Beware of brief scams!

[visualstudios]

Just got this brief:

There is absolutely no information online about the effects pack they demand you have, other than the store selling it for 30€. Other than the shop, it only shows up here, on twitter, and on upwork (with a similar brief).

This is a fake job offer, to scam people into buying the (probably fake / broken) plug-in pack. There's absolutely no way some client is, by coincidence, requiring a plug-in that exists nowhere other than the store, and that nobody ever heard about - this "client" is the "plug-in" maker, trying to scam people into buying it, guaranteed. That's the only explanation for them requiring an extremely obscure paid software. Note the enticing budget as well, designed to get people interested.

Do NOT ever buy software / plug-ins /anything because a client asks you to - unless it's actually industry standard, well known software (like, if a client says they need photoshop or after effects and you must own them, that would be legit for a lot of workflows). 

Very easy and lucrative business model - create a storefront selling some fake plug-in for cheap, post it as a requirement on freelance job boards on multiple sites, and watch the money roll in, from freelancers buying the "plug-in" to have a shot at a contract.

Edited January 27 by visualstudios

[emmaki]

Ah, the good old ChatGPT-written job description that's in 99% of Bowel & Movements. 

I note that 90%+ of the ones I see close without a job ever been taken. But then a good half of the ones I see are scams or lost sellers. 

I imagine YT people are still doing fake briefs for views, too. 

 

[visualstudios]

On 1/27/2024 at 9:27 AM, emmaki said:

I imagine YT people are still doing fake briefs for views, too. 

Sure, but that's whatever - they get a couple of views, sellers lose nothing but 30 seconds for clicking on their video. 

This one is more sophisticated, and will in effect steal money from people. 

[emmaki]

Or sellers could develop a sense of self-preservation and sophistication by learning the various scams on Fiverr, reading the TOS etc. Any job ad with a "buy this" is not a job ad. 

You know as well as I do that the people who need to read this post, won't read this post (or others like it). The standard is "do the dodgy thing and ask later" or "do no research and ask". Much like the advice threads, which are all the same thing ad nauseum. 

The sheer amount of times I've seen a $crazy budget, an off-site "form" and a seller blindly waltzing in before coming out to as "if it is legit" when a) the job is some low pay data entry thing and b) the buyer wants them to use their special bank website to pay them (a bank that doesn't exist...) is TOO DARN HIGH

Scammers aren't going to stop coming to Fiverr because there's a lot of very easy marks here. I don't know why its old people who get all the aggro for falling for obvious scams, young people seem to be very capable of it themselves. 

[mateusbl]

3 hours ago, visualstudios said:

Just got this brief

Do you still use brief? It never worked here, all times I received wrong briefs from other categories. Never went to a perfect match.

While in the other hand all Fiverr Neo messages I got was related to what I offer, and I even got an order from NEO.

Brief is a trash, and should be replaced by NEO

[donnovan86]

Great way to educate newcomers about what they should avoid man. 

And the thing is, based on that brief, it's believable. As a writer, I had many briefs that were complete nonsense, all they mentioned was the price they shared was fictional and not the real one, and you should contact for more info. It's why I eventually stopped the brief system for me, as it started being a waste of time instead of delivering actual value and potential orders.  

[donnovan86]

2 hours ago, mateusbl said:

Brief is a trash, and should be replaced by NEO

Which I assume it will, eventually. But that brief system is not that old either. And it should work hand in hand with Neo, eventually.