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7bd0d548
Community Member

Upwork Hourly Contract Scam

Hello

 

I want to ask everyone here, have anyone here (other clients) have ever been deceived by any freelancer with hourly over charging activity?. Even upwork's them self admitted that they found our hired freelancer's used a malicious software to deliberately over charging ?

 

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

 

I felt this more than once, however; upwork always says that they can't refund for bad quality or finished work (but overcharged).  Since I already screenshot their confession.  This is so bad, so i'm going to try to contact a californian lawyer and considering to take a legal action because I asume we've lost much more money than the previous issue since we've spent more than $30K or more in this platform over the past few years. Unless they did something; such as trace back the hourly charged on our account; recheck all the hourly charged for malicious softwares activities; proof that not a singgle one of them was cheated; if they found cheated ones; they should send a paypal payment's request for refund to the given freelancers.

 

Sincerely

 

19 REPLIES 19
wlyonsatl
Community Member

Ilham,

 

You should probably post that over on the Clients message board:

 

https://community.upwork.com/t5/Clients/bd-p/clients

 

Hi,

 

Thanks, you can check here now : https://community.upwork.com/t5/Clients/Upwork-Hourly-Contract-Scam/m-p/572976#M41426

 

There's something wrong with upwork's UIUX... I don't see how and why was it wrong posting it here...

AveryO
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Ilham, 


I would like to note that your original post was already moved by our moderator to the Client board, and your new post had to be removed as posting the same on different boards is considered spamming as per our Community Guidelines

I'm sorry to learn you had an unfortunate experience with a freelancer. I would highly recommend that you continue communicating on your ticket so that the team can assist you further, and refrain from sharing more information about the issue to avoid misrepresenting the situation. Please know that our team is unable to comment specifically about the issue for privacy reasons. 


~ Avery
Upwork
lysis10
Community Member

lol I love when I get to see the screenshot before it gets deleted. 

 

He hired a $9/hour data entry "expert" to do mobile development. lol He's got lots of disputes going too. Avoid avoid avoid.

 

eta: oooh and now I see why the one freelancer in that agency is 93% but no TR badge. Used an auto-clicker! 44 hours worth too. lol These **Edited for Community Guidelines** developers get their money some way when they undercut. Note to self: you get one chance to get caught with an auto-clicker. Worst that happens is you lose TR.

yitwail
Community Member


Jennifer M wrote:

lol I love when I get to see the screenshot before it gets deleted. 

 

He hired a $9/hour data entry "expert" to do mobile development. lol He's got lots of disputes going too. Avoid avoid avoid.

 

eta: oooh and now I see why the one freelancer in that agency is 93% but no TR badge. Used an auto-clicker! 44 hours worth too. lol These poop tier developers get their money some way when they undercut. Note to self: you get one chance to get caught with an auto-clicker. Worst that happens is you lose TR.


Can't find the agency, but he did hire a very good web developer for $3.50 an hour it appears. And apparently it's ok for a client to write it's sound very [8 letter word for bovine stool] to a mediator.

__________________________________________________
"No good deed goes unpunished." -- Clare Boothe Luce
7bd0d548
Community Member


John K wrote:

Jennifer M wrote:

lol I love when I get to see the screenshot before it gets deleted. 

 

He hired a $9/hour data entry "expert" to do mobile development. lol He's got lots of disputes going too. Avoid avoid avoid.

 

eta: oooh and now I see why the one freelancer in that agency is 93% but no TR badge. Used an auto-clicker! 44 hours worth too. lol These poop tier developers get their money some way when they undercut. Note to self: you get one chance to get caught with an auto-clicker. Worst that happens is you lose TR.


Can't find the agency, but he did hire a very good web developer for $3.50 an hour it appears. And apparently it's ok for a client to write it's sound very [8 letter word for bovine stool] to a mediator.


"No good deed goes unpunished." -- Clare Boothe Luce

is that quote basically goes against the meaning of karma ?

But anyway, I don't see the relvance of that quote toward my case.

 

"but he did hire a very good web developer for $3.50 an hour it appears. "

They do have the skills although not as good as the $99/an hour ones of course. You have to work very hard in finding $3/hour good freelancers in terms of using upwork's search engine Smiley Tongue.

 

If you or anyone else wants to hire them, they're here :**Edited for community guidelines**

Since trust goes to number one in Business, so you already knows they've used malcious software to cheat the hourly tracking device.

THEREFORE; DO NOT BLAME ME IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG WITH YOUR BUSINESS.  I WILL NOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE.

 

I'm refering them so that some one will really hires them soon, because they have refundable amount in their balance for us which can only be cut until they've worked some more in upwork.

 

lysis10
Community Member


Ilham B wrote:

I'm refering them so that some one will really hires them soon, because they have refundable amount in their balance for us which can only be cut until they've worked some more in upwork.

 


This doesn't make any sense. Upwork found that he was using an auto-clicker, so you get your money back. They don't wait until the freelancer has a balance.

7bd0d548
Community Member


Jennifer M wrote:

Ilham B wrote:

I'm refering them so that some one will really hires them soon, because they have refundable amount in their balance for us which can only be cut until they've worked some more in upwork.

 


This doesn't make any sense. Upwork found that he was using an auto-clicker, so you get your money back. They don't wait until the freelancer has a balance.


yes exactly that's what I've expected before !... It does not makes sense only if your a client...

But Upwork does not want's to be held responsible if the freelancer have already retrieved their money after upwork had sent them, thus Upwork will not pays back their client at the behalf of their freelancer : 

**Edited for community guidelines**

 

I did actually felt cheated this way also !.

 

lysis10
Community Member


Ilham B wrote:

 


This doesn't make any sense. Upwork found that he was using an auto-clicker, so you get your money back. They don't wait until the freelancer has a balance.


yes exactly that's what I've expected before !... It does not makes sense only if your a client...

But Upwork does not want's to be held responsible if the freelancer have already retrieved their money after upwork had sent them, thus Upwork will not pays back their client at the behalf of their freelancer : 

**Edited for community guidelines**

 

I did actually felt cheated this way also !.

 


This email shows something entirely different. Upwork is saying if the freelancer voluntarily wants to give you a refund, he has to fund his account and then give you money. Has nothing to do with Upwork not giving you money because they are waiting for funds in the account. lol

 

That dude got 299 hours out of you, and you want money for past weeks. They told you that the freelancer has to voluntarily give you back money. You're gonna have to move on from it, because unless you are clueless, you know that he's never giving you back your money.

yitwail
Community Member


Jennifer M wrote:

That dude got 299 hours out of you, and you want money for past weeks. They told you that the freelancer has to voluntarily give you back money. You're gonna have to move on from it, because unless you are clueless, you know that he's never giving you back your money.


Either that, or demand arbitration and be ready to put up $291? 

__________________________________________________
"No good deed goes unpunished." -- Clare Boothe Luce
7bd0d548
Community Member

That dude got 299 hours out of you, and you want money for past weeks. They told you that the freelancer has to voluntarily give you back money. You're gonna have to move on from it, because unless you are clueless, you know that he's never giving you back your money.

=> Ehh no, fortunately the freelancer are willing to give us refund...
They're being nice in terms of refunding...
I sent them a screenshot whereas the proof that Upwork had found them were using the malicious cheating software.

I appreciate for all of your replies. But you guys kinda deviated from my very initial question.

My very first question was, have anyone ever experienced a freelancer whom used the same cheating malicious software tracking device ?

I'd like to hear your experience regarding these.

I've talked to few different lawyers and they said can't escalate this manner unfortunately...

But if you are a new clients you should beware of these cheaters, I really do think Upwork should have had contingencies strategy to prevent their tracking app not being manipulation.
https://www.quora.com/Can-I-trust-upwork-freelancers

re: "My very first question was, have anyone ever experienced a freelancer whom used the same cheating malicious software tracking device? I'd like to hear your experience regarding these."

 

Yes, other clients have run into this. There are stories about this in the Forum. But it is quite rare.

 

What you are describing is a very brazen, very dishonest attempt to cheat a client. Upwork slams these freelancers HARD when they are caught. And Upwork does many things to prevent any freelancer from doing this. There are security features and counter-measures in place designed to catch freelancers who do this. Upwork doesn't talk about them much because they don't want to tip off the bad guys.

 

Even being suspected of this has led to freelancers being terminated permanently, no matter how much they plead or beg.

 

If you search the Forum for "Autoclicker" and variants, you will find the threads in which this has been discussed, and you will be able to see how hard Upwork comes down on this kind of cheating.

Upwork is a platform open to all. ofc there will be cheaters, scammers and thieves, and this goes both ways for clients and freelancers. I heard many stories where freelancer cheated with auto keystrocks and auto clicks as well as clients run away with prototype or even worst complete application (with source codes) or use stolen cards. if you want to get your work done here atleast you should know who to hire take interview talk to them using zoom, give freelancers limited hours and review their work before assigning more hours to them. And please if you want a quality work with honesty then always keep in mind that these both traits cost money, good money.

AveryO
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi Ilham, 

I understand that you value the Community's inputs to your question. As a gentle reminder, please make sure that the Community Guidelines are met when posting in the Community. 

In this case, posting emails and chat transcripts are against the guidelines. Please let me know if you have further questions, and thank you for your understanding. 


~ Avery
Upwork
9f395534
Community Member

This is what some client get when they decide to hire for less as cheap as $3.5 an hours instead of quality. 

and Upwork should try and do something about it, I mean the auto-clicker, they should denied the freelancer access to the fund.

2df1e9c0
Community Member

Unfortunately, this is not an uncommon problem. Many clients have reported being overcharged by freelancers, particularly those with an hourly billing rate. In some cases, freelancers have used malicious software to deliberately overcharge clients. To prevent this from happening, it is important to take precautions when hiring freelancers, such as thoroughly checking the freelancers references and asking questions about their billing practices. Additionally, it is important to monitor the freelancers work and invoice closely to ensure that there are no discrepancies.

Only freelancers with black minds with no fear of God will practice such acts, I can not try such with any client. 

 

Any freelancers caught in such acts should be duly punished by Upwork. 

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