"Freelancer is a global outsourcing marketplace, founded in 2009. Its headquarters are located in Sydney, Australia, though also has offices spanning Vancouver, London, Buenos Aires, Manila and Jakarta."
Looking at their web site, I see no sign they have a US office, unless they kept some of the people in their two acquisitions of US marketplace firms. For stakes this small, it sounds like they're essentially judgement proof in the US. Which is no doubt why they can get away with such tactics.
Australia has no form of national ID though (beyond a passport). Driver's licenses here are state-specific as well, which means even the most naive operators would expect a drivers license to be state-specific.
I suppose passport holding might be more common though but everything about this still sounds ridiculous.
There's been similar controversy in the US from time to time. And there was a real tug of war between a few states (notably Maine) and the federal government over certain common standards for drivers licenses more recently, e.g. http://www.pressherald.com/opinion/drivers-license-controver....
Viewed rationally, it's mostly silly but "national ID" in some countries (including the US and, apparently, Australia) carries a lot of emotional baggage with it.
Any company that does business in the US is obviously subject to the US legal system. That they don't have an office in the US can be used to your advantage (to obtain judgements in absentia is a lot easier than facing a lawyer for obvious reasons).
US courts will assert jurisdiction about any business transaction that took place in the US, whether or not the participants have an official address or not.
Keep in mind that the organization needs accounts with organizations that can transfer into and out of US bank accounts. So freelancer.com must have a US bank account, which will be subject to US court orders.
There is no such thing as "judgement-proof". Thankfully.
"Keep in mind that the organization needs accounts with organizations that can transfer into and out of US bank accounts. So freelancer.com must have a US bank account, which will be subject to US court orders."
But to collect from one of those US bank accounts, you first have to find it. You'd either need to get info from another US freelancer ... and supplying that might get in the way of his continuing to get paid (I guess using social media you'd try to find someone who's not going to use them again), or you'd have to gotten your first payment.
A default judgement obtained in absentia also means the judge has no leverage to pry this sort of information out of the company's representatives.
They're not a products company and they don't seem to have any bling you can buy, but I noticed a small writing job they're highlighting on their web page for $50. You could have a friend or two do a minimal transaction through them, although you'd want to use ACH (warning!!! on an account with little money in it!) instead of a credit card so you don't have to try to squeeze the bank info out of a card company, but, yeah.
Still might be expensive to collect from an out of state bank, don't really know how that works.
"Freelancer is a global outsourcing marketplace, founded in 2009. Its headquarters are located in Sydney, Australia, though also has offices spanning Vancouver, London, Buenos Aires, Manila and Jakarta."
Looking at their web site, I see no sign they have a US office, unless they kept some of the people in their two acquisitions of US marketplace firms. For stakes this small, it sounds like they're essentially judgement proof in the US. Which is no doubt why they can get away with such tactics.