Review of Seller Feedback

[wilferguson]

We recently took the time to review a seller profile related to a service and found the following:

 

1.) The seller account we reviewed was opened November 2021

2.) The seller account we reviewed had a high number of 5 star "reviews" from accounts opened November 2021 or December 2021 that only reviewed the seller account and in some cases 1 other seller (this patter was matched several times and seems very suspicious)

3.) The 5 star reviews were from multiple countries but the ones from the United States had broken English, bad grammar, and were clearly not written by a native speaker. The poor language was not just from one US reviewer but multiple. We also saw multiple 5 star reviews from the same buyer account with two different "stories". I am a native speaker and sometimes make mistakes or a few words will get twisted since I use a German locale but the language we read was clearly not from a native speaker. 

For us it seemed like a red flag but we were wondering if other buyers had experiences with sellers that may have "interesting" reviews. I have even seen a Fiverr service that "sells" Fiverr accounts including the "english" exam which I guess is something you have to complete. Based on what we saw we thought about creating a Fiverr Service to summarize a seller account, correlate the date it was created and the feedback details to generate a "reliability" score. We like Fiverr and reported the issue but they are not able to provide feedback on topics like this with the exception of the public guidelines which is understandable. It just looks like, to us, Fiverr has to trust sellers not to "game" the feedback system. Not sure if we are over analyzing this topic but would love to hear from other buyers about this topic. Thank you in advance for any input.  

 

[olyasr]

You should definitely avoid accounts like this. This is not a secret that some new sellers buy reviews. 

All of these accounts will be blocked, it's just a matter of time, but if you have such suspicions, it's better not to do business with them.

I've even gotten messages several times from new "sellers" asking me to place an order and write a good review, and they will pay for the service on PayPal. Fiverr successfully finds and blocks all such things, but it takes time.

[cferry1]

Quote : The 5 star reviews were from multiple countries but the ones from the United States had broken English, bad grammar, and were clearly not written by a native speaker. The poor language was not just from one US reviewer but multiple. End Quote.

Interesting.

[bigbeardvo]

You're right to be critical of reviews, but keep in mind that Fiverr is a worldwide marketplace, and many honest buyers will often use translators. That said, there are definitely scammers out there. It's always better to contact the seller before placing an order. Trust your gut and contact customer service if the seller breaks the TOS. 

[evgenif]

I think that any system can be tricked. Even such a big and "reliable" one like Fiverr. Unfortunately such problems are inevitable and i think every buyer can see such accounts bypassing them. I'm sure that Fiverr do its best to prevent people from seeing such things too often))

[enunciator]

On 1/15/2022 at 2:13 AM, wilferguson said:

Based on what we saw we thought about creating a Fiverr Service to summarize a seller account, correlate the date it was created and the feedback details to generate a "reliability" score.

Fiverr would definitely not permit such a gig to operate on their own platform. Anyway, there are so many sellers on Fiverr, I doubt a buyer would be willing to spend money on gaining potential insight on the validity/credibility of another seller. The majority of deceitful/fraudulent sellers stick out like a giraffes neck.