This is the new way of scammers that gate away with your project that you have done for them.

[lazycoder-max]

Recently,  I took a job from a client name **Edited for Community Guidelines**, with an amount of 600$ after we agreed on the deadline and the budget, I started the job and he pays me 100$ as advance, "but i didn't ask it" then he told me not to give him the project unless he pays me in full, and i agreed, and after spending 24 hours on the job without falling asleep, i finally finished and told him that i finished the project and sends a video and also a link to test if everything is working.  after 5 or 10 minutes, he told me that everything is as he expected and good, and asked me to send the project file, and told him that we agreed that i deliver the product after you made the payment, and he sends me 100$ and put another 100$ on escrow with a different account or something and told me he will pay the rest after he gets the file, and i did send him the file as a zip. After he found the source code, he offlined himself right away!

Then, i waited 24 hours and close the job with low feedback and comment, after some time, the Upwork support team contacted me and told me that they have placed a hold on the client's account, and also a temporary hold on my fund. and finally, I received a message that says the payment that the client made for the project is refunded without my permission! I tried to contact the support team and didn't respond. I attached the conversation that the client and me had during the period, and also the support team response. 

As you know, I am the one who lost his time on the project and was scammed by the client, and also lost his money! what did upwork say about this?? Nothing!!

Now, In my understanding, if someone took your money and time in Upwork, you don't have to say anything! because if you do,  Upwork will take what the client pays you, and returns to the client without your permission, then the client will take your project, for free 😁 and as you know, the client will continue this thing with another account again and again and again! If you ask what will upwork do ?? They will refund the client and let the client take the project files for free.

Here is the conversations as evidence so that you can judge me:

**Edited for Community Guidelines**

[NikolaS]

Hi Kidus,

I am sorry to hear about this. I checked and it seems that you are already in correspondence with our team on your support ticket. Please allow more time for our team to review your case and respond accordingly to your ticket. You will be notified of their response.

[lazycoder-max]

Mr, Nikola, Thank you for your response, at least there is someone who responded to me from Upwork! but as you can see, they already refunded all the money that i got paid from the client just because i closed the job with the truth... looks like the UpWork team is saying "People who snitch or tattle will in return receive repercussions"  anyway,  I hope Upwork team will give me its final response, or consider their decision again for the next client who got scammed like this

[tagrendy]

Upwork didn't decide to refund the money, client issued chargeback, which forces Upwork to pay back the money. The client was a fraud.

[lazycoder-max]

So what is the purpose of the escrow?? and does it mean that any client can take his/her money after he received the files from the freelancer? I am asking this because, the client already took the files from me, so if it is possible, that means, any client can take his money back after he received the deliverables.

[tagrendy]

Escrow doesn't protect against chargebacks / fraud. If you're working with fixed terms, you need to be extra careful to pick clients whose work history shows they're not fraud - having many paid projects is a good sign, checking other freelancer's feedback, being on Upwork for a long time etc. [Since this happened to you more than once, means you really need to focus on filtering out frauds while applying to jobs] - sorry confused you with another poster here that had 3 chargebacks. For hourly projects if time tracker is used, Upwork might pay you out of pocket even if the client is a fraud, given that you don't break any TOS rules. But of course, keep in mind that Upwork is a business, they can't cover for too much fraudulent activity even if freelancer is innocent, so your first protection is spotting frauds and staying away from them.

[pgiambalvo]

Yes, they can. Then Upwork puts the onus on you to dispute it and try to get it back.

[02d3e798 · Accepted solution]

If you are unsure about a person (and generally just for risk management) then I would suggest you only work on an hourly rate which offers much more protection via the timer. Its not perfect but is safer. If you are doing fixed price contracts I would also suggest breaking it into three milestones 1/3 deposit, 1/3 mid point (working draft) and 1/3 on completion.

A safety tactic is also to make sure these milestonesare funded, or early part of an hourly contract overlap an end of week, then if their card fails on the Monday you will get notified. Sometimes I will do a few hours as a start then wait until the following Monday to check the card worked before then fully engaging the next week, and any milestones should also be fully funded before spending time on it. 

Fixed price projects just carry more risk so you should also factor into your price that occassionally you might make a loss.