I have been scammed

[#1]

I am new to Upwork. One of the jobs I applied to, had the client send me a message. We proceeded to have a meeting and worked for 6 hours. I asked him to formalize on Upwork and pay me. He has since been ignoring my messages. How do I resolve this please? It's been 2 weeks.

[#2]

Hi Omobolanle,

Could you please confirm if you are referring to your active contract, or did you work with this client before having an active one?

[#3]

Not the active one please. I now understand how contracts work with the active one. 

[#4]

Hi Omobolanle,

Thank you for that information. If you are referring to a case where a contract was not in place, there is no way for Upwork to charge the client. In order to avoid this from happening moving forward, please do not work when there is no contract and when a fixed-price project's milestone is not funded.

[#5]

You cannot be paid for work that wasnt under a contract (an upwork contract btw not one sent by email or by the supposedly client sayinng "okay we have a contract")
Moving forward, do your best to secure a valid contract before working. You can read more about the top red flags and how Upwork (UW) payment protection works - the more you know, the better you are prepared for these scenarios

[#6]

Thank you for your response. I now understand how contracts work having secured one with a great client.It's just sad that this happened.