Odesk Scam - DON'T USE ODESK.com **Odesk Scam Warning**

BEWARE Of Using ODesk --------------------------------------------------------------------------------I want to warn you from using ODesk. This is what has happened to me by ODesk. And, it seems to be an ongoing thing in our industry. In my case I posted a job on ODesk and hired a website designer in India. One thing about thos job posting that I felt was strange was that I got a lot of replys but, none from the Philippines or the United States or even South America. No, they were all from India, Pakistan, or other countries within that area. Anyhow, this man did a really bad job and I never did get a finished product from him. But, while he was doing no work he kept charging me for hours that I knew he was not working on the job. I called ODesk and they refused to assist me in any way.I finally got one of the bosses in this man's company in India and he agreed to what I was saying and we split the cost. But, ODesk refuses to accept this agreement by the company. They say that I still owe this money and they have suspended me. I have on many occassions asked where they are located and they refuse to answer me (I suspect they are in India.) I have also stated that I intend to sue them and asked for the name and contact information for their attorney and they refuse to give me that information also. They have told me that they will continue charging the credit card on file and that I have no rights to stop them from doing this. Remember that this job is closed, I am suspended and the company in India that this man works for cancelled any further payment claims. They have settled this case and consider it paid in full. However, ODesk says that the India company has no right to make any agreements. I have told ODesk to "Cease and Desist" on charging this credit card and they have basically told me that they can charge as much as they want onto the card and that I have no rights to stop them.I want the Warriors Forum to issue a warning about this company and I will supply them with any information that they need.

 

I agree... online or offline you have to be careful when dealing with someone. oDesk have a feedback system for both workers and employers, very transparent, and you can use that as reference when hiring or bidding for a project. Just deal with people with good /excellent feedbacks.

 

I got Scammed by my 2nd employer in odesk in Feb 2011 after that i didn't visit Odesk for more than 8 month. then in Nov i go back and 1st i learn about the security of the payments. and start work. and get few good employer. its almost 1 year and i m getting good jobs regularly. my achievements are getting bigger each month. i trust odesk system fully. but still afraid of those fixed price jobs. and those employers who didn't wanna pay upfront payment.

 

this is really new for me. why didn't you disconnect your card from odesk. then they couldn't charge you more. if i m not wrong?

 

If you've used computers to earn money freelancing for a long time, you will know the right way to use oDesk. There are certain measures on the website to prevent anyone getting taken advantage on, the client and the contractor. However, there is a reason the user agreement is huge and the rules take ages to read. If you want to work or find a worker on oDesk, you need to protect yourself - that does not mean that it is a scam, but like all ways to conduct work, there are some unscrupulous people that will take advantage. Fortunately, I don't feel like that is very common.

 

Thanks for the information. I noted this.

 

Odesk isn't a scam. Actually Odesk is how i find most of my employees. However You need to watch who you hire. I was scammed by someone in Bangladesh she logged 15 hours for 30min of work. Every since this experience i only hire people by Pay per Job. Since then i haven't had a problem, in fact i am now very close with one of the persons i hired and she is being bad weekly.

 

I am working on O desk from 1 year and i am from India,There are people who intentionally there to do the frauds and you cannot stop this totally its not possible, so it is totally on us that we should first understand the process of the Portal on which we are working like o desk in this case and the move forward accordingly.Someone has rightly said fixed price jobs are very dangerous in case of o desk but the Clients till now i found are good and pay on completion of jobs. Most of the employers go for people who charge cheap and give them contracts but one should understand if a person is charging more he should be having those skills which can complete your work in less time. Always check the portfolio and feed back of the contractors on O desk.

 

ODesk is not just a scam, it is engaged in fraud. Anyone who is considering using ODesk should read this. You get billed for hours without having work done and ODesk do not care less, they just keep taking the money. It happened to me so many times, I closed my account for good. But the last few times I gathered evidence which I will publish in the near future. Without the doubt they are the most arrogant online criminals I have ever encountered. I hope they get shut down! Most contractors blatantly lie about their skills and abilities and then cash in on the hours! BEWARE!

 

I had a horrible experience with Odesk..I just try to block out that they exist.

 

nice story ,it will worth for you if you will sue them ,but if you lose the case then it wil more worst for you.

 

You do realize that, if there is a charge on credit card, that you can claim a charge back. Give your financial institution who your with cc the valid reasons, and they take more side on the consumer, especially if you can show your claims.

 

I wanted to add that I also got a horrible experience on oDesk. In particular I want to mention a developer and a firm. The developers name is DianWei Kim on oDesk but his real name is DianWei Ri. The agency is YongHeng. For some reason he asked me to hire his friend Han YongFeng instead as they worked for the same agency but he would be doing the work. They charged me for work but did not complete it and they refuse to send me the files. I paid over $4,400 to them and they will not release the files to me. Have complained to oDesk and they are looking into it.

Worst of all? He had the balls to ask me to please give him a 5 star review. I asked him for a refund and he refused. His excuse was that he needs the review to find another job. I wrote this in his review but I know they can modify or not post the review. So from a client perspective, no one would know that they did a bad job!

So do not go near them! I have uploaded put their links on oDesk here!

YongHeng - https://www.odesk.com/companies/YongHeng_~01600dd088972c890f
DianWei - https://www.odesk.com/users/~01888a97412d8dfc70
Han YongFeng - https://www.odesk.com/users/~01eab7d5285606829f

and their associates

Li Robin - https://www.odesk.com/users/~0139bc158f69306a97
Tianguo Liu - https://www.odesk.com/users/~018e1a4ebc2f440ddb
Ye Guang - https://www.odesk.com/users/~017363c4e018db681b
Arnold S. - https://www.odesk.com/users/~011299d6e34124f959
Hwang Jin - https://www.odesk.com/users/~0179c467dbdbe11cd1
Li Dianwei - https://www.odesk.com/users/~0173771c30b8ac0c15
Sue Zhe - https://www.odesk.com/users/~01e2e639cad26ecc11
Yuan Luo - https://www.odesk.com/users/~01dcf6a21521bb36b0

all the pictures are fake, because I have seen different ones being posted up. YongHeng is a fraud, do not go near them!

 

Pothi, do you have any advice on hiring on oDesk? I'd be more than happy to chat with you about this, either here or on Skype.

So far, I have no idea how they actually log and screenshot their work. Lucky for me I only paid low hr virtual assistants and I'm not in a big loss but I clearly would use a piece of advice when hiring.

I see that most of the active contractors are just rushing in for as many tasks as possible while multi-tasking between them when "actually" working.

 

ODesk is a big scam!They owe me thounds of dollar.Please do not trust them.DO NOT share your credit card information with them or you will lost a big amount of money!

 

I hate ODesk and will never use them again. If you want to take them to Small Claims Court please understand that you should do it in the city where they are located. I do not remember the city but, I know that it is in California. Your costs to go to that city can be added to the amount that you are suing for.

 

Odesk is NOT a scam. LOL. There are SCAMMERS on Odesk just like there are scammers walking the streets of America.

Yes Odesk has certain policies that may not be in the best interest of the employer but there's a learning curve.

My first experience with Odesk. Hired an assistant for my real estate business (at the time). I had her calling sellers and buyers. She did a really good job but I didn't have a good system in place. I almost expected her to create one. Doesn't work like that. You're the employer.

You must have a good system in place for them; no matter how much you're paying them.

I later had her do SEO which was where my learning experience came in. She sat at a computer and pressed a button to drop backlinks for my site.

Now I'm not sure if it worked or not because that was during the panda/penguin stuff, but I was getting 300 to 1000 hits a day from google.

2nd experience I hired a telemarketer for $5 an hour to call leads for an MLM I was promoting. He did great. Called leads, followed up with them. Was very well spoken.

Only problem is once again, I didn't have a thorough system and my leads were trash .

I eventually had to let him go because I spending more than I was making.

The thing with Odesk is you really have to screen people. Just like Fiverr; you're gonna have good experiences and you're gonna have bad ones. Don't let the few bad discourage you and keep you from being apart of an amazing service.

A friend of mines recently got scammed out of $90 on Odesk. The guy told him he needed a special phone jack or something that cost $90. Had a really good resume. Well my friend sent him the money through paypal and the guy dipped on him. Deleted him off Skype and everything.

2 days later, we're literally laughing our a**ses off while discussing how he found an even better assistant that explained to him the situation over there.

To them, making 2 or 3 bucks in ONE day is a lot. To do it from home is like the treasure at the end of the rainbow for them. I use to wonder what was their mindset. How could they work for so little yet be so loyal.

She explained to him that there are a lot of scammers in her country (phillipines) but to please not let that one incident cast a negative light on her. She said that $90 USD is like 1000 of their money. That dude thought he hit the lottery. Sad thing is he wasn't thinking about long term.

There are a lot of loyal people on Odesk. You may have to go through the bad to get through to them but when you find them, it's totally worth it. Being able to spend time with your family while 50% to 90% of your work is done for $2 an hour is priceless.

The goal here is TIME. It going to take some of your time and money to attain it but it's worth it. Trust me.

Best wishes
Dennis
"The marketing menace"

 

I'm not sure if it was oDesk or not but something similar happened to a friend from an online community that I was a part of. He wanted to get a website created for himself and hired a freelancer.

The freelancer guy did about 1/4th the job, said that he got hurt in an accident or something, kept him (the friend) hanging for over 2 weeks, got paid for the incomplete work and... I'm not sure what happened after that but I know that the website is still incomplete.

The friend ended up losing all his enthusiasm about creating the website and probably dropped the idea. What a pity, right?

Did the freelancer at least do any work that he was supposed to? Or did he get paid for doing nothing?

 

I was scammed by one provider in Odesk, and they refused to refund my money.. My certified mail demand letter was send to Odesk few days ago, CC to my attorney.. I will take legal action against them, i think more people should do so, they're a scum on earth!! Let's take them down..

 

Well the point of that logger is to prove that they didn't do any work for that logged time, because it takes a photo every 10 mins. So I don't see why ODesk would side with him! Also sadly you might lose in court because you had to sign away your rights at the beginning. Good luck