Simple stuff newbies need to hear. Sucks you got screwed, but you are helping many others to not share the same fate. Thanks for your story and advise.
Thank you. I had a harder time articulating my experience. The long of the short of it is: Don't work for free especially when the red flags are there. No profile picture, no payment verification, no ratings of any kind. I was a complete noob, meaning I had done zero work on the internet. I had just quit my job as a waiter so the whole freelancing world was new to me. I wasn't looking for the red flags because I didn't know what to look for.
There is one more point i would like to add to joshua's video to protect yourself. DO NOT EVER SEND THE COMPLETE FINAL WORK WITHOUT YOUR OWN PROTECTION MECHANISM. For example, if your job was to develop a software, add some restrictions to it like it can only be opened 40 times or it will only work for 7 days after installation. Send the unrestricted complete work only after the client pays the money. Trust the freelancer dispute system only at your own peril
Wow, I guess I never expected this video to get so many views! I'm glad it helped people avoid working for free! I am no longer freelancing, and have not been for some time now. Use your common sense, and you will be fine. I would personally recommend Upwork over Freelancer.
oh mahn!!! I was just about to send that ''refundable security fee''....Thanks to you Joshua now I know better, you really saved on that one....thanks.
Yeah I just got scammed as well. They took advantage of me as a very new freelancer, who hasn't used the Milestone Payment before. We chatted on Freelancer and I sent my work via email. After sending in my work they never spoke to me again. I'm trying to get a hold of Freelancer Support, and have still yet to get a hold of them. It was just a small job of retouching images $2 each so the reward wasn't pricey when I only did 8. But as a poor student any amount of money earned is like winning the lottery .
Kaiserin Same as me I didn't know what the milestone system was or how it worked. You aren't protected unless you use the milestone payment system from what Freelancer.com says in their terms of service. Sorry to hear you got scammed at least you got out with a little less money lost, try upwork if you haven't already.
Thanks for the heads-up. I am a beginner on the site and this makes me rather wary of what to expect, but I hope that your video helps prevent what happened to you from happening to me.
I just signed up to Freelancer and on the 2nd day I already got two notifications that people wanted to hire me. When I saw the email notification, I got excited but at the same time thought it was too soon to already get offered something. I got home to read the messages and I could tell it was a scam because of how it sounded and dealing with scams in life in general via email or other sites. The two messages were also almost identical and I wasn't going to fall for it. Good grief.
i just signed up two days ago, today i got a lots of offers then before starting with them , they asked me to pay a fee. sounds suspecious lol so i cacame across your video when i typed paying a fee on freelancer .thanks for the heads up
Thanks *Leapnotch!* The world has been pretty bad lately. Almost everyone have been crying practically, but it kept happening. That's what you get when you feel you can navigate the process on your own. Big thanks to you. I'm not bothered with how bad the world is because my assets are insured due to your advice and I still receive my money back..
ya i also got scammed by some client on freelancer i worked for 15 days continues and after submitting my work they said it's not completed there is some rejection and they reject my work and everything just gone and i also paid Security Deposit before to work and my all money they just scammed i lost my money on hard work any everything just gone.
you're completely right Now days there is someone hired me to make a story for him and send it to his mail : every day just 5 pages Untill I get 150 pages . I've finished till now 68 pages but he stoped telling me his opinion so I stopped for awhile but if he return sending mails to me I'll ask him for payment in order to continue after I've heard this video. Thanx bro
Gegy mory Oh my I'm sorry about that. That happens unfortunately to the best of us. Make sure you don't work without milestone payments. Try Article Lab on upwork they might have some work for you!
Thanks for this video. I just looked up key people in company. Barrie, Katz, Phillips and Koch. Sounds like a law firm. Got very suspicious when they ask for a credit card info. I am not buying anything. Then they wanted a telephone number which will be sold to telemarketers. Now after watching this video and reading comments I am not giving them anymore info. Glad they only have my email. I am sure that my spam will go up greatly now from this scam. I am reviewing all further freelance sites before giving any info. Thanks again, gonna drop this freelance scam like a turd in toilet.
I also got scammed when I was new. Worked 60 hours on 30 articles. The guy named Mark, we used to have conversations on Skype. We even had an agreement which is probably fake and wes stupid for not to ensure it. I was excited as it was my first project. The guy said I will be on 6th day and when the day came I was blocked.
My story is stupid and I'm really sad about it. Its not really about the employer, but the site itself. I didn't realise that there are fees upon accepting a project, I was used to the previous site I was using that the charge is deducted when the employer already paid. So I accepted a project offer and then I got a notification from my Paypal account that there was an automatic credit. I thought putting my Paypal was just for the membership fee. Frellancer's CSR solution for me was to wait for the employer to contact me before I can file a dispute, about 7 days. This happened just a few hours ago and I'm still really pissed. >:- [
Bella Cruz I would avoid Freelancer.com and try another platform like Upwork. They take 20% of your earnings for the first $1,000 for each client. Then they reduce it to 10% once you hit beyond that. It's not a very exciting thing to deal with, although it's not totally bad either. Don't dwell on your mistakes because there's plenty of people who are doing that already. Hopefully this encourages you to never give up!
Update: They refunded my money back to me after I filed my dispute (Thank God!) But lesson learned, although, still working online but for a person I personally know and have friends working for him as well. Thanks for your reply! All the best! :)
I'm sorry to hear about your experience. Such people sucks really bad. I am almost giving up on freelancer.pk, already gave up on upwork. So far, guru is working for me, except for one scam where he asked for friendship. when i refused, he didn't pay me for other projects.
So as for me I have this client that gave me data entry job and he already paid money into my freelancer.com account but he then went silent and he never gave me details so I am stuck, I have also encountered scammers too but I did not fall for them they all come through email or whatsapp.
is there anyone knows, about negative balances after project is being awarded. i have a project then when i see my profile i have negative balance. what is it?can you spare some information how to deal with it.
If someone could please speak to whether this sounds like a scam or not: I bid on a job, and got a response the same day offering me part time or full time work. The “person” told me to reach out in the Wire Messenger app to the hiring manager, but I got only strange, automated responses for positions I was NOT applying for. I asked for clarification. The employer has no ratings. Thoughts?
The site's way worse nowadays, I apply for a job and the client says he needs my Upwork account to work on it to pay me 100$ each month and blah blah blah, every damn time, all the ''Clients'' ask for the same thing, these scammers are everywhere, the site is full of them. I'm one step to abandon this site and move to another.
the site is not fair, been for 2 years on it, I only look for contests because with bidding always win people who are satisfied with like 5% for editing a video for example. Everyone steals your ideas, voiceover, work, if you want to hide from the others your entry you have to pay, you could put a watermark, but still, your idea is stolen in a minute. People upload up to 30 extremely similar entities for example just with a text color change just so that they can be on top of the page. And in the end, most likely will win a person who usually says, "Hey I am free IF you choose me I'll do the work in an hour" while everyone else has taken the time to present their skills and finish their version of the work, you go to upload your entry and voila the contest is won by a promise? So done with the site lately, it has become worse and worse. After the results from the last contest that I have participated in I am deleting my account. Hundreds of hours for nothing. Litterally nothing.
If this website creators actually had ANY INTEREST in actually getting all these freelancers paid - they would have figured out an escrow service. Secondly. THEY CHARGE YOU A FEE REGARDLESS OF WETHER THE PROJECT HAPPENED OR NOT AND HAVE YOU BEEN PAID OR NOT. The website IS A SCAM.
when the client award you the project, you will be charged of commission fees right? that's what happened someone (scammer) approaches me to write an article .. and then when I finish it, he didn't pay me at all and the milestones were just pending he did not accept them and now i wanna take off the commission fees that I have been charged of because I didn't receive the payment.. what did you do in your case when you knew that you have been scammed?
Hey Imane, that was a long time ago and I've sinced moved on from the platform. I remeber that every time I turned in work, I would get an invoice that was sent to me and the client. I was counting the money in my head, and was convinced I had a live one! When it came time to pay up the client disappeared. His profile was basically bare, no profile picture, nothing credible. So when I filed a complaint with support I didn't hear back from them. Not a word.
@@JoshuaJamesWagoner unfortunately, I am so sorry to hear that. They are a lot of bad people unfortunately. BTW I want to do the same (I mean close my account in Freelancer) but because of the commission fees I can't close it until I will pay while I didn't even get paid for the project and I am charged of the commission fees and while I contacted them, they just say they will see. I really hate it now..
Thanks for the video. I'm starting out freelancing and I just really have no idea what to do. I'm trying upwork so we'll see how that goes. I know this is a year old, but any suggestions for anywhere else you've used since?
Looking for clients on UpWork can be lucrative. You've got to make their life easier and also find a quality client you could see yourself working with for the forseeable future. I recommend Aleksander Vitkins channel for online business. Also consider getting into ecommerce like Shopify and using ads to sell things.
Did you find on upwork that the responses went up once you started getting ratings? I'm not intending to stick to the small quick jobs under $150. I do graphic and motion design, focused on branding and identity, so the focus is broader multi-stage projects like logos and assisting identity assets, social media and video, etc, etc. Ive got a good profile video and example works, but obviously without ratings no one has any reason to look at me. I'm applying for little quick $50 illustrations and things to get that rating up, and I've got one, and the client's nice. Did you find more of a response as you went? Am I being too ambitious in thinking it's an avenue for the larger projects? Thanks for the reply
hi on freelancer site, is it normal if you'll be able to play with the client with security reasons? i have noticed that the person i speak with had just recently logged and has no verified sign. it was bit alarming. hmm i was deciding if have to cancel my freelancer account too. btw thanks for the info
Almost everyone who has worked on freelancer.com has been scammed at least once. Milestone payment itself isn't very reliable because of their "employer-biased" dispute resolution system
Jobin Jose Yeah I didn’t know anything about these sites so even the milestone tip is somewhat risky, and I wouldn’t recommend that on freelancer.com without a lot of evidence the client was trustworthy. I suggest people use upwork to make money freelancing, that’s what I’m doing now and it’s working pretty well!
Thanks for the quick reply joshua. After the bad experiences with freelancer.com, i am looking for a new "fair" freelancing site. Would you recommend upwork's dispute resolution system as being fair towards freelancers and not being employer-biased?
Jobin Jose Yeah man I mean I can only speak from my own experience. Upwork can be really good, but you need to find the right clients to work with. I don’t have much experience with their dispute resolution but that’s why you want to find clients who communicate clearly from the beginning to avoid any misunderstandings.
Hi Joshua, I just took a project on freelancer at 0.023$ per word. It's been 2 weeks now and I am expecting my first payment next week. After listening to your video I'm also scared this might happen to me too as I am also writing articles everyday, and in touch with the guy on Skype.
I am so glad I watched your video! Thank you for sharing your experience. I am new to freelancing and I am having a similar issue with my client. I have accepted an offer and I am $60 in the red for it. This client hasn’t responded back and I am wondering how I get refunded, if any.
Thanks for watching and be careful freelancing! If you need a good chick to watch concerning bidding sites like upwork and freelancer i would highly recommend Jorden Roper or Aleksander Vitkin.
A sweatshop. Yes, there are probably good designers on the site. If you are a good designer I don't know how anyone would find you. Way too much white noise. I'm not judging the people who submitted the work but wow. I can do clip art. If you are interested in branding from the business side, go to a freelance site that allows you to look at portfolios and reviews. I put up 600.00 for a logo contest. I got hundreds of clipart submissions. After two hours I tried to shut it down. A tough lesson to learn $600.00 down the drain. Paypal sided with the company. Buyer beware, Freelancer beware.
Absolutely agree with you. For me it was my first time ever working online for someone. I just didn't see the scam coming. Now i'm working on an online business, so I would be doing the hiring now. I probably would go with Upwork or Fiver. I just don't have much good to say about Freelancer.com and that's a shame.
I just got Started. I only work on guaranteed Contests to polish my skills and earn money as a bonus. I haven't starting bidding yet and I don't plan to either.
You’ve got your head on straight. Keep in mind when I made this I was totally inexperienced and got taken advantage of pretty easily. I just didn’t know what I didn’t know.
So your advice helps the clients but not the new freelancers. So you are telling people to avoid new freelancers, they have no credibility because they never worked with anyone before. Well if all people are like you than no one will have a job in there. Very good advice sir.
It's been so long, but i remember doing my first job for someone who did pay me. I got all excited and thought every client would pay but alas no. You've got to screen the person who's hiring you.
Someone from Freelancer.com told me that he will be using my Upwork account to hire someone for a project. He will be using TeamViewer to do the work while I watch. This is a fraudulent offer, right? I mean, there is no guarantee that he will pay the freelancers that he will hire using my Upwork account.
Thank You Joshua and all the comments below. I was just about to complete the process of signing up, when I got a bad feeling about the job listings for software devs and I quick search led me here and wow it sounds like a total scam .
I would be suspicious of anyone who is trying to pull you off of the platform. It's probably a scam! Even on the platform, it's risky and you can still get scammed. Just screen people who are trying to hire you. Look for red flags. Don't work for free!
Hey James, is this problem still persists with freelancer.com or they have introduced some mechanism to enforce milestone project approach from client?
Well... to be perfectly honest I'm not sure. I haven't used Freelancer since I got scammed. For my situation, the client told me straight away that there would be no milestone payments. He assured me that I would be paid at a later date, which i naively believed, much to my later disappointment. It really is between you and the client. That's why you have to screen them carefully. Watch out for major red flags: no profile picture, no feedback of any kind, no payment verifications, and pressure to work for long periods of time without any compensation.
Hi. I'm really sorry for your loss. It sucks to get ripped off after putting in work for someone else. Don't take it personally. At least you haven't sunk so low as to be a thief like this scammer from Pakistan. Good luck moving forward.
I have been scamed by an indian on guru. He payed for the first project and then asked for friendship...when i refused and keep it professional he didn't pay me for other projects.
Hello, Have you worked as a freelancer on UpWork? If so, How was your experience? Was it legit? Also, what freelancer jobs do you recommend that are legit?
You said you work on upwork.com and I was wondering is that site safe? I am trying to start data entry jobs but don't know where to start. I just want to know if upwork.com is safe and I wont get scammed and any my account information from my PayPal wont be stolen?
Yep I just want to let you know Upwork is safe and I have personally made $1500+ on the site. I have had no issues with PayPal either you just have to deal with the upwork platforms standard "holding period of 5 days" while the money you make on upwork is held in escrow. Screen your clients though and remember upwork takes 20% of your money (earnings) for the first $500 you bill a client. Data entry should be fine as far as not getting scammed although, to be honest, I have not worked in data entry. As long as the client has good feedback, payments verified, and you see the compensation is fair...go for it!
So glad you asked this question! Sorry for the late reply. Yeah Upwork is really safe for the most part! I am about to upload a video on some of my experiences on Upwork so stayed tuned!
Thank you for sharing. I haven't signed up. Just doing some initial research to establish if they are legitimate after, curiously, being asked for a 'payment method' when I'm not the client. All seemed a little suspect.
Milestone payments are an agreement between your client and you to receive payment after a particular goal has been met. If it's an ongoing relationship you should be getting paid after you complete assignments. Once you've established trust, then you can allow the client to pay you at the end of the week. Basically don't work for free.
Seeing you dudes mature this much as individuals AND as honest recovery is honestly inspiring and nice to see with content recovery services. Well done #leapnotch. Well done..
I am sorry to hear that you got scammed. Im a newbie in freelancing and i was super excited to finally got some response from employer to work after 3months long waiting while doing part time delivery and such after graduate in July. I got messaged from someone to contact someone outside of freelance apps to know more details in telegram so i did. It was kind of strange on why the task changes from the job posted but i brush it off. He told me to type 200 images into words within 3 days. He even ignored me when i ask question and to be honest it is typical scammer situation because its to good to be true: 1 image equal to 11usd. And seriously that task, you can just upload the image in free convert to words website so you dont actually have to type it all back down. I was excited and thinking that i may be able to pay for my sister's dental wish that cost around myr 3000 and pay my mom for his dental cost as well around myr2000 so I type one image like 15minutes. I cancel my plan to go to the vet with my dad so that i can focus on the project instead. And while, i was typing away, i feel obligate to watch freelance scam and then its hit me, that this is a scam after 3 hours long typing away. He seems legit to me because he use other websites that looks professional and such. I hope you doing fine now, if it was me in your case, i will hitting much more rock bottom than before, may you be success in your journey, young lad.
Thanks *Leapnotch!* The world has been pretty bad lately. Almost everyone have been crying practically, but it kept happening. That's what you get when you feel you can navigate the process on your own. Big thanks to you. I'm not bothered with how bad the world is because my assets are insured due to your advice and I still receive my money back..
Seeing you dudes mature this much as individuals AND as honest recovery is honestly inspiring and nice to see with content recovery services. Well done #leapnotch. Well done..
![PROTECT YOURSELF from FAKE PROJECTS [SCAMS on Freelancer.com]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Js_VcZ_k1j4/mqdefault.jpg)
![PROTECT YOURSELF from FAKE PROJECTS [SCAMS on Freelancer.com]](/img/tr.png)
And if a client asks you for money such as "registration fee" or "refundable security fee" , then it is 101% SCAM !
Seriously? I have been offered project that need me to pay for security fee first. Should I accept it? Im still new to this freelancing work...
@@syahirmokhtar7511 Don't pay !
@@abdullahshahid6637 thanks
Thank you. I have received such offers and I have decline all of them
I just got a project that asked for "security fee". Lucky I don't have money in my bank 😂
Simple stuff newbies need to hear. Sucks you got screwed, but you are helping many others to not share the same fate. Thanks for your story and advise.
Thank you. I had a harder time articulating my experience. The long of the short of it is: Don't work for free especially when the red flags are there. No profile picture, no payment verification, no ratings of any kind. I was a complete noob, meaning I had done zero work on the internet. I had just quit my job as a waiter so the whole freelancing world was new to me. I wasn't looking for the red flags because I didn't know what to look for.
There is one more point i would like to add to joshua's video to protect yourself. DO NOT EVER SEND THE COMPLETE FINAL WORK WITHOUT YOUR OWN PROTECTION MECHANISM. For example, if your job was to develop a software, add some restrictions to it like it can only be opened 40 times or it will only work for 7 days after installation. Send the unrestricted complete work only after the client pays the money. Trust the freelancer dispute system only at your own peril
Exactly. Put watermark on design work.
i'm new there so even on hourly project. we can just send screenshots of documents and wait for them to pay and then send the final work?? please help
Wow, I guess I never expected this video to get so many views! I'm glad it helped people avoid working for free! I am no longer freelancing, and have not been for some time now. Use your common sense, and you will be fine. I would personally recommend Upwork over Freelancer.
Hi, I just want to thank you for the video and sharing. Im new to Freelancer and this is so helpful.
oh mahn!!! I was just about to send that ''refundable security fee''....Thanks to you Joshua now I know better, you really saved on that one....thanks.
Yeah I just got scammed as well. They took advantage of me as a very new freelancer, who hasn't used the Milestone Payment before. We chatted on Freelancer and I sent my work via email. After sending in my work they never spoke to me again.
I'm trying to get a hold of Freelancer Support, and have still yet to get a hold of them.
It was just a small job of retouching images $2 each so the reward wasn't pricey when I only did 8. But as a poor student any amount of money earned is like winning the lottery .
Kaiserin Same as me I didn't know what the milestone system was or how it worked. You aren't protected unless you use the milestone payment system from what Freelancer.com says in their terms of service. Sorry to hear you got scammed at least you got out with a little less money lost, try upwork if you haven't already.
This is why this video exists. It's to keep good people from trusting strangers on the internet. Working for free should only be done if you want to!
Thanks for the heads-up. I am a beginner on the site and this makes me rather wary of what to expect, but I hope that your video helps prevent what happened to you from happening to me.
Just be careful and don't be too eager to do work for anyone without going over the details.
I just signed up to Freelancer and on the 2nd day I already got two notifications that people wanted to hire me. When I saw the email notification, I got excited but at the same time thought it was too soon to already get offered something. I got home to read the messages and I could tell it was a scam because of how it sounded and dealing with scams in life in general via email or other sites. The two messages were also almost identical and I wasn't going to fall for it. Good grief.
2nd day??...I got a job just few hours after signing in
i just signed up two days ago, today i got a lots of offers then before starting with them , they asked me to pay a fee. sounds suspecious lol so i cacame across your video when i typed paying a fee on freelancer .thanks for the heads up
Thanks *Leapnotch!* The world has been pretty bad lately. Almost everyone have been crying practically, but it kept happening. That's what you get when you feel you can navigate the process on your own. Big thanks to you. I'm not bothered with how bad the world is because my assets are insured due to your advice and I still receive my money back..
ya i also got scammed by some client on freelancer i worked for 15 days continues and after submitting my work they said it's not completed there is some rejection and they reject my work and everything just gone and i also paid Security Deposit before to work and my all money they just scammed i lost my money on hard work any everything just gone.
you're completely right
Now days there is someone hired me to make a story for him and send it to his mail : every day just 5 pages Untill I get 150 pages . I've finished till now 68 pages but he stoped telling me his opinion so I stopped for awhile but if he return sending mails to me I'll ask him for payment in order to continue after I've heard this video.
Thanx bro
Gegy mory Oh my I'm sorry about that. That happens unfortunately to the best of us. Make sure you don't work without milestone payments. Try Article Lab on upwork they might have some work for you!
Thank you for this video actually I was thinking the same thing about Freelancer, it is a big scam
Thanks for this video. I just looked up key people in company. Barrie, Katz, Phillips and Koch. Sounds like a law firm. Got very suspicious when they ask for a credit card info. I am not buying anything. Then they wanted a telephone number which will be sold to telemarketers. Now after watching this video and reading comments I am not giving them anymore info. Glad they only have my email. I am sure that my spam will go up greatly now from this scam. I am reviewing all further freelance sites before giving any info. Thanks again, gonna drop this freelance scam like a turd in toilet.
I also got scammed when I was new. Worked 60 hours on 30 articles. The guy named Mark, we used to have conversations on Skype. We even had an agreement which is probably fake and wes stupid for not to ensure it. I was excited as it was my first project. The guy said I will be on 6th day and when the day came I was blocked.
Thanks for sharing your experience. It really helps me to be more conscious and see the reality of the platform and not get scammed.
Thank you! Just started with freelancer
My story is stupid and I'm really sad about it. Its not really about the employer, but the site itself. I didn't realise that there are fees upon accepting a project, I was used to the previous site I was using that the charge is deducted when the employer already paid. So I accepted a project offer and then I got a notification from my Paypal account that there was an automatic credit. I thought putting my Paypal was just for the membership fee.
Frellancer's CSR solution for me was to wait for the employer to contact me before I can file a dispute, about 7 days. This happened just a few hours ago and I'm still really pissed. >:- [
Bella Cruz I would avoid Freelancer.com and try another platform like Upwork. They take 20% of your earnings for the first $1,000 for each client. Then they reduce it to 10% once you hit beyond that. It's not a very exciting thing to deal with, although it's not totally bad either. Don't dwell on your mistakes because there's plenty of people who are doing that already. Hopefully this encourages you to never give up!
Update: They refunded my money back to me after I filed my dispute (Thank God!) But lesson learned, although, still working online but for a person I personally know and have friends working for him as well. Thanks for your reply! All the best! :)
My money deducted while verifying payment account through debit card.
Not sure what your point is. Money deducted for what? THX
to confirmed its real...
@Joshua James
Would you be interested in doing a website review for us when it's done?
I'm sorry to hear about your experience. Such people sucks really bad. I am almost giving up on freelancer.pk, already gave up on upwork. So far, guru is working for me, except for one scam where he asked for friendship. when i refused, he didn't pay me for other projects.
So as for me I have this client that gave me data entry job and he already paid money into my freelancer.com account but he then went silent and he never gave me details so I am stuck, I have also encountered scammers too but I did not fall for them they all come through email or whatsapp.
Thanks Josh. Why would anyone wanna do "Confirm location" gig? Scam or legit?
is there anyone knows, about negative balances after project is being awarded. i have a project then when i see my profile i have negative balance. what is it?can you spare some information how to deal with it.
If someone could please speak to whether this sounds like a scam or not: I bid on a job, and got a response the same day offering me part time or full time work. The “person” told me to reach out in the Wire Messenger app to the hiring manager, but I got only strange, automated responses for positions I was NOT applying for. I asked for clarification. The employer has no ratings. Thoughts?
It's definitely a scam. Any time anyone tries to move you off of the website, it's really not legit.
Thanks I hope it helps somebody from avoiding scams. :)
it helps a lot. Thank you, man
really helped a lot from scam thank god i watch this video thanks man
Wow this is very helpful bro thanks for the tips, and remember what don't kill us make us stronger, so again, thanks for the tips.
Thank you for the insight man.
The site's way worse nowadays, I apply for a job and the client says he needs my Upwork account to work on it to pay me 100$ each month and blah blah blah, every damn time, all the ''Clients'' ask for the same thing, these scammers are everywhere, the site is full of them.
I'm one step to abandon this site and move to another.
can you please name one or 2 sites other than freelancer who are worthy ?
the site is not fair, been for 2 years on it, I only look for contests because with bidding always win people who are satisfied with like 5% for editing a video for example. Everyone steals your ideas, voiceover, work, if you want to hide from the others your entry you have to pay, you could put a watermark, but still, your idea is stolen in a minute. People upload up to 30 extremely similar entities for example just with a text color change just so that they can be on top of the page. And in the end, most likely will win a person who usually says, "Hey I am free IF you choose me I'll do the work in an hour" while everyone else has taken the time to present their skills and finish their version of the work, you go to upload your entry and voila the contest is won by a promise? So done with the site lately, it has become worse and worse. After the results from the last contest that I have participated in I am deleting my account. Hundreds of hours for nothing. Litterally nothing.
same goes to me pal this site is full of shitt instead of that shitt site new comers should learn some advance skills to get a job
It helped a lot to lot of fresher out there looking for opportunities to earn money with online work.
A good suggestion about milestone payment.👍
If this website creators actually had ANY INTEREST in actually getting all these freelancers paid - they would have figured out an escrow service. Secondly. THEY CHARGE YOU A FEE REGARDLESS OF WETHER THE PROJECT HAPPENED OR NOT AND HAVE YOU BEEN PAID OR NOT. The website IS A SCAM.
when the client award you the project, you will be charged of commission fees right? that's what happened someone (scammer) approaches me to write an article .. and then when I finish it, he didn't pay me at all and the milestones were just pending he did not accept them and now i wanna take off the commission fees that I have been charged of because I didn't receive the payment.. what did you do in your case when you knew that you have been scammed?
Hey Imane, that was a long time ago and I've sinced moved on from the platform. I remeber that every time I turned in work, I would get an invoice that was sent to me and the client. I was counting the money in my head, and was convinced I had a live one! When it came time to pay up the client disappeared. His profile was basically bare, no profile picture, nothing credible. So when I filed a complaint with support I didn't hear back from them. Not a word.
@@JoshuaJamesWagoner unfortunately, I am so sorry to hear that. They are a lot of bad people unfortunately. BTW I want to do the same (I mean close my account in Freelancer) but because of the commission fees I can't close it until I will pay while I didn't even get paid for the project and I am charged of the commission fees and while I contacted them, they just say they will see. I really hate it now..
Worst experience of my life. I totally recommend using anyone other than Freelancer
this is a great tip bro nice video, thanks for the advice.
Thank you Joshua!
I want just told to pay $50 levy before I received a project
Thanks for the video. I'm starting out freelancing and I just really have no idea what to do. I'm trying upwork so we'll see how that goes. I know this is a year old, but any suggestions for anywhere else you've used since?
Looking for clients on UpWork can be lucrative. You've got to make their life easier and also find a quality client you could see yourself working with for the forseeable future. I recommend Aleksander Vitkins channel for online business. Also consider getting into ecommerce like Shopify and using ads to sell things.
Did you find on upwork that the responses went up once you started getting ratings? I'm not intending to stick to the small quick jobs under $150. I do graphic and motion design, focused on branding and identity, so the focus is broader multi-stage projects like logos and assisting identity assets, social media and video, etc, etc. Ive got a good profile video and example works, but obviously without ratings no one has any reason to look at me. I'm applying for little quick $50 illustrations and things to get that rating up, and I've got one, and the client's nice. Did you find more of a response as you went? Am I being too ambitious in thinking it's an avenue for the larger projects?
Thanks for the reply
Thanks man! You saved my time!
hi on freelancer site, is it normal if you'll be able to play with the client with security reasons? i have noticed that the person i speak with had just recently logged and has no verified sign. it was bit alarming. hmm i was deciding if have to cancel my freelancer account too. btw thanks for the info
Almost everyone who has worked on freelancer.com has been scammed at least once. Milestone payment itself isn't very reliable because of their "employer-biased" dispute resolution system
Jobin Jose Yeah I didn’t know anything about these sites so even the milestone tip is somewhat risky, and I wouldn’t recommend that on freelancer.com without a lot of evidence the client was trustworthy. I suggest people use upwork to make money freelancing, that’s what I’m doing now and it’s working pretty well!
Thanks for the quick reply joshua. After the bad experiences with freelancer.com, i am looking for a new "fair" freelancing site. Would you recommend upwork's dispute resolution system as being fair towards freelancers and not being employer-biased?
Jobin Jose Yeah man I mean I can only speak from my own experience. Upwork can be really good, but you need to find the right clients to work with. I don’t have much experience with their dispute resolution but that’s why you want to find clients who communicate clearly from the beginning to avoid any misunderstandings.
Thanks. I will definitely give upwork a try
this site freelancer is 75% fake.....
It's a statement, not a FACT.
agreed that site is shitt
Hi Joshua, I just took a project on freelancer at 0.023$ per word. It's been 2 weeks now and I am expecting my first payment next week. After listening to your video I'm also scared this might happen to me too as I am also writing articles everyday, and in touch with the guy on Skype.
I am so glad I watched your video! Thank you for sharing your experience. I am new to freelancing and I am having a similar issue with my client. I have accepted an offer and I am $60 in the red for it. This client hasn’t responded back and I am wondering how I get refunded, if any.
Someone was telling me that I have to send them a milestone fee for them to send me back when I hit my milestone. Do that sound right?
Thank you for sharing your experience to us
i was just uploading a profilr until i found ur video thank u
Thanks for watching and be careful freelancing! If you need a good chick to watch concerning bidding sites like upwork and freelancer i would highly recommend Jorden Roper or Aleksander Vitkin.
yeah ive been watching Jorden, shes real good. I'm going to look into Alesksander thank you!
A sweatshop. Yes, there are probably good designers on the site. If you are a good designer I don't know how anyone would find you. Way too much white noise. I'm not judging the people who submitted the work but wow. I can do clip art. If you are interested in branding from the business side, go to a freelance site that allows you to look at portfolios and reviews. I put up 600.00 for a logo contest. I got hundreds of clipart submissions. After two hours I tried to shut it down. A tough lesson to learn $600.00 down the drain. Paypal sided with the company. Buyer beware, Freelancer beware.
Absolutely agree with you. For me it was my first time ever working online for someone. I just didn't see the scam coming. Now i'm working on an online business, so I would be doing the hiring now. I probably would go with Upwork or Fiver. I just don't have much good to say about Freelancer.com and that's a shame.
I just got Started. I only work on guaranteed Contests to polish my skills and earn money as a bonus. I haven't starting bidding yet and I don't plan to either.
You’ve got your head on straight. Keep in mind when I made this I was totally inexperienced and got taken advantage of pretty easily. I just didn’t know what I didn’t know.
So your advice helps the clients but not the new freelancers. So you are telling people to avoid new freelancers, they have no credibility because they never worked with anyone before. Well if all people are like you than no one will have a job in there. Very good advice sir.
Did you have any successful gigs on freelancer? I seem to only hear of cams and I'm curious whether anyone has had any success on their site.
It's been so long, but i remember doing my first job for someone who did pay me. I got all excited and thought every client would pay but alas no. You've got to screen the person who's hiring you.
@@JoshuaJamesWagoner gotcha, thanks
Someone from Freelancer.com told me that he will be using my Upwork account to hire someone for a project. He will be using TeamViewer to do the work while I watch. This is a fraudulent offer, right? I mean, there is no guarantee that he will pay the freelancers that he will hire using my Upwork account.
Thanks, Josh!
Thank You Joshua and all the comments below. I was just about to complete the process of signing up, when I got a bad feeling about the job listings for software devs and I quick search led me here and wow it sounds like a total scam .
Thank you for your sharing. Since I am beginner , how about if he approached me to contact about the project through WhatsApp? Is it legit or scam?
I would be suspicious of anyone who is trying to pull you off of the platform. It's probably a scam! Even on the platform, it's risky and you can still get scammed. Just screen people who are trying to hire you. Look for red flags. Don't work for free!
I am new also. But i am pretty sure all communication must be on freelancer.com if you do not want scam.
Hey James, is this problem still persists with freelancer.com or they have introduced some mechanism to enforce milestone project approach from client?
Well... to be perfectly honest I'm not sure. I haven't used Freelancer since I got scammed. For my situation, the client told me straight away that there would be no milestone payments. He assured me that I would be paid at a later date, which i naively believed, much to my later disappointment. It really is between you and the client. That's why you have to screen them carefully. Watch out for major red flags: no profile picture, no feedback of any kind, no payment verifications, and pressure to work for long periods of time without any compensation.
@@JoshuaJamesWagoner Thanks mate, that helps.
Greatly done video.
I've just been scammed on freelancer by a guy in Pakistan. i advise you not to work for those people.
Hi. I'm really sorry for your loss. It sucks to get ripped off after putting in work for someone else. Don't take it personally. At least you haven't sunk so low as to be a thief like this scammer from Pakistan. Good luck moving forward.
I have been scamed by an indian on guru. He payed for the first project and then asked for friendship...when i refused and keep it professional he didn't pay me for other projects.
What happened?
@@erwinbedia9606 I lost money, they found in his favour, absolute nonesense. Won't touch freelancer again, buch of racists.
thanks for sharing your experience.
thank you for feedback
thanks for this info...
You're welcome and stay tuned I'm uploading a new video on freelancing soon.
Hello, Have you worked as a freelancer on UpWork? If so, How was your experience? Was it legit? Also, what freelancer jobs do you recommend that are legit?
You said you work on upwork.com and I was wondering is that site safe? I am trying to start data entry jobs but don't know where to start. I just want to know if upwork.com is safe and I wont get scammed and any my account information from my PayPal wont be stolen?
Yep I just want to let you know Upwork is safe and I have personally made $1500+ on the site. I have had no issues with PayPal either you just have to deal with the upwork platforms standard "holding period of 5 days" while the money you make on upwork is held in escrow. Screen your clients though and remember upwork takes 20% of your money (earnings) for the first $500 you bill a client. Data entry should be fine as far as not getting scammed although, to be honest, I have not worked in data entry. As long as the client has good feedback, payments verified, and you see the compensation is fair...go for it!
So glad you asked this question! Sorry for the late reply. Yeah Upwork is really safe for the most part! I am about to upload a video on some of my experiences on Upwork so stayed tuned!
Is there any danger of hackers on the site?
How to Avoid Getting Scammed on Freelancer.com: Don't sign in period.
Hey what about guru.com
Thanks for the tips. The background is very distracting.
I appreciate your pointing that out. I was completely unsure how to shoot it and the sky was pretty that day!
Great video
Good content but why did you choose that location for the video
The Freelancer website is pure poison.
Thank you, that can help
It totally happened to me only one step further!
Thank you!
Слава Байкал Definitely my pleasure! Give Upwork a try! :)
Thank you for sharing. I haven't signed up. Just doing some initial research to establish if they are legitimate after, curiously, being asked for a 'payment method' when I'm not the client. All seemed a little suspect.
What is milestone payment mean bro ?
Milestone payments are an agreement between your client and you to receive payment after a particular goal has been met. If it's an ongoing relationship you should be getting paid after you complete assignments. Once you've established trust, then you can allow the client to pay you at the end of the week. Basically don't work for free.
Thanks.
Cheers 👍🏽
OB Kalolo Thanks 🙏
Seeing you dudes mature this much as individuals AND as honest recovery is honestly inspiring and nice to see with content recovery services. Well done #leapnotch. Well done..
There are SO MANY SCAMMERS!!!!!!!
:(
Anyone here who can c++,c#
piratheep No I don't know how to do that but if you do you'll find work on upwork most likely.
I use c#. What do you have in mind?
I am sorry to hear that you got scammed. Im a newbie in freelancing and i was super excited to finally got some response from employer to work after 3months long waiting while doing part time delivery and such after graduate in July.
I got messaged from someone to contact someone outside of freelance apps to know more details in telegram so i did. It was kind of strange on why the task changes from the job posted but i brush it off. He told me to type 200 images into words within 3 days. He even ignored me when i ask question and to be honest it is typical scammer situation because its to good to be true: 1 image equal to 11usd. And seriously that task, you can just upload the image in free convert to words website so you dont actually have to type it all back down. I was excited and thinking that i may be able to pay for my sister's dental wish that cost around myr 3000 and pay my mom for his dental cost as well around myr2000 so I type one image like 15minutes. I cancel my plan to go to the vet with my dad so that i can focus on the project instead.
And while, i was typing away, i feel obligate to watch freelance scam and then its hit me, that this is a scam after 3 hours long typing away.
He seems legit to me because he use other websites that looks professional and such. I hope you doing fine now, if it was me in your case, i will hitting much more rock bottom than before, may you be success in your journey, young lad.
Thanks *Leapnotch!* The world has been pretty bad lately. Almost everyone have been crying practically, but it kept happening. That's what you get when you feel you can navigate the process on your own. Big thanks to you. I'm not bothered with how bad the world is because my assets are insured due to your advice and I still receive my money back..
Seeing you dudes mature this much as individuals AND as honest recovery is honestly inspiring and nice to see with content recovery services. Well done #leapnotch. Well done..