I would like to report a client who stolen our money and work.

[ledotruongan]

Dear Community,

We are writing to share our experience with a client who has engaged in unethical behavior that has caused us and other developers significant harm. Our hope is that by sharing our story, we can help prevent others from falling victim to similar circumstances.

This individual had hired us to work on a project as a Product Owner but then began to demand that we work not only as a Product Owner but also as a developer, tester, and operation manager. This was not part of our agreed-upon contract, and it put a significant strain on our team's resources and time.

To make matters worse, this individual disappeared with our money, codes, and documentation, leaving us with a loss of more than $2000. We have also learned that this client has engaged in similar behavior with other developers.

One developer, in particular, had this to say about their experience with this individual:

"**Edited for Community Guidelines** is a good person but it was a huge disappointment working with him near the end of the project. He paused the contract and was forcing another fixed-priced contract for delivering the complete project. We were four team members (initially five, one was the manager who started the project and then left, 3-4 others developers joined and left) and the tasks were dependent on each other, but he was expecting only two of us to deliver the complete project. I was expected to take the work from other team members and deliver the complete project, maybe because I am the lowest paid team member and had completed most of the tasks. It was not feasible for me to do all that alone, and I explained the same to **Edited for Community Guidelines**. Three weeks later of pausing the contract, **Edited for Community Guidelines** has ended the contract and raised the refund request for a month's payment. All the code was committed to **Edited for Community Guidelines** GitHub repository, and the proper demonstration was given for each task, and everything has been set up on **Edited for Community Guidelines** Staging site, even then he requested the refund for the completed tasks. Hard work is not appreciated here."

We urge you to exercise caution when dealing with this individual and to only work with clients who respect contractual agreements and professional boundaries. We hope that by sharing our experience, we can help prevent others from being taken advantage of.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

[prestonhunter · Accepted solution]

You sound like you need to only accept hourly contracts for now.

Until you study the fixed-price contract model more carefully, and develop plans to not be mistreated and ripped off.

You need to have a plan.

 This is the freelancer's responsibility. Nor the client's,and not Upwork's 

[ledotruongan]

I strongly agree with your comment. This is our biggest lession when working on Upwork. I've just wanted to do something to our community because there are will be someone like me. 

[f4424b35]

I am interested sir

[spectralua]

Are you left 5 star feedback for client who scamed you?!

[ledotruongan]

We had the misfortune of working with a client who not only failed to fulfill their contractual obligations but also disappeared with our money, codes, and documentation. Despite our best efforts to complete the project, this client made unreasonable demands that were not part of our agreed-upon contract, and they refused to pay for our hard work.

At the end of this frustrating and exhausting ordeal, we made the mistake of leaving a 5-star review for this client. We did so out of a sense of relief that our interaction with this person was finally over and in the hopes that they would move on to find another team to work with.

However, we now realize that leaving a positive review was a mistake, and we regret doing so. We want to make it clear that this client acted unethically and illegally, and they should not be trusted or supported in any way.

[spectralua]

In fact, you did not warn anyone with this topic. Nobody will be reading it in three days. And Upwork has already erased all links to the client. But your review will advertise the client for two years and everyone will see that 5+.

[ledotruongan]

It seems its my instant karma. However, i though my shares will help others if they read it. Btw. Upwork removed all the link like you said

[PradeepH]

Hi Bruce,

Thank you for your message. I am sorry to hear about your recent experience with a client. I can see that you've already raised a support ticket regarding your concern. You can access your support tickets here . Note that support requests are responded to in the order they are received. Kindly allow 24-48 hours for the team to follow up with you and assist you further.

Thank you,

Pradeep

[f4424b35]

I will do it sir