Are spammers using the forum as hunting grounds?

[smashradio]

Due to time constraints, I have periods when I'm more active on the forum, and at times, I'm lost in my work for several weeks.

I've noticed that every time I have one of my more active periods on the forum, the amount of spam I receive in my regular Fiverr inbox increases radically. 

The spam is often from new sellers or low-level sellers asking me to give them work. 

Obviously, I would never outsource anything to people with so little talent that they feel the need to spam other sellers. 

Spam is nothing new, but interestingly, the "elo sir i do ur work profesionale writer i am!!!"-messages increase whenever I'm active on the forums. 

Have anyone else noticed this? 

I consistently report this type of message as spam and block the sender. But it doesn't take long for a new one to arrive. 

[katakatica]

I've noticed this! Every time I actually interact with, eh, interesting posts (of the wrong kind), I get more 'fun' spams to report. It took me a while to connect it to the forum (or me being active on discord..) but I think it's partially connected. What irks me is when they click on my promoted gigs ad. 

Can you not cost me money, please? 

Thank you. 
 

[ligiacarvalho]

Yes, same here. I even got one asking for help on taxes (not in Canada). That is why I avoid specific posts or topics.

[lloydsolutions]

34 minutes ago, gmkhondaker said:

Thanks for nice information.

Interested to know what is nice about it! The OP is complaining!

[smashradio]

Just now, lloydsolutions said:

Interested to know what is nice about it! The OP is complaining!

Hilarious. 

[miiila]

I think they even use reviews for that. If someone's just a buyer, they can't contact them (else, I doubt there would be any buyers left ...), but if you're a seller and bought, and reviewed something ...

I've had phases where I was far more active on the forum and received less spam than I do lately, though, it probably comes from different sources. One time, I happened to find an article, some low-effort blog, probably to profit from affiliate stuff, where I found my Fiverr profile, together with a few other sellers from the same niche, as "recommendation" - and immediately thought that it was far more probable that spammers will contact me for jobs than an actual buyer because of that "shout-out". Sad, isn't it. The kind of spam you're describing is currently my Fiverr pet peeve #1, even higher on the list than my annoyance at my category still not having the option to turn off Gig multiples (or have price and delivery time increase incrementally).

I used to be far more lenient with spam, but it's such a scourge and time sink now that I use the spam or report button in 99.9% of all cases. If you read this, people who contact other sellers and want them to buy from you, or a personal mentor, or tax tips, or whatever else and not for buying from them, your chances to be reported are sky-high, so better don't.
Or at least use the forum messages, then we can simply ignore your message if we don't want to reply, and you might get around the report, or at least probably a report on the forum won't affect you as much as one on the main site.

[mawieshams2016]

I've had one and I don't even know from were that woman came from and how she find my account. Sadly, she didn't know I am a seller too. lol

[smashradio]

41 minutes ago, miiila said:

 

I've had phases where I was far more active on the forum and received less spam than I do lately, though, it probably comes from different sources.

Yeah, they probably use a bunch of sources, but I'm always feeling it more when I'm active on the forums. 

Yeah, that type of spam is super annoying. As soon as I see a message that starts with just "hi" I get tense, because I know I have to answer just in case, only to receive another message asking me to give them work or tell them how to become successful on Fiverr. 

[maitasun]

1 hour ago, gmkhondaker said:

Thanks for nice information.

 

15 minutes ago, tanjiduljoy_ said:

thanks

Thanks for what? For letting you know we're fed up of being spammed and our response rate compromised?

And which is the nice information? Warning you not to spam or else you'll be reported?

[lenasemenkova]

Yes. 

[smashradio]

6 minutes ago, maitasun said:

 

Thanks for what?

I see that I'm not the only one who's tired of meaningless posts on the forum. :P 

[lloydsolutions]

29 minutes ago, tresna1 said:

Thanks for nice information👍.

Not another one!🙄

Please stop posting nonsense replies without reading the previous posts! 

 

[smashradio]

1 minute ago, lloydsolutions said:

Not another one!🙄

Please stop posting nonsense replies without reading the previous posts! 

 

Thank you for your nice information, Mr. Solutions Bro! 

Edit: Sorry, I just had to. 

[maitasun]

We were trying to be serious. We really were 😔, but they don't let us. 🙈😂

[the_right_place]

I have just recently begun to delve into the Fiverr forum and already I have had to sift through a lot of spam-esque responses.

An example of one such occurrence is when I was looking at a topic thread that started with someone asking for advice on a specific issue that they are having and then having at least three individuals pop up to say "Oh, I can help. All you need to do is click my gig link." It's quite tiresome because I actually would like to hear real advice but I don't want to bog down the forum by asking a question that may have already been asked and answered somewhere on the forum.

[enunciator]

I've only been contacted once from someone on the forum who wanted to illicit advice from me on my main site account, and less than a handful of PM's here on the forum. Naturally, I reported the individual who contacted me via inbox.

I guess being slightly snarky and offering a service that is not easy to duplicate has saved me from most "advice" or "outsourcing" spam messages. 😄

[vickiespencer]

On 8/2/2021 at 4:26 PM, tanjiduljoy_ said:

thanks

Why did you thank the original poster for complaining about spam messages on the Fiverr main platform. 🤔

Your post is basically the same thing he is complaining about! SPAM as it adds no value to the conversation going on in this thread. 🤨

 

As for me, even though I am usually pretty active on the Fiverr Forum (FF) I rarely get unwanted pm's here or in my inbox. Maybe it is because I put on my teacher 👩🏻‍🏫 hat and sometimes lecture some of the types of users that are potential spammers. 

[mariashtelle1]

I think dogged  a bullet and completely by accident. 
For some reason forum decided to add 1 at the end of my name. And from time to time it was changing to number 2 at the end 🤷‍♀️ I’m not sure what was that magic trick but from mariashtelle1 I would become Mariashtelle2.

So I think those people just can’t find my profile to spam me that much. And on this new forum I keep my inbox full so they can not message me here 

[smashradio]

Yeah I think maybe the category you're in has a lot to do with things as well. I rarely get messages related to my voice over gig of this type, it's almost always via my translation gig. Maybe it comes from here, maybe not. But I find it hard to believe it's a coincidence, since it seems to happen on a regular basis whenever I'm active here. 

@mariashtelle1There's already a user with your username on the forum without the 1, that's probably why you got the 1 behind your name. It would be nice to not have your account on the forum linked to your Fiverr username in some ways, but in others not. It's not too difficult to handle spammers. I just report them and move on. But it's frustrating when I have to take time out of my day to do that, just because some people are too lazy to do things properly. 

[miiila]

18 hours ago, smashradio said:

. I just report them and move on. But it's frustrating when I have to take time out of my day to do that, just because some people are too lazy to do things properly

IMO, it would reduce the kind of seller spam that pretty much everyone will start to report sooner or later by a huge amount, if new users who click the "Contact" button for the first time, would have to answer whether they are seller or buyer.

If they answer buyer, they'll be able to contact the seller, and it shouldn't put undue strain on the buyers if that was just a one-time thing 

If they answer seller, they should be told that Gigs are NOT Buyer Requests, and that they are about to contact another SELLER, not a buyer and that the seller may report them which will have consequences like a warning or account suspension, and that they can ask questions and discuss with other sellers on the FORUM. Then they should get the options "I want to know more about how to protect my account and how Fiverr works > Links to ToS, Help Center, free 'How Fiverr works" video, Forum", and "Continue and contact the SELLER anyway, with the risk of getting reported."

Something along those lines. I'm absolutely sure it would reduce the spam I'm getting daily by a lot.

And the ones who'd still not get it because they can't even understand that much English, it wouldn't too bad to report them, as they'll hardly succeed and are bound to frustrate buyers who might order due to their copy-pasted bio and gig description anyhow, wanting to work in translation with no English besides "hi/hy/hu". Maybe give them links to a few free resources for learning basic English together with the account warning, and a paragraph or two about how you can NOT get rich on Fiverr with zero skills, no matter what the YT guy with the Lambo said.