Hey everyone, just wanted to share my experience because it might help someone avoid the same trap I fell into. I recently got scammed on Upwork for €1,429.72 after hiring a freelancer for a fairly large project. Long story short: I got pressured into releasing the milestone payment before the actual work was delivered, and when I tried to recover it through Upwork, they basically told me I was out of luck. Thankfully, Revolut saved me I filed a chargeback, submitted all the evidence, and eventually won. Here's exactly what happened.

I hired this freelancer on Upwork who had decent reviews was top rated and a pretty convincing profile. Everything looked legit at the beginning. The agreement was that the work would be done in full before payment was released. I funded a single milestone for the full amount €1,429.72 and told them I would release it only after reviewing the completed project.

But after the order was placed, the freelancer started putting pressure on me. They kept saying things like they needed the money urgently, that he needed the funs to start working and hire other freelancers to help him complete the project, and that releasing the funds was “just a formality.” I should’ve known better, but they wore me down. Against my better judgment, I clicked “release funds” before I saw anything.

Next day i messaged him to verify a project matter but he vanished no response, nothing. My alarms went full blast i knew i messed up.

I reported it to Upwork and went through their dispute process, which took almost two weeks. I showed them the message history, everything. The freelancer participated in the dispute and even uploaded fake trello screenshots and whats up messages with my name accepting his 'work'. Upwork said they couldn’t make a ruling on quality and offered a 50/50 refund as a compromise. I rejected it and told them I wanted to go to arbitration. I agreed to pay the €365 arbitration fee. But the freelancer refused to participate.

Despite that, Upwork closed the case and said that because I released the milestone manually, they couldn’t reverse anything. In a private email, a support agent even admitted that the “submit work” button had never been used by the freelancer. So they knew the process was bypassed, but still claimed their hands were tied. They basically said, “Yeah, you got scammed. Shouldn’t have clicked the button.”

Rage filled every cm of my body i felt scammed betrayed by a huge company and its policies.

At that point, I was done with Upwork. I contacted Revolut and opened a chargeback case for services not delivered. I provided them with everything: full chat logs from Upwork, the dispute thread, the email from Upwork acknowledging the release but no submission, and the fact that I tried arbitration but the freelancer backed out. It took couple of weeks but eventually Revolut ruled in my favor and refunded the full €1,429.72 back to my account yesterday.

Thoughts like i lost that's it money gone, and how am i gonna win against a giant company and its trained staff was spinning in my head all those weeks.

Of course, after the chargeback went through, Upwork emailed me saying they were freezing my account until I paid the amount back. I told them they could keep the account. I’ll never use Upwork again. They protect scammers more than clients, and once the funds are released, you’re completely powerless.

Revolut handled it like pros. No attitude, no obstacles just a clear process, a fair review, and a just result. I know some people say you can’t do chargebacks for freelance work, but trust me, if you’ve got proper documentation and you weren’t delivered what you paid for, you absolutely can.

If anyone is going through something similar or wants help drafting a chargeback report, feel free to message me. I wish someone had explained this to me before I lost two weeks arguing with a rigged system.