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I wanted to hire a developer to make a website for me, I found a decent guy but he says he can't use freelancer payment system and want payment to his personal bitcoin address.
I have been scammed numerous times so I did not send him the money. Is this against freelancer.com's rules and should I report this user?
If the person is in your area - meaning you know where they live, you can sit and have a coffee together, then I might consider this solution (after checking/confirming previous work they've done).
If the person you have found is based on a skype and email chat, then I would avoid. Especially if they want any payment up front. Bitcoin is like Western Union - once you put your money in the pot, there is no getting it back. You have no idea this person is who they say they are and whatever proof they share has question marks on it. You're unlikely to get an invoice that your tax man will accept too.
I don't use the freelancer website - but I do question someone who uses the website and does not want to use their payment methods.
I would also think twice about sharing credentials with your webserver, check any other work they have done (and confirm they've done the work and not just take their word for it).
Best of luck
I couldn't find anything that suggested it was against any rules Freelancer.com has in place, however, paying someone outside of the platform means you have zero protecting against being scammed. You do so at your own peril and honestly, it isn't worth it, especially for a big project.
While I cannot know for sure, it does sound suspicious he wants you to pay him via his Bitcoin address and I feel like the way this guy has approached you thus far feels very scammy. The whole appeal of Bitcoin is the fact that payments are anonymous (relatively) and cannot be reversed. This is why a lot of ransomware asks you to pay via Bitcoin because it is untraceable. Ask him if he has other payment methods he accepts besides Bitcoin.
If I were in your situation, I would definitely say no because it isn't worth the trouble. The whole point of the escrow system Freelancer.com has in place is to prevent people like yourself being scammed.
I wouldn't prefer you using bitcoin for payments because it doesn't store any data (like who are you sending the money )and you can be scammed easily and only pay after the job is done and you are satisfied with the job that the programmer has done.I guarantee that he is a scammer
All scammers sound like decent guys at the start.
YOU'RE the employer in this case. You pay in whatever way is suitable for you, and it's up to the contractor to agree to use that method, or you find someone else to do the work. Web Designers are two a penny (on Freelancing sites, that's too often literally true...)
I would recommend you find a local web developer and sit down with them for a meeting. Just the act of doing that takes most of the risk out of the transaction.
