Angela R.

Freelancer.com is a huge scam. I'm sure there are legitimate work opportunities on Freelancer, but that was NOT my experience. I was new to the site and still in the process of getting my portfolio set up. Out of the blue, an employer wanted to hire me for a $600.00 job for which I hadn't even placed a bid. I guess I got ahead of myself and accepted the job without thoroughly checking out the employer.

Within SECONDS of clicking the "Accept" button, Paypal notified me of a $60.00 charge from Freelancer--a fee for which I'd not even been given the chance to approve or decline. A few hours later, the employer, ableGODartistry, canceled the job and completely deleted their account. When I contacted Freelancer for a refund, they told me that the money would NOT be refunded even though I never actually did any work or earned any money. They said that the $60 charge I paid was their fee for "introducing" me to the employer. I read on another site where this is something that Freelancer does on a regular basis--they, themselves, create a dummy employer, get some newbie to accept the fake job, and then cancel the job and the account while keeping the fees that the worker had to pay up front. Even the employer's name was extremely similar to the employer who "hired" me. That can't be a coincidence.

I finally got them to give me Freelancer "credit", but I'm still waiting to see if they will actually refund my PayPal account.

NEVER. AGAIN.