in billions since they steal from their users up to the last penny. Furthermore, if they close your account they will keep the money because they do not give it to the freelancer nor the employer. Buch of thieves.

Exactly the same. Freelancer.com has turned into a total nightmare for me and I wish I had not wasted the past year of my life. I am a Front End Developer in Melbourne - in my professional world I was already earning $65 per hour for my work at 24 years old - so I was not fooling around. I decided to go on freelancer when I left work to have my baby at 30, the perfect maternity and small baby situation right? WRONG.

In the last year because of freelancer.com I have had my computer hacked, then I was cyber STALKED by an insane employer, asked to do god knows how many bizarre adult related "projects" and then was finally ripped off by freelancer themselves.

The two most serious things were the stalking and the final rip off.

1) The stalker came in the form of a client. As I started building their website and communicating with them over chat. I started to realise that there was something wrong. They would not give me clear direction or content, got really personal, and would not wrap up anything - then changing their minds on completed parts and asking for crazy crazy new things like x3 running blogs about suicide on one page… WTF

The clincher was when I had finally completed the all work (and new made up unpaid tasks) they said they would not pay for the completed project until I met them in person and trained them on websites. When things got out of hand, such as 15 long personal messages from them a night, I asked freelancer to help me. They told me to stop making contact with the person for safety reasons and that they would assist me.

What happened instead was they did nothing at all. The stalker client then filed a complaint against me for the first milestone, which had well and truly been completed and paid. The person then dragged out the dispute/complaint as they would not pay the dispute fee. After 8 days of non-stop messaging and abuse, having my account and finances frozen, the stalker saying they would find me in my city, the client stalker then changed tact and settled on paying the nominal first milestone.

Freelancer automatically allowed for them to cancel the rest of the completed website project, leaving me out of pocket hundreds of dollars, and let this total crackpot leave a review on my profile page – but I could not review, dispute or do anything in return. This person had not verified their identity and had only been on freelancer for 3 weeks. They still would not help me, despite my working consistently for a year with many reviews and verified everything. I had earned them hundreds if not more in that time.

I was upset but thought hey, all of my other reviews are 5 stars and normal so I will just get on with it and accept I might get a crazy client sometimes. So I tightened up my briefing and milestone process, and tried to carry on.

2) The final rip off. Obviously work then slowed down as my profile was now an insane persons essay casting fabricated aspersions against me. It didn’t matter about all the other good reviews, that one was right up the top. After thinking about what I could do, one of my regular real world clients that I had an established working relationship offered to do the next job with me through freelancer so they could review my work. It went really well.

After this experience I directed a two new clients (who found me via my professional website) to freelancer.com so we could do the work over freelancer.com, and I could get new kudos on my damaged profile. Plus they could find other resources like ongoing SEO services.

Some time later, since things were looking up and I had my ratings back to normal and was getting good leads and stats again - I thought I should apply for the preferred freelancer program. Now what has happened is that my account has been frozen, money held, and they want to know the relationship that I have with those referred clients. About 99% sure I am about to have my profile deleted, whilst I am in the middle of other projects and have money in my account.

So to freelancer it seems mighty funny that you only have security concerns when you can take project money, but will do literally nothing to hep someone being harassed and stalked if you can’t make cash out of it.

And there is no point emailing them directly. You get a different person every time that gives you an automated cut and paste response that has nothing to do with your issue.

Freelancer.com is the worst. Totally crooked.

Freelancer.com is totally a scam. It was designed to get as much as money as possible. Conversion rates are too low and they will remove money from your withdrawals to delay your withdrawal. But today, they close my account for no reason. I completed 4 projects and "BOOM" when I login it says that my account was close. Hmmp that's 512USD, I'm staying away from this scam site.

Hi, all. I have gone through all the posts and totally agree with all of them.
I also got my account closed and lost $1400 in earnings. They just stole my money by closing my account without any reason. It was my only account and one of the major income sources. So, I did my best to keep all the rules of the site. How could I violate it? My account username: proitstar and work email is yuguobinproitstar@outlook.com. I have already sent emails to the support team to ask to send my money back to my Paypal several hundred times. However, they just simply ignored and never replied to me.
I also heard from tens of my colleagues(Chinese) that their accounts also closed and all the money lost.
Freelancer support team, I strongly ask you to send my earning back to me.

Hello.

The same problem for me.
Just got the reply from support:

"You accepted our Terms and Conditions when you signed up as a user on the Freelancer website. It has come to our attention that you have participated in activities that may harm the business operation or reputation of Freelancer. We have closed your account for this reason."

Don't know what "activities" they mean :-(

The main problem is that account balance contains over 2000$ and support dont want to get my money back. This is some kind of theft.

Hello Freelancer Support Teams,

I send thIs LAST email to you!

On 27th of January, suddenly I couldn't login to Freelancer.com and saw notification as “This account has been closed. Please contact support for more assistance.”
I couldn’t understand what I did wrong and violated the rules of terms and services.
So, I contacted your 3 Support Teams much times, you didn’t any explain what I did wrong and violated the rules of terms and services.
To be honest, I think it is professional and honest that you should have to explain what I did wrong and then close my account even if I do the violated actions again.
But you didn’t explain what I did wrong and closed my account without any alert and have been avoiding it even now.

Well, if you don’t want to explain any reason and no willing to restore my account, you should have to get back my money.
There is 372.04USD in my account, and it is all that I worked very hard and earned. You can know it is legal money if you contact all clients related to current balance. Your Freelancer.com always say that clients are always right and it is the best way to negotiate with clients and resolve the problem. So, contact clients related to current balance and give me back my money. All clients will prove my skills and honest work.
You don’t right to steal my legal money.
Please give me back my money 372USD.
I hope your Freelancer.com give me back my money 372USD and we will end peacefully.

Thank you.
Regards

On 27th of January, suddenly I couldn't login to Freelancer.com and saw notification as “This account has been closed. Please contact support for more assistance.”

I couldn’t understand what I did wrong and what I violated the rules of terms and services.
So I sent emails to 4 Freelancer Support Teams, account-interview at freelancer.com, support at freelancer.com, support at cx.freelancer.com and success at freelancer.com, as well sent ticket on https://www.freelancer.com/support/profile/can-i-reopen-my-closed-account?keyword=account%20closed.
I asked them what I did wrong and if there was something what I did wrong, I apologized for that action and I will not do that action again.
But they didn’t explain anything and push responsibilities to other support team each other. I sent emails and tickets to 5 Support Teams as above 10+ times, but they didn’t explain anything and now don’t even reply at all.

To be honest, if they are legal and honest, they should have to explain what I did wrong and then close my account even if I do the violated actions again.
But you didn’t explain what I did wrong and closed my account without any alert and have been avoiding now.

So, I sent emails and tickets several times, “If you don’t want to explain any reason and no willing to restore my account, you should have to get my money back. There was 372USD in my account, and it was all that I worked very hard and earned. You can confirm that it is legal money if you contact all clients related to current balance. Your Freelancer.com always say that clients are always right and it is the best way to negotiate with clients and resolve the problem. So, contact clients related to current balance and give my money back to me. All clients will prove my skills and honest work. You don’t right to steal my legal money. Please give my money 372USD back to me.”

Now they don’t reply at all. 5 Support Teams not reply, only auto reply from ticket management robot.

At first, I didn’t believe the articles here, but now I am sure that all articles here are right and Freelancer.com is the worst Spam, Thieves site!

They are already addicted to steal money for free. If they steal 300USD per man for 10, 000 persons, they will steal 3 million USD easily. They are addicted for stealing free money easily from 2012.
I don’t understand how such illegal thieves site are exist in public.

Freelancer.com should have to get all moneys back to closed account’s owner even though they are not willing to restore accounts.

In my experience, even though you contact Freelancer.com Support, you will not have any good news and will waste your time.
In my case, they have shifted their responsibility to another support department each other for a long time and at last they did not reply anymore after a while.
I sent emails to 4 Freelancer Support Teams, account-interview@freelancer.com, support@freelancer.com, support@cx.freelancer.com, success@freelancer.com, as well sent ticket on https://www.freelancer.com/support/profile/can-i-reopen-my-closed-account?keyword=account%20closed.
I asked them what I did wrong and if there was something what I did wrong, I apologized for that action and I will not do that action again.
But they didn’t explain anything and push responsibilities to other support team each other. I sent emails and tickets to 5 Support Teams as above 10+ times, but they didn’t explain anything and now don’t even reply at all.
They are thieves and cheaters, and already was addicted to steal money and earn easily since 2012!

They did same thing to me.
Who was that person filing lawsuit, please share the website link, I have some good proof and also my client's testimony and all, they need to be held accountable and pay up. This is a big scam and must be uncovered. I am already emailing everyone I find on this and other portals, many people are angry at freelancer for this.
Freelancer.com is one of the biggest scam running wild on internet.

Hey, All of you just calm down. I am too user of it from 201 and uptill now I have no issue and had done just only 500$ work with 5 to 6 clients and positive feedback from all. While some are still hired me for future work. I would like to tell you guys I was too banned by them, because I use my son's pc to login and see some updates for work many times. They got it up and they broken both of are skull's, as my so also freelancer and worked many time and earned 100%, so they usually ask some questions and you have to answered honestly bravely and true and also logical ;-) then there is no one also not thiwer grands can stop to recontinue your accounts. Thanks also they took some documentation to check we are relatives or not, But I feel great to answer their questions.

Does anyone have a success story about getting their account reinstated and money back? I have a similar story... Did one job, client released about $1000 and gave me a 5 star review about 5 months back. Went to sign into my account to get the funds out to discover it had been cancelled and some unknown reason. No emails, no warning.