Freelancer.com getafreelancer.com This company suspends accounts and keeps your money! Internet

DO NOT EVER USE FREELANCER.COM UNLESS YOU LIKE O WORK FOR FREE!

This company does several fraudulent things to its users. Any excuse at all to keep you from getting your money. I am only the most recent victim.

When you win a bid on a freelance project then request to withdraw the money so you can access the money through Paypal, etc. they take between 5 and 15 days to release the funds - that's if you're lucky.

If you are not lucky they will arbitrarily suspend your account and not allow you to access or withdraw your funds.

It looks like these guys select users at random or in some other manner and withhold their money. They wait for a while until you've got a good sum in your account with them, then cut you off from your account and keep your funds.

This is one of the methods they use:
They demand that you send them a copy of your passport or state ID 'For Security Reasons', then several days later they demand that you take a photo of yourself holding up the ID, then when you comply with their request they completely ignore you and never reply.

I was told that these guys are under investigation for possible Identity Theft by the FBI and Australian Authorities. - Now these guys have a copy of my ID - Yeah, I feel stupid.

In short, this company randomly (or otherwise) selects users that have funds that have been requested to be withdrawn, they suspend the user's account and never let them recover their money.

Let me be clear: I have already completed the work. The company that put up the bid has their project completed and they are really happy. They paid the money into Freelancer's escrow system, released the escrow when the work was completed, and Freelancer decided that even though everything with the project is complete and everyone's happy that I'm not ever going to get my money. What do I do now? I can't ask the client to pay me again because these guys won't let me have my money. I'm out several hundred dollars with nothing to show for it but a happy client and another portfolio piece.

Previously, these guys withheld money on a cancelled project that I had bid on until both parties had made a cancellation request. After both parties made the cancellation request - guess what? They still did not release the funds. Why? Only Freelancer.com knows why. I thought that would eventually be corrected by them. It wasn't. It never will be. These guys are criminals and a fraud.

They will never respond to you once they start this process. You can kiss your money goodbye.