Protecting the privacy and security of the community members is the top priority for the Cad Crowd team. Our security strategy includes safeguarding privacy, trust & safety evaluation, intellectual property protection, ID verification, and encryption technology. We defend every member against fraud, theft, bullying, and unsolicited messages. We recognize that our global experts and clients depend on us to maintain high-quality opportunities, talent-matching AI, and payment security.
🚀 In this article
Why do I need to work and get paid through the platform?
Communicating and paying through the platform allows us to protect your privacy, intellectual property, payments, and confidentiality of your work. In addition, service fees with payments help us offer 24/7 support, increase work opportunities with marketing and pay our programming team to build new platform features.
Transferring relationships outside Cad Crowd (i.e., circumvention of services), detracts from the user experience, curtails user safeguards, limits our budget to find quality clients and experts for work opportunities, and weakens the overall marketplace. We have a zero-tolerance policy on circumventing services, which is a breach of our Terms of Service. The only exception is when a client pays for the Hire Direct Program service, which converts the expert’s job contract into direct employment.
We strictly enforce a no-tolerance Circumvention of Services Policy to maintain Cad Crowd as a secure platform where freelancers and clients can see success and protect you and the community.
Remember: The only exception that allows a client to pay an expert directly is when the client pays the Hire Direct Program fee to hire an expert.
Users that move off the platform risk payment fraud, harassment, and protections provided by Cad Crowd. In addition, users lose the trust instilled by the transparency of on-platform relationships. When job contracts migrate off Cad Crowd, users cannot post reviews, which is crucial for building confidence in hiring for new job contracts. A lack of user reviews also affects the expert recommendation AI, which is necessary for streamlining the hiring experience.
Tip: You can ask your client to use the Hire Direct Program to transfer your contract outside Cad Crowd without breaching our Terms of Service.
📡 Note: Any job contracts started outside Cad Crowd violate our Terms of Service. If we identify that a job contract was paid outside the platform, we may cancel the job contract and deactivate the accounts of the client who made the hire and the expert. The only exception is when a client uses the Hire Direct Program.
What is a circumvention of services on the platform?
Circumvention of services refers to a client and expert connecting on Cad Crowd and moving work outside the platform. Platform circumvention involves work payments outside Cad Crowd to avoid platform fees and the Hire Direct Program cost. This act constitutes a grave breach of the Terms of Service and will lead to an irreversible suspension of the accounts involved.
We encourage you to introduce your client to Cad Crowd, and for those contracts, you’re permitted to transition the client off the platform without suspension. Also, there may be instances where an ongoing business partnership forms between you and your client, which makes direct collaboration mutually beneficial. Consequently, two criteria aren’t considered platform circumvention of services when you transfer a relationship off the platform.
The exceptions are as follows:
- Hire Direct Program: You can transfer a relationship off the platform when payment is made for the Hire Direct Program service.
- Bring-a-Client Program (BAC): Your client partnership was formed outside Cad Crowd, your work moved onto the platform, and you later transitioned your work off the platform. This includes contracts that are part of the Bring-A-Client (BAC) Program.
Breaching the non-circumvention provisions in the Terms of Service will terminate your privileges and result in account suspension. Additionally, we may invoice users for the Hire Direct Program fee if the non-circumvention clause is violated by payment outside the platform.
How to report a user for circumvention
Please get in touch with us immediately if you encounter an unexpected request for payment outside the platform.
To report a message:
- Go to your inbox
- Click the down arrow on the right of a message (image below)
- Select the reason that you’re reporting the message
To report an email:
If you get an email that asks for payment outside of the platform, please get in touch with us right away. This applies even if the message is sent from the @cadcrowd.com email address.
Questions and answers
⚡ What happens if I move my client’s job contract outside the platform?
If your contract moves off the Cad Crowd platform, we cannot provide any support, including customer service, payment security, and conflict settlement services. Managing any issues related to payments, work quality, deadlines, etc., will fall solely on you without our intervention and help.
⚡ How do I know if I can move my contract outside the platform and accept direct payments from clients?
Two job contract exceptions don’t violate the Terms of Services of platform circumvention.
- Hire Direct Program: You can transfer a relationship off the platform when payment is made for the Hire Direct Program service.
- Bring-a-Client Program (BAC): Your client partnership was formed outside Cad Crowd, your work moved onto the platform, and you later transitioned your work off the platform. This includes contracts that are part of the Bring-A-Client (BAC) Program.
If your client wants to hire you directly using the Hire Direct Program, we will notify you when the service fee is paid.
⚡ What is the Hire Direct Program?
The Hire Direct Program allows clients to hire you directly, move your contract off the platform and pay you directly. The service fee is based on 13.5% of the expert’s annual earnings (i.e., $40,000 salary x 13.5% = $5,400 service fee). Please read our article to learn more about the Hire Direct Program.
⚡ How can I move a contract off Cad Crowd and pay the Hire Direct Program fee?
The Hire Direct Program is usually initiated and paid for by your client. Please ask your client to contact our support team to start the process.
