Buyer found me off Fiverr

[graphtersawyer]

A buyer I’ve been working with since November for a novel contacted me through my email. I have no idea how he got it since I don’t advertise anything like that on my profile (I have a website but I don’t share it on Fiverr). The whole thing makes me uncomfortable, and it’s very much against TOS.

I’m thinking I’ll wrap up the last order with him (save my completion rate) and decline to work together anymore, block him. I’d make good money working with him, but I don’t want to risk my account.

Is there anything more I could/should do?

[frank_d]

I completely understand how you feel.

Happened to me a couple of times.

Do not respond to their email.

Don’t mention it to them, only address it if they ask you about it on the order page or via Fiverr inbox. Try not to be condescending or make them feel rejected, just straight up address it as something that’s not allowed by Fiverr, period. There is nothing you can do. It’s policy.

Open a ticket with CS and be explicit that the buyer found your email and used it. Be sure to mention the date, and that you didn’t respond as well. You need to have a record of this and this is your best bet I think.

Then what you need to do is find out how that happened. If someone was able to do it that means that there are enough digital clues one can use to figure out your identity.

Either that or there’s a security breach/issue?

Wither way it’s something that needs to be addressed.

[graphtersawyer]

I completely understand how you feel.

Happened to me a couple of times.

Do not respond to their email.

Don’t mention it to them, only address it if they ask you about it on the order page or via Fiverr inbox. Try not to be condescending or make them feel rejected, just straight up address it as something that’s not allowed by Fiverr, period. There is nothing you can do. It’s policy.

Open a ticket with CS and be explicit that the buyer found your email and used it. Be sure to mention the date, and that you didn’t respond as well. You need to have a record of this and this is your best bet I think.

Then what you need to do is find out how that happened. If someone was able to do it that means that there are enough digital clues one can use to figure out your identity.

Either that or there’s a security breach/issue?

Wither way it’s something that needs to be addressed.

Then what you need to do is find out how that happened. If someone was able to do it that means that there are enough digital clues one can use to figure out your identity.

My website is my name. Could that be it? If so, I don’t really know how to fix that. I use my name for all my online stuff for cohesiveness and consistency.

[cyaxrex]

I completely understand how you feel.

Happened to me a couple of times.

Do not respond to their email.

Don’t mention it to them, only address it if they ask you about it on the order page or via Fiverr inbox. Try not to be condescending or make them feel rejected, just straight up address it as something that’s not allowed by Fiverr, period. There is nothing you can do. It’s policy.

Open a ticket with CS and be explicit that the buyer found your email and used it. Be sure to mention the date, and that you didn’t respond as well. You need to have a record of this and this is your best bet I think.

Then what you need to do is find out how that happened. If someone was able to do it that means that there are enough digital clues one can use to figure out your identity.

Either that or there’s a security breach/issue?

Wither way it’s something that needs to be addressed.

Then what you need to do is find out how that happened. If someone was able to do it that means that there are enough digital clues one can use to figure out your identity.

There is no need to treat this like a crime, or for anyone to try and make sure they are not discoverable off-Fiverr. That’s just silly. Anyone who uses the same profile image on Fiverr as they do elsewhere is easily discoverable via a reverse image search.

Open a ticket with CS and be explicit that the buyer found your email and used it.

To be honest, I wouldn’t do this. I would recommend not responding to the buyer. However, I would only raise this with CS if the buyer references sending an email in a message on Fiverr.

CS is notorious for misinterpreting messages. For this reason, binging an off-Fiverr email to their attention could do more harm than good.

Also, @graphtersawyer, if a buyer has contacted you off-Fiverr via your website, you could breach their data privacy by making this known to Fiverr. You would be sharing the content of a message with a third party (Fiverr) and if you don’t say you do this in your website privacy policy, it could land you in hot water.

There is an infinitesimal chance of te above happening. However, it is not okay to relate content or details of personal messages you receive to other organizations, any more than it is for Fiverr to email your website saying “Hey @graphtersawyer this guy emailed us today.”

Just ignore this email and leave things at that unless your buyer mentions it in your Fiverr inbox. This will also likely see you continue to get orders, as your buyer will simply assume that you never received their message.

[misscrystal]

Act like it never happened at all and ignore it and ignore it totally unless the buyer mentions it on fiverr, and then simply say you only communicate on fiverr. That’s it.

[frank_d]

Then what you need to do is find out how that happened. If someone was able to do it that means that there are enough digital clues one can use to figure out your identity.

There is no need to treat this like a crime, or for anyone to try and make sure they are not discoverable off-Fiverr. That’s just silly. Anyone who uses the same profile image on Fiverr as they do elsewhere is easily discoverable via a reverse image search.

Open a ticket with CS and be explicit that the buyer found your email and used it.

To be honest, I wouldn’t do this. I would recommend not responding to the buyer. However, I would only raise this with CS if the buyer references sending an email in a message on Fiverr.

CS is notorious for misinterpreting messages. For this reason, binging an off-Fiverr email to their attention could do more harm than good.

Also, @graphtersawyer, if a buyer has contacted you off-Fiverr via your website, you could breach their data privacy by making this known to Fiverr. You would be sharing the content of a message with a third party (Fiverr) and if you don’t say you do this in your website privacy policy, it could land you in hot water.

There is an infinitesimal chance of te above happening. However, it is not okay to relate content or details of personal messages you receive to other organizations, any more than it is for Fiverr to email your website saying “Hey @graphtersawyer this guy emailed us today.”

Just ignore this email and leave things at that unless your buyer mentions it in your Fiverr inbox. This will also likely see you continue to get orders, as your buyer will simply assume that you never received their message.

I hate it when people find my email and use it to contact me. That’s probably why I suggested what I did.

I see that the contact happened via @graphtersawyer ‘s website so it’s definitely less creepy.

As for the CS part: your suggestion would be reactive to something a buyer would do. My experience has taught me that it’s best to not deal with things by preventing them to happen in the first place. Be one step ahead of situations I can predict.

It’s just a different approach. I do agree CS communication can always go either way, depending on who answers your ticket initially.

[humanissocial]

Then what you need to do is find out how that happened. If someone was able to do it that means that there are enough digital clues one can use to figure out your identity.

My website is my name. Could that be it? If so, I don’t really know how to fix that. I use my name for all my online stuff for cohesiveness and consistency.

That could be it, yes. Also, if you have ever shared your profile/gig URLs publicly online, they could find you that way, too.

[graphtersawyer]

That could be it, yes. Also, if you have ever shared your profile/gig URLs publicly online, they could find you that way, too.

I don’t share my profile or gig urls online. That’s what is so weird about it to me. Fiverr and off-fiverr don’t mix for me besides the fact that they both have my name.

[misscrystal]

I don’t share my profile or gig urls online. That’s what is so weird about it to me. Fiverr and off-fiverr don’t mix for me besides the fact that they both have my name.

I just checked and you’re easily traceable online. It took me less than one minute.

[graphtersawyer]

I just checked and you’re easily traceable online. It took me less than one minute.

I really don’t mind being traceable (my name is quite unique). I suppose the issue, to me, is that my buyer flagrantly broke TOS in a manner that could jeopardize not only his but my account as well. After all, it’s not my fault if someone decides to break TOS. He’s an adult and agreed to TOS the same way I did. I shouldn’t have to make myself hidden on the interwebs to keep clients from breaking rules they’re supposed to follow.

[misscrystal]

I really don’t mind being traceable (my name is quite unique). I suppose the issue, to me, is that my buyer flagrantly broke TOS in a manner that could jeopardize not only his but my account as well. After all, it’s not my fault if someone decides to break TOS. He’s an adult and agreed to TOS the same way I did. I shouldn’t have to make myself hidden on the interwebs to keep clients from breaking rules they’re supposed to follow.

I know that’s shocking and disturbing but people are weird sometimes. I’ve had odd things happen too that were similar and scary. It’s not your fault he did that and I don’t think anything bad will come of it.

[miiila]

I’ve had a buyer once who, in Fiverr chat, sent me a link to a website of someone who does what I do and the website had a name that reminded of my Fiverr user name and asked if it’s my website. I suppose they googled my username plus the service type to get to that website.
It could easily have been my website, it would have “fit”, only it wasn’t, so I could simply say no, it’s not my website, to make things easy.
I wonder if the owner of that website had/has people contacting them because they think that’s me LOL

Of course, you can’t keep people from googling you and if you happen to have a website that can be traced to your username, of course, some might try to contact you via that.
One solution would be to have a website specifically for Fiverr, which should be among the first hits someone would get who tries to Google you by username (+Fiverr +service), and which only points back to Fiverr (no email info/contact form) and a different website for your off-Fiverr business - but that obviously depends on your “setup”, if you use your Fiverr username “web-wide” and not exclusively for Fiverr, that’s difficult.

If you know that someone who contacts you elsewhere found you/knows you via Fiverr, I’d just never reply at all off-site, and if they mention it on Fiverr, just say that in compliance with Fiverr’s ToS, you can only work within Fiverr with Fiverr clients.

[misscrystal]

I’ve had repeat buyers want to talk to me off fiverr. One long time good client mentioned it more than once. He then came back later to inform me he has begun using one of my competitors who has been taking orders from him off site.

[miiila]

I’ve had repeat buyers want to talk to me off fiverr. One long time good client mentioned it more than once. He then came back later to inform me he has begun using one of my competitors who has been taking orders from him off site.

Yeah, I guess that happens sometimes to those who stick to the rules and say No, can’t be helped.

If only all of us who ever got asked for contact details / doing business outside of Fiverr had a fiver for each time, it would at least make up for all the time we spend on saying No and pointing to the ToS.

[zubairfb]

Just ask him to work on this platform as it is safe for both of us… we will work here only…simple isn’t it?