scriptlance.com PLEASE READ

[csmaster2005]

Hey,
I do freelance work at scriptlance, and have an issue and was wondering what you guys think can/I should do.

I recently had a job that I won for the sum of $3750 for a certain script. The agreement was for 50% of viewing a demo and 50% after he recieves and verifies it.

Everything seemed to go fine, yesterday he sent me the first 50% ($1875) via SCRIPTLANCE's payment system (not escrow, real payment, as in I could of withdrawn it into paypal or any other method if I had wanted to once I recieved it).

This is the email I recieved:

This message has been sent automatically by the ScriptLance.com system. If you need to contact us, go to http://www.scriptlance.com/contact.shtml
--------------------------------------------------

The Webmaster **** has just paid you $1875! The money has been added to your account.

I blocked out his account name as not to reveal who he is.
Anyways, I send him the script, and then about 40 minutes after I sent it to him yesterday, I get another email saying:

This message has been sent automatically by the ScriptLance.com system. If you need to contact us, go to http://www.scriptlance.com/contact.shtml
--------------------------------------------------

The Webmaster **** has just paid you $381! The money has been added to your account.

So I wonder hmm he only sent $381 instead of the whole 50%, so I email him back.
Today when I got home, I got an email from scriptlance saying:

The funds you received from the user **** have been reversed due to fraudulent credit card use. It's possible it's a mistake, in that case tell them to contact me to resolve this.

-Rene

And I get on my scriptlance account and of course find that they have subtracted the amount of money that I previously recieved.

Now, my question is this:
Shouldn't scriptlance of verified the money was legit before even having it enter their system?
Thus, isnt it their mistake and thus they should provide me the money, because all my hard work has just gone to waste.
I believe that it was their fault they didnt check if it was legit beforehand, and thus they should provide me compensation.

Please let me know what everyone thinks about this, and what everyone thinks I should do about it...
Thank you,
Feras

 

[csmaster2005]

Hey,
I do freelance work at scriptlance, and have an issue and was wondering what you guys think can/I should do.

I recently had a job that I won for the sum of $3750 for a certain script. The agreement was for 50% of viewing a demo and 50% after he recieves and verifies it.

Everything seemed to go fine, yesterday he sent me the first 50% ($1875) via SCRIPTLANCE's payment system (not escrow, real payment, as in I could of withdrawn it into paypal or any other method if I had wanted to once I recieved it).

This is the email I recieved:

This message has been sent automatically by the ScriptLance.com system. If you need to contact us, go to http://www.scriptlance.com/contact.shtml
--------------------------------------------------

The Webmaster **** has just paid you $1875! The money has been added to your account.

I blocked out his account name as not to reveal who he is.
Anyways, I send him the script, and then about 40 minutes after I sent it to him yesterday, I get another email saying:

This message has been sent automatically by the ScriptLance.com system. If you need to contact us, go to http://www.scriptlance.com/contact.shtml
--------------------------------------------------

The Webmaster **** has just paid you $381! The money has been added to your account.

So I wonder hmm he only sent $381 instead of the whole 50%, so I email him back.
Today when I got home, I got an email from scriptlance saying:

The funds you received from the user **** have been reversed due to fraudulent credit card use. It's possible it's a mistake, in that case tell them to contact me to resolve this.

-Rene

And I get on my scriptlance account and of course find that they have subtracted the amount of money that I previously recieved.

Now, my question is this:
Shouldn't scriptlance of verified the money was legit before even having it enter their system?
Thus, isnt it their mistake and thus they should provide me the money, because all my hard work has just gone to waste.
I believe that it was their fault they didnt check if it was legit beforehand, and thus they should provide me compensation.

Please let me know what everyone thinks about this, and what everyone thinks I should do about it...
Thank you,
Feras

 

[rb]

I think it's up to the buyer to provide correct payment information.

The buyer seems to be the shady one here...not scriptlance.

 

[csmaster2005]

Well, the way scriptlance's payment system is:
You have a scriptlance account, and you can deposit money into it from your paypal account and a few other things.
I think the guy did it with paypal.
Anyways, once he has actual money in his scriptlance account, he can send the money to me.
I know the person that originally did this is corrupt, but scriptlance still should of verified the money was legit before EVER having it sent to my account....

 

[rb]

I understand the scriptlance system, I've used it a couple of time.s

Another way to look at it is you should have tried to verify that the buyer was legit before agreeing to work on the project.

In this case, it seems that scriptlance just acts as the middle man to help the buyer and programmer meet.

I don't know if they guarantee any payments as part of their terms of service.

 

[csmaster2005]

well, how could I of verified him...
I thought I recieved a legit 50% which is why I sent him the script.

 

[rb]

Well, one way to verify is to do google "background checks" on the person and the domain you're doing work for.

Check the whois records.

Ask him how the buyer intends to pay.

Get a signed written contract from the buyer.

Don't deliver the script until the money has cleared your bank account.

There are a few ways to protect yourself in these types of dealings.

 

[csmaster2005]

yea, I will be sure to do all that in the future.
I could easily get info on the person if I was provided with a domain, which he did not give me

also, any ideas on what else I can do?

 

[rb]

be sure to get a domain where the script will be installed.

Try to get contact information from scriptlance since the buyer has defrauded you out of your programming time.

try to avoid doing serious money business with people using free email addresses.

 

[csmaster2005]

well, I dont think it was free...
The email was
[email protected]

Lemme know if you guys can get anything with it

 

[Teddy]

I tried my best i went into the chat and questioned a bit but i got nothing out of the spanish ... wish i could understand and maybe try to help a bit more sorry!

 

[csmaster2005]

wait, you confused me.. what spanish/chat?

 

[.edu]

Your pretty much assed out. Next time make sure you secure 50% just in case something like this happens so you get some kind of payment. Your only option right now would be to go to your local law inforcement but I can almost guarantee that not much would be done besides a documentation of some kind. Even if law enforcement were to pursue this person, your case would be hard to prove. e.g. he can always say that you sold a fake or free script or the best line I have heard many times, "somebody stole my card and made the charge" Chargebacks are a real problem in online transactions and even the biggest companies have very limited protection against it for sellers, (eBay,Paypal etc..) I have been in your situation before and even with seller protection, I was still operating at a loss. The credit card company is the one to blame. The protection policies are pretty shocking and many scam artist know the loopholes in which would be proved in court in there favor or no contest and take advantage of it. I'm sorry about your lost and all hope the best for you.

 

[Teddy]

I mean if you go to post.ro you can enter a chat and its all spanish

 

[csmaster2005]

oh, ok.
Can anyone provide me with a sample letter of what I should send to scriptlance?

 

[CoolGuy]

Well no one should be blamed. Fraud happen. fraud happens to the biggest of companies. They just more and more creative. You and scriptlance have been duped. I don't think there's much can be done. Only if scriptlance feel generous and gives you the rest of the money.

 

[Raf]

Aww I feel sorry for you, these stupid little things happen I guess to some people. In my opinion judging from previous work from ScriptLance people usually are not will to pay so much for script work. In my opinion I would say this user was some how able to fake out his money within ScriptLance and then sent it to you. So Im not to sure as to what exactly happen there.

 

[csmaster2005]

I doubt scriptlance will feel "generous"

Im going to send them an email shortly

 

[dna]

It seems to me that scriptlance is at fault here.
They are clearly offering a escrow service.
They shouldn't say that they have control of the
money when they don't. What other justification is
there for them to be the middlemen with the money.

 

[eSology]

I had a project on Sciptlance last week and the only person to reply was from Russia and they had 0 feedback. I chose to not use them and instead have been dealing with someone here at NamePros. Guess what? Lack of communication. Has my PayPal (small amount) and has been here to the forums yet hasn't replied nor sent the script. Looks like you can't be safe anywhere.

 

[Auction]

I would agree with DNA. You fulfilled your obligation to the buyer. You should have some kind of recourse. If nothing else this should be on the CC issuer for issuing a card to a fraudulent buyer. If it was a stolen CC than it sound more like it should be on Scriptlance for not verifying everything themselves.

 

[csmaster2005]

I sent them an email late last night, and they responded with:
"Credit card fraud is almost impossible to prevent.
We verify orders, but that doesn't gaurantee we catch everything."
LOL

 

[silversurfer]

Unfortunately, I don't think that you can hold Scriptlance liable.

Once a credit card transaction goes through, it can take some time before the credit card owner or the cc company can identify it as a fraudulant transaction.

For scriptlance to verify every cc transaction would slow down the whole buying/depositing process by days.

Not sure what the way forward is for you. Perhaps, next time use the Escrow service and wait a week after the funds have been deposited to make sure they remain in the account. Alternatively use Escrow.com

Best of luck with it.

S.

 

[Riceman]

Sorry to hear about this

 

[dna]

It seems to me that Scriptlance could have easily verified the
the credit card and its credit limit when the contract was initiated.
Scriptlance was clearly negligent.