I was asked to send a refund after the contract ended. Was I scammed?

[#1]

Hi community!

I completed a job successfully and received a 5-star review. The contract ended on July 25th. 

Today, I get a message from Upwork saying that I sent a refund relative to the first contract that ended on July 25th. I don't uderstand why. 

The client had the payment verified and he is based in Dubai. After the contract started, I found out the client is Russian. 

I was then hired to do another job for the same client and he was able to validate his account and credit on the platform. 

Last week the client reached out to me saying that he was having problems with his account/credit card to make the payments here on Upwork and when I saw the contract it now says that the payment is blocked. 

 So I guess I won't receive the payment relative to the current contract.  Of course I stopped working when the client gave me the heads up on the payment issues, but it was too late, since I had put in the hours on the job. 

Was I scammed?  

[#2]

Probably so.  If the first contract got 'refunded', then you probably shouldn't have worked a second contract.  It sounds like the common 'charge back' scam being run on Upwork these days.  If the client is Russian, than Upwork shouldn't even allow that account to be active on UW, since they banned them months ago.

I always compare the time and time zone showing up on client's profile and in the chat to where they 'claim' they are to make sure it matches.  For instance, somebody claiming to be in the United States but having a strange time showing up on their profile that isn't in one of the U.S. time zones.  An easy way to catch these people sometimes is to look at what location their profile CLAIMS they are in, such as "Dubai" or "New York", and then go to Google and type in "What time is in Dubai?" and search.  If the time that Google shows doesn't match their profile within and hour or 2 of the time Google says, the client is usually lying, scamming, and claiming to be some place they aren't.   You can also look at the time showing on their profile and ask Google "where is it 6pm right now" and it will give you a list of places around the world where it is currently that time, which gives you a good sense of where the client REALLY is.   I caught one potential client like this, lying about being in the United States, when I googled his strange time showing on his profile and Google said it was 'Moscow Standard Time'.  Busted!

[#3]

You're right! I'll be more careful from now on.  I only accepted because he had the payment verified, but found out he was Russian after I was hired.  

Well, there's always a first... 

Thank you for taking the time to answer. 

All the best to you! 

[#4]

You're not quite right. Up work did not block Russians on a national basis. He only forbade working on the territory of Russia. Therefore, many thousands of Russian freelancers had to move

[#5]

Yes.

[#6]

There's always a first time to everything, I guess... I'll cut my losses and move on. 

Thank you!