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Do you ever notice a gig with reviews that seem fake?


daviddoer

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So I was looking at a gig and checking out the reviews, and I just thought it was odd they were so close to each other in time (for a time-intensive task). The reviewers were fellow sellers, rather than buyer accts, and looking at their accounts it seemed like they wouldn’t be in need of this particular service. Also, the writing of the gig description was not top notch for someone advertising a professional writing service, and the reviews seemed to not relate to the service itself.

I don’t “care” and am definitely not going to call this seller out… I’ve wondered about “fake” reviews and it’s always a curiosity of mine when looking at accounts with a low number of reviews. how many of the reviews are legit? This is just the first time I’ve actually seen enough to think “these reviews were probably paid for”.

I’m curious to hear if you’ve had similar experiences looking at a profile and getting a strong sense that the reviews were not “real”.

I would love to hear your stories!

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I would suggest keeping a really open mind about this, even though fake reviews do happen from time to time. to clear up the experiences I have had with fakes, once in awhile you will see an account that clearly has issues. The obvious ones are literally that - you might see a username jones1234 and they have a few reviews from jones2345. That is usually someone who is new and either attempts to create two accounts with little understanding or has a family member give them a few fakes. When they are caught, Fiverr is really good about either banning them outright or removing the reviews.

There are some other ways, but I really haven’t seen them as common. It is expensive for users to buy or trade reviews for one thing, and most sellers who want them the most couldn’t afford to do it. In years on Fiverr I’ve only seen one account where I found out the seller spent a lot of money to buy enough reviews to get a higher badge and that account eventually earned enough bad reviews to from real buyers to fail.

As far as sellers buying from other sellers, it might surprise you to know how much it happens but is actually legit. It’s very hard to tell from looking at the accounts. Some people are buyers for a long time and then become sellers. Many sellers run multiple businesses and buy services from sellers they know to help run their own businesses. The orders and reviews are legitimate. I have purchased from nearly a hundred different sellers myself. I’ve purchased writing gigs even though I have writing gigs because sometimes I need a topic that isn’t in my area of expertise. Most of them were people I didn’t know and I wanted to see if they might be able to provide me something inexpensive while they were new and cheap. Most of them did a pretty good job, though not all. I vet sellers carefully before I buy.

The rest of my purchases have been from people I do know and met on the forum. I buy regularly from some of them and some buy regularly from me, but every transaction is for a service that I really need. I’ve been tipped by forum users who bought my tip gig because I helped them here and that is still considered legit since tipping is allowed. So, I wouldn’t assume reviews are fake no matter who buys them. What usually tells you a review might be a fake is some kind of major red flag and it’s usually so few of them that it doesn’t make much difference. I would just steer clear of a seller anyway if you sense any sort of red flag. There are many to choose from! Overall, though, there are a lot of trustworthy sellers to be found. I hope that helps.

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So I was looking at a gig and checking out the reviews, and I just thought it was odd they were so close to each other in time (for a time-intensive task). The reviewers were fellow sellers, rather than buyer accts, and looking at their accounts it seemed like they wouldn’t be in need of this particular service. Also, the writing of the gig description was not top notch for someone advertising a professional writing service, and the reviews seemed to not relate to the service itself.

I don’t “care” and am definitely not going to call this seller out… I’ve wondered about “fake” reviews and it’s always a curiosity of mine when looking at accounts with a low number of reviews. how many of the reviews are legit? This is just the first time I’ve actually seen enough to think “these reviews were probably paid for”.

I’m curious to hear if you’ve had similar experiences looking at a profile and getting a strong sense that the reviews were not “real”.

I would love to hear your stories!

the reviews seemed to not relate to the service itself.

I thought I would add something about this because it could be something different. Some time back sellers could change a gig from one category to another and totally rewrite the gig description. So, a seller might get three good reviews for photoshop work but realize they were spending 8 hours to earn $4. They might change the gig to logo creation and the newer reviews would be about the other service.

Eventually Fiverr noticed this and realized it could be misleading. It wasn’t always intentional but wasn’t good. So, now they only allow you to change a gig within the same category. You can change from making mascot logos to making signature logos, but not to a whole different category. You can identify these by looking at the URL of the gig. If the url says it was for writing articles but the gig title now says it is for website creation, it was moved. If it’s only a few reviews, I’d just ignore it since the seller may have done it without meaning to break any rules. If it is a lot, it should be reported to Fiverr and they can decide what to do. If the URL and title are different but related, that is allowed.

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I would suggest keeping a really open mind about this, even though fake reviews do happen from time to time. to clear up the experiences I have had with fakes, once in awhile you will see an account that clearly has issues. The obvious ones are literally that - you might see a username jones1234 and they have a few reviews from jones2345. That is usually someone who is new and either attempts to create two accounts with little understanding or has a family member give them a few fakes. When they are caught, Fiverr is really good about either banning them outright or removing the reviews.

There are some other ways, but I really haven’t seen them as common. It is expensive for users to buy or trade reviews for one thing, and most sellers who want them the most couldn’t afford to do it. In years on Fiverr I’ve only seen one account where I found out the seller spent a lot of money to buy enough reviews to get a higher badge and that account eventually earned enough bad reviews to from real buyers to fail.

As far as sellers buying from other sellers, it might surprise you to know how much it happens but is actually legit. It’s very hard to tell from looking at the accounts. Some people are buyers for a long time and then become sellers. Many sellers run multiple businesses and buy services from sellers they know to help run their own businesses. The orders and reviews are legitimate. I have purchased from nearly a hundred different sellers myself. I’ve purchased writing gigs even though I have writing gigs because sometimes I need a topic that isn’t in my area of expertise. Most of them were people I didn’t know and I wanted to see if they might be able to provide me something inexpensive while they were new and cheap. Most of them did a pretty good job, though not all. I vet sellers carefully before I buy.

The rest of my purchases have been from people I do know and met on the forum. I buy regularly from some of them and some buy regularly from me, but every transaction is for a service that I really need. I’ve been tipped by forum users who bought my tip gig because I helped them here and that is still considered legit since tipping is allowed. So, I wouldn’t assume reviews are fake no matter who buys them. What usually tells you a review might be a fake is some kind of major red flag and it’s usually so few of them that it doesn’t make much difference. I would just steer clear of a seller anyway if you sense any sort of red flag. There are many to choose from! Overall, though, there are a lot of trustworthy sellers to be found. I hope that helps.

Many sellers run multiple businesses and buy services from sellers they know to help run their own businesses. The orders and reviews are legitimate. I have purchased from nearly a hundred different sellers myself. I’ve purchased writing gigs even though I have writing gigs because sometimes I need a topic that isn’t in my area of expertise.

Completely agree with @fonthaunt. I just purchased a gig from a fellow seller today that is in no way connected to the services I’m offering here on Fiverr.

On another note, I have used sellers with great reviews before and had a terrible experience myself–and vice versa. I don’t base my buying decision on reviews any longer for that reason alone, but I don’t think fake reviews are really a problem.

Fiverr is very strict about multiple accounts per email/IP/PayPal account/household, etc. Anyone trying to give themselves a review would quickly be banned and any user buying reviews would quickly run out of money. Plus, if their work quality isn’t deserving of good reviews, real buyers will surely mess up their average rating soon enough when they reveal that the seller delivers low-quality work.

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the reviews seemed to not relate to the service itself.

I thought I would add something about this because it could be something different. Some time back sellers could change a gig from one category to another and totally rewrite the gig description. So, a seller might get three good reviews for photoshop work but realize they were spending 8 hours to earn $4. They might change the gig to logo creation and the newer reviews would be about the other service.

Eventually Fiverr noticed this and realized it could be misleading. It wasn’t always intentional but wasn’t good. So, now they only allow you to change a gig within the same category. You can change from making mascot logos to making signature logos, but not to a whole different category. You can identify these by looking at the URL of the gig. If the url says it was for writing articles but the gig title now says it is for website creation, it was moved. If it’s only a few reviews, I’d just ignore it since the seller may have done it without meaning to break any rules. If it is a lot, it should be reported to Fiverr and they can decide what to do. If the URL and title are different but related, that is allowed.

Thanks for all of your input @fonthaunt. I definitely have an open mind about it. I could explain in more details but would be more of a givaway, and its all speculation, so I don’t want to identify the user in any way. The type of service simply didn’t seem like something those fellow sellers would be in the market for, based on their profiles.

:shrug:

There’s no way to know what happens on the other side of our screens. I don’t mind speculating from time to time, but I’m definitely not planning to get worked up about any of it. The only person I’m in competition with is myself 🙂

Thanks for sharing some of your experience with me. I’m enjoying becoming a part of this community. Gigs are starting to add up, little by little… and I can feel like its starting to work !!! I can see that precious “level 1” on the horizon 😃

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Thanks for all of your input @fonthaunt. I definitely have an open mind about it. I could explain in more details but would be more of a givaway, and its all speculation, so I don’t want to identify the user in any way. The type of service simply didn’t seem like something those fellow sellers would be in the market for, based on their profiles.

:shrug:

There’s no way to know what happens on the other side of our screens. I don’t mind speculating from time to time, but I’m definitely not planning to get worked up about any of it. The only person I’m in competition with is myself 🙂

Thanks for sharing some of your experience with me. I’m enjoying becoming a part of this community. Gigs are starting to add up, little by little… and I can feel like its starting to work !!! I can see that precious “level 1” on the horizon 😃

I could explain in more details but would be more of a givaway, and its all speculation, so I don’t want to identify the user in any way.

I think that’s fair and smart, and it would be against the forum rules to identify the seller/buyer here anyway. I am a forum moderator and I have staff contacts, so if you want to send a more detailed PM to me, you are welcome to. You can name the account in a PM to a moderator and we can take a look at it. If it’s something that looks like a potential violation and should be discussed, the forum moderation can send the details to staff who can just check it out. If we can see something that might clear the user of wrongdoing, we will just drop it. Or, you can drop it here. Whatever you prefer is fine.

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I could explain in more details but would be more of a givaway, and its all speculation, so I don’t want to identify the user in any way.

I think that’s fair and smart, and it would be against the forum rules to identify the seller/buyer here anyway. I am a forum moderator and I have staff contacts, so if you want to send a more detailed PM to me, you are welcome to. You can name the account in a PM to a moderator and we can take a look at it. If it’s something that looks like a potential violation and should be discussed, the forum moderation can send the details to staff who can just check it out. If we can see something that might clear the user of wrongdoing, we will just drop it. Or, you can drop it here. Whatever you prefer is fine.

yeah, I’m not tattling speculation : p

really I was just fishing to see if other people have had experiences where they felt confident reviews were not legit. partially because I’d heard mentioned that sometimes people buy them. people buy reviews for every type of product online, so that’s not a big surprise.

your response, and lack of much other input, gives me the impression that it must not be a very widespread practice here in any obvious way.

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yeah, I’m not tattling speculation : p

really I was just fishing to see if other people have had experiences where they felt confident reviews were not legit. partially because I’d heard mentioned that sometimes people buy them. people buy reviews for every type of product online, so that’s not a big surprise.

your response, and lack of much other input, gives me the impression that it must not be a very widespread practice here in any obvious way.

I was just fishing to see if other people have had experiences where they felt confident reviews were not legit.

I’ve seen gigs where at least 50 reviews in a row were from the same person, so yes, I have been suspicious at times.

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I was just fishing to see if other people have had experiences where they felt confident reviews were not legit.

I’ve seen gigs where at least 50 reviews in a row were from the same person, so yes, I have been suspicious at times.

Now I am afraid I have a buyer who bought 5 times from me. Perhaps potential buyers are misunderstanding my gig reviews. Should I request him to skip reviewing?

Having multiple reviews from one buyer doesn’t mean having a loyal customer? He is buying again and again because of quality service?

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Now I am afraid I have a buyer who bought 5 times from me. Perhaps potential buyers are misunderstanding my gig reviews. Should I request him to skip reviewing?

Having multiple reviews from one buyer doesn’t mean having a loyal customer? He is buying again and again because of quality service?

Don’t worry about it.

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Hello, still new around but I am glad to say I had 2 customers already (one of them as a repeat buyer). Hope there will be many more!
I took a look at other gigs, trying to learn from the best so eventually I did noticed some fishy reviews. But today I was blown away when I discovered the facebook groups for promoting fiver gigs! They are full of exchange reviews messages. This makes me really disappointed and I wonder how will I be able to survive having that king of competition.

PS sorry for my absent profile picture, still working around to fix that

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Hello, still new around but I am glad to say I had 2 customers already (one of them as a repeat buyer). Hope there will be many more!

I took a look at other gigs, trying to learn from the best so eventually I did noticed some fishy reviews. But today I was blown away when I discovered the facebook groups for promoting fiver gigs! They are full of exchange reviews messages. This makes me really disappointed and I wonder how will I be able to survive having that king of competition.

PS sorry for my absent profile picture, still working around to fix that

This makes me really disappointed and I wonder how will I be able to survive having that king of competition.

Reviews are just one factor that buyers use to decide on a gig to buy. Ensure your gigs are laid out professionally, that you offer good value for money and explain yourself well. For me as a buyer, that is more important than the number of reviews. While I like to hear the opinion of others, I don’t always trust them as some people are clueless about what they are ordering!

I have had bad Fiverr experiences came from those with 1000 reviews and those with none as well as great experiences with both too - reviews are not a deciding factor.

Having multiple reviews from one buyer doesn’t mean having a loyal customer?

Yes, anyone smart enough to know to watch out for multiple reviews is also smart enough to know that there is every chance it is a loyal client. Like I said above, reviews make up part of the smart assessment by a buyer, they are not definitive.

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