** Upwork Agency framed me for extortion to remove reviews from Clutch.co, and more

[6232deeb]

I hired an **Edited for Community Guidelines** company on Upwork for the development of my SaaS. The sales person was very good, and we agreed upon the software specification, budget, and milestones - with an estimation of 56 days.

After the intial payment, everything started to go wrong:

1) The previous milestones haven't been completed as to the specification outlined in SRS.
2) The QA as promised was non existent
3) Constantly delivered tasks that were not complete
4) Didn't use at PM tool as stated in our contract until a few weeks into development after I stated
5) My assigned PM didn't update project milestones in PM tool after initial creation
6) Asking for payment stating incomplete milestone is complete - when it's not, and full of bugs. Upon further questions they just wanted me to release payment to see if they could reach their monthly financial goal.

7) They were purposly leaving the developent of most of the system to the final milestone, which was not agreed to in our contract.

The project failed,  I ended the upwork contract - they were requesting me to release payment for the current milestone they claim to have worked on, namely not built to specification,  just like the previous milestones. 

They cost me over 6 months of my time, $4,060.00, with nothing to show - I don't even have any source code from the previous milestones, let alone the latest.

I left them negative reviews accross Upwork, Clutch.Co, Google listing, and Goodfirms - all have been removed.

They reported my Clutch review to their moderation team, providing them with fake screenshots of Skype conversations, framing me for extortion, namely threating to leave negative reviews in return for a fee. They used my profile picture from LinkedIn too.

Clutch immeditely removed my review, taking  fake skype screenshots as gospal, without even consulting me, let alone accepting evidence from my side. 

I have no doubt, the scammers will also frame me on Upwork if they don't use Upworks remove one review every 3 months tool. 

And therein more clients who put their trust in Upwork, and all the review sites fall vicitim.

All my communication with the scammers has been through Upwork messenger, so maybe Upwork will be able to see the truth (if they care).

**Edited for community guidelines**

[a_lipsey]

I am so sorry this has happened to you! I have flagged your post in hopes a moderator will see it. 

I know it's a little late now, but know that you can end a contract at the first signs of red flags. It seems like you did end it early, but don't be shy about ending it even earlier next time. 

Not all freelancers here are scammers  either, so I hope this won't put you off the platform. 

[6232deeb]

They made a lot of promises and never delivered. The first red flag was actually after releasing the inital payment, where I got a strange message from the owner of the company asking me to escrow the 2nd milestone payment - when they hadn't even started the development yet.

As per the contract, they require the intial payment to be not only escrowed, but released before they start work - therefore bypassing Upworks Payment Protection scheme.

[a_lipsey]

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Hassan A wrote:

They made a lot of promises and never delivered. The first red flag was actually after releasing the inital payment, where I got a strange message from the owner of the company asking me to escrow the 2nd milestone payment - when they hadn't even started the development yet.

As per the contract, they require the intial payment to be not only escrowed, but released before they start work - therefore bypassing Upworks Payment Protection scheme.

---

This is where it would have been good to cancel the contract. Releasing a milestone without any work provided is not promising.  Just mentioning in case any other clients see this. I know you understand that all too well now. 

[versailles]

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Hassan A wrote:

They made a lot of promises and never delivered. The first red flag was actually after releasing the inital payment, where I got a strange message from the owner of the company asking me to escrow the 2nd milestone payment - when they hadn't even started the development yet.

As per the contract, they require the intial payment to be not only escrowed, but released before they start work 

---

Wait, you released a milestone without receiving any deliverable first? This is not how Upwork is meant to be used. When someone asks you to do that, you close the contract and you walk.

[6232deeb]

I released the inital milestone without them delivering anything to me - it's seems to be a standard with companies on upwork, and in general - because they want initial payment to get started.

See the clause in my contract as attached. *No need to delete this image as it doesn't identify the company.

[versailles]

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Hassan A wrote:

I released the inital milestone without them delivering anything to me - it's seems to be a standard with companies on upwork, and in general - because they want initial payment to get started.

See the clause in my contract as attached. *No need to delete this image as it doesn't identify the company.

---

No, this is not a standard.  The standard is:

One milestone -> one deliverable.

Escrow is there to make sure they got paid once they deliver. Scammers on the other hand use the naivety of clients to steal money by talking them into releasing the escrow beforehand.

[6232deeb]

Now I know not to trust Upworks 100% success rate, Clutch 4.8 ratings, other review sites and a good portfolio.

[a_lipsey]

Hassan, 

I've looked at their profile and most of their jobs have no feedback, and then there are very telling reviews of 1  stars, with notes, that should have also been red flags. Please do not just look at the Job Success Score (JSS) but also read their actual reviews (ALL OF THEM) before you hire. This agency had enough red flags that you should have never hired them. Please do use Upwork again, but try to do much more vetting of the public information before hiring. These reviews were available for you to see and should have seen. 

I'm not placing fault on you; these people were scamming you and that's their fault. But there are ways to avoid this, and I think all clients should be aware to really vet their potential freelancers with all available information - that means reading all their reviews - especially in this case when most of their contracts had no feedback left, I didn't have to scroll very far to find some very bad reviews that would have dissuaded me, at least, from hiring them. 

I hope Upwork will be able to help you at least. I wonder if it is too late to dispute or file for arbitration? You might ask about that. 

[6232deeb]

I understand we should look at all available information - upon searching '<company> reviews' on Google they have many postiive reviews across many sites. Unfortuately most of the reviews were fake, created by employees, including reviews on their Google Business Listing. Now my vetting process is far more strict, interviewng top companies in Ukraine,  asking for CVs, list of questions, and running test projects.

I don't think  opening a dispute or filing for arbitration is a good idea beacause not only do they have my web design assets, they're experienced with deception - and will create more screenshots framing me, or whatever it takes to win. A simple screenshot of a fake Skype conversation was enough for **Edited for Community Guidelines** and others to remove my review without first consulting me, let alone accepting my evidence.

It's suprising Upwork allows a company like this on their platform if they agree it is a scamming company.

[versailles]

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Hassan A wrote:

It's suprising Upwork allows a company like this on their platform if they agree it is a scamming company.

---

They made over $1M on Upwork. There is no way Upwork will ever suspend such a big earner. **Edited for Community Guidelines** hire individual people and speak with them on Skype with video prior of hiring them. Look, on the Internet for tips about which countries to avoid. Be careful about people claiming they are from country A when they are from country B. Hence the need of a video interview. If they refuse the video interview, pick someone else.

[petra_r]

The feedback is now showing and they won't be able to remove it because they are not top rated

[browersr]

What is the significance of calling out the nationality of the agency? Are scammers from **Edited for Community Guidelines** in some way different from anywhere else? 

[6232deeb]

Take a visit to south asia, ways of doing business, and overall culture isn't the same as the USA. Even the word 'Yes' has a different meaning. It doesn't mean 'Yes' I'll add that feature to the project, it means 'Yes' I heard you. Moreover, people in XY country tend to be non-confrentational, and will say what the client wants to hear, rather than what the actual state of the project is.

Call centre scams reside from which country?

[browersr]

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Hassan A wrote:

Take a visit to south asia, ways of doing business, and overall culture isn't the same as the USA. Even the word 'Yes' has a different meaning. It doesn't mean 'Yes' I'll add that feature to the project, it means 'Yes' I heard you. Moreover, people in XY country tend to be non-confrentational, and will say what the client wants to hear, rather than what the actual state of the project is.

Call centre scams reside from which country?

---

So in your world not having the same culture and doing things differently from the US is some how always bad? Also it would seem there are no or at least limited scams from the US in your world view? Anyone can have a bad experience with anyone from any country at any time. Taking that experience and impugning an entire country over it is narrow and dangerous. You had a bad experience with someone from a specific country. Join the club with every country that has ever worked with another or within their own. The importance of your post is not location but what happened. Stick to those facts which is really all that is relevant here. 

[6232deeb]

Call centre scams reside from which country? 'The importance of your post is not location but what happened. ' - You brought up the location, you've already censored the company name, why not abstract even more by removing it's an upwork agency from the title too.

The purpose of this post was to:

1) Figure out why my negative review wasn't showing - despite positives showing instantly

2) Get the company removed off the platform (Got crocodile tears instead)

Purpose 1 has been met, purpose 2 will not be met because as Rene mentioned: 'There is no way Upwork will ever suspend such a big earner.' Hence Upwork favours monetary means over the safety of its customers clients - which doesn't justify the Upwork fee. And that is the end of my Upwork adventure.

Scott, this thread is finished.

[browersr]

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Hassan A wrote:

And that is the end of my Upwork adventure.

---

And thus a positive conclusion. So long. 

[kochubei_valeria]

Hi Hassan,

I'm sorry to hear you had a negative experience working with an agency you hired on Upwork. I see that you have a ticket with our support team currently and they'll be assisting you with any further questions you may have about fixed-price contracts, feedback and using Upwork in general.

[6232deeb]

It's been 15 days, and my negative feedback is not showing up on their Upwork agency profile

[kochubei_valeria · Accepted solution]

Hassan,

Sometimes it takes up to 12 hours for the page to refresh and for new feedback to show. I see that it's already showing on the freelancer's profile. I'll share this with the team and we'll investigate why it hasn't yet appeared on the agency profile.

Thanks!