Confirm with the police?

[lillymae]

A buyer requested help making an existing PDF so that the blank fields for the personal information (“Name” , “Contact”, etc) could be fillable via text input.



This sounds ridiculous even as I write this, but the PDF was a official police document. It was a standard form like one you would receive to fill out a complaint. I completed the Gig thinking that the person was a neat freak like myself and/or had terrible hand writing so they wanted a way to input everything legibly. This may in fact be the case however after submitting, it finally hit me if it’s even at all legal to tamper with those type of documents in any way, even if it’s just the input fields where individuals are suppose to fill in information. I already contacted customer service, but I wonder if I should follow up with the department to let them know? Or does that breach buyer seller confidentiality?



I’m hoping to hear back from CS soon but it’s the weekend and sometimes they take a few days. What do the sellers on here think? Sans any criticism please…

[starla13]

Uh…can’t say if that breaches buyer/seller confidentiality, not even sure if any company can even request such a thing besides doctors and lawyers… but to be completely honest, and I hope Fiverr doesn’t hate me for it… but I would follow up with the police anyways… I would HATE for the this guy to get caught doing something wrong and then point the finger at you.



Sorry to hear about your situation, that is definitely MAJORLY serious

[lillymae]

Thank you @starla13 for sharing your thoughts. I think you’re right and I very much doubt Fiverr would hate you for it, although I’ll keep pestering CS until I move forward.

[jais5678]

It could be innocent–they may have simply wanted to file a police report, but wanted the information to be legible. As long as your name is not on it, I don’t see how it would be a conflict.

[thepromogirl]

First off: Anything you do outside of Fiverr is your legal right, you are not tied down the Terms Of Service regarding anything you do outside the “four walls” of this site - this goes with buyers and sellers. You just can’t supply your personal information to try and gain work outside of the Fiverr. That’s a violation.



With that said, if the document is blank yes, individuals are allowed to have a “preparer” but there is a lot of legal risk with that. This is a right. Typically when it comes to those sort of documents, criminal, legal, or otherwise the “preparer” is required to provide SS number and personal contact information (I know this is true for tax and government documents for certain). This is an essential requirement and ties to you the report as you’re the one that filled it out.



Here’s the risk: Say the individual turns around and says to the police “I didn’t ask them to put that on the report, he lied!” well, now you’re facing criminal charges for filing a false report and could face jail time (doesn’t matter what state you’re in they can request you be turned in by your local authorities - and they can get a warrant requiring Fiverr to give up your personal information so they can find you and charge you.)



Unless you’re a lawyer, or have some hefty company liability insurance I’d back away… very very far away!



Disclaimer: Communication of information by, in, to or from myself for use of it is not intended to convey or constitute legal advice, and is not a substitute for obtaining legal advice from a qualified attorney. The information presented is not legal advice, is not to be acted on as such, and is subject to change without notice.

[lillymae]

Thank you for all the very helpful information. I have informed the buyer of my concerns regarding the legality, apologized for the inconvenience, and requested cancellations of his orders so that no payment is received.



Yikes! Lesson learned.

[Guest itsyourthing]

lillymae said: Yikes! Lesson learned.

Please post what sort of response you get from the buyer. I can't see any reason you could possibly get in any legal trouble (you have proof of what your involvement was via Fiverr) and it's also possible the buyer is a law enforcement officer of some sort who could have wanted the PDF fill-able for numerous reasons.

 

You also could have simply contacted the department in question and asked/explained. Fiverr doesn't care what a seller does as long as it doesn't take money out of their pockets or put them at SERIOUS risk for SERIOUS legal action. You're fine. Relax.

 

[lillymae]

itsyourthing said: Please post what sort of response you get from the buyer. I can't see any reason you could possibly get in any legal trouble (you have proof of what your involvement was via Fiverr) and it's also possible the buyer is a law enforcement officer of some sort who could have wanted the PDF fill-able for numerous reasons.

 

You also could have simply contacted the department in question and asked/explained. Fiverr doesn't care what a seller does as long as it doesn't take money out of their pockets or put them at SERIOUS risk for SERIOUS legal action. You're fine. Relax.

One of the last questions I asked him during our interactions was if the document was to be used for legitimate legal purposes and the response was "YEs..." << exactly as I typed. Red flag.

 

Good news is that Fiverr canceled the two orders so the communication has stopped. Sadly my cancellation rate jumped up to 7% but I suppose it's worth it. If it does trail back to me I can clearly show that I was just being a bit of a dummy.

[Guest itsyourthing]

lillymae said: Sadly my cancellation rate jumped up to 7% but I suppose it's worth it.

That is a shame. But at least you're not worried about it any more. :)

 

 

[starla13]

A small price to pay to ensure your protection! You definitely did the right thing, cheers mate!