SCAM: Plagiarism Article Hide Behind Unicode UTF-8 Code File to Cheat Copyscape Used By Sellers

[allahditta786]

plz always revise from seller before confirming the order. This is good manual technique.

[lhoward73]

plz always revise from seller before confirming the order. This is good manual technique.

I’ve had 2 out of 3 articles fail this test in the last 24 hours.

[umarbajwa]

Same is the case with me today, 1 tried 2 different writers and they used unicodes technique.

Fiverr should take a serious action against such scammers.

[salwowthemes]

This is what I got, but although I’ve contacted customer support with proof and reported the seller, I have received no answer and no refund. People, be careful on fiverr. I will make sure everyone outside this platform will know it as well, because I believe this is in cooperation with fiverr. \otherwise I see no reason why they would protect scammers even when reported with evidence.

[catwriter]

On 4/11/2018 at 8:44 AM, salwowthemes said:

I have received no answer and no refund

When did you report the seller? It can take them some time to investigate. Also, keep in mind that they can’t tell you what they do with the seller, because that would be against the Privacy Policy. 

[salwowthemes]

I have received no answer and no refund

When did you report the seller? It can take them some time to investigate. Also, keep in mind that they can’t tell you what they do with the seller, because that would be against the Privacy Policy.

More than a week ago. I don’t expect them to tell me what they did with the seller, although I see he is still well and safe scamming people on fiverr and poor them don’t even know it, because not everyone is Sherlock Holmes when they purchase a service. The refund has nothing to do with their decision regarding the seller as long as I provided them with evidence that the article can not be used in a blog unless I want to ban myself from google.

Anyway, a lesson learnt and just wanted to remind people to be careful and CHECK YOUR ARTICLES BEFORE PUBLISHING THEM HERE: http://contentboss.com/pass-copyscape.php

If the generated text is a junk as mine (screenshot above), it means the “writer” is a scammer using a black hat technique to encode articles in order to pass the plagiarism, so do not publish the article, report the seller and ask for a refund because not only that the article is useless and the “writer” is a fraud, it generates very bad consequences for all your hard SEO work so far.

[vnmuahangmy]

It happened to me about 6 months ago with this one seller. I was her regular customer and she always delivered on time and very fast. After my articles not being ranked at all, I got suspicious and asked my brother to look into it. That’s how he found out what she did - the exact same thing you described. I told her I would contact customer support. She begged me to not report her and would refund all my money but I did not want her to scam others so I did anyway. She got suspended instantly, I supposed as her account is no longer accessible. I got refunded by Fiverr.

Now I always ask for samples from new writers and check through [unapproved url must be removed - buyers can find sites via Google search] If decoding is detected, I will not use that seller.

Mod Note: Post edited.

[nimblevoyager]

This happened to us as well. All six articles written for us by a seller turned out to be plagiarized using the scam you mention. They passed all checks, but Google Docs marked nearly every word as misspelled. In any case, we reported the seller to Fiverr and were refunded the money. We sent them all of the articles as well as the URLs of the copied content (all verbatim) as proof of the deception. However, we just noticed the same seller is still on Fiverr a month later and our initial positive feedback (before we discovered the scam) is still there! That means they’re allowing the offenses to continue.

Fiverr, you need to remove these people from your service. Your credibility is rapidly dissolving!!

[technopluslk1]

Hi guys,

I started ordering ghostwriter gig around May-June 2018 for blog posts and eBooks.
During this time I spent over $1000 and ordered 20-30 gigs. I re-hired few of the ghost writer
who did a good job. I re-hired every author who wrote good content and pass the Grammarly plagiarism checker.

Some of the Ghostwriters were over delivering and I was delighted. Last week 2 of ghostwriter
over delivered articles with high accuracy of grammar. In fact I ask one of these sellers to write 4K article, but this guy delivered 15K article. When I put that into Grammarly there was no plagiarism and accuracy score of grammarly was 99%. That made me really suspicious about this. How can non-native English speaker achieve this much accuracy and write huge load of content within few days.

I research more about copy writing scams and skipping plagiarism checks, and found out these guys are encoding the text in Word documents to bypass plagiarism checkers.

You can use this tool to check any document for encoded text ; Software: Text Encoding Detector

Once encoded there’s noway for plagiarism tools to detect anything. Only way to find out is by typing the text manually and put them in plagiarism tools. I found out most of these articles were 100% copied from other websites. I check all the articles written from May to date, found 80% of them are encoded. However fiverr support manage to cancel most of these order and re-funded considerable amount of money I wasted on these gigs.

Please share this with other. Be aware when you hire ghostwriters. Some of them are real ghosts.
Scary!

[miiila]

Hi guys,

I started ordering ghostwriter gig around May-June 2018 for blog posts and eBooks.

During this time I spent over $1000 and ordered 20-30 gigs. I re-hired few of the ghost writer

who did a good job. I re-hired every author who wrote good content and pass the Grammarly plagiarism checker.

Some of the Ghostwriters were over delivering and I was delighted. Last week 2 of ghostwriter

over delivered articles with high accuracy of grammar. In fact I ask one of these sellers to write 4K article, but this guy delivered 15K article. When I put that into Grammarly there was no plagiarism and accuracy score of grammarly was 99%. That made me really suspicious about this. How can non-native English speaker achieve this much accuracy and write huge load of content within few days.

I research more about copy writing scams and skipping plagiarism checks, and found out these guys are encoding the text in Word documents to bypass plagiarism checkers.

You can use this tool to check any document for encoded text ; Software: Text Encoding Detector

Once encoded there’s noway for plagiarism tools to detect anything. Only way to find out is by typing the text manually and put them in plagiarism tools. I found out most of these articles were 100% copied from other websites. I check all the articles written from May to date, found 80% of them are encoded. However fiverr support manage to cancel most of these order and re-funded considerable amount of money I wasted on these gigs.

Please share this with other. Be aware when you hire ghostwriters. Some of them are real ghosts.

Scary!

In fact I ask one of these sellers to write 4K article, but this guy delivered 15K article. When I put that into Grammarly there was no plagiarism and accuracy score of grammarly was 99%. That made me really suspicious about this.

I’d already have been suspicious if someone delivered almost 4x the amount I paid for.

I guess the only way to be safe from fake ghostwriters is writing yourself 😉 though, but to find out post-delivery, that tool/link is great. There have been several threads on the forum, warning about that particular kind of scam already, checking the forum from time to time really helps with a lot of things.

It’s good to hear that you got refunded, I hope other buyers will be careful when choosing their sellers and maybe a bit more distrustful of too-good-to-be-true prices (in all categories, not only in ghostwriting), report sellers who use scams to support, and will move on to hire sellers who maybe only deliver the amount of words that were agreed on but without encoding scams or other kinds of dirty tricks.

[manucornel]

In fact I ask one of these sellers to write 4K article, but this guy delivered 15K article. When I put that into Grammarly there was no plagiarism and accuracy score of grammarly was 99%. That made me really suspicious about this.

I’d already have been suspicious if someone delivered almost 4x the amount I paid for.

I guess the only way to be safe from fake ghostwriters is writing yourself 😉 though, but to find out post-delivery, that tool/link is great. There have been several threads on the forum, warning about that particular kind of scam already, checking the forum from time to time really helps with a lot of things.

It’s good to hear that you got refunded, I hope other buyers will be careful when choosing their sellers and maybe a bit more distrustful of too-good-to-be-true prices (in all categories, not only in ghostwriting), report sellers who use scams to support, and will move on to hire sellers who maybe only deliver the amount of words that were agreed on but without encoding scams or other kinds of dirty tricks.

Wow, I never heard of something like that.

As a legitimate ghostwriter (not that big fan of the name given to this job), I am sad that these things happen. Thank you for letting people know how to avoid these types of things. I hope you report the seller that did this to you and they will get banned.

Other than trying your seller with something small and check absolutely everything about that text cannot be said. Stay safe people!

And yea, when you get 4x the amount you ordered, run away. 👍

only way to be safe from fake ghostwriters is writing yourself

That would be great, except is not. Not everybody has the time/skills/passion required for writing. Is like saying “the only way to be safe about your food is to grow it yourself”. Yeah, well, not really. I mean I can do that, and eventually learn how to do it properly after years and years of getting my hands dirty. Meanwhile, I can say goodbye at having a life.

Or we could say that the only way to be safe is to stay in bed and do nothing. But wait… that can kill you as well.

Nothing is safe, regardless of what you buy or consume. There are good people and bad people in all domains. Being cautious, asking lots of questions and using your gut instinct are usually enough to find yourself good deals.

[miiila]

Wow, I never heard of something like that.

As a legitimate ghostwriter (not that big fan of the name given to this job), I am sad that these things happen. Thank you for letting people know how to avoid these types of things. I hope you report the seller that did this to you and they will get banned.

Other than trying your seller with something small and check absolutely everything about that text cannot be said. Stay safe people!

And yea, when you get 4x the amount you ordered, run away. 👍

only way to be safe from fake ghostwriters is writing yourself

That would be great, except is not. Not everybody has the time/skills/passion required for writing. Is like saying “the only way to be safe about your food is to grow it yourself”. Yeah, well, not really. I mean I can do that, and eventually learn how to do it properly after years and years of getting my hands dirty. Meanwhile, I can say goodbye at having a life.

Or we could say that the only way to be safe is to stay in bed and do nothing. But wait… that can kill you as well.

Nothing is safe, regardless of what you buy or consume. There are good people and bad people in all domains. Being cautious, asking lots of questions and using your gut instinct are usually enough to find yourself good deals.

Yeah, that was pretty much what the italicised safe was supposed to say.

Sorry if that wasn’t clear, while I personally wouldn’t be happy in some cases if someone “sells” written works to me that they claim to be the author of but were written by a ghostwriter, there certainly are use cases where I’d not mind, I’m aware that not everyone can write and that there are ghostwriters who aren’t scammers, no worries. 🙂

[manucornel]

Yeah, that was pretty much what the italicised safe was supposed to say.

Sorry if that wasn’t clear, while I personally wouldn’t be happy in some cases if someone “sells” written works to me that they claim to be the author of but were written by a ghostwriter, there certainly are use cases where I’d not mind, I’m aware that not everyone can write and that there are ghostwriters who aren’t scammers, no worries. 🙂

I didn’t mean to imply you said anything bad. You had good points on there. I am saddened that are people that try to scam people, either if we talk about writers or designers or whatever job. It’s good that we have this medium where we can spread awareness on what to stay away from.

@technopluslk1

I am curious, can you please keep us updated in case you report that person? I really consider is necessary that something is done against scammers.

[technopluslk1]

In fact I ask one of these sellers to write 4K article, but this guy delivered 15K article. When I put that into Grammarly there was no plagiarism and accuracy score of grammarly was 99%. That made me really suspicious about this.

I’d already have been suspicious if someone delivered almost 4x the amount I paid for.

I guess the only way to be safe from fake ghostwriters is writing yourself 😉 though, but to find out post-delivery, that tool/link is great. There have been several threads on the forum, warning about that particular kind of scam already, checking the forum from time to time really helps with a lot of things.

It’s good to hear that you got refunded, I hope other buyers will be careful when choosing their sellers and maybe a bit more distrustful of too-good-to-be-true prices (in all categories, not only in ghostwriting), report sellers who use scams to support, and will move on to hire sellers who maybe only deliver the amount of words that were agreed on but without encoding scams or other kinds of dirty tricks.

Thanks for reply and sharing your experience.

Please share this post with other buyers and sellers.

Still there are good sellers/ghostwriters on fiverr.

[barrelofmonkeys]

Geez never thought folks would do that but if it’s for a quick back, will! That’s why I like talking to my buyers are but before order so we both are on the same page and they feel comfortable with how my voice over will be and that it’s not garbage or stolen from somewhere

[colegordon]

Thank you so much!

I ordered a 20k word story and it was delivered to me in 4 days, well edited and of the highest caliber.
I immediately became suspicious, especially since the seller was based in ********** . I spent the last two hours running the stroy through every plagiarism checker I could find. All of them deemed it 100% original.

Thank GOD I came across your warning, because after checking the book on the website you provided, it turns out the book is indeed encoded!

I typed a paragraph from the story into Google, and lo and behold, the website the story was copied from popped up! The entire thing was copied word for word.

These scammers are despicable!

Mod Note: Country/region reference removed.

[maitasun]

Thank you so much!

I ordered a 20k word story and it was delivered to me in 4 days, well edited and of the highest caliber.

I immediately became suspicious, especially since the seller was based in ********** . I spent the last two hours running the stroy through every plagiarism checker I could find. All of them deemed it 100% original.

Thank GOD I came across your warning, because after checking the book on the website you provided, it turns out the book is indeed encoded!

I typed a paragraph from the story into Google, and lo and behold, the website the story was copied from popped up! The entire thing was copied word for word.

These scammers are despicable!

Mod Note: Country/region reference removed.

Hi @colegordon

Sorry you went through this unpleasant experience. Hope you have reported the seller to CS and given them detailed proof of the scam.

This type of sellers are a shame for everyone!

[videoarticle]

I’m hearing this for the first time.
Little wonder I see people writing for extremely ridiculous prices. (Because I write for an averagely ridiculous price of $5 for 500 words.)

I can’t stop laughing at this seller.
What kind of over_over_over_delivery is that?
Order 4k words and receive 15k???
For real!!!
I can’t even write 4.5k words for someone who ordered 4k. The best I can do is add 50 words = 4050 words.
I obviously may not be the best grammarian, but I’m pretty sure my writing is creative.
I write each single word manually, the only time I copy is while quoting. This is because Quotes aren’t meant to be altered especially for news articles.

I don’t know anything about encoding…
I only know about my hardworkingness, legitimacy, and honesty.

I’m very sorry you had a terrible experience these greedy sellers.

However, to avoid disappointments like this
order from Videoarticle.

😄

[mdmoon665]

Thank you techopluslk1 for sharing your experiences

[zimosho]

As read most of openion, Its really a bad experience for each buyers.
The seller who did this, they are not professional on his profession. At the time of technology they also knew that it might be come out soon, after knowing that that did so. They are really a shame for everyone.

[rechancho]

Really a shame!
i’m just curious : does amazon kindle system detect anything with their plagiarism tools?

[cyaxrex]

Really a shame!

i’m just curious : does amazon kindle system detect anything with their plagiarism tools?

Yes. However, in my case (publishing a book which was already in the public domain & free to publish and distribute) they gave me 7-days to provide proof that I was either the author or had all necessary rights to publish the material in question.

There are likely ways to get around detection. However, these will only work temporarily. Moreover, once authors are caught, they risk being banned from Amazon and it is not easy to simply open a new account.

Amazon records every IP you ever access the site from, your tax information, your email, your publishing alias, book titles. - And Amazon Alexa can listen to you plotting how to subvert the rules, while you are chatting over dinner at home. 😉

[rechancho]

Yes. However, in my case (publishing a book which was already in the public domain & free to publish and distribute) they gave me 7-days to provide proof that I was either the author or had all necessary rights to publish the material in question.

There are likely ways to get around detection. However, these will only work temporarily. Moreover, once authors are caught, they risk being banned from Amazon and it is not easy to simply open a new account.

Amazon records every IP you ever access the site from, your tax information, your email, your publishing alias, book titles. - And Amazon Alexa can listen to you plotting how to subvert the rules, while you are chatting over dinner at home. 😉

Your case is different,i think .

In these cases these books are passing the traditional plagiarism checker .

[cyaxrex]

Your case is different,i think .

In these cases these books are passing the traditional plagiarism checker .

Not really.

Kindle ebooks are formatted in HTML and Amazon uses it’s own Digital Rights Management software to keep the market clean. They also automatically scan books for poor formatting, spelling, and grammar. It would be highly unlikely that Amazon wouldn’t pick up encoded characters during this process.

[colegordon]

Hi @colegordon

Sorry you went through this unpleasant experience. Hope you have reported the seller to CS and given them detailed proof of the scam.

This type of sellers are a shame for everyone!

I did! But his profile is still up, still scamming people. I don’t know why Fiverr isn’t doing anything.