I need to report a fraudulent freelancer.

[cd07393d]

Hi, I need to report a fraudulent graphic designer.

I employed him to do up a logo for my new startup.

He came back to me with some designs, they seemed a bit generic but I accepted the work and paid him. 

I field tested the designs and one proved to be a favourite. I then ran it past another designer who found the design on an Adobe site. I checked the other designs and they were all copies!

I confronted him and he begged and pleaded for another chance - gave me sob stories about his income / family etc. He promised me new designs. 

First design he sent me was also a fraud so now I'm going to report him. It's really touch to get in touch with the support team here so I'm asking for help to report this designer here. 

Can someone assist? I've attached a couple of examples of his fraudulent designs - I'd like a refund and for his page to be removed so he stops his scamming for good.

Thanks for your help. 

Kind regards,

Crispin

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

[AleksandarD · Accepted solution]

Hi Crispin,

I'm sorry to hear about the bad experience you had with the freelancer. I shared your experience with the rest of our team and one of our team members will reach out to you directly via a support ticket to assist you further.

Thank you.

[beezybee]

Hi Aleksandar, I came across your response to the previous clients experience with a fraudulent freelancer. I have a similar case, that I need assistance with please. 

I hired a freelancer to design my website a few months ago and while he was working on it for me on it, it looked perfectly fine, once paid him, a month later when I went back into it, the website was a mess...things weren't working properly (you get the picture)...I contacted him but he has till date ignored ALL my messages on UpWork as well as Skype AND his agent hasn't bothered either. I contacted his agent directly letting him know the FL has ignored all my messages and he replied with a generic "he will respond to you soon". 

In simple words - The Freelancer did a s%$!!t job, took my money and disappeared, and now is not responding to my messages, I have been very nice to him and left him good reviews and now he is being this way! I need a FULL REFUND from him and have NO idea how to get this sorted. He has basically STOLEN my money and not done the job.

Thanks,

Beez    

[petra_r]

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Beez R wrote:

I hired a freelancer to design my website a few months ago   

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After several months there is no longer anything you can do.

Your ability to dispute ends 30 days after the last invoice date.

[AleksandarD]

Hi Beez,

I'm sorry to hear about what happened. One of our team members will reach out to you directly via a support ticket to assist you further with this.

Thank you.

[mandy-sinclair]

I have been contacted by someone who has shown me evidence that a freelancer has fraudulently used my identity and my photo. I am not active on upwork and no idea how I was targetted. I can't find how to raise a support ticket - can someone please help me. 

[NikolaS]

Hi Mandy,

Thank you for reaching out to us. I have sent your report to our team for further investigation and appropriate actions have been taken according to our internal processes.

Thank you for your patience,

[feed_my_eyes]

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Crispin R wrote:

Hi, I need to report a fraudulent graphic designer.

I employed him to do up a logo for my new startup.

He came back to me with some designs, they seemed a bit generic but I accepted the work and paid him. 

I field tested the designs and one proved to be a favourite. I then ran it past another designer who found the design on an Adobe site. I checked the other designs and they were all copies!

I confronted him and he begged and pleaded for another chance - gave me sob stories about his income / family etc. He promised me new designs. 

First design he sent me was also a fraud so now I'm going to report him. It's really touch to get in touch with the support team here so I'm asking for help to report this designer here. 

Can someone assist? I've attached a couple of examples of his fraudulent designs - I'd like a refund and for his page to be removed so he stops his scamming for good.

Thanks for your help. 

Kind regards,

Crispin

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

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I've reported a bunch of so-called logo designers who have stolen work in their portfolios, and Upwork didn't do anything about it. There are probably more frauds in that category than in any other, because it's so easy to just steal designs and trace them in Illustrator (or download them directly from stock websites). And a lot of these freelancers have glowing reviews in their profiles from past clients who are totally unaware that their designs were stolen, which only adds to their credibility and helps them fool more people.

If you want to hire somebody else, look for freelancers who have designs in their portfolios besides logos (if someone is a proper graphic designer, they'll be able to do other types of work). Also watch out for freelancers who only show you logos on mugs or Tshirts or the like; the smarter frauds do that so that you won't be able to find the original designs by using a reverse image search on Google. Good luck.

[versailles]

When you hire a designer, do it on hourly contracts and disallow manual time. Monitor the work dashboard where you can see screenshots that Upwork's time tracker takes so you know whether they are actually designing something or not.

I beleive that the huge majority of the designers on Upwork are just frauds. On other platforms, it's prolly even worse.

[gina-herrera]

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Rene K wrote:

When you hire a designer, do it on hourly contracts and disallow manual time. 

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I don't work with clients who disallow manual time. I sketch a lot, I do make them aware of it before the contract is finalized but there's no way I'm going to not be paid for my work even if it's not on the computer.

I fully believe that the client should know how to hire someone and spot the warning signs of a fraud, it's part of their responsibility in using a site of this nature especially - but in general, it could happen to anyone, anywhere, no matter what kind of contract. If someone can't tell the difference between awful stock logos and true quality, it's hard for me to sympathize because you get what you pay for, and if you want an amazing logo it will cost quite a bit of money. Most designers making $500 to a few thousand dollars on a logo are not going to risk stealing - while there are always exceptions, I fully believe the best solution is to dig deeper into one's pockets and hire more responsibly, rather than by babysitting a low caliber / cheap designer by micromanaging screenshots and preventing them from completing tasks offline that are essential to a job's completion.

[prestonhunter]

re: "Most designers making $500 to a few thousand dollars on a logo are not going to risk stealing..."

I don't think those designers are thinking about the risk of getting caught stealing.

Those designers simply don't operate that way. As you said, there may be a few exceptions, but generally you are talking about people who are real designers, take pride in their craft, and don't copy stuff from the Internet and pass it off as original work.

On the other end of the spectrum... there are freelancers who aren't even "stealing" consciously. They simply know no other way to operate. To ask one of those freelancers to create an original logo for you would be like hiring a pickpocket to create a handmade leather wallet.

[gina-herrera]

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Preston H wrote:

re: "Most designers making $500 to a few thousand dollars on a logo are not going to risk stealing..."

I don't think those designers are thinking about the risk of getting caught stealing.

Those designers simply don't operate that way. As you said, there may be a few exceptions, but generally you are talking about people who are real designers, take pride in their craft, and don't copy stuff from the Internet and pass it off as original work.

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True, I'm personally one of those designers and it never once occured to me until recently when I made something similar to someone else by accident (as is bound to happen eventually). It was not fun and I was very upset about it even when unintentional, but I immediately let the client know we'd need to change direction.

[feed_my_eyes]

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Preston H wrote:

On the other end of the spectrum... there are freelancers who aren't even "stealing" consciously. They simply know no other way to operate. To ask one of those freelancers to create an original logo for you would be like hiring a pickpocket to create a handmade leather wallet.

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If they don't know any other way to operate, then they shouldn't be advertising their services as designers. If you're caught stealing, it's not a suitable defense to say, "I didn't know that it was wrong." You would face consequences regardless.

I also don't see why Upwork wants to keep such freelancers on the platform. If they don't know how to do anything other than steal other people's designs, then how does it make any business sense to allow them to continue advertising their non-existent talents to clients, especially when there's no shortage of legitimate designers here already? You could argue that cheapskate clients get what they pay for, but if a freelancer says that they can create an original design for $20, then that's what they should be doing - not lying about it.