Pakistanis and Bangladeshis keep contacting requesting for work/mentorship.

[collinsconsult]

For the past 2 weeks, I keep getting messages from Pakistanis and Bangladeshis either requesting for work or asking for mentorship. I try my best to keep cool and reply calmly. But what is this? I'm not even on page one. This is greatly affecting my Success Score and Response Rate.

I don't know if someone has been experiencing this lately but it's extremely annoying... 😣😖😣

@Kesha Something should be done about this!!!

Edited August 15 by collinsconsult

[filipdevaere]

These are all sellers who have no orders and probably never will. Fiverr is crawling with these types of sellers. Just report them and then block them.

[collinsconsult]

5 hours ago, filipdevaere said:

These are all sellers who have no orders and probably never will. Fiverr is crawling with these types of sellers. Just report them and then block them.

I definitely do block. But the damage on the conversion rate, success score and response rate must have been done. 

It's so pathetic! 

[melanielm]

People sending you spam will not affect your conversion or response rates, as long as you respond to them. I have a quick response that just says "This is Spam and is against TOS." that I click before I report them. Unfortunately, you'll get a lot of spam messages here.

[priyank_mod]

19 hours ago, collinsconsult said:

This is greatly affecting my Success Score and Response Rate.

This will not have direct impact on your success score but it will definitely affect your "conversion rate", which again will impact the visibility of your gig in the marketplace. 

But response rate is always in our control - just make sure that you send a one-word reply asap before blocking and reporting them. 

Edited August 16 by priyank_mod

[Kesha]

Hello!

I have passed along the feedback to the appropriate team so that they may consider what can be done about this. In the meantime, I recommend following your peer's advice and simply replying and/or reporting each of those messages as spam. 

[visualstudios]

By the way, if those contacts happen to get to you through promoted gigs, you're actually paying for them! 

@Kesha your thoughts on this?

[Kesha]

41 minutes ago, visualstudios said:

By the way, if those contacts happen to get to you through promoted gigs, you're actually paying for them! 

@Kesha your thoughts on this?

If these messages come in through promoted gigs, it is crucial that you report them as spam. If a message is reported and confirmed as spam, you will not get charged. 

[samiaislam26]

As far as I know, asking for work or even chatting with another seller is prohibited on Fiverr. Therefore, if you report these activities, Fiverr will immediately block those accounts. Regarding your concern about response rates, if it drops due to this, contact customer support. They will fix it.

[visualstudios]

30 minutes ago, Kesha said:

If these messages come in through promoted gigs, it is crucial that you report them as spam. If a message is reported and confirmed as spam, you will not get charged. 

Is this a recent change? I've always reported them as spam, and they were still being counted previously. If that's indeed the case, excellent, glad to see it was fixed!

[webcraftcoode]

We are new seller and regularly we got spam message its just boaring

[maitasun]

43 minutes ago, Kesha said:

If these messages come in through promoted gigs, it is crucial that you report them as spam. If a message is reported and confirmed as spam, you will not get charged. 

I DID get charged for the +300 clicks one of the gigs I was promoting got in April, even when I replied/reported to all those messages to keep my response rate safe.  😒

And not only that. I had to stop promoting that gig ever since. Why? Well, back in June, I gave it another shot, and guess what? I had to stop promoting it immediately. Just 2 hours after turning the promotion on, I got targeted again and the nightmare started all over.

 

[mandyzines]

43 minutes ago, visualstudios said:

Is this a recent change? I've always reported them as spam, and they were still being counted previously. If that's indeed the case, excellent, glad to see it was fixed!

Nearly all of the messages I received via promoted gigs in June were from spammers and I'm certain I was charged for them, which is why I stopped promoting anything.

[Kesha]

@visualstudios @mandyzines @maitasun I should clarify. 

Due to complaints from Sellers about this, CS recently implemented the following:
- Known spammers do not see ads
- Once a spammer is detected by Fiverr, paid clicks from the same day will be canceled and sellers will not pay for them. 

The key is that they must be a known spammer for the paid click to be disregarded automatically. Even so, if you find yourself ever paying for clicks because of messages like this, you can always reach out to CS and ask them to adjust. 

[visualstudios]

12 minutes ago, Kesha said:

Due to complaints from Sellers about this, CS recently implemented the following:
- Known spammers do not see ads

I mean, known spammers shouldn't see anything at all, since they should be banned...

12 minutes ago, Kesha said:

Once a spammer is detected by Fiverr, paid clicks from the same day will be canceled and sellers will not pay for them. 

Why only same day? Seems very arbitrary. The system should go back and remove all their clicks.

 

In any case, better than nothing. Having sellers pay for spam clicks actively hurts Fiverr's bottom line, since sellers will stop promoting gigs if they see it happening.

Edited August 16 by visualstudios

[mandyzines]

9 minutes ago, Kesha said:

@visualstudios @mandyzines @maitasun I should clarify. 

Due to complaints from Sellers about this, CS recently implemented the following:
- Known spammers do not see ads
- Once a spammer is detected by Fiverr, paid clicks from the same day will be canceled and sellers will not pay for them. 

The key is that they must be a known spammer for the paid click to be disregarded automatically. Even so, if you find yourself ever paying for clicks because of messages like this, you can always reach out to CS and ask them to adjust. 

Ah. Thanks. That's something I think a lot of people would like to know and maybe an announcement would be great. 

When exactly was this system implemented?

A lot of times, the messages are from new accounts. At what point does an account get flagged and that whole process of deducting from CPC begin--after one report?

Are there people who are in charge of this removal, or is it automated?

 

 

[Kesha]

2 minutes ago, visualstudios said:

I mean, known spammers shouldn't see anything at all, since they should be banned...

Why only same day? The system should go back and remove all their clicks.

 

In any case, better than nothing. Having sellers pay for spam clicks actively hurts Fiverr's bottom line, since sellers will stop promoting gigs altogether if that's the case.

Good points! Comments like these really help us to refine the platform so I am happy to pass along this feedback. 

[maitasun]

4 minutes ago, Kesha said:

Due to complaints from Sellers about this, CS recently implemented the following:
- Known spammers do not see ads

Kesha, the problem here are the unknown spammers. Surprisingly, Telegram bots were just a few. ALL the clicking and spamming came from new accounts with no gigs. Those accounts were not banned. They're still active.

[Kesha]

3 hours ago, mandyzines said:

Ah. Thanks. That's something I think a lot of people would like to know and maybe an announcement would be great. 

When exactly was this system implemented?

A lot of times, the messages are from new accounts. At what point does an account get flagged and that whole process of deducting from CPC begin--after one report?

Are there people who are in charge of this removal, or is it automated?

 

 

The update was made last summer so it's not exactly news.

Unfortunately, we're not allowed to share the intricacies of how and when an account gets flagged but we do implement various measures in line with industry standards.

[Kesha]

3 hours ago, maitasun said:

Kesha, the problem here are the unknown spammers. Surprisingly, Telegram bots were just a few. ALL the clicking and spamming came from new accounts with no gigs. Those accounts were not banned. They're still active.

There are essentially 2 different types of spammers.
1- The ones that usually get blocked right away are the spam accounts who have no genuine intention of using the platform for its intended use. 
2- The other type is users who actually want to use the platform and are trying to get a leg up. They don’t usually get blocked right away, but instead they would get warned first. 

[katakatica]

17 minutes ago, Kesha said:

There are essentially 2 different types of spammers.
1- The ones that usually get blocked right away are the spam accounts who have no genuine intention of using the platform for its intended use. 
2- The other type is users who actually want to use the platform and are trying to get a leg up. They don’t usually get blocked right away, but instead they would get warned first. 

I wonder if there is a way to educate the second kind of spammers when they start. 9 out of 10 times the ones who contact me don't have gigs and seem to have no idea about what's going on. 

Is there a way to gently push new sellers to understand the TOS a bit better?

I know some of them spam knowingly but still!

[collinsconsult]

9 hours ago, melanielm said:

People sending you spam will not affect your conversion or response rates, as long as you respond to them. I have a quick response that just says "This is Spam and is against TOS." that I click before I report them. Unfortunately, you'll get a lot of spam messages here.

So 10 people contacting you without you converting even 1 into an order doesn't affect your conversion rate? I strongly doubt that!

[catwriter]

10 hours ago, katakatica said:

9 out of 10 times the ones who contact me don't have gigs and seem to have no idea about what's going on. 

Based on what I've read on the forum, plenty of those do have gigs. On their main account.

[katakatica]

4 minutes ago, catwriter said:

Based on what I've read on the forum, plenty of those do have gigs. On their main account.

Oh.

That never really occurred to me, but it would make a lot of sense because they usually still have their profile descriptions/etc. set up.

In that case, well, you spam, you're out should be the way but I know that won't happen...

9 hours ago, collinsconsult said:

So 10 people contacting you without you converting even 1 into an order doesn't affect your conversion rate? I strongly doubt that!

If the system is able to understand that's spam, I think it's 'OK'? However, I'd wager that some definitely slip through. 

[developerlikhon]

It feels really bad to hear as a Bangladeshi freelancer, but I suggest you mark it as spam if you see they are spamming too much.