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e6a53492
Community Member

I have been scammed by a contractor and Upwork is not helping me.

I hire a contractor in 2017 to do a little work on my website.  I have not had any communication with him since 2017. I have not hired him to do any more work of any kind.  Out of the blue two weeks ago, he submitted a fraudulent work diary and I was charged.  The work inside of the work diary CLEARLY is not mine and has nothing to do with my company.  My company sells tents and the work inside the work diary is in another language and is promoting cameras. I immediately filed a dispute.  Upwork went ahead and paid him anyway. Upwork basically said they don't monitor the "quality" of the work.  He filed another fraudulent work diary this week.  I have reached out to Upwork many times about this.  I have done everything I am supposed to do by requesting a refund and filing disputes.  Upwork needs to protect me and refund my money from this con artist.  I need help!!

23 REPLIES 23
BojanS
Community Manager
Community Manager

Sorry to hear about your experience, Wendy.

 

It looks like you have an open ticket with our team about this case. Please consider following up on your ticket and kindly communicate with our team through that ticket if you have any questions, in order to keep all the information in one place.

 

Thank you!

 

 

~ Bojan
Upwork
e6a53492
Community Member

I have two tickets for the same contractor. The first one is *closed *and
the *contractor was paid and I was charged*. Even though I immediately
informed Upwork the work inside of the diary is not for my company and I
have not hired this contractor to do any work since 2017. The contractor
is currently suspended and his profile no longer exists. I need help to
get my money back.
e6a53492
Community Member

image (6).pngSo.....Brian here is where things are at as of right now.  I did as you asked and tried working with the support team on these fraudulent charges through and refund request disputes.  The contractor was paid for the fraudulent hours anyway.  When I contact the support team on the phone now, the support person has a look at the file and replies "this is very disappointing and shameful" how this was handled".   However, there is nothing we can do.  Since all of this "shame" and "disappointment" has not catapulted any of the multiple support employees I have reached out to one the phone, through chat, filings of disputes and request for refunds I had no choice but to file disputes with my credit card company. No One will help me they all "pass the buck once they realize Upwork made the mistake. Please see below my current email exchanges with the Upwork collection department:

 

**Edited for community guidelines**

BojanS
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Wendy,

 

I'm sorry for the trouble this may have caused you. A member of our team will reach out to you shortly to assist you with this concern further. 

 

Thank you for your patience. 

~ Bojan
Upwork
e6a53492
Community Member

Yes, I keep hearing this same thing over and over. The Upwork gets back to me saying I am liable for the fraudulent charges. My treatment by Upwork has been despicable. To make this whole thing more simple it’s like the following:

Let’s say you are a vegetarian. In 2017 you stopped into McDonalds an ordered a salad and paid with credit card. In 2019 a charge shows up on your card for 500 Big Macs. You did not order these Big Macs or receive the Big Macs. You endlessly call McDonalds to tell them the situation. You file for a refund with McDonalds immediately as well as file a dispute with IRREFUTABLE evidence you did not order or receive the Big Macs. McDonalds says “yes we know you did not buy the Big Macs, but too bad you still have to pay. We know we made a mistake but we have no mechanism to correct the mistake. Maybe you should learn to like meat”.

Wendy:

You hired a freelancer through Upwork.

That freelancer scammed you by logging time on a contract that you left open for a long time after the work was done.

 

Upwork took extreme action against that freelancer, by removing her from the platform.

 

But that freelancer is the one who has the money you paid to her. Upwork doesn't have your money.

 

You went outside of the Upwork system and you filed a chargeback with your credit card company.

 

By doing that, you abandoned Upwork's processes. It is Upwork's standard policy to suspend the accounts of users who do that. It is the same policy you would have if you had a comparable business.

 

I'm sorry that you had a bad experience while using Upwork.

 

I don't blame you if you are disappointed in what happened. I don't blame you if you think it is unfair.

But all of the Upwork Customer Support representatives you have been dealing with have been following their company's policies to the best of their ability.

 

Had you continued to work within the Upwork system, the matter might have been escalated to somebody who could help you more in a definitive way. Filing a chargeback may make that less likely.

 

If you filed a chargeback on the recent charges, and the credit card company issues your money back to you, wouldn't that mean you accomplished your goals? To get the money back that the freelancer was paid for time spent working on somebody else's project?

 

With the money heading your way now due to the chargeback you filed, Upwork is not going to send you more money. You would end up getting not only a refund, but you would actually make money off of the incident.

 

Is there a reason that you don't want to simply part ways with Upwork at this point? Rather than hang around while they ask you to pay back the chargeback amount?

Hourly Payment Protection for Clients

- You can monitor your freelancer's Work Diary

to see work-in-progress snapshots and confirm what work is being
invoiced to you
- If your freelancer logs hours not related to your project you can file
a dispute

for
the previous week's hours. You will be refunded for any hours that do not
qualify for Hourly Protection

- Upwork Hourly Protection doesn’t apply to bonuses, manual time, or
fixed-price projects. See the Upwork Terms of Service
and Hourly Escrow Instructions
for full terms and
conditions

Yes, Wendy.

 

They made a mistake.

 

A freelancer logged time on a different project.

 

The Upwork employee who looked at those hours did not judge those screenshots to be a project different than your project. And thus she made a mistake and did not click the button to have those hours refunded to you.

 

Upwork kicked the freelancer off the platform. You filed a chargeback to get your money back. What else is it that you want Upwork to do?

A moment ago you chastized me for filing a dispute with my credit card
company? Now you seem fine with this action? I would like like to not
have to dispute this through my credit card company. I would like Upwork
to do the right thing because they made the mistake invoke their own policy
of Hourly Payment Protection. Since Upwork is aware it was their mistake
why are they making me dispute it through my credit card company? I would
like my account immediately put back in good standing, as it deserves.

One last thing is there a reason why you have taken this outside of the
community board? Surely all others who responded to me are interested in
the outcome and your comments to me?

I look forward to your resonce.

Wendy

re: "A moment ago you chastized me for filing a dispute with my credit card company? Now you seem fine with this action?"

 

I'm not "fine" or "not fine."

I don't work for Upwork.

 

I'm simply aware of what their policy is and pointed out that the chargeback changes how Upwork is able to work with you. I am aware that Upwork suspends the accounts of users who do chargebacks.

 

re: "I would like Upwork to do the right thing because they made the mistake invoke their own policy of Hourly Payment Protection. Since Upwork is aware it was their mistake why are they making me dispute it through my credit card company?"

 

You already filed the chargeback with your credit card company. You felt backed into that corner because Upwork didn't refund the money billed by the freelancer. I understand that.

 

re: "I would like my account immediately put back in good standing, as it deserves."

 

Upwork may actually be glad to hear that. Maybe if they think about it for a minute, and consider that the fact that you're not a scammer, they would consider reinstating your account. I have no idea. It's not my call.

 

I'm sure you understand if Upwork is a little paranoid about working with users who do chargebacks. They have to deal with a lot of scammers who try to use chargebacks to steal money from them, and from freelancers. Don't take it personally that your account was suspended. That's the policy.

 

Now that you're pointing out that your goal isn't to get Upwork to refund the money to you that the credit card company is refunding to you, and thus get a double-refund... and that the main thing you want now is to have your account reinstated... I think it is something Upwork should consider. Even if it means making an exception to their rule.

 

re: "One last thing is there a reason why you have taken this outside of the community board? Surely all others who responded to me are interested in the outcome and your comments to me?"

 

Is this last question addressed to somebody else? I'm not sure what you're talking about. I think you might be getting me confused with a Forum Moderator.

AveryO
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Wendy, 

 

I understand your frustration, and I'm sorry that this has been an inconvenience for you. Please know that the team is reviewing your case further, and will reach out to you once they have completed their review. As this is a public community, I am unable to share more information about your case as this is against our privacy policy. Please expect an update from the team with more information about your account. 


~ Avery
Upwork
prestonhunter
Community Member

Wendy:

I'm certain Upwork will get to the bottom of this and straighten things out.

 

But this doesn't sound like a "scam."

 

It sounds like a bug or an unintentional mistake.

 

If you closed the contract (which is of course what you should have done) then there would literally be no possible way for the freelancer to "scam" you. The only thing the freelancer could be doing would be logging time normally and for some reason that time is being billed to your account.

 

If you did NOT close the contract, then it is theoretically possible that the freelancer is logging time for another project, but mistakenly clicked your account when using the time-tracker. This is a common mistake, but freelancers usually correct the error before clients notice.

 

As a client, if this happened to me, then obviously the first thing I would do would be to check to make sure that I don't have an open contract with a freelancer that I forgot was open. If I verify that I have no such open contract, then the next thing I would do would be to contact Upwork Customer Support, which you have done.

The dispute was filed in his favor just because there was work showing inside of the work diary.  Even though this work has NOTHING to do with my company.  The case has been closed.  The contractor did not do this by mistake.  He has now done it two weeks in a row.  He rejected my request for a refund.  He is currently suspended and his profile removed.  

hodgesh
Community Member

So finally we see how leaving a contract open can hurt the client instead of hurting the freelancer.

petra_r
Community Member


Heaven H wrote:

So finally we see how leaving a contract open can hurt the client instead of hurting the freelancer.


Leaving a contract open (provided money was paid and there isn't an insane percentage of such contracts)  doesn't hurt the freelancer.

 

I don't buy the "he accidentally logged time on the wrong contract" bit. At least not twice! The freelancer will have been told there was a dispute. Many if not most of us have accidentally logged time on the wrong contract, and just fixed it before anyone was charged. But once the wrong client has been charged the first time, the freelancer KNEW.

 

The dispute should also not have been decided in favor of the freelancer if the work done was clearly not related to working on the client's project which is easy to verify because it was in a different language and totally different project.

e6a53492
Community Member

Correct, the contract was left open. I assumed I might want to have him do
additional work on my website sometime in the future. This was not an
accident made by the contractor. He is fully aware the work inside of the
work diary has nothing to do with my company. This contractors profile is
now gone and he has been suspended. However, Upwork still went ahead and
paid him and I was charged. I informed Upwork the minute the charge placed
to my account. The contractor rejected my request for a refund. Upwork
sided with the contractor because he was showing work logged inside of the
work diary. I am very upset. He has done this to me two weeks in a row.


Petra R wrote:

Heaven H wrote:

So finally we see how leaving a contract open can hurt the client instead of hurting the freelancer.


I don't buy the "he accidentally logged time on the wrong contract" bit. At least not twice! The freelancer will have been told there was a dispute. Many if not most of us have accidentally logged time on the wrong contract, and just fixed it before anyone was charged. But once the wrong client has been charged the first time, the freelancer KNEW.

 

The dispute should also not have been decided in favor of the freelancer if the work done was clearly not related to working on the client's project which is easy to verify because it was in a different language and totally different project.


What I don't get is: if the client disputed the first week, how the freelancer was able to log time for the second week. I thought that as long as a dispute is raised the contract is put on hold or paused immediately and the freelancer can't log time anymore until that dispute is resolved (the first week's dispute), or is optional? If you could elaborate. Thanks in advance.

As soon I received the first charge I logged into my account to see what was going on.  He had already logged 5 hours for the current week.  I immediately canceled the contract.  Then I contacted Upwork to tell then what was happening and they said I had to let the second charge go through and dispute it.  I also had contacted my credit card company they said the original charge was still pending to my credit card account.  I could have canceled my credit card and not been charged.  But Upworkold me not to do this they had to handle it internally.  Now they paid this guy and my credit card is charged.

petra_r
Community Member


Wendy M wrote:

 Now they paid this guy and my credit card is charged.


From what you said (and I have no reason to think it was anything other than accurate) the first dispute should have gone your way and someone made a mistake.

 

I would not worry about it - they will sort it out.

lysis10
Community Member

It sounds like the freelancer worked during the switchover between the two weeks and that's why they were able to charge 2 weeks of time even with a dispute. I've had it happen where clients ask me why they are getting charged for a second week that I didn't work but it was because I worked during the switchover, so some of the time hit the current week and the rest hit the following week.

e6a53492
Community Member

He did not accidentally login and charge hours to my account.  He rejected my request for a refund. When I contacted Upwork about the first dispute (I have two with this contractor two weeks in a row) I told Upwork he has logged additional hours in for the coming week as well.  Upwork told me I had to let that charge go through and dispute it after.  They could have stopped the second fraudulent charge from going through. This contractor is currently suspended and his profile is gone.  Upwork will not tell me why.  However, this does not help me get my money back.  I was under the belief that Upwork would protect their clients in this type of situation.

BojanS
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Wendy,

 

I apologize for the delay in receiving an update. Our team is currently looking into this case and will reach out to you as soon as possible. Please allow time for them to carefully investigate all facts and once they do they will reach out to you with more details.

 

Thank you for patience!

~ Bojan
Upwork
e6a53492
Community Member

YES!!!
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