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ef492be2
Community Member

How do I report a freelancer is providing illegal service and violating federal law?

I tried to report but the only way is talking to a bot.

I found a freelancer is violating federal law and now my lawyer is preparing all the documents to file a lawsuit against him and the company he is representing.

Anyways to stop him from committing a crime before we get the court notice and we have all the evidence.

ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Chun Tai and others,

 

Since this is a public Community we won't be able to share details about this case. We also do not allow posting names of persons or companies (or other identifying information) in an accusation of misconduct, incompetence or other wrongdoing. 

This thread will be closed from further replies and we'll continue assisting Chun Tai directly via the support ticket.

~ Valeria
Upwork

View solution in original post

16 REPLIES 16
petra_r
Community Member


Chun Tai C wrote:

 

I found a freelancer is violating federal law and now my lawyer is preparing all the documents to file a lawsuit against him and the company he is representing.

 


Is he in the same jurisdiction (state and country) as you are?

 

Without too much detail, which law is the freelancer allegedly breaking and how are you connected with that?

 

 

ef492be2
Community Member

No, he is from Pakistan but he is providing illegal service online for an American company.

He is violating Section 512(f) of the DMCA.

 


Chun Tai C wrote:

No, he is from Pakistan but he is providing illegal service online for an American company.

He is violating Section 512(f) of the DMCA.

 


While I understand your frustration, I can pretty much guarantee that the time and expense of a lawsuit against someone in a foreign country wil far outweigh anything you'd ever be able to collect from them. Especially since Pakistan might not even have an equivalent to the DMCA.

 

Your best bet is to close the contract, leave appropriate feedback, and block the freelancer.

The thing is, he is providing illegal and unethical work now on upwork platform. So upwork won`t do anything if I provide information?

petra_r
Community Member

Has your lawyer explained to you how much it will cost you to try and bring any legal action to someone in a country far, far away and how your chances of seeing any of that back are very slim indeed?

 

To be honest, I am really worried that your lawyer might be doing what you say he/she is doing considering how expensive this is for you and how minimal your chances are of recovering any of the money it will cost you. Are you sure you are being well represented?

 

There is also no "crime" -  criminal law does not concern itself with DMCA matters.

Are you sure your "lawyer is preparing all the documents to file a lawsuit against him and the company he is representing." at all?

 

 

 

ef492be2
Community Member

Yes, DCMA fraud can end up in jail. We will take this to court first. Because the company using him is located in the US.

The cost is not the matter, we need to solve the problem. We can not let these people stop our business. We are the original creative and patent owner. We can not let False DMCA report take down a legitimate company.

99.5% of DMCA report submitted to google are generated by bots and most of them are a fraud. This is outrageous. 

And we hope upwork will not facilitate this kind of crime just because the cost is high to us or the guy is not in the states.

 

ef492be2
Community Member

Sorry that I have another question, what happened to the Miss L reply? My reply was also deleted. She questioned my name because I am from China and she was implying that I infringed other`s copyright because other people report on us. I don`t understand the logic here. She doesn't know that DMCA has been used maliciously for years.

Chun Tai and others,

 

Some posts have been removed from this thread for Community Guidelines

~ Valeria
Upwork


Chun Tai C wrote:

Sorry that I have another question, what happened to the Miss L reply? My reply was also deleted. She questioned my name because I am from China and she was implying that I infringed other`s copyright because other people report on us. I don`t understand the logic here. She doesn't know that DMCA has been used maliciously for years.


_________________

I am not allowed to comment as to why our posts were removed, but you really are going to have a problem in China, suing a freelancer in Pakistan in an American court, but maybe you have the money for this. Good luck with it. 

We need to do everything to stop them from doing these illegal things here. We will start by suing the company he works for and any platforms facilitating the crime first. I have to do this and Miss L, not everything is all about money, do you ever think about just? My sister is a registered IP lawyer in LA. She will do the job.

Miss L, please be kind to people and only focus on facts not prejudice. 

ef492be2
Community Member

We are the victim of this work. 

re: "We are the victim of this work."

 

Whether you are the victim of his work, or disatisfied with your experience hiring him, or anything else... Does not change the fact that you don't have a deep understanding of the laws he is subject to, and there is really no practical, affordable way that you can pursue this in court.

 

You are talking about something that happened on Upwork.

The place for you to handle things is on Upwork, within the framework and policies that Upwork has set up.


There are LOTS of things a client can do here. Take advantage of these tools and opportunties to pursue matters here.

 

If you want to go a legal route, then you may choose to do so. But there is no tool or button within Upwork that lets you do that. There is a tool that lets you download spending reports (for example). But there is no tool or button within the Upwork user interface that lets you initiate the arrest of a freelancer or file a suit against a freelancer.

Thanks, I get that. I thought it was worth a try on reporting on this platform. And thanks for the heads up that I don`t have a deep understanding of the laws he is subject to. 

So illegal things that are happening on upwork but not mentioned in the policy or framework turns out to be just fine.

I naively thought community Guru is upwork official people. The original question was where to report.

Chun Tai and others,

 

Since this is a public Community we won't be able to share details about this case. We also do not allow posting names of persons or companies (or other identifying information) in an accusation of misconduct, incompetence or other wrongdoing. 

This thread will be closed from further replies and we'll continue assisting Chun Tai directly via the support ticket.

~ Valeria
Upwork
kochubei_valeria
Community Member

Hi Chun Tai,

 

I see you have already submitted a support request about this issue. However, we would need more information to further investigate this and assist you better. Could you please share more information and include a link to the freelancer's profile in the ticket #26041103 that you have with our team?

 

Thanks!

 

*Edited to add: A couple of posts have been removed from this thread for Community Guidelines

~ Valeria
Upwork

will do it right now. thank you!

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