I signed up for Freelancer.com to hire someone to do a job and deposited $41.25. The person never started or completed the task, so I opened a dispute on the Freelancer.com website so that the person and my money could go to another person who would start the job. Freelancer.com immediately suspended my account as soon as I opened a dispute and charged and additional $3.50 to my account without my permission. I opened a claim with Paypal for the unauthorized charges and to make a charge-back. Freelancer.com then sent me an email saying I won my dispute and asked me to drop the Paypal claim so they could promptly give me a refund. Its been over a month and they still have stolen my money. Paypal says I won my dispute also and canceled the $3.50 Freelancer.com was trying to charge me.
I am filing a formal complaint with several gov't consumer protection agencies. If you have been scammed by this company please do the following.
1. File a dispute through Paypal so they can issue a charge-back. Tell Paypal that freelancer.com never sent you an "ITEM", as Paypal doesnt issue charge-backs for "services". The item you did not receive was a finished product of a hard copy of data. Which is essentially the truth.
2. File a govt consumer complaint with http://www.econsumer. Gov/english/report/overview. Shtm
3. File a govt internet crime complaint with https://complaint. Ic3. Gov/ctf. Aspx
4. If they have harmed you in other ways with fraud, visit http://www.stopfraud. Gov/report.html
5. File an online complaint with your state Attorney General
6. Register complaints with as many review sites as you can "Google Reviews, Yelp, BBB... Etc"
7. File a complaint here at usacomplaints.com
8. Finally file an internal dispute with Freelancer.com
One of these methods will exponentially increase the odds of getting your money back if they have stolen it from you. Doing these methods will also decrease the chances of them scamming someone else, and likely attract the attention of media, gov't investigators, and lawyers.
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