Help! I've been robbed over $ 500 😢💔 😭

Hello everyone. Something very sad happened to me and I want to share it with you 😑. As everyone knows, the situation in Venezuela is getting worse and I decided to activate my account in Freelancer to find some work. I now have a lot of free time. I have not continued my studies because at my university activities have been suspended because of protests.

If you are not from Venezuela you will ask, Why not get a job in my city? The answer is very easy: the minimum wage here does not reach FOR ANYTHING. After analyzing the unfavorable economic scenario, I had another reason to think that it was better to aspire for an online job.

I have been working intermittently over the internet for 3 years as a creative writer. Lately, I had not time to look for work because I was in hospital practice (I am a medical student). After activating my user in Freelancer, I decided to apply in several
job proposals that offered a remuneration in exchange for my services as a writer.

Now, I tell you how this sad story began: The day after I activated my account in Freelancer, I was contacted through the chat by a man, who sent me the Skype account of his boss.

I was so excited! It had not been 24 hours since I applied for several jobs and had already been contacted by one. I entered Skype and added to the alleged boss.

He asked me to make an Excel Sheet and check the articles I would write for his company. This meant another reason to consider it a serious job (yes, now that I think about it, I'm an idiot). We started the work day, I was very happy with my new job. I had to write about various topics a day and send him the articles every time I finished them.

We started each day working as follows: He always sent the assignments under the same format. He recommended pages where I could support my articles and demanded that I must checked every article with an anti-plagiarism tool .

From July 20 to August 5 ** I worked on 52 articles ** of different topics. As you saw, in the initial agreement, he had to pay me on July 30. That's where the worst part starts 😕

Do you remember that on July 30th he had to pay me? Well, that day without mentioning anything, he asked me not to forget to send him the excel sheet with the amount of articles I worked on and so he could pay me.

On Monday, I asked him if he had received the excel sheet and at what time he would pay me. I began to suspect because he had not even asked for a Paypal account. How would he transfer me if he did not know where?

He ignored my question, sending me another assignment. I asked him again and he said "Don't worry". I already felt uncomfortable, but continue working because I trusted in his word.😯

At the end of the day, he told me he would pay me on Friday. Again that sense of mistrust returned but I thought "You've already worked with people from other places and they have not cheated you, this does not have to be different."

It was already Friday and since he did not touch the payment issue, I asked him how the process was going.

He told me that they were about to start making payments. Three hours later, I still had not received my payment. I asked him again and he said that they were doing it. I disconnected from the computer and told him that I would keep my session through the Skype app on my phone. Before I fell asleep, I wrote to know if he had already made the payment.

The next day I find the scenario expected. Obviously, the money was NOT on my account. He did not answer me, he did not connect on Skype anymore ... He stole my money. 😢😠

Supposedly, my articles were used by this company: Editcetera

I sent an email directly to the company, but I got no response. This makes me think, that indeed, he is one of its employees (or the owner). This "company" takes advantage of people who are in other countries to get their jobs without paying and sell them to their customers.

Yes, I am very silly 😠. If you've had a similar experience, I'd like to know about it. Now, I feel a lot of mistrust of getting back to work online. If you could advise me on how to avoid something similar, please, help me.

Thanks for reading me. I hope that with this post, other people can avoid being victims of this kind of people. I feel really sad about this, I do not understand how some people take advantage of the work and responsibility of others. 😩

What is most unworthy of me is to go to their website and read how they define themselves as "a recognized and responsible company". 😞