Last week I posted a small project on Getacoder for a project due to my normal team working on other projects. The project involved building modules for a product were about to launch so I expected bids of around $2000 - $3000.
I logged in and found I had 15 bidders all who were pretty keen to get started and after exchanging PM’s with a few I decided to choose a US based programmer who had shown me some excellent examples.
Our initial conversation was on Gchat and the guy claimed to not use MSN so he suggested we switch to Skype. We started talking about the project and what he would be able to do before the end of the year which all sounded great for what we needed.
The conversation moved to money and he asked for a $250 deposit which I said we would be happy to pay subject to him signing an NDA, service contract etc. The guy at this point told me he had NO Paypal account and would require payment by Western Union as he had issues using escrow services.
This Paypal and escrow issue got me concerned and within seconds of searching his name I found a number of posts , blogs and even paid articles warning people about the dangers and scams about working with this guy. It seems he has ripped people off all over the world and has a reputation of trying to threaten people who say anything he does not like.
I asked him outright and after denying anything he decided to remember his ex partner who was sacked and had his ID stolen was the one responsible. I asked him why he then only accepted WU and no other form of payment which is how his friend got into so much trouble at which point he decided to back out.
He explained he had no time for my “investigation” and to cancel the project, not inform anyone and walk away. Unfortunately for him it seems GAC will not be walking away and investigating this till the end.
If you are using a freelance site make sure you ask for a number of references and call them up. If the user has no feedback make sure you use escrow every time and get regular reports.
Popularity: 35%
December 10th, 2007 at 2:06 pm
Guys like that give honest freelancers a bad name!
I try to meet face to face wherever possible, making sure clients know who I am and how to get hold of me, etc.
December 17th, 2007 at 6:59 pm
well that would be why i recommended you some good coders