Freelancer project different than described. What should I do?
By besweet
@besweet (9861)
Ireland
May 14, 2012 7:43am CST
Hello! I would like your opinion on a freelancer job.
I recently became a member of freelancer.com website. I searched the projects and I placed some bids on the ones that seemed interesting. One of the employers had a project about book typing on MS Word, his description said it would be 1700 pages and he was offering 180 euros. I said that I was interested, and then he contacted me with an e-mail saying that I should log in to a site with the username and password that he gave me. I did that and I realised that it is a data entry job (I think it's called captcha?), and I should contact him when I reach $5 to get paid the amount that I earned (so he will pay me only $5 and not 180). The site doesn't look legit and it's a bit disorganised too, so I am not sure that I'll get paid eventually. Since he has signed up for me and he just gave me the passwords it means that he can change the password anytime and take the money. Additionally I would never give any personal details for payment on this site.
So:
since I am not interested in this and the preject description was misleading, do you think I should report him? Or I should just say that I am not interested? It is my first project and I wouldn't want him to leave a negative comment on my profile.
1 person likes this
4 responses
@06MLam (620)
•
15 May 12
I think it is a scam as I am not convinced that they will pay you after you have reach 5dollars since I have tried some similar data entry 'works' on freelancer and they never pay you even you reach the requirement they set. I think most of the data entry jog there are scams but I have heard people saying that some jobs like programming might be legit.
1 person likes this
@besweet (9861)
• Ireland
15 May 12
I researched the site and I found out that all the "old" users that have many stars mostly bid on design projects, programming projects etc. These must be real work projects that pay, not scams. But on the data entry all the members are new, maybe this is why experienced freelancers don't bother bidding on them..
@ladyhemingway (965)
• Philippines
15 May 12
I suggest that you report it right away, otherwise other people will fall into victim as well. It is like helping others as well so I suggest you do it right away. It is sad that there are people like that who do bad things to people who just want to earn money in a decent way.
1 person likes this
@Jevendiran (778)
• India
14 May 12
I have also faced the same situation. Exactly the same... may be we had bid for the same employer. I did report him. I bid for two tasks of him and the same message for both. So I reported both the tasks.
1 person likes this
@besweet (9861)
• Ireland
14 May 12
Yes it could be the same employer, thank you for sharing because I wasn't sure about what I should do. I think it's best to report him as well, I checked on the site and he has posted the same description in other projects. I imagine that those are scams too. Did you get any replies from the employer or from the administrators of the site?
@Dassodils (2010)
• India
14 May 12
There are some people like this who ruin valuable freelancing sites. You will have the option to report it to the site administration team. They will take quick actions against him. As he provided a site to work on, there is no doubt that you are just becoming his slave. He may modify your password when you reach $5 as you said. I strongly suggest you to report the user. Hope it helps
