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ef6de231
Community Member

Need support. Freelancer scammed me. I want refund and resolution.

A freelancer scammed me out of $1000. He set up a contract with me outside of upwork and only put $1000 in upwork for a $5000 job.

 

He did not complete the job and he kept the $1000 and upwork support has been terrible in helping me resolve this matter. 

12 REPLIES 12
a_lipsey
Community Member

I have compassion for your situation and feel for your loss. Unfortunately, you violated Upwork's TOS by sending payment outside of Upwork. How is Upwork supposed to refund funds that were not processed through their platform? They cannot. They cannot protect you when you violate the TOS. The TOS are specifically created the way they are so that Upwork can protect you. There is really nothing Upwork can do. In the future it would be best to adhere to the TOS, which you agreed to when you signed up. 

But it was the freelancer that pushed this on me.... Furthermore he did
charge some of the money on upwork which is the portion I want refunded.


Babu D wrote:
But it was the freelancer that pushed this on me.... Furthermore he did
charge some of the money on upwork which is the portion I want refunded.

BUT! 

But nothing, friend...I'm sorry, you agreed to the TOS. You should have declined and reported the freelancer then, not after you went into cahoots with them to scam Upwork - because circumventing is essentially stealing from Upwork. 

 

I don't know if they can help you with what was paid through Upwork. You scammed Upwork together, and now you want to try to use Upwork to get back at the freelancer. I don't think they'll mediate a dispute after you've gone off platform. Nor do I think they should. I'm sure someone can open a ticket for you. But you need to look at this honestly and see that you both together violated the most important TOS and when you do that, there is no protection. It takes two to tango. 

You can say "no".
Also, if they ware a scammer, they most likely cashed out and banning them will not help. There is very little the support could do at this point. Wait for a moderator to show up here.

petra_r
Community Member


Babu D wrote:
But it was the freelancer that pushed this on me.... 

If someone walks up to you in the street and "pushes you" to rob a bank, do you go ahead with it?

 


Babu D wrote:
 Furthermore he did charge some of the money on upwork which is the portion I want refunded.

Upwork don't have that money anymore. The freelancer does. Upwork can't get it back for you.

2a05aa63
Community Member

You can report the freelancer but since you violated upwork TOS and the payment was not via Upwork, no one can help you with this.

prestonhunter
Community Member

Babu:
I agree with Amanda and Viacheslav.

 

Upwork can't help you recover money you paid outside of Upwork. That is a serious violation of Upwork ToS. And it has nothing to do with Upwork.

 

Upwork can't help you get that money back.

 

But maybe somebody CAN help you get that money back. For example, if used PayPal to pay that freelancer money, you could try to go through PayPal to get the money back. If you paid using American Express, you can contact American Express. Etc.

PradeepH
Moderator
Moderator

Hi Babu,

 

Thank you for your message. I am sorry to hear about your experience with a freelancer. I see that you are already communicating with the team via a support ticket here. Please don't hesitate to follow up with them on the same support ticket if you have additional questions regarding your concern. 

 

Thank you

Pradeep

Upwork
aitringo
Community Member

Could you please get the scammer banned from this marketplace ? 

We all need to feel safe in this plateform !

Thank you so much 🙏

Hi Mohamed,

 

f you see a job or a profile that seems suspicious, you can report it to us using the flagging option. Reports help our team check and take action appropriately. You can read more on this help article and also, please check out Tips to avoid questionable jobs. You might also want to check out the information here to learn more about staying safe on Upwork. 

 

~ Joanne
Upwork
aitringo
Community Member

Thank you Joanne, for my part I do it without hesitation. And I'll keep doing it ! 


However, as far as the story of this scammer is concerned, which is mentioned here, I have no way of reporting it.
I wanted to make sure that he won't be able to stain the reputation of the platform, which we all love.


Mohamed A. A wrote:

Thank you Joanne, for my part I do it without hesitation. And I'll keep doing it ! 


However, as far as the story of this scammer is concerned, which is mentioned here, I have no way of reporting it.
I wanted to make sure that he won't be able to stain the reputation of the platform, which we all love.


You have no idea what really went on in this situation. Both the client and freelancer need to be banned, but we need to let Upwork investigate the accusations. 

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