Freelancer.com
Reviews and Complaints

I hired a freelancer, first time in two years, I then created a milestone. The freelancer completed the work and I tried to release the milestone. It then said the money can't be released because I need to do a kyc. Note: they already charged my card. I completed the kyc and they still refused to release the payment. Three weeks went by and the freelancer was contacted me constantly, I tried to get him the money by some other means. I then wrote a long request to support begging them to let me pay the freelancer. Freelancer.com then suspended my account, still have not paid out the freelancer. Meanwhile my card has been charged.

The story start when i used the wifi of the space work,
Me and my colleague used the same wifi this day, so after that my colleague have a project so he hire me on freelancer, and i don't see anything wrong since my colleague have his account from years ago and he was working in freelancer for a while, and same for me having more than 20 project with more then 1000 $ earning and that was the first time we used the same wifi, after i complete the project and he paid me in freelancer, i get my account limited .
First the advisor say you have two account but since we both have kyc and checked our identity, we totally two different person, and i asked the advisor for which term you limited my account, he cancel the project and respond with Fraud section with" false feedback", so this made me confused because the project first 80 euro, so if i want false reviews isn't logic to just start project with 30 euro so i can make more review this doesn't make since, also in the terms of freelancer you can even refarral your friends and work with 0 fee, the terms here contradictory so how you can invite your friends then when you get good feedback the advisor limited your account and say its false feedback we have to suspend your account .
To just clear more i even don't referral my colleague i even know him just this month, so we used freelancer like trusted environnement and that's what i get suspended account for 80 euro .
I was trying to explain to the advisor the situation, he just keep threatening me, without any good reason for that
Freelancer now its just suspend freelancer accounts without reasons, and you can't even justify anything to anyone, having very bad support doesn't even know how to speak with you treating you like slave .

my username in freelancer : khalilcool

I got a data entry work and they asked me to pay 30$ to continue further and i paid but they didn't reply any of my mail and i even submitted my work. I maided them again for 3-4 timed but they didn't respond. I lost my 30$ just becuse of your carelessness.Freelancer.com should work on this problem not only me many others are getting scammed daily through your platform. You guys don't care about people you guys just want people to use your platform.

Today is 11th November, 2021.

I opened an account an account on 10th November, I flouted a rule of freelancer without actually intending to. It was out of ignorance. They blocked my account. I didn't know why and they kept referring me to the terms and conditions which I didn't read completely before I agreed to.
I accepted my fate and opened another account, this time with the aim to be more careful, I was surprised that it got blocked as well in less than an hour of setting up, and the customer care person by name Radley C., told me that it was closely linked to a previously blocked account.

So I was angry because I spent money upgrading the account already and taking certification tests and time editing my profile too.

My question for freelancer is, would they have preferred me to disguise (this is fraudulent) and register as a new member with details that aren't really mine?

Another question is, if someone's account gets closed once out of ignorance or whatsoever reason, does it mean the person cannot work on freelancer platform anymore ever again?

I need explanations because the customer care replies are like robots, like automated messages, not like they actually are versatile enough to go into details.
I would be lying if I said I was finding this whole situation funny or taking it lightly!

Freelancer.com closed my account without any notice when i have released milestone payment, lost 500euro, project work not finished and had more money left in my account, have asked why they closed, got automated email answer without any explanation and no any word about money return. Terrible service, i recommend don't use them, stay away from Freelancer.com.

Every bid I ever placed on Freelancer.com since may 2021 (time, when I registered) I've only had offers from scammers. They ask a communication via other sites (WhatsApp, Gmail etc..) and then ask you to pay for the job first and then get the "job". It's totally not okay and not professional. You must have a way to filter the scammers. I'm closing my account anyways. It's a big waste of time and effort.

I want to tell you a full story about me . I opened this freelancer account in august 2017 by providing my government provided id. At that time my name was written A Ajay in my all document and the freelancer accepted it and verified my id successfully . 46 days ago one of my employer from australia asked me to put complete name to my profile because the profile name was showing A.A with his request i have tried to edit my name and i was asked to verify my identity on that time to change the full Name .as per the freelancer policy i have submitted the same documents which i provided in 2017 unfortunately they decline my verification and asked me to resubmit the document which has Full Name. so i went to pan office and requested them to update name name which is Allumalla Ajay existing document has A Ajay after one month they updated the id and provided me electronic copy of my pan card . when i submitted the pan into freelancer again they rejected and asked me to put passport for more clarification, so i have contacted with freelancer support and informed them i have no passport and in indian passport is not mandatory for every citizen they suggested me i can submit another document which have full name. i have submitted my National indian ID proof which was aadhaar card the verification center has again declined my verification and asking me to provide passport.

My document which is 100% genuine and in india Aadhaar card is our national id which was rejected by freelancer.com.

I think Freelancer's financial statements should be analyzed to determine how much revenue they make in interest earned through wrongly holding people's funds while suspending their accounts. I am a buyer, not a freelancer, and I "released" full payment for a job well done, yet Freelancer is holding the funds until I "verify" my account with deeply personal information. They should have warned me about this sneaky policy before accepting my money. There is no logical reason for the policy to apply to buyers, especially after they verified my Visa payment, and I never would have hired someone via their site if I had known they'd hold my money for the ransom of my personal data. I think they should be investigated in terms of what they do with all that personal data that they collect unnecessarily. Upwork does not require this and it's a fabulous platform that I've used many times. I suggest everyone move to Upwork. I am asking Visa to help me dispute this and I will also contact a lawyer.

Dear Team Complain Regarding Digimuse,

On 14th October 2021 my client informed me related to this theft of portfolio, that the project we currently working on since many years is used as a portfolio on a company digimuse on your domain freelancer.com. Since we are developing exclusively for several years and there is no other freelancer or agency involved, this is why the information posted on his profile is false. He is using two of our exclusive projects as his own projects. Since we know that these two are no his projects, perhaps other listed items in his portfolio are also fake.

We are very angry about this theft of our work credit and we want this account to be terminated or down and the content to be removed as well for both the projects, which is also our project and is shown at their profile..

To resolve the problem, I would appreciate a written apology from digimuse and removal of our projects. If you require any information regarding the confirmation feel free to contact me on my email address or this my personal account. I can also get you an email from a client email address which can be [protected].

I am looking forward to your reply and a resolution to my problem. I will wait until 48hours from this email before seeking help from a consumer protection agency or other assistance.

Sincerely,
Maaz Bin Ibrahim

I hired a freelancer through freelancer.com in Feb 2020 to finish a project (Online Doctor/Nurse/Hospital Appointment Booking Portal)
within 120 days, and I hired a co-pilot from freelancer.com to follow up on the project.
The freelancer did not finish what we deal and he takes 549 days and didn't complete the project until now. I contacted freelancer.com
support, but they didn't take any serious action and keep ignoring my demands and closing support tickets.
I paid until now 14, 050USD for the freelancer and for freelancer.com co-pilot around 5000USD, plus my loss of payment gateway
and SMS gateway monthly subscribe 1000USD monthly.

Hello,
My Freelancer account username is: sumonst21
the email address associated with your Freelancer.com account: developer.[protected]@gmail.com
the date you last used your Freelancer.com account: 2 October 2021

Ticket ID: WLZB-1450-GAIO

Its been more than a week now.

They have closed my account without notice stating that I have violated rules. I have inquired several time as to what I have done wrong and they have not responded. It's very frustrating when you have been with them for a long period of time and this happens. I had projects in the works and money to be paid for work being done. Very disappointed with them and their customer service is terrible.

Im new to Freelancer.com and was scammed to do this data entry job. I saw another complaint on the website and abciously the sceme keeps on working and nobody is doing anything to stop these people!

They contacted me on email, saying I need to pay $30 to receive the pdf pages that have to be typed in notes. I was stupid to send the deposit on PayPal.

This this the exact message :
"You can start working with us by depositing the security of $30 as per the Plan P1 or $50 USD as per the planP2 or $65 USD as per the plan P3 or $85 as per the plan P4 in ours PAYPAL a/c which is [protected]@gmail.com and mention in the notes THAT THE PAYMENT IS NOT FOR SHIPPING ANY PRODUCT otherwise no work will be allotted to you or in ours ADVCASH A/C WHICH IS [protected]@gmail.com or in ours perfect money a/c which is U24770180 or in ours PAYEER A/C which is P1057369714
.IF YOU RAISE ANY ISSUE IN PAYPAL AFTER SENDING THE SECURITY NO PAYMENT WILL BE RELEASED FOR THE WORK COMPLETED BY YOU.

YOU CAN USE ANY ONLINE LOCAL EXCHANGER IN YOURS COUNTRY TO TRANSFER THE SECURITY IN OURS ADVCASH OR PERFECT MONEY OR PAYEER A/C.

You will get the payment in yours bank a/c in yours local currency equivalent to USD or in yours perfect money a/c or in yours advcash a/c in whichever you want within 24 hrs of the submission of project in yours local currency equivalent to USD."

These are some of the emails they use.
The freelancer acc was : geooxvmtdwmaon
which is now of course closed, but they operate with different and emails.

I hope someone checks and does something to stop this scheme!

Hello Freelancer support. I sent all the required documents for verification and all were successful apart from proof of address. I sent my bank statement, utility bill and also my tenancy agreement and still verification failed. I contacted verification center through message board and got no answer. I also created several tickets but still got suspended. I have over $700 in my account which I totally depend on. Kindly assist.
My username is thoronjobrian2
Email is: [protected]@gmail.com

i complete my work on the deadline and on the best accuracy and i pay them security charge and agreement charge which is 1000rs but after my work report is come that said i am capable for getting my salary and when i am asking for my salary they said you want to also paid us 3599 rs otherwise we can't give you your salary i pay them 1000 rs already and they can't satisfing to give my security refund also after submitting work

I am totally new to freelancer and any freelancing job so I accepted a job which asked for ₹1600inr security deposit which turned out to be a fraud.. As i've already paid it.. Please help me to refund my money.. The money was sent through paytm and the upi id is [protected]@axisbank... The email is [protected]@gmail.com...I sent mail from another email and they replied me and offered me the same thing but mentioned another email and payment details...I am really frustrated and really wish they could be arrested..I attached some of my conversations and payment with this user

I placed a bid on project "PDF to WORD conversion"
I got message on freelancer as: "Data entry project availaible Message us on whatsapp7081184268 Copy this number and save it in contact as SoftTech Solution and then send us hi on whatsapp. Do it now before we give this work to other freelancer"
The brief whatsapp chat was as follows:

Hello Freelancer,

We require data entry workers for our E-Book project. Large number of books are converted into Ebooks regularly. This is a typing project and requires 3-5 hours of work per day. We receive these projects from our clients in India, Canada and UK.

Typing Works of reputed publication houses. Before we proceed I must want to clear you. For some safety and work assurance purpose You have to deposit a security fund for this work. If you still want to work with us kindly Reply Us."

Total Number Of Pages- 1800.
Rate Per Page- 750 RS
Deadline- Here You don't have to worry about deadline as It's a Long Term Project we need 24 Pages on every 7 Days.

Payment Cycle- We will Pay You On Every 24 Page.

Security Deposit- 1000INR, It will be refund to you when you complete our first 24 Pages, We will Just take a Review of your Work and refund You.

Accuracy- 95%

See payment proofs, Refund proof and See sample of project for your assurance you will also get receipt of your deposit with project

If you are ready to deposit security and proceed tell me now otherwise am giving this project to other freelancer"

I replied as I got the message mentioned above and proceed for the project.
Whatsapp chat continued as follows:
"In which software I've to work whether Google docs or provided by you please?"

I got the project after sending Security Deposit 1000 INR in the Client's mentioned bank. He/She gave me 24 images to type as it is in notepad++ & Word.
Then I sent him/her the work that the client required as shown before.
But after completing and sending the mentioned 24 images which I typed in the mentioned 'notepad++' & 'MS Word' which was required, the client didn't replied me at all.
The client saw all messages sent by me on his/her whatsapp chats, but no reply at all. After this, I understood that I got scammed by this client and lost 1000 INR also from this client named "SoftTech Solutions"

I got question from this client that "How to avoid or trace and treat such scammers through legit website freelancer.com
The screen record video of whatsapp chat is attached in brief.
Additionally the work done in notepad++ and MS Word is attached also.

Hi! I was scammed of 3395 INR by different accounts who closed it immediately once i got suspicious cause they kept asking me to pay them security deposits and stuff like that. They came up with a fake project. Please do look into it ASAP and refund my amount. I had taken screenshot of one of the accounts.

i have work a lot and i win a contest after i withdraw my account to paypal they decided to close my account without warning i try to contact them via email and there is no response please dont ever use freelancer.com they doesn't care about freelancer at all

I put ad on freelancer.com to find someone who can develope my website. I got approached by 2 different people. First one took my $100 milestone and kept it and would not release it even when freelancer would ask him to do. He was poor from Pakistan with no electricity to work on my site. He dragged the work for few months & did not even start coding. I needed to stop the unfinished project he kept asking me not to do that freelancer will remove him. Lots of scammers are not qualified as web designers or developers. Please get my hard earned $ back. I still to this date 7-21-21 do not have any website. No money made. 1 year & half waiting for one website.