Beware of scammers - 5 day dispute delay tactic!

[f79b0145]

Upwork technically is a safe platform to transact. However the processes to protect clients from fraudulent freelancers is flawed. I was scammed by freelancer Rehan Hamayun on an hourly contract. He billed 100% of his time in week one using the Activity tracking (active hours) provided by Upwork. This activity tracking is flawed and cannot be trusted!

After week one, I did not get any deliverables, but the freelancer started asking a lot of valid clarification questions. This was a delay tactic to go beyond the 5 day dispute period. This continued into week two and that was when I started to get suspicious.

I now lost just under $2000 and received nothing. And as far as Upwork is concerned, all is legitimate.

Do not trust the Active hours! This is creating a sense of false security that work is actually done.

Do not trust the identity verification. Make sure you do your own verification.

You have 5 days to dispute anything! Make sure you get actual deliverables and do not get fooled with someone being very engaging!

[spectralua]

You able to revise diary with hours tracked. Did you saw that?

ID verification works. FL unable to take money outside without verification. Your money still at Upwork if FL used fake ID.

In fact it is 2 weeks for FL. After you wasted your 5 days (7 within ToS. Have no idea where 2 days hidden) Upwork keeping money within another week. You still able to block then refund your money. 

[0ca42f20]

Thanks a lot

[williamtcooper]

Consider using Milestones in the future to avoid these types of issues.

With a Milestone, a freelancer must submit their work for your approval before getting paid.

[lee-xinshun]

You can check the diary work,if you found something wrong,you can end the contract,and This is benefit for everyone.

[yofazza]

I second this.

@TS, your problem, unfortunately, is not uncommon in this place.

You need to monitor the work closely at the start, and limit the hours to 1 if needed, until you can really trust the freelancer.

Freelancers' profiles are not a guarantee; there are reports of clients complaining about scams committed by freelancers with sparkling profiles and high hourly rates.

Fixed-price projects are definitely not a way to 'avoid the issues'. There are numerous reports of clients having trouble getting their $1000+ escrow back on fixed-price projects, because freelancers can simply do some useless work, as long as it's work, and the client can never get their entire money back in dispute. Some have 'spent' over $10k to have some useless piece of software.

It's basically the same; in fixed-price you need to use small milestones and monitor the work, until you can really trust the freelancer.

If Upwork cannot give your money back in this obvious scam (based on the one-sided story), there's another institution that should help their clients who got scammed.

[b88f889b]

acknowledged with thanks.