I Lost $1900 in a Freelance Crypto Trade Scam

[Chawla Solutions]

I recently fell victim to a crypto scam on a major freelancing platform, and I’m sharing my experience to warn others. A client approached me asking if I could sell him USDT at a very generous rate—$200 for 100 USDT. His profile seemed legit: six years old with completed projects. I double-checked everything and, feeling confident, agreed.
To stay safe, I insisted he release the payment first. He sent $200 through the platform, and I transferred 100 USDT. The only catch was the platform's 14-day withdrawal policy, which I didn’t consider a major risk.
He returned, asking for another 300 USDT in exchange for $600. Again, he released the funds first, and I completed the transfer. So far, everything seemed fine.
Then came the big order—$1,600. Five minutes after he placed it, his account was suspended and all previous payments were reversed. Shockingly, he contacted me from a new account, asking to “restart” the deal. Moments later, both of our accounts were suspended.
I ended up losing a total of $1,900, including my own crypto and unreleased funds. The wallet address he used was:
0xdD9a8bbC5E48B3a41beAfccCb3344C82428c3dBf (BEP-20 Network)
This painful experience taught me never to go outside platform rules—no matter how convincing the deal or client appears. Please stay cautious.
If anyone can help me to locate the owner of that wallet it would be a great help.

[mistaPhi]

The chance of finding who 0xdD9a8bbC5E48B3a41beAfccCb3344C82428c3dBf actually belongs to is slim to none, so I wouldn't spend too much time on identifying the culprit.

Instead, I would provide more details about this scam so others can be advised and not fall prey to it. In this regard, I'd include the name of the freelancing platform, a screenshot of the listing, and if it's still online, the url of the listing.

I'm not aware of any freelancing platforms through which end users can transfer fiat & cryptocurrencies back and forth, so this is something that I'd certainly like to know. It could be that the platform itself is controlled by the perps to convince unsuspecting users that the info displayed on it is legitimate; when in reality, it's not.

Understanding this would naturally lead to doing more research on who owns platform itself, rather than who owns the address.

It's a scammy world out there so a good rule of thumb is to follow the wisdom behind the statement, "If it looks too good to be true, then it probably is". If people would simply stop chasing after get-rich-quick scams, they would avoid getting scammed.

For you, it's best to take this as a lesson learned in the school of hard knocks. It's an expensive lesson to learn but if you learn from it, you'll be less likely to fall for it in the future. Plus sharing your experience with others may prevent others from getting scammed and limit the amount of stolen assets the perps are receiving. If there was no money to be made in scamming people, scams wouldn't exist.

[Chawla Solutions]

Thank you for your thoughtful response, and I completely agree with your perspective. At this point, I’m not expecting to recover the funds or trace the wallet owner with certainty—but I felt sharing the experience might help others avoid the same trap.
The platform involved was freelancer.com, and yes, it normally doesn’t support crypto transfers between users. That’s what makes this even more concerning—I now believe the scammer may have exploited the trust factor by mimicking a legitimate work order and releasing milestone payments that later got reversed once his account was suspended.
Unfortunately, I don’t have a live link to the listing anymore, as both accounts (his and mine) were suspended shortly after. I do have screenshots and transaction records that I’m happy to post if it helps the community understand how the scam unfolded.
You're right—if something feels too good to be true, it usually is. I overlooked red flags because the profile seemed reputable, but this turned out to be a costly reminder that scammers are getting more sophisticated.
Lesson learned the hard way, and I hope by sharing this publicly, I can at least save someone else from falling into a similar trap.

[mistaPhi]

Thanks for sharing CS... Please do share the screenshots that you have as they can provide visuals for others to see and remember.

Gotta say that there aren't too many people that will take the time & initiative to share their experiences with such schemes, so really appreciate you stepping up and putting the info out there.

If you hold one of our DCS Bitcoin wallets, plz include your wallet's ID and Bitcoin address in a reply and I'll send you $5 USD in Bitcoin. It's not much, but it's a start in helping you recoup your losses from this scam. Plus, it's a way to say THANK YOU for having a genuine interest in helping others avoid such scams, and for taking action to report it. If you don't have a DCS Bitcoin wallet, head out to https://btcwallet.app and register for one; then include your wallet ID & Bitcoin address in a reply. Once your wallet ID has been confirmed, I'll also upgrade your profile to a Verified Member.

[Chawla Solutions]

Thankyou for your kind offer. Here is my wallet address:
31j29pMGySZDucZ5LN4xcFaAUvxxpRs8R5

[mistaPhi]

Cool... You're a confirmed user of the DCS Bitcoin wallets so I just updated your profile to a Verified Member.

Also sent you some Bitcoin as displayed in the screenshot below. It would probably be a good idea to go to your wallet's settings, enable the Stimulus Generator, and set the Daily BTC Allocation for the Stimulus Generator to the minimum (currently 0.32 USD, or whatever the specified minimum is in your currency). This will automate the process on purchasing a small amount of discounted Credits daily and as time passes, your combined Bitcoin + Credits valuation will progressively increase. Since time will pass anyway, might as well put that BTC to work so your Bitcoin holdings can to grow over time as well.

Proshate cha CS.