Fiverr seller protection program doesn't work, 3644$ scammed by fraudulent buyer's chargeback

[dimchu]

Why even making this “seller protection program” if it doesn’t protect and tech support that doesn’t support ?!

They have a fraud team, that’s the team that decided the order was fraudulent or something was wrong.

I was also banned by mistake once, and the necesary team saw my case and took action, I never had to do anything. So Fiverr does take care of sellers.

Maybe they found something was not ok with the order from your side, and that’s why the protection system didn’t apply to you. They are making the rules, it’s their platforms, and they decide what’s ok and what’s not. Contacting the COO was also a mistake I believe.

I understand the situation and I am sad to see this. I assume your buyer was removed from the platform, since you said you can’t find him anymore.

Fiverr is my preferred freelancing platform, but one of the ways I protect my account is by not accepting orders that take any longer than half a day maximum. That way if the buyer turns out to be fraudulent then I can live with the results.

I am even more careful, I just take orders that require only a few hours of work. This way I am 100% sure I won’t have major issues. I avoid charging a lot, I kept low prices and while there are scammers from time to time, I just have them at the $10 or $15 level mostly. In fact, thanks to the low prices, scammers don’t really seem to care about me that much, they go for the big fish with orders worth hundreds 🙂

They have a fraud team, that’s the team that decided the order was fraudulent or something was wrong.

Hi, thanks for your message! So you really think this process is manual?

And why do you think contacting COO was a bad idea?

[donnovan86]

They have a fraud team, that’s the team that decided the order was fraudulent or something was wrong.

Hi, thanks for your message! So you really think this process is manual?

And why do you think contacting COO was a bad idea?

I do believe contacting the COO was a bad idea. She will obviously refer this to the same team that already judged your case. So things will be the same.

I know for sure when I was banned accidentally due to a scammer that they actually replied to me, manually within 2 days, I was banned on a Friday, and Sunday night they replied to me themselves. I contacted them on Friday and just received the normal “wait for 90 days to withdraw”. That was all.

I also had a scammer that ran with the content and went to CS, and they said their fraud team will check. I waited for a few days, but I received a message that my order amount was reimbursed with the buyer protection. So they actually studied and saw there was nothig wrong.

I believe in your case there’s something that was a red flag from your side. Or at least there might be a reason why there’s no buyer protection involved.

As other people told you already, stick to smaller amounts of money for orders. The chances of dealing with scammers are lower this way, and if you do lose something, it will be easier to deal with. I have scammers from time to time, but due to having lower prices I deal with this a lot easier. I do contact customer support if it’s a larger order, but I never go with huge orders, since it’s uncomfortable to work on them, and the chances of getting scammed are huge.

[antomtjvc]

I do believe contacting the COO was a bad idea. She will obviously refer this to the same team that already judged your case. So things will be the same.

I know for sure when I was banned accidentally due to a scammer that they actually replied to me, manually within 2 days, I was banned on a Friday, and Sunday night they replied to me themselves. I contacted them on Friday and just received the normal “wait for 90 days to withdraw”. That was all.

I also had a scammer that ran with the content and went to CS, and they said their fraud team will check. I waited for a few days, but I received a message that my order amount was reimbursed with the buyer protection. So they actually studied and saw there was nothig wrong.

I believe in your case there’s something that was a red flag from your side. Or at least there might be a reason why there’s no buyer protection involved.

As other people told you already, stick to smaller amounts of money for orders. The chances of dealing with scammers are lower this way, and if you do lose something, it will be easier to deal with. I have scammers from time to time, but due to having lower prices I deal with this a lot easier. I do contact customer support if it’s a larger order, but I never go with huge orders, since it’s uncomfortable to work on them, and the chances of getting scammed are huge.

I don’t agree with your opinion in any way.

He should take smaller amounts to lose less money in case of fraud?

What is that for your way of thinking?

Not one of a business man/woman.

[donnovan86]

I don’t agree with your opinion in any way.

He should take smaller amounts to lose less money in case of fraud?

What is that for your way of thinking?

Not one of a business man/woman.

You don’t have to agree with me. That’s the way I work, you don’t have to work like me or to agree with me.

Clearly he did something wrong, since Fiverr believes the buyer needs to be refunded and there’s no customer protection for him.

In my experience here, scammers will target higher price points. Some people above already said that they limit their price points to avoid scammers.

Also, you can split into way smaller orders. This prevents scammers, and it allows you to avoid any problems. I don’t see how this is bad thinking. If anything, it keeps scammers away, and it also means you get paid in increments. I saw a lot of people scammed here, and the approach I shared here worked for me. It might not work for you @antomtjvc . Although based on your price points, it doesn’t seem you have thousands of dollars per gig.

That’s why I believe it was a fair assessment from my perspective. Splitting a large order into smaller ones always limits risks. Even if the person does a chargeback on an order, the others are still completed and you get paid. This saved me from losing hundreds of dollars throughout the years. But obviously it’s for the larger orders.

As I said, to each his own. It was just my idea. You don’t have to say it’s a bad idea for a business man/woman. I’ve been here for many years and it always worked for me. I stayed away from many scammers. So it does work for some, I guess it depends on the field. Plus, he doesn’t need to accept or use my opinion in any way. It was just an idea. And that’s the beauty of this forum, free speech.

[antomtjvc]

Should he then sell only half a picture?

That he has done something wrong is just a guess on your part.
I have the assumption that the Fiverr support leaves the seller to 99% in the lurch although they have done everything(!) correctly.

2 people - 2 opinions.

[genuineguidance]

I think when you sent the order and put in the message your no cancellation policy, that should have told you, you already knew this buyer was shady or something could go wrong. Also, putting a blurb about “if you accept this, it means you won’t cancel” does not protect you in any way. Same as the fraud buyer giving you a 5 star rating - that means nothing, really, if their plan was to scam you from the beginning.

I just think you already felt this person and their orders were “off”, and you were thinking you may be protecting yourself by making up a sort of contract about them accepting the work. Unfortunately, that will not stop scammers from going to their bank and crying foul and getting their money back.

Weird too, is Federico’s poor grammar and spelling mistakes in his correspondence to you.

GG

[theratypist]

working on a platform that allows this to happen?

Isn’t it kind of demotivational? Fiverr is always my first choice to freelance but being on the OP’s position is definitely going to hurt.

Every time I get an order above $100 it turns to be a bit scary rather than being happy. With always thinking what if this buyer is fraudulent.

The only possible solution to avoid this situation I can think of is having a feature where Sellers can rate buyers(internally-hidden from buyers) honestly and seller can review it before working on BIGGER projects.

Let’s hope something like this is introduced in future by Fiverr.

Sellers can rate buyers(internally-hidden from buyers) honestly and seller can review it before working on BIGGER projects.

I support this! If I get orders over $500 I always tend to double check on previous sellers ratings on the buyer. Thankfully orders I receive like that have been with pleasant buyers.

Although the workaround right now is checking the rating of other sellers on the buyers profiles. The only drawback is it only shows up if the buyer has rated the seller they purchased from (thats the only time sellers can rate the buyer back)… There are some buyers who are too busy to rate the sellers so any rating from previous sellers he has worked with…

[razu55]

I’m really sorry to hear that.
And I’m worried about Seller’s protection

[donnovan86]

Should he then sell only half a picture?

That he has done something wrong is just a guess on your part.

I have the assumption that the Fiverr support leaves the seller to 99% in the lurch although they have done everything(!) correctly.

2 people - 2 opinions.

That he has done something wrong is just a guess on your part.

Well Fiverr support says that by not offering protection, not me. I just went with their reaction. Clearly we don’t know the full story.

As for my ideas, they were general, not for the stuff that happened here.

In fact, it’s clear he won’t get the money back for his work. Fiverr decided this order is not going to receive seller protection, the scammer is refunded. So all the OP can do is to learn from this and adjust his approach.

My ideas were for people in general that see this thread. For the OP it seems too late, as the decision is already made and as the Fiverr support team said, it’s final. So… there’s not a lot he can do that.

[dimchu]

I do believe contacting the COO was a bad idea. She will obviously refer this to the same team that already judged your case. So things will be the same.

I know for sure when I was banned accidentally due to a scammer that they actually replied to me, manually within 2 days, I was banned on a Friday, and Sunday night they replied to me themselves. I contacted them on Friday and just received the normal “wait for 90 days to withdraw”. That was all.

I also had a scammer that ran with the content and went to CS, and they said their fraud team will check. I waited for a few days, but I received a message that my order amount was reimbursed with the buyer protection. So they actually studied and saw there was nothig wrong.

I believe in your case there’s something that was a red flag from your side. Or at least there might be a reason why there’s no buyer protection involved.

As other people told you already, stick to smaller amounts of money for orders. The chances of dealing with scammers are lower this way, and if you do lose something, it will be easier to deal with. I have scammers from time to time, but due to having lower prices I deal with this a lot easier. I do contact customer support if it’s a larger order, but I never go with huge orders, since it’s uncomfortable to work on them, and the chances of getting scammed are huge.

I know for sure when I was banned accidentally due to a scammer that they actually replied to me, manually within 2 days, I was banned on a Friday, and Sunday night they replied to me themselves. I contacted them on Friday and just received the normal “wait for 90 days to withdraw”. That was all.

have you made the second account or just negotiated with CS to bring it back to life?

As other people told you already, stick to smaller amounts of money for orders. The chances of dealing with scammers are lower this way, and if you do lose something, it will be easier to deal with. I have scammers from time to time, but due to having lower prices I deal with this a lot easier. I do contact customer support if it’s a larger order, but I never go with huge orders, since it’s uncomfortable to work on them, and the chances of getting scammed are huge.

there is one thing that made me raise my prices 2-3 times and feel psychologically comfortable to accept big orders. Fiverr is a public company, so they share their results every Quarter, they say that average spend per buyer is 193$ (Fiverr - Fiverr Announces Third Quarter 2020 Results), and that made me think that thousands of thousands of 5$ orders need to be balanced out with much more bigger orders to get this 193$ average. Of course is my logic is correct…

Also personally I don’t like this approach “stay low key, do not ask for more and you’ll be safe”. I’m russian and we have an ancient proverb: “don’t go the forest if you afraid of the wolves” or “nothing ventured, nothing gained”.

I do believe contacting the COO was a bad idea. She will obviously refer this to the same team that already judged your case. So things will be the same.

at least she’ll be aware of the problem. Once my gig have been deleted absolutely unfairly, CS only made things worse, sending standard answers that restoring gigs back is an impossible action, so I got desperate and bought premium on linkedIn that allows to send messages in DM to those people who are not your “friends”. And this message has a 100% guarantee of being read. I’ve found Hila Klein (Fiverr COO), sent her the message and my gig has been restored in 1 day. I’ve never got a reply from Hila but thats fine by me unless my gig is active.

In fact, it’s clear he won’t get the money back for his work. Fiverr decided this order is not going to receive seller protection, the scammer is refunded. So all the OP can do is to learn from this and adjust his approach.

will see…

[timdolbear]

I have given this advice before, I know it’s too late on this one, but as a general rule never take a job on fiber that you’re not willing to do for free, because any client can simply cancel the order and run with it.

Example, I have had clients love my work, do a revisions, said it was great. The canceled the order saying it was horrible and then 2 days later its on Youtube.

So I do not jobs on fiver now that I am not willing to eat the time on. which means nothing over $150US. Platform is called Fiverr for a reason. Small quick jobs you can do during down time.

[donnovan86]

There’s taking a hit - and there’s taking a hit.

We’re not talking about $36 or $360 (which would be bad enough), we’re talking more than $3,600.

That’s a crazy amount of money to lose, and I say that as someone who lives in the south of England - an expensive part of the world.

Assuming the op’s post is true - and I have no reason to believe it isn’t - how can a seller have any faith that this won’t happen again?

I just don’t think it is reasonable to simply say ‘take the hit and move on’. What has happened is fraud. Justice needs to prevail here.

I just don’t think it is reasonable to simply say ‘take the hit and move on’. What has happened is fraud. Justice needs to prevail here.

The thing here is that we don’t know the full story. Fiverr knows that, and they decided that the seller doesn’t receive any protection for a reason.

I do feel bad, I am sure we all do for someone to lose so much money. But then again, without knowing the full story and what happened, we can only speculate.

[dimchu]

update: still no answer from tech support, but they keep marking my request as “solved” and I open it again by sending message asking the status. Ridiculous!

I’ve been contacted by few people who shared similar stories but with a positive outcome. One seller got a refund after 2 months of waiting and very rare communication from CS. They answered him almost once a month…

so there is hope. don’t plan to give up

And I thank all of you for your contribution, kind words and honest opinions! wish all of you prosperity and health!

[marta75]

update: still no answer from tech support, but they keep marking my request as “solved” and I open it again by sending message asking the status. Ridiculous!

I’ve been contacted by few people who shared similar stories but with a positive outcome. One seller got a refund after 2 months of waiting and very rare communication from CS. They answered him almost once a month…

so there is hope. don’t plan to give up

And I thank all of you for your contribution, kind words and honest opinions! wish all of you prosperity and health!

I’ve said this to another seller scammed out of a large amount, but if you really want to make them squirm, post a complaint on BBB. I’ve done this in the past, and while I don’t recommend it, as it seems to tip off the platform that you’re willing to humiliate them publicly, it has gotten them to reply to a similar complaint in my case. If you have all the documentation, even better, as you can prove that the company acted poorly and violated its own rules.

[dimchu]

I’ve said this to another seller scammed out of a large amount, but if you really want to make them squirm, post a complaint on BBB. I’ve done this in the past, and while I don’t recommend it, as it seems to tip off the platform that you’re willing to humiliate them publicly, it has gotten them to reply to a similar complaint in my case. If you have all the documentation, even better, as you can prove that the company acted poorly and violated its own rules.

thanks for your message! can you please tell me where to open a ticket exactly on BBB? how is the process going? what should I do: “file a complaint” or “report a scam” or “write a review” ?

[marta75]

thanks for your message! can you please tell me where to open a ticket exactly on BBB? how is the process going? what should I do: “file a complaint” or “report a scam” or “write a review” ?

File a complaint, state your case, attach documentation and wait for them to respond. If you really want to get revenge, throw in some keywords like no safety for sellers, 20%, fraud protection, unreliable customer service, unreasonable algorithm, whose back? Not mine, yadda yadda.

[dimchu]

File a complaint, state your case, attach documentation and wait for them to respond. If you really want to get revenge, throw in some keywords like no safety for sellers, 20%, fraud protection, unreliable customer service, unreasonable algorithm, whose back? Not mine, yadda yadda.

thanks a lot for your help, what do you think, is all the info in the first message of this topic enough to file the complaint or I need even more evidence and proof of my proper work?

[andrewcarpen756]

thanks a lot for your help, what do you think, is all the info in the first message of this topic enough to file the complaint or I need even more evidence and proof of my proper work?

quick question, did you withhold commercial rights usage on the final delivered product?

[thatwordchick]

quick question, did you withhold commercial rights usage on the final delivered product?

He did:

image747×355 77.9 KB

@dimchu do you have any idea what these images were slated for? E.g. was this “client” (she said, using an inflection better suited for the F word) looking to use them for his business? Do you have any identifying info? If you can’t get any help from Fiverr CS, you may want to check out his online presence, business, site, etc. to see if he’s using your images. Until money changes hands permanently and remains in your hands, he has no right to use or display your work in any way. If you catch him using your work anywhere, you can slam him with a DMCA takedown notice and go tattle on him to his ISP and hosting service, too.

It’s easier in my line of work (writing) because we have Copyscape and Google Alerts, but you can periodically reverse-image search your work in Tineye or Google Images to keep tabs on the thief’s activities.

[dimchu]

recent update. don’t know what to say…

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[kendal1747]

He did:

image747×355 77.9 KB

@dimchu do you have any idea what these images were slated for? E.g. was this “client” (she said, using an inflection better suited for the F word) looking to use them for his business? Do you have any identifying info? If you can’t get any help from Fiverr CS, you may want to check out his online presence, business, site, etc. to see if he’s using your images. Until money changes hands permanently and remains in your hands, he has no right to use or display your work in any way. If you catch him using your work anywhere, you can slam him with a DMCA takedown notice and go tattle on him to his ISP and hosting service, too.

It’s easier in my line of work (writing) because we have Copyscape and Google Alerts, but you can periodically reverse-image search your work in Tineye or Google Images to keep tabs on the thief’s activities.

What would work for voice overs that were used and not given permission? Or is there any way to stop that? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

[jamestayj]

What would work for voice overs that were used and not given permission? Or is there any way to stop that? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Aside from takedowns via legitimate routes and filing reports etc, I’ve seen others go as far as uploading videos with very similar titles to the offending video, and then vocally express that their voice was stolen for the project. When you’ve got the same voice disparaging something they were once glorifying, the scammers tend to be quick about paying you off to sort it out instead of letting their project burn.

[stefanyoshovski]

What happened to you makes you reflect that Fiverr doesn’t cover you at all. I suppose that the amount was too big for them to offer a coverage as it would reflect in a negative balance for them.
It’s really horrible to read how the emails you received are completely incoherent. Also it doesn’t exist such an “Automatic System” which is be able to comprehend situations like yours, to check rather the Buyer or the Seller is in the right position.
Their statement was basically that they have invented a Judge Bot who can take care of fraud cases. Total incoherence and impossibility.
I would definitely think about finding a way to understand who the Buyer was. Every single account has it’s unique id and ip address. I’d try to file a complaint against the buyer for having works of yours because of copyright since he owns your draws without paying you.

[mateusbl]

recent update. don’t know what to say…

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I’m in contact with the Fiverr Support since 18 february… when my order was canceled… i’m waiting until now for a answer and i’m starting to think that i’ll not be responded. All i can do is waiting for some answer by the “Relevant Deparment”.

What is more strange is that the Support just cancel based in the comments of the buyer…

• The Fiverr should see first who are more time in the platform: the seller or the buyer… because is really easy for a new buyer or a new seller try to scam. The probability here is that the person that have more time in the platform or that have more orders is more reliable.

• The other thing should be add a Final Comment every time that a buyer contact the Fiverr Support to cancel… this way the Seller could express his point of the history.

Simple things that could help, but i’m not sure if the Fiverr Support care about this 😕

[akshatjain5]

There’s taking a hit - and there’s taking a hit.

We’re not talking about $36 or $360 (which would be bad enough), we’re talking more than $3,600.

That’s a crazy amount of money to lose, and I say that as someone who lives in the south of England - an expensive part of the world.

Assuming the op’s post is true - and I have no reason to believe it isn’t - how can a seller have any faith that this won’t happen again?

I just don’t think it is reasonable to simply say ‘take the hit and move on’. What has happened is fraud. Justice needs to prevail here.

Doesn’t matter if it’s for $5 also , fraud is fraud !!

And I don’t think Fiverr has a fault here , the company will think of its profit . Company know that buyer may leave the platform if not served properly but seller has no other choice .

So what we should do is protest again them !

That we need more rights as a seller , if the order is being cancelled or chargeback then we need to have full discussion why it has been cancelled !

(Note : Fiverr runs because of seller )

Yes 1 seller can’t make Fiverr to change its policies but if all of us stand up against some Fiverr policies then we can do wonders .

I’m not saying to come on roads , just protest socially raise a # on Twitter .

{I’m a new seller here and totally love the app but recently got scammed with same issue however my amount was not as big it was $55 , but I’ve done efforts for that and my efforts must be paid off}

So we should now request Fiverr to change its policies , be transparent and give point to point details why order is cancelled , which part of order doesn’t meet the requirements .