FreelancerReviews 19,928

Here's how it works:
You bid on a project and get awarded the job. If it is a job for $100 you IMMEDIATELY see freelancer.com take their $10 commission from your bank account. What have you got so far? You may think you have a job, but in actual fact you have NOTHING WHATSOEVER!
After getting awarded the 'job' you now chat to the 'employer' (read 'scammer') who refuses 9 times out of 10 to pay money into the escrow account (the so-called 'Freelancer milestone system'). Why the refusal? Because the 'employer' is hoping you are f*cking stupid enough to do the work and naively send it to him/her without payment protection so they can steal your work and disappear without paying. If you refuse to work without money in escrow - wait for it, THIS IS THE BEST PART! - then the f*cking scammer can cancel the 'job' and claim you didn't do the work and leave you a one star review which sits there on your profile and makes everyone think you're a bad freelancer when your only sin is that you didn't want some scammer to steal your work.
LET US REVIEW WHAT FREELANCER.COM HAS DELIVERED:
1. They have taken your $10
2. They have given you the opportunity of a heartwarming chat with a scammer
3. They have allowed the scammer to cancel the 'job' and leave you a one star review

BUT HEY, WHO THE F*CK CARES - FREELANCER.COM GOT THEIR $10 'COMMISSION'!

(By the way, in case you thought you could write to their 'support team' and complain - THEY DO NOT HAVE ONE!)

I have said it before and will say it once more: STAY AWAY FROM THIS RUBBISH SITE!

1. First I will talk about their "guaranteed" contests. You can submit free work and they say they will guarantee the payment, I participated in a guaranteed contest with ID ******* and client asked me several times for modifications which I did. Time passed I waited for a winner (I was top contestant, but I was not picked by client and client disappeared). Now according to their policies it was freelancer.com's job to come in and distribute reward among top entries but what they did was unbelievable. They DELETED the "guaranteed" contest without rewarding any freelancer. Now read the response from their support team: "We recently have done some improvement to make the site more secured for valuable users, like you. Hence, the system automatically deletes contests that may cause liability to us and its users. On a different note, you may earn more from contests when you are picked a winner. This will give you higher earnings, good ratings, and feedback, which will help you be awarded more contests and/or projects."

2. Second kind of fraud is more pathetic and shameless, you apply for a job, you are hired, you are paid, project ends, you receive 5 star feedback. WOW great! But after that they can close the project take back money form your account, yes trust me they did this. My money was stolen after I received 5 star feedback form client. Don't know if it went back to client's pocket or Matt Barrie's pocket I don't care but this is a fact they can screw you at anytime, it could have made sense if I was kicked when project was not complete but doing this after project is closed and feed backs are exchanged is the most shameless scam I ever faced.

I have screenshots of these scams and I am sharing for those who believe it is not possible on earth.

They did not let me know they where taking money from my account. I just looked at my bank statement. I was like my goodness what is this payment for. I was under the guise that i was making a one time payment for the ability to make bids and be verified. Little did i know they where taking 10$ a month from me after that. When i send them a email expressing my concern they tell me to wait until the end of month to cancel because then i would be waisting money. In the email when i told them to cancel it they just told me to. There is no phone number to call and they will not refund me. Scam alert stay away... dont give them your info.

I signed up for Freelancer.com without doing very much research, as it *seemed* on the up-and-up, but a few minutes after logging on, auto-scripts were creating fake projects for me, mass-bidding of freelancers was taking place and the site was trying to take payments from my CC/Paypal (which I had wisely not entered yet) and demanding payment. The site even requires a $5 payment to delete these fictitious "projects" the auto-script creates - can you believe it? I just closed my laptop and will never, ever, ever log onto Freelancer.com again.

It was insane, and this site is the absolute worst on the Internet. Had I entered a credit card or Paypal account, I would probably be out hundreds or even thousands of dollars just for logging onto the site a single time. How a company can pull a fraud scam like this is insane and I cannot believe it is still online.

Stay far away and do not even create an account or their auto-scripts will have you in the poor house.

I had a project and found a contractor and set up milestone payments etc. On the day I noticed that freelancer.com made 2 charges, one a full amount for the project, and the other a portion of the project amount (one of the milestone payment).

When I found that a double charge was made, I wrote to them and was told that the money will be refunded. In a week or so when I checked my PayPal account, the money was not returned, and since then nightmare began.

Since freelancer.com knows and acknowledged that a double charge was made, they could have simply returned the credit to my PayPal account, and this is what a "normal" person would expect from a "normal" business operation. Instead, freelancer.com has been coming up with all kind of B... S... not to returning the money. Worse yet, they are NOT even paying the contractor, although all milestones are met, and payment to contractor from the money that is already fully paid by me to them on the first day of project start, is simply amazing business practice I can not imagine. They are blaming that my account is locked (or "limited access") and blaming me and my dispute for asking for money back that they took illegally as the reason. How clever!

I am still fighting to get my money back that they should not have taken from me. I must say DO NOT GET NEAR THIS SITE/VENDOR. THEY ARE NO BETTER THAN CON OPERATION or SIMPLE THIEF.

P.S. When I tried to reach them, I was never able to talk to a "real" person. All communications are restricted to Message Board, and every time I communicate either a new person (I mean first name, which does not mean that it is a "real" person) or generic id.

This site is terrible. Unlike other, non scammer sites, they bill freelancers when they get awarded a job rather than taking a commission from the payment and they doesn't make that difference clear on the sites description. They have no protection for the freelancer, if an employer takes your code and closes the account you are left dead on the water. The support doesn't help you and will just give you excuses without solving anything. Stay clear from this site, it is good for the scammers and they profit from you getting scammed.

I wish I had come here first! I have used a few different Freelancer-type online sites with some great results, however Freelancer.com is nothing short of a scam. Huge amount of hidden fees and charges that are NOT made clear before signing up. We set a maximum budget to spend on our site and they took the entire amount before any work had even started. On top of this they charge payment fees, project fees, recruiter fees and more. I cancelled the job within hours of listing purely on the basis they are dishonest and basically a scam. Their own terms and conditions clearly state you can cancel within a WEEK and get a full refund but they have denied it. 3 weeks later I haven't received a cent back. I've written them multiple, extensive emails, used the chat support and got no where. I've cited their own T&Cs as well as the federal law and they just come back with 'We've looked into your request, and you are not entitled to a refund.' I've been extremely patient and persistent and got nowhere. Now, out of pocket and haven't had a cent of work done. If after all this you still want to use them I highly recommend asking for a full statement of charges Before giving them your card. Once they have it you will never get your money back.

Freelance canceled employers account because of violations, and they did not notify me at all. I was the one realizing account is not active. Now I have 48 hours of unpaid work and $$$ missing. They've even generated the invoice for which they knew it would not be paid as the, again, account and employer were banned from Freelancer service itself. When I asked what the solution is, they said the employer is the one who pays me and they are "merely a platform and not in charge."
I guess, in this case, a fake employer and suspended account is more important than a paying member. If you have any payment related issues, Freelancer will not help you in any way.

Administration blocked the funds that I earned on two projects. The employer paid me money and left positive feedback. Administration of this site took this amount (about ~550$) and now will not return. They say that i need to be careful that this is my problem. They don't want to say why they took my money. I have read on the Internet that they did so with different freelancers. Now I think that it is impossible to work on this site until they do not return my money which they stole from me

I received two milestones for my work and after one hour both of them were 'Reversed'. I tried to contact them, but they firstly don't have any number, secondly their live chat is a crap, they don't even bother to help you. They say they can always reverse the money, but HOW is that ethical? You work, you are paid and if they decide to get the money back, that's it? For no reason? Even in the terms and conditions, they are unclear: 'eg a stolen credit card'. Yeah, and they detected that stolen credit RIGHT after I was PAID. Scams, they have people who post fake projects to earn commisions! Avoid

First of all its a client BIASED platform so even if you file any dispute or client decide to initiate a refund even after months of work complete, you will get a refund confirm without notifying you and all they will say is ontact client.
Never work on Hourly contracts.
They charge there comission in advacne and they give a $#! T what they pay you or even not pay you after they change there access and stop responding to your messages.

Go for any other site but not freelancer.com Never ever