Fiverr did nothing after i have reported a FAKE expert

[shane9909]

I have reported some FAKE experts who could not understand simple instructions. I have seen other buyers complaining about fake programmers with extremely bad comprehension skills but still having mostly 5 star reviews. 

Can Fiverr please do something about these FAKE experts with flawless 5 reviews? Fake experts are also likely be scammers since they don't have the skills and experience that real buyers need. 

[rawque_gulia]

2 hours ago, shane9909 said:

I have reported some FAKE experts who could not understand simple instructions. I have seen other buyers complaining about fake programmers with extremely bad comprehension skills but still having mostly 5 star reviews. 

The term "expert" is very subjective. One may be considered an expert by 200 clients and provide them with the best possible results (even exceeding their expectations) -- however, on the other hand, they may fail to satisfy a few clients or not understand their requirements (even simple requests sometimes).

Based on 'service quality', Fiverr can only adjust their profile ranking up or down (which it is already doing), but it simply can not ban their profile just because they are unable to understand someone's requirements.

2 hours ago, shane9909 said:

FAKE experts with flawless 5 reviews

Again! If someone fails to understand your personal requirements, that doesn’t mean that all their 5-star reviews are fake.

[shane9909]

"The term "expert" is very subjective."

Yes some things may be subjective but there are also objective criteria for identifying people's skills & experience in a particular field. Its not like everything is subjective and therefore it would be impossible to tell who the good / bad programmers are.   

If an expert cannot understand simple instructions or how to create a class or has very bad comprehension skills, then you know the expert cannot be a real expert. I am not sure why Fiverr continues to allow fakes to work on the platform when its quite obvious that these fakes will only end up wasting other people's time and scamming people's money. 

[rawque_gulia]

19 minutes ago, shane9909 said:

If an expert cannot understand simple instructions or how to create a class or has very bad comprehension skills, then you know the expert cannot be a real expert.

Or maybe they just don’t want to help you or attend to your queries (for whatever reason).

From behind the monitor, a client can’t truly determine if someone is an expert or not -- nor can they claim that all their hundreds or thousands of reviews are fake.

20 minutes ago, shane9909 said:

I am not sure why Fiverr continues to allow fakes to work on the platform when its quite obvious that these fakes will only end up wasting other people's time and scamming people's money. 

Why would someone rate a seller 5 stars if their time and money were wasted? People give good ratings because they are satisfied with the service and for them, that seller was truly an expert. Yes, I agree that there are countless "low-quality sellers" on the marketplace but they are either sitting a 0 orders or performing very very bad with low ratings and low orders.

It would be completely unfair to discredit the existing good reviews of sellers and specially calling them "fake" just because of your personal bad experience.

[shane9909]

"Or maybe they just don’t want to help you or attend to your queries (for whatever reason)."

They did want to help but they had very limited knowledge of programming, therefore must be fake. i think you don't know what you are talking about. I do not believe fakes should be allowed to stay on Fiverr, either they waste people's time or scam people's money. 

[raiz_ali_yoga]

16 minutes ago, shane9909 said:

"Or maybe they just don’t want to help you or attend to your queries (for whatever reason)."

They did want to help but they had very limited knowledge of programming, therefore must be fake. i think you don't know what you are talking about. I do not believe fakes should be allowed to stay on Fiverr, either they waste people's time or scam people's money. 

From what I’ve seen on Fiverr forums, the ‘realness’ of a seller comes down to buyer reviews and satisfaction. Fiverr doesn’t seem to ask for any certificates to back up what you claim on your gigs—if you can deliver for clients, that’s what counts, for a business.

So, maybe it seems fake to you, but if buyers and Fiverr are cool with it, it’s legit enough.

[filipdevaere]

1 hour ago, rawque_gulia said:

Why would someone rate a seller 5 stars if their time and money were wasted?

You might be surprised by this. I have examples of this.

There was a seller from Pakistan who decided to copy my services (designing CE-compliant manuals in Dutch). The Pakistani could not speak Dutch, had no experience and had no technical background. He got 3 orders on one of his gigs from 3 of my clients who approached him because I had too many orders at the time and because they did not want to wait until I had time to design the manual for them.

The first buyer gave a 5-star review and came back to me. I have the manual, which was made by the Pakistani, in my possession. The result was very bad. This buyer begged me to remake the manual. He is now one of my best clients.

The second buyer also gave a 5-star review and told me he wasted his money and got a bad manual from the Pakistani. He is still angry with me because I did not have time to design his manual quickly. He had already placed an order with me in the past and therefore knew what he would have gotten from me. He told me that he would not come back to me. He is pissed because I did not have time. Too bad, I lost this customer. I did not see the user manual of the Pakistani but the buyer told me it was bad. 

The third buyer also gave a 5-star review and showed me the bad result from the Pakistani. A few months later I was given the assignment to completely rewrite the manual. 

So you see that buyers still leave 5-star reviews for poorly executed assignments.

[rawque_gulia]

11 minutes ago, filipdevaere said:

You might be surprised by this. I have examples of this.
.
.
So you see that buyers still leave 5-star reviews for poorly executed assignments.

I completely agree that there are a lot of low-quality sellers -- and mostly from specific countries (including mine, haha -- truth is truth).

But as I wrote in a separate paragraph -- either these sellers will have a very low number of orders and ratings (and are just sitting in a corner of the marketplace) or they will have low ratings sooner or later when their order flow starts to increase (if by luck).

So, Fiverr is already doing its part by placing them low in the rankings and this is the most Fiverr can do. But, the OP is asking to "take action" on those profiles, haha which is simply not possible for Fiverr (or any marketplace/company, in general). Yes, they can reject new seller profiles (which they are already doing) but they can not suspend or give warnings to existing seller profiles just because they are providing bad experience/service (if the service is aligned with the terms).

[raiz_ali_yoga]

1 hour ago, filipdevaere said:

You might be surprised by this. I have examples of this.

There was a seller from Pakistan who decided to copy my services (designing CE-compliant manuals in Dutch). The Pakistani could not speak Dutch, had no experience and had no technical background. He got 3 orders on one of his gigs from 3 of my clients who approached him because I had too many orders at the time and because they did not want to wait until I had time to design the manual for them.

The first buyer gave a 5-star review and came back to me. I have the manual, which was made by the Pakistani, in my possession. The result was very bad. This buyer begged me to remake the manual. He is now one of my best clients.

The second buyer also gave a 5-star review and told me he wasted his money and got a bad manual from the Pakistani. He is still angry with me because I did not have time to design his manual quickly. He had already placed an order with me in the past and therefore knew what he would have gotten from me. He told me that he would not come back to me. He is pissed because I did not have time. Too bad, I lost this customer. I did not see the user manual of the Pakistani but the buyer told me it was bad. 

The third buyer also gave a 5-star review and showed me the bad result from the Pakistani. A few months later I was given the assignment to completely rewrite the manual. 

So you see that buyers still leave 5-star reviews for poorly executed assignments.

No way! Filup, you’ve really nailed it! With those other top-notch “standout qualities,” like memes, you’ve got this incredible knack for storytelling, especially in the heat of the moment. It’s a killer skill to have in business—No doubt I’m a huge fan of yours! Unstoppable, Invincible you truly are!!!

 

So, a few things are buzzing around in my mind from what you shared—I’d love to dig deeper and level up my understanding:

 

• Did a Pakistani seller really create a gig offering services in Dutch without knowing the language at all?

• And the first buyer, after already leaving a five-star review, came to you “begging you” (may be on his knee you forgot to mention) for a “friendly” inspection? What was the point if they were already happy enough to rate the seller five stars?

• Then the second buyer still left five stars, even though they felt it was a waste of money?

 

Oh, and one last thing—can a buyer actually go back and adjust their review after they’ve submitted it? That bit’s beyond me, just curious as a newbie freelancer trying to learn the ropes!

My compliments, Filup ❤️🙏

Edited October 25 by raiz_ali_yoga
Clarity

[filipdevaere]

41 minutes ago, raiz_ali_yoga said:

No way! Filup, you’ve really nailed it! With those other top-notch “standout qualities,” like memes, you’ve got this incredible knack for storytelling, especially in the heat of the moment. It’s a killer skill to have in business—No doubt I’m a huge fan of yours! Unstoppable, Invincible you truly are!!!

 

So, a few things are buzzing around in my mind from what you shared—I’d love to dig deeper and level up my understanding:

 

• Did a Pakistani seller really create a gig offering services in Dutch without knowing the language at all?

• And the first buyer, after already leaving a five-star review, came to you “begging you” (may be on his knee you forgot to mention) for a “friendly” inspection? What was the point if they were already happy enough to rate the seller five stars?

• Then the second buyer still left five stars, even though they felt it was a waste of money?

 

Oh, and one last thing—can a buyer actually go back and adjust their review after they’ve submitted it? That bit’s beyond me, just curious as a newbie freelancer trying to learn the ropes!

My compliments, Filup ❤️🙏

There are several sellers who copy my services. Most of them do not speak Dutch. They have no or hardly any orders.

There was even a lady from Pakistan who put exactly the same skills and studies as mine on her profile.

When I discovered that Pakistani last year, I contacted him. I told him that I was looking for an assistant. When I switched to Dutch, I got all his answers back via translation software. I also never saw him typing in the inbox. I asked a question and then it always took a long time before I got an answer. He first typed his text and then translated it and then copied everything in one go into the inbox.
When I started asking technical questions, he switched to a chatbot. That was visible from the text style. When I passed on a user manual in PDF format and started asking questions about it, he could no longer use his chatbot and was completely exposed.

The first buyer did not need an inspection. He immediately asked to redesign the work from the Pakistani.

The second buyer also gave 5 stars. In fact, the three buyer gave 5 stars. They probably do this to avoid disappointing or punishing the seller.

 

About your last question.... this comes from the Fiverr helpfiles: Reviews and ratings for buyers – Fiverr Help Center

 

 

[shane9909]

It was not very hard to tell which sellers were fake. And yes alot of the fake seller seemed to have come from Pakistan.  

[filipdevaere]

@raiz_ali_yoga He is also doing the same on UPWORK. 

[katakatica]

25 minutes ago, filipdevaere said:

There are several sellers who copy my services. Most of them do not speak Dutch. They have no or hardly any orders.

There was even a lady from Pakistan who put exactly the same skills and studies as mine on her profile.

When I discovered that Pakistani last year, I contacted him. I told him that I was looking for an assistant. When I switched to Dutch, I got all his answers back via translation software. I also never saw him typing in the inbox. I asked a question and then it always took a long time before I got an answer. He first typed his text and then translated it and then copied everything in one go into the inbox.
When I started asking technical questions, he switched to a chatbot. That was visible from the text style. When I passed on a user manual in PDF format and started asking questions about it, he could no longer use his chatbot and was completely exposed.

The first buyer did not need an inspection. He immediately asked to redesign the work from the Pakistani.

The second buyer also gave 5 stars. In fact, the three buyer gave 5 stars. They probably do this to avoid disappointing or punishing the seller.

 

About your last question.... this comes from the Fiverr helpfiles: Reviews and ratings for buyers – Fiverr Help Center

 

 

 

There was this one time (I'll never forget it) that someone copied my gig that's for interactive stories (basically stuff where you choose your own path etc.) BUT they didn't understand what the interactive bit meant so they just renamed it to be an adventure story gig. 

That was really weird for sure. 

I think in general I have less copycats because many don't really get what I do but occasionally it still happens. 

To this day there is a popularish gig that copied the structure of one of my main gigs a good few years ago. I've changed the gig since then so I don't have dirt on it anymore but it was quite obvious at the time. I don't mind it now since the gigs don't match up, but it's weird for sure. 

In general I notice that Fiverr tries to help but some people edit the gigs enough to not show up as copied which can cause some interesting situations for sure. 

Edited October 25 by katakatica

[filipdevaere]

6 minutes ago, katakatica said:

some people edit the gigs enough to not show up as copied

Most sellers do indeed change the gig image and gig description a bit. That's why Fiverr doesn't remove these gigs.

[raiz_ali_yoga]

1 hour ago, shane9909 said:

It was not very hard to tell which sellers were fake. And yes alot of the fake seller seemed to have come from Pakistan.  

I’m startin’ to think I’m a total fake seller myself, lol… all those insights hittin’ too close to home 😂

[vibronx]

Yep, there are so many bad sellers. One I always bring up is a hilariously bad writer who came to my attention because he posted on the forum that he was DEPRESSED because his orders had dried up and Fiverr was horrible for doing this to him or something. He has 200+ reviews and his samples are just so bad that I often go back and read them just to laugh. Since Fiverr doesn’t check the quality of their sellers before allowing them in, buyers end up getting scammed. Some buyers will never know because they’re even worse at the skill the seller offers, so some sellers will end up with hundreds of glowing reviews which will help them come across as experts.

47 minutes ago, katakatica said:

In general I notice that Fiverr tries to help but some people edit the gigs enough to not show up as copied which can cause some interesting situations for sure. 

It’s so obvious that some of my competitors copied my gig description. It isn’t even that good, but whatever. (I wrote it six-seven years ago, so I could do it better now, but you never change a winning team.) Anyway, I was hired by a buyer to translate something and he also hired another translator to proofread me… and the guy he hired was someone who had copied my gig description and changed it just enough so that Fiverr couldn’t do anything about it. Well I guess it’s just somehow so attractive that I got hired twice by the same buyer in a sense…

Edited October 25 by vibronx

[catwriter]

On 10/25/2024 at 10:31 AM, filipdevaere said:

In fact, the three buyer gave 5 stars. They probably do this to avoid disappointing or punishing the seller.

And possibly so that the seller wouldn't harass them, threaten them, get friends who would damage their business... Some sellers get vengeful after receiving less than 5 stars.

[raiz_ali_yoga]

1 minute ago, catwriter said:

And possibly so that the seller wouldn't harass them, threaten them, get friends who would damage their business... Some sellers get vengeful after receiving less than 5 stars.

Whoa 😳

 

Crazy, right?!

 

Are sellers really that strong here? All I ever read in these threads is how Fiverr leans toward buyers to keep them happy.

[catwriter]

1 minute ago, raiz_ali_yoga said:

Are sellers really that strong here?

Not strong, if they do abuse the buyer who gave them less than 5 stars and the buyer reports it, Fiverr will punish them. However, buyers might not want to receive whining and crying and threats in their inbox at all (who would want something like that?), even if Fiverr punishes that seller later, plus, if the seller takes their vengeance outside of Fiverr, there's nothing that Fiverr can do to stop that.

[shane9909]

Fiverr should be liable for fraud if it continues to allow FAKE experts to operate on the platform

[donnovan86]

23 minutes ago, shane9909 said:

Fiverr should be liable for fraud if it continues to allow FAKE experts to operate on the platform

There are sellers like that on any platform, Etsy, Ebay, Amazon, take your pick. Someone can claim the seller is a fraud, but unless it happens to a lot of people, there won't be any investigation regarding that seller. Plus, Fiverr isn't liable about what you purchase, they are the middleman. They will cancel the order if it breaks their terms, however that term expert... doesn't sit right with me. Most people that sell services on Fiverr aren't experts, they are amateurs. Most of them don't have a degree in what they are selling, they just do it because it's something they can make money on. A few hours earlier there was a person saying they can easily create a website, write content and provide graphics, all at the highest quality. And a forum user immediately pointed out their profile image on Fiverr is a stock photo stolen from the web. If you're a dilligent, attentive buyer, you'll identify whether the person you want to work with is a fraud or not. 

[shane9909]

Many of the sellers on Fiverr lack basic skills needed to complete a job. They should be removed from the platform because of their FAKE qualifications.