Freelancer.com is GREAT

Initially I thought to rename this post as 'Lost $125USD'. However I changed the title of the post later. PHP Sri Lanka lost $100USD [$125USD] in a recent project. 19th August 2012 was a normal day except it wasn't. In the morning I bid on several carefully chosen projects on freelancer.com as usual. After a brief discussion on the clients requirements, I was awarded the project.
Project ID: 2415235
Project Name: WP Template For News Website
Project Poster: kinza852147

NOTE: The project is deleted and you will not be able find it on Freelancer.com

I am a basic member of Freelancer.com. So just after I accept the project award, $25USD was deducted from my account. i.e. 10% of the project value.

I completed a part of the project and uploaded all the source files of work done to the files section of the project page. The client seemed satisfied with the work done and released $100USD of the initial milestone.


Now I have earned $75USD from this particular project. I worked on that project in the night too. Next morning I opened my email inbox as usual to find out the mails I received previous night. I saw a strange mail from freelancer.com
I logged onto the Freelancer.com account. I noticed my account balance has been reduced from $100USD.

The project has been deleted.

I contacted the Freelancer.com regarding this incident.

They were very supportive. They explained what has happened. They were very fair and reasonable in their explanations on reversal of funds from my account.

They refunded $25USD back to my Freelancer.com account. Freelancer.com is indeed providing a great service for individual freelancers. But you have to be very careful about project posters. If Freelancer.com found the project to be a fraudulent activity they will delete the project.
Freelancer.com is the world's largest outsourcing marketplace. Freelancer.com is GREAT! in all aspects. But, beware of the project posters. Don’t deal with bad people on Freelancer.com.