How to tell if a buyer is legit or a spam?

[jasmineasbury]

I'm new to this platform and so far I've had 2 accounts message me about my gig.  One user requested my zip code and personal contact info.  The other is offering to pay after services are rendered, I'm assuming outside of this platform.  My question is, how can I see if the user is real and not a scammer before I take the time to read and respond to their message?  Is there a way to screen buyers?

[gajuseidi]

14 minutes ago, jasmineasbury said:

One user requested my zip code and personal contact info.  The other is offering to pay after services are rendered

That is exactly how you can tell.

15 minutes ago, jasmineasbury said:

My question is, how can I see if the user is real and not a scammer before I take the time to read and respond to their message?  Is there a way to screen buyers?

Check their profile, see how long they've been on the platform and if they had any orders before. Just keep an eye out for red flags, scammers love to prey on new sellers.

[ahmwritingco]

In the Terms of Service, Fiverr details how the site works. Genuine buyers will generally want to work in accordance with those rules. They won't want you to get banned or be left financially exposed.

In addition to that, they typically won't ask you to do something that is completely outside the scope of your offering, such as send pictures, chat on social media, or join another website.

 

[sabinespoems]

Welcome to the platform! So there's not a real step-by-step handbook to follow in order to determine whether a buyer is a scammer. First of all, as @gajuseidinoted the fact that they want to communicate/pay outside of the forum is definitely a red flag. And you should never do that, otherwise your account will be warned/suspended! 

In my opinion if a buyer has no reviews and/or just made a profile doesn't mean they're out to scam you. I've had plenty of orders where this was the case. I'd say just talk to the buyer and sooner or later you'll get a gut feeling if they're legit or not. You can tell by what they're requesting and how they're requesting it. The general rule is if it doesn't feel right, it probably isn't! 
 

22 minutes ago, jasmineasbury said:

My question is, how can I see if the user is real and not a scammer before I take the time to read and respond to their message?

You might already know but I wanted to just be sure; always reply to the first message regardless if it looks like nonsense. Otherwise your response rate will suffer. A simple 'sorry I can't work on this for you' will suffice, but just make sure you at least reply something at first and after that you can just block them. 

I know this answer is filled with vagueness of 'feeling the vibe' and such, but I hope it still helped! 

[gajuseidi]

10 minutes ago, sabinespoems said:

In my opinion if a buyer has no reviews and/or just made a profile doesn't mean they're out to scam you. I've had plenty of orders where this was the case.

Not all new buyers are scammers, but almost all scammers are new buyers. My suggestion was what to do in addition to suspicious behaviour. A new buyer with no previous orders by no means should be considered a scammer. But a new buyer asking for a free sample? Yeah, nah.

[sabinespoems]

2 minutes ago, gajuseidi said:

Not all new buyers are scammers, but almost all scammers are new buyers. My suggestion was what to do in addition to suspicious behaviour. A new buyer with no previous orders by no means should be considered a scammer. But a new buyer asking for a free sample? Yeah, nah.

Definitely! I'm not disagreeing with you, I just wanted to make sure the OP won't immediately discard new buyers 😅

[abdheshkjha]

8 hours ago, ahmwritingco said:

In the Terms of Service, Fiverr details how the site works. Genuine buyers will generally want to work in accordance with those rules. They won't want you to get banned or be left financially exposed.

In addition to that, they typically won't ask you to do something that is completely outside the scope of your offering, such as send pictures, chat on social media, or join another website.

 

I agree with your point.