A potential client approached me and informed me that there are programmers on upwork.com claiming they have worked with me or even built my website. This client found it a strange story and came to verify these claims. Luckily, I was unaware of this.
The claims are false. I do all of my work myself. I never hire programmers through upwork.com or other freelancing sites, and I even built my own website. Sometimes, I collaborate with acquaintances to work on a project together.
Below is one of the conversations I received. For privacy reasons, I have obscured the identities of the lying programmers. When he mentions Ronnie, he undoubtedly means Ronnie Zeemering, a photographer friend, and certainly not the CTO of the 'Engineering Team' for this website.
![Screenshot van een conversatie op upwork.com tussen een liegende programmeur en mijn potentiële cliënt.
Liar: "Here's the link to my project: https://1902.studio"
Wouter Dieters: "Oh you build this website: https://1902.studio?"
Liar: "I was a junior web developer and worked on a freelancer for Ronnie. I was a member of migrating team."
Wouter Dieters: "Who is Ronnie?"
Liar: "He was a CTO of engineer team. I worked 3 months as a Laravel expert."
Wouter Dieters: "Ah, they build that website you mean and you were part of the team?"
Liar: "Yes".](/en/img/asset/aW1hZ2VzL2pvdXJuYWwvdXB3b3JrLWFuZC10aGVmdC91cHdvcmstc2NyZWVuc2hvdC0wMS5wbmc=/upwork-screenshot-01.png?w=1024&h=898.42654028436&fit=crop&q=85&s=538e43aa0b7560c81c9885435a0b6cf0)
The liar below even claims he built my entire website. Quite bold.
![Screenshot van een conversatie op upwork.com tussen een liegende programmeur en mijn potentiële cliënt.
Liar: "Ok no problem, here is my project link. https://1902.studio".](/en/img/asset/aW1hZ2VzL2pvdXJuYWwvdXB3b3JrLWFuZC10aGVmdC91cHdvcmstc2NyZWVuc2hvdC0wMi5wbmc=/upwork-screenshot-02.png?w=1024&h=261.69573060734&fit=crop&q=85&s=179f3c9b33df3eddcccf48d204dde1ee)
If you ever come across a claim like this, please let me know. I would like to report these users on upwork.com, but without an account, it is currently impossible to get in touch with them except through a useless chatbot. I made an attempt through their press email address.
Thank you, Wouter, for informing me.