Seller trying to extort buyer and threatening to sabotage buyer's websites

[chrisvt]

Well I cannot believe this experience!

I had to cancel a gig because the seller did not deliver even after 2 extensions were given, That is fine , disappointing but fine. I gave the gig to a second seller who not only had all the documents and information including schema for project but also commentry on why the previous seller not only did not deliver on time but did nothing as per specs. just uploaded a wordpress theme and did practically no work as to the identity of my site. second seller requests log on to cpanel and wrodpress site and access email marketing site, but after 9 days nothing till I ask where the work is. Then All I get is an uploaded theme of a travel agency shop unchanged except my logo was added but even the logo had a lot missing from cropping. I requested the gig to be cancelled, She refused to cancel. I had Fiverr Support cancelled the gig and refund me. (I cannot afford to get further behind in my deadline so I am doing the work myself which I am capable of but thought I would get a professional do professional work at Fiverr) Well first the seller asked what I would pay her for the work or lack of work she did as she did deliver a useless theme. I told her I have removed her theme and put back my original website and said she should pay me to compensate me. Well I cannot believe what her next communication was, she said “If you dont give me any this - You know all your details is with me here and I can destroy your wordpress and cpanel by my self you beter give me little m-oney now”. Naturally I have pressed report button on the conversation as well as a direct complaint to Fiverr Support. WOW I think this seller is trying to extort money from me and is bringing the Fiverr website into disrepute. (not Fiverr’s fault and luckily I have had some good experiences of giggs purchased on Fiverr otherwise if this had of been my first experience I would never use Fiverr again)I think this needs to be reported to police by Fiverr for using a digital/communication carriage to commit a crime (extortion). I do not have that ability my self as it is international, I do not have personal and location details of the seller. Also this seller needs to be banned for life from Fiverr as it is obvious she is unstable or mentally ill or just plain evil.

Also not happy with Fiverr’s policy of not informing the results of their investigations. just the outcome of my end.

[timmy17]

I’m sorry this has happened to you, are you in the US? When dealing with international transactions like this legal recourse is tricky and sometimes limited. I suggest doing business with sellers in the same country as you, at least then you both have the same legal system to seek damages in civil and criminal courts. (This kind of thing happens all the time among ebay users) This may not answer your question but if the buyer and seller are in the same country it gives them a mutual understanding of how proper business ethics should be conducted.

I assume Fivverr does not provide the outcome of the results to these types of investigations to protect the privacy of their users, plus giving the way fivver is structured as a company and the TOS you agree to when creating an account, Fivver is pretty much the judge, sheriff, and jury of Fivver town. If you really want professionals to do work for you, hire a local business in your town, it wont be $5, but than you will have more recourse if things don’t work out or you are being threatened or exported.

All the best,
Tim

[miiila]

Well I cannot believe this experience!

I had to cancel a gig because the seller did not deliver even after 2 extensions were given, That is fine , disappointing but fine. I gave the gig to a second seller who not only had all the documents and information including schema for project but also commentry on why the previous seller not only did not deliver on time but did nothing as per specs. just uploaded a wordpress theme and did practically no work as to the identity of my site. second seller requests log on to cpanel and wrodpress site and access email marketing site, but after 9 days nothing till I ask where the work is. Then All I get is an uploaded theme of a travel agency shop unchanged except my logo was added but even the logo had a lot missing from cropping. I requested the gig to be cancelled, She refused to cancel. I had Fiverr Support cancelled the gig and refund me. (I cannot afford to get further behind in my deadline so I am doing the work myself which I am capable of but thought I would get a professional do professional work at Fiverr) Well first the seller asked what I would pay her for the work or lack of work she did as she did deliver a useless theme. I told her I have removed her theme and put back my original website and said she should pay me to compensate me. Well I cannot believe what her next communication was, she said “If you dont give me any this - You know all your details is with me here and I can destroy your wordpress and cpanel by my self you beter give me little m-oney now”. Naturally I have pressed report button on the conversation as well as a direct complaint to Fiverr Support. WOW I think this seller is trying to extort money from me and is bringing the Fiverr website into disrepute. (not Fiverr’s fault and luckily I have had some good experiences of giggs purchased on Fiverr otherwise if this had of been my first experience I would never use Fiverr again)I think this needs to be reported to police by Fiverr for using a digital/communication carriage to commit a crime (extortion). I do not have that ability my self as it is international, I do not have personal and location details of the seller. Also this seller needs to be banned for life from Fiverr as it is obvious she is unstable or mentally ill or just plain evil.

Also not happy with Fiverr’s policy of not informing the results of their investigations. just the outcome of my end.

I gave the gig to a second seller who not only had all the documents and information including schema for project but also commentry on why the previous seller not only did not deliver on time but did nothing as per specs.

0.o You should have reported that to Customer Support, as soon as that, I mean, it can only mean it was the same person you gave the job to, with two accounts, which isn´t allowed as per ToS.

Hard to believe the whole thing really, very sorry to hear that happened to you.

The least they´ll do is suspending the accounts of that seller, and I surely hope they’ll check IPs, MACs, whatever, to suspend and ban all other and future accounts they might have or try to register from those, as well as pass on the case to the police, but I guess what Tim said applies.

[artlifeoriginal]

I’m not sure as to the rules from your webhost, but you might want to find out if it’s appropriate to report a threat like that to your webhost. If you haven’t already, change your wordpress and cpanel passwords. You might want to find out how much you can change/alter as far as your hosting goes (they won’t have “all your details” if you change them). I’m not the most familiar with Wordpress (and I don’t know about your specific site), but could Wordpress be reinstalled (in case they happened to make a change that gives them access already)?

You can still report the threat to your appropriate authorities. Since Fiverr registers by e-mail, they’ll probably be back on the site again. 😓

[chrisvt]

I gave the gig to a second seller who not only had all the documents and information including schema for project but also commentry on why the previous seller not only did not deliver on time but did nothing as per specs.

0.o You should have reported that to Customer Support, as soon as that, I mean, it can only mean it was the same person you gave the job to, with two accounts, which isn´t allowed as per ToS.

Hard to believe the whole thing really, very sorry to hear that happened to you.

The least they´ll do is suspending the accounts of that seller, and I surely hope they’ll check IPs, MACs, whatever, to suspend and ban all other and future accounts they might have or try to register from those, as well as pass on the case to the police, but I guess what Tim said applies.

Thanks for your reply to my post, It was not the same seller as I am aware the first seller is a male from Pakistan and the second is from Nigeria. I did not notice the second being from Nigeria as I focused on language and it said basic English. The seller has a picture of a white female but I now think maybe it is a black male, listed on the sellers page is a whole lot of skills but now I think the person is false advertising and has little skills. I have completed the job myself with the web page and also the Wordpress blog site both almost finished and in a day or 2 I will be ready, It was not that hard.

I have tested the payment buttons, social media buttons and contact email process and am quite pleased with the end result. They could have made themselves some easy money if they were honest and capable and diligent.

I certainly hope ypu are right about Fiverr’s response and that seller and the IP address is banned for life. I will now be weary of anyone from Nigeria.

[miiila]

Thanks for your reply to my post, It was not the same seller as I am aware the first seller is a male from Pakistan and the second is from Nigeria. I did not notice the second being from Nigeria as I focused on language and it said basic English. The seller has a picture of a white female but I now think maybe it is a black male, listed on the sellers page is a whole lot of skills but now I think the person is false advertising and has little skills. I have completed the job myself with the web page and also the Wordpress blog site both almost finished and in a day or 2 I will be ready, It was not that hard.

I have tested the payment buttons, social media buttons and contact email process and am quite pleased with the end result. They could have made themselves some easy money if they were honest and capable and diligent.

I certainly hope ypu are right about Fiverr’s response and that seller and the IP address is banned for life. I will now be weary of anyone from Nigeria.

That´s very weird though, how could the second person have gotten all that info, if not the same person, well, maybe they work/ed as a team or whatever.

Good you managed to get done with things yourself by now and, I guess, changed all log-in info and such, as artlifeoriginal mentioned.

Hope you´re luckier next time, and it´s definitely a good idea to be wary of suspicious seeming profiles, never mind from where.

[chrisvt]

I gave the gig to a second seller who not only had all the documents and information including schema for project but also commentry on why the previous seller not only did not deliver on time but did nothing as per specs.

0.o You should have reported that to Customer Support, as soon as that, I mean, it can only mean it was the same person you gave the job to, with two accounts, which isn´t allowed as per ToS.

Hard to believe the whole thing really, very sorry to hear that happened to you.

The least they´ll do is suspending the accounts of that seller, and I surely hope they’ll check IPs, MACs, whatever, to suspend and ban all other and future accounts they might have or try to register from those, as well as pass on the case to the police, but I guess what Tim said applies.

project but also commentry on why the previous seller not only did not deliver on time but did nothing as per specs.

The first thing I did after I cancelled the gig was to change the passwords to the cpanel and to the wordpress websites. She was given access to Mailchimp via thier invitation process and I revoked the invitation.

I have reinstalled the hosted website and the seller never even entered or changed any of the Wordpress site which should have been 70% of the job. never the less I have backed up the wordpress site and the hosted webpage is automatically backed up on a regular basis and I have already twice had to restore that to my work. As the seller is in Nigeria and I am in Australia, and Fiverr in Isreal but hosted in USA California. It is upto Fiverr to chase this up as it is beyond my capabilities.

No doubt you are rightr that they will be back on fiverr under a new alias.

[chrisvt]

That´s very weird though, how could the second person have gotten all that info, if not the same person, well, maybe they work/ed as a team or whatever.

Good you managed to get done with things yourself by now and, I guess, changed all log-in info and such, as artlifeoriginal mentioned.

Hope you´re luckier next time, and it´s definitely a good idea to be wary of suspicious seeming profiles, never mind from where.

I gave the first person access then changed passwords and gave the second person access then again changed the password so now the second person cannot access

[chrisvt]

I’m sorry this has happened to you, are you in the US? When dealing with international transactions like this legal recourse is tricky and sometimes limited. I suggest doing business with sellers in the same country as you, at least then you both have the same legal system to seek damages in civil and criminal courts. (This kind of thing happens all the time among ebay users) This may not answer your question but if the buyer and seller are in the same country it gives them a mutual understanding of how proper business ethics should be conducted.

I assume Fivverr does not provide the outcome of the results to these types of investigations to protect the privacy of their users, plus giving the way fivver is structured as a company and the TOS you agree to when creating an account, Fivver is pretty much the judge, sheriff, and jury of Fivver town. If you really want professionals to do work for you, hire a local business in your town, it wont be $5, but than you will have more recourse if things don’t work out or you are being threatened or exported.

All the best,

Tim

second seller is in Nigeria, I am in Australia, Fiver is regisered business in Isreal and there servers are hosted in California USA. this was not a simple job and the price for the gig was $300 US, so not really cheap but good money for those in 3rd world countries.

'i have decided just to do the work my self and have nearly finished It wasn’t that hard but I really wanted to focus on other things and was hoping someone more professional with better skills than me could do as better job.

[chrisvt]

I’m not sure as to the rules from your webhost, but you might want to find out if it’s appropriate to report a threat like that to your webhost. If you haven’t already, change your wordpress and cpanel passwords. You might want to find out how much you can change/alter as far as your hosting goes (they won’t have “all your details” if you change them). I’m not the most familiar with Wordpress (and I don’t know about your specific site), but could Wordpress be reinstalled (in case they happened to make a change that gives them access already)?

You can still report the threat to your appropriate authorities. Since Fiverr registers by e-mail, they’ll probably be back on the site again. 😓

back on the site again. 😓

When I mentioned the second seller had all that information I meant to say I gave her that so she had all info required plus should have understood why the other person did not deliver, NOT that she got information she shouldn’t have. Sorry for the communication error.

[miiila]

back on the site again. 😓

When I mentioned the second seller had all that information I meant to say I gave her that so she had all info required plus should have understood why the other person did not deliver, NOT that she got information she shouldn’t have. Sorry for the communication error.

Oh, thanks, okay, got it. 🙂

Makes it at least a tiny bit better.

Quote from Fiverr’s Privacy Policy (my bolding)

Information We Collect

When you register to the Site we ask you to provide certain personal information, including a valid email address, location and username. We may collect additional information such as physical address and additional authentication information, to provide you with the services you need (such as payment or withdrawal of funds, sending physical goods), or to ensure the marketplace integrity (for example, prevention of fraud). We collect information to provide better services and enhanced user experience to all of our Users.

In addition, we collect information while you access, browse, view or otherwise use the Site. In other words, when you access the Site we are aware of your usage of the Site, and may gather, collect and record the information relating to such usage, including geo-location information, IP address, device and connection information, browser information and web-log information, and all communications recorded by Users through the Site. We use that information to enhance user experience, personalize your browsing experience as well as monitor the Site for fraud and inappropriate content or behavior. We may also collect supplemental information obtained from third parties such as demographic and navigation data.

Well, and, they haven´t updated that yet, it seems, they have started to roll out phone verification recently, so that´s some more. Many people already verified by phone, either when prompted by the banner telling you to do it within 30 days, else your account will be restricted, or on their own from the account settings, so we might see some security improvement, if this gets rid of a lot of multiple accounts.

[chrisvt]

Oh, thanks, okay, got it. 🙂

Makes it at least a tiny bit better.

Quote from Fiverr’s Privacy Policy (my bolding)

Information We Collect

When you register to the Site we ask you to provide certain personal information, including a valid email address, location and username. We may collect additional information such as physical address and additional authentication information, to provide you with the services you need (such as payment or withdrawal of funds, sending physical goods), or to ensure the marketplace integrity (for example, prevention of fraud). We collect information to provide better services and enhanced user experience to all of our Users.

In addition, we collect information while you access, browse, view or otherwise use the Site. In other words, when you access the Site we are aware of your usage of the Site, and may gather, collect and record the information relating to such usage, including geo-location information, IP address, device and connection information, browser information and web-log information, and all communications recorded by Users through the Site. We use that information to enhance user experience, personalize your browsing experience as well as monitor the Site for fraud and inappropriate content or behavior. We may also collect supplemental information obtained from third parties such as demographic and navigation data.

Well, and, they haven´t updated that yet, it seems, they have started to roll out phone verification recently, so that´s some more. Many people already verified by phone, either when prompted by the banner telling you to do it within 30 days, else your account will be restricted, or on their own from the account settings, so we might see some security improvement, if this gets rid of a lot of multiple accounts.

Great info and update Thanks.

[miroslavglavic]

##CHANGE YOUR CPANEL PASSWORD RIGHT NOW.

Contact your hosting company and ask them to reset the password right now!

[theratypist]

(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted in 24 hours unless flagged)

You do know you can be banned from the forum if you do this.

[nadratan]

Thanks for your reply to my post, It was not the same seller as I am aware the first seller is a male from Pakistan and the second is from Nigeria. I did not notice the second being from Nigeria as I focused on language and it said basic English. The seller has a picture of a white female but I now think maybe it is a black male, listed on the sellers page is a whole lot of skills but now I think the person is false advertising and has little skills. I have completed the job myself with the web page and also the Wordpress blog site both almost finished and in a day or 2 I will be ready, It was not that hard.

I have tested the payment buttons, social media buttons and contact email process and am quite pleased with the end result. They could have made themselves some easy money if they were honest and capable and diligent.

I certainly hope ypu are right about Fiverr’s response and that seller and the IP address is banned for life. I will now be weary of anyone from Nigeria.

I am really sorry about your experience. I am a seller from Nigeria and it’s really painful to have someone from my country behave in this unprofessional manner. I suggest fiverr block and ban this person from this platform. These kind of people are not supposed to be here.

Try and change your WordPress logins and I believe everything will be just fine. I wish you the best of luck

[ssj1236]

Well I cannot believe this experience!

I had to cancel a gig because the seller did not deliver even after 2 extensions were given, That is fine , disappointing but fine. I gave the gig to a second seller who not only had all the documents and information including schema for project but also commentry on why the previous seller not only did not deliver on time but did nothing as per specs. just uploaded a wordpress theme and did practically no work as to the identity of my site. second seller requests log on to cpanel and wrodpress site and access email marketing site, but after 9 days nothing till I ask where the work is. Then All I get is an uploaded theme of a travel agency shop unchanged except my logo was added but even the logo had a lot missing from cropping. I requested the gig to be cancelled, She refused to cancel. I had Fiverr Support cancelled the gig and refund me. (I cannot afford to get further behind in my deadline so I am doing the work myself which I am capable of but thought I would get a professional do professional work at Fiverr) Well first the seller asked what I would pay her for the work or lack of work she did as she did deliver a useless theme. I told her I have removed her theme and put back my original website and said she should pay me to compensate me. Well I cannot believe what her next communication was, she said “If you dont give me any this - You know all your details is with me here and I can destroy your wordpress and cpanel by my self you beter give me little m-oney now”. Naturally I have pressed report button on the conversation as well as a direct complaint to Fiverr Support. WOW I think this seller is trying to extort money from me and is bringing the Fiverr website into disrepute. (not Fiverr’s fault and luckily I have had some good experiences of giggs purchased on Fiverr otherwise if this had of been my first experience I would never use Fiverr again)I think this needs to be reported to police by Fiverr for using a digital/communication carriage to commit a crime (extortion). I do not have that ability my self as it is international, I do not have personal and location details of the seller. Also this seller needs to be banned for life from Fiverr as it is obvious she is unstable or mentally ill or just plain evil.

Also not happy with Fiverr’s policy of not informing the results of their investigations. just the outcome of my end.

Honestly, people get dumber by the way. Fiverr with deal with this idiot. The seller’s account is guaranteed to get banned. It’s extremely regretful that you had to go through that. I highly recommend you choose a level 2 seller and give Fiverr another shot.

[chrisvt]

You do know you can be banned from the forum if you do this.

do what! that statement is broad