Unresponsive freelancer and doubts regarding job

[newmachiavelli]

I contacted a freelancer (ethical hacker/crypto recovery) regarding recovering money I lost to scammers. I explained what happened and provided the information required. The person explained they will check if they can do the job and then get back to me. They went away and came back to explain they can do the job and it would cost $800.00. I explained that because I lost a substantial amount to the scammers, I could only pay for recovery of what I lost if all or some of the amounts were recovered. If nothing could be recovered then I would be unable to pay. If some would be recovered, it would be a part payment.

The freelancer agreed to this but explained that I need to create a client account so they can accept the job which I did and that they want 50% of the payment up front and 50% after completion. I was hesitant when they asked for half the payment up front but they agreed that they would refund the 50% up front payment if they are unable to recover the money I lost to the scammers. The freelancer also explained they would take 3 days to complete the work.

After making the 50% payment upfront to escrow and releasing it so work can begin, the freelancer has not responded to any of my messages. I have sent two in total.

As I have already been a victim of a scam, I have now become worried and I have doubts. Should I wait for 3 full days to pass as the freelancer explained it would take that long to recover the funds before requesting a refund for the upfront payment, if there is no reply from the freelancer?

Or should I request a refund now because the freelancer who was responsive before the payment was made has now been unresponsive for roughly 24 hours?

The freelancer did have feedback for a completed job, and also an ongoing job, alongside the fact they told me they can recover the money after going away and having a look after I provided some information. They also agreed to refund the up front payment if they are unable to recover what I lost to the scammers.

I have considered it is best to wait 3 days since the first payment was made as the freelancer said it would take 3 days to do the job before requesting a refund. This would give them 2 more days to respond to my messages and provide any updates. At that point, if there has been no response it would mean that the freelancer has disappeared and their own timescale for completing the work will have passed before I request a refund.

If I request a refund any earlier, it may be that the freelancer is busy with the jobs and with life and they may end up responding and also the expected timescale would not yet have passed as well as the fact that the working relationship could be affected?

Please could someone advise how to proceed.

[b_yahiaoui · Accepted solution]

do not worry. Upwork holds the money in pending for 5 days even after you approve a payment. That means that in 2 days if the Freelancer is still MIA you can submit a complaint on the job and Upwrok will freeze the payment from going to the Freelancer until some agreement is made. Make sure all your communication with the freelancer and agreement is made through Upwrok messages os Upwork can assist and evaluate

[newmachiavelli]

Thank you for your response and informing me about this.

If the freelancer is still MIA on Sunday, how do I submit a complaint? There are too many screens to navigate and when I have followed instructions before, I cannot find what I am looking for.

To be clear, a complaint is separate to a refund?

All communication has been on Upwork so far. I did provide my contact number and asked them to message there if they had questions but I made clear any discussions about payment or working arrangements should be done on Upwork.

Thank you again.

[b_yahiaoui]

By submit cpmplaint I meant the refund process.

You can also get upwork support by going to support.upwork.com and chatting with the chatbot.

The chatbot is designed to do something called "deflection" in the industry.

That means you have to keep asking it for human. after 3 or 4 times it will allow you to create a supprot ticket

[yofazza]

After making the 50% payment upfront to escrow and releasing it

I'm not saying that paying upfront, a down payment, must never be done on any types of jobs, but actually, the escrow can be considered as a down payment already

It's not easy, almost impossible, for a client to get all their money in escrow back, while on the other hand, the freelancer can't take the escrow money without the client's approval.

Unless there are actual upfront cost required for the project (buying materials, doing costly research), down payment is needed for assurance only. The escrow is sufficient for this.

I don't see any upfront cost required for your job, unless they need to bribe some people or something.

Not releasing the escrow until some jobs have been done, not 'paying upfront', will save you from a lot of troubles.

[tlsanders]

Is your freelancer in the United States? Asking because yesterday was Thanksgiving. 

[alizawi]

Just a heads up, from my experience related to the actual scam you experienced, 99% of the time no one can get your money back. There are many entities out there that claim to provide crypto scam recovery, but most of them can only do tracing at most to see where your coins have gone, and give you that as a tool to file a police report or raise it to interpol. Typically, that's a dead end process. 

[tgcodes]

 Sorry About you double loss