How to avoid being scammed in Fiverr?

[ptrgar]

I'm trying to figure out ways to protect ourselves from being scammed. Because after being scammed for $560 and a lot of hard work I'm rethinking the viability of being a freelancer in Fiverr. 

Scams are just way too easy, the order can be completed with everything the client asked but if they decide to ask for a refund they will get it, Fiverr will not protect you, they will not even ask the buyer for proof of his claims and they will ignore any proof that you present which contradicts his claims. 

They will also freeze all your money, including what has nothing to do with the order in question and will continue to do so after they refund, which is another scam on its own.

 

So given that we are on our own here, or worse, and scams are so common I'm thinking about ways to protect ourselves and these are my ideas so far. I don't think they are enough so I'm still questioning the viability of Fiverr freelancing for medium or large projects. 

Please share yours and let me know if any of my ideas may not work:

 

1) Avoid buyers with new accounts. 

2) Divide your gig in steps: That way if they claim something is wrong, they cannot claim it about the complete project and maybe they won't get a full refund? I'm not sure about this one.

3) Be aware of clients in certain geographical regions, take extra precautions. This is not racist or something alike, I'm Latin American and I recognize as most people here that in our culture corruption and cheating are almost glorified by many, if someone can get something for free and get away with it, they will do it and feel great about it. Just think that the three times someone from my region contacted me, all of them have been the only ones to offer me to do the business outside of Fiverr, that's not a coincidence.

4) Create a website where we sellers can report scammers showing our side of the story so we can search for the user before accepting an order. At this moment someone can steal your money and you cannot even give them a bad review so they are free to continue scamming with the protection of Fiverr.

 

Things that I thought would help but didn't:

1) Having all the conversation in Fiverr chat so you can have a backup of what the client is saying.

2) Sending proof showing that your work was done properly, Fiverr will simply ignore it.

3) Customer service. They will spend a few seconds on your case and will give generic answers, some of them will have nothing to do with the case and some will be contradictory, which clearly shows they only care about answering something so the next agent has to deal with your issue, and the next one does the same thing, it's an infinite loop on incompetence.

 

Edited December 28, 2022 by ptrgar

[jaobiofficial]

I recently had a dispute that went in my favour,

I reported the case to Fiverr before the client did,

I responded to the client logically and respectfully

I made sure I did the work the client asked to his specifications

[noirparliament_]

On 12/28/2022 at 7:36 PM, ptrgar said:

2) Divide your gig in steps: That way if they claim something is wrong, they cannot claim it about the complete project and maybe they won't get a full refund? I'm not sure about this one.

There is already a feature called Milestone workflow. Using this, you can deliver your product in chunks instead of delivering the entire thing at once. Ask that buyers pay per completed Milestone. You get a chance to show buyers what exactly they can expect, and by when. 

You can add Milestones for Custom Orders for most categories. You can see that option when you are creating the Custom Offer from your profile in the chat box. 

Thank you.

[mdruhulamin44]

On 12/28/2022 at 7:36 PM, ptrgar said:

I'm trying to figure out ways to protect ourselves from being scammed. Because after being scammed for $560 and a lot of hard work I'm rethinking the viability of being a freelancer in Fiverr. 

Scams are just way too easy, the order can be completed with everything the client asked but if they decide to ask for a refund they will get it, Fiverr will not protect you, they will not even ask the buyer for proof of his claims and they will ignore any proof that you present which contradicts his claims. 

They will also freeze all your money, including what has nothing to do with the order in question and will continue to do so after they refund, which is another scam on its own.

 

So given that we are on our own here, or worse, and scams are so common I'm thinking about ways to protect ourselves and these are my ideas so far. I don't think they are enough so I'm still questioning the viability of Fiverr freelancing for medium or large projects. 

Please share yours and let me know if any of my ideas may not work:

 

1) Avoid buyers with new accounts. 

2) Divide your gig in steps: That way if they claim something is wrong, they cannot claim it about the complete project and maybe they won't get a full refund? I'm not sure about this one.

3) Be aware of clients in certain geographical regions, take extra precautions. This is not racist or something alike, I'm Latin American and I recognize as most people here that in our culture corruption and cheating are almost glorified by many, if someone can get something for free and get away with it, they will do it and feel great about it. Just think that the three times someone from my region contacted me, all of them have been the only ones to offer me to do the business outside of Fiverr, that's not a coincidence.

4) Create a website where we sellers can report scammers showing our side of the story so we can search for the user before accepting an order. At this moment someone can steal your money and you cannot even give them a bad review so they are free to continue scamming with the protection of Fiverr.

 

Things that I thought would help but didn't:

1) Having all the conversation in Fiverr chat so you can have a backup of what the client is saying.

2) Sending proof showing that your work was done properly, Fiverr will simply ignore it.

3) Customer service. They will spend a few seconds on your case and will give generic answers, some of them will have nothing to do with the case and some will be contradictory, which clearly shows they only care about answering something so the next agent has to deal with your issue, and the next one does the same thing, it's an infinite loop on incompetence.

 

I think, we shouldn't do over marketing our gig here and there. Because it will reach our gig to the scammer.

[ptrgar]

17 hours ago, noirparliament_ said:

There is already a feature called Milestone workflow. Using this, you can deliver your product in chunks instead of delivering the entire thing at once. Ask that buyers pay per completed Milestone. You get a chance to show buyers what exactly they can expect, and by when. 

You can add Milestones for Custom Orders for most categories. You can see that option when you are creating the Custom Offer from your profile in the chat box. 

Thank you.

My only doubt of this idea is: Would this help in case the buyer then decides to ask for a refund? Maybe they would get a refund for their last milestone, but maybe not and in that case this idea would not help at all to avoid being scammed.