my stalker experience

[gwyneth_galvin]

Hoping to reach other people who have been victims of stalking on Fiverr so that I can compile our stories. If you don't want to share publicly, please message me.

Around 2019-2020 I started receiving multiple messages from different accounts, but obviously from the same man. They would start off with just "hi" and then he would often pretend to be a client before switching to sexually explicit messages. He even sent me pornographic images once. I've attached a screenshots of one of the conversations with anything sensitive or explicit blurred out. You can see he also attempted to find out where I lived so that he could "visit" me:



This screenshot is from the height of the harassment, when he was creating multiple accounts per day to message me. This obviously really scared me as it had suddenly escalated so I contacted my local police, who were actually very sympathetic and did their best to help. I let this guy know that I'd been in touch with the police and he *flipped*. He sent me probably 150 messages in one hour. He was still messaging me when the police arrived at my home, which was actually helpful to show how insane and persistent he was as they could see his unhinged messages coming in in real time.

Apparently this scared him enough that he decided to lay off, but nearly 5 years later he's back. I've received 5 messages from 5 different accounts in the last week that I know are him. We are starting all over again. He starts with "hi" - nothing else. One time he's messaged "I love you" multiple times. I've been reporting them as spam immediately, but I hate being paranoid when I get a new message on Fiverr. This is my job, and every new client is now a potential threat. 

I've reported this to Fiverr CS but weirdly, I haven't heard back. I'm not sure if this just coincides with the switch to the chat bot (this feature sucks - please restore our ability to contact CS directly with an email/ticket) but it's surprising because as a TRS I usually hear back in 6-12 hours. 

If you have a similar story please comment or message me. I'd like to hear how you're managing it, because it has me really stressed.

Thanks

Gwyn

[gwyneth_galvin]

Side note, when I googled "Fiverr s****l harassment" to see if anyone had shared similar stories on reddit etc., this was the second result. Sort your SEO out, Fiverr 😂

[uk1000]

Can't the police contact Fiverr to get the IP addresses and device and account info of the accounts that are doing that so they can arrest the person? Maybe they can also tell who is doing it from his profile image.

[lenasemenkova]

37 minutes ago, gwyneth_galvin said:

This is my job, and every new client is now a potential threat.

I remember you talking about it and I'm so sorry it is happening again.

I had an assortment of creeps and, ahem, exhibitionists, but never at the same time. Because I think tricking a woman into seeing your privates is a quick thrill while stalking is a prolonged kind of satisfaction. So for me, they wouldn’t overlap. 

The longest time I was harassed by some weirdo who just wanted "to talk to me" was 8-9 months. Eventually, I just had a crying meltdown during a conversation with CS and, I suppose, they found me sufficiently distressed because they told me I would not be bothered by that person again and I wasn't. It's been around 7 years ago. 

I hope this gets resolved quickly somehow. 

[gwyneth_galvin]

Just now, uk1000 said:

Can't the police contact Fiverr to get the IP addresses and device and account info of the accounts that are doing that so they can arrest the person? Maybe they can also tell who is doing it from his profile image.

I don't want to say too much on this public forum about the results of the first police report. But I will say that Fiverr worked with the police to try and resolve it. I'm hoping it doesn't reach the point of needing to contact the police again.

[lenasemenkova]

Remember when blocking people didn’t work, too? There was a ‘temporary block’ that would lift automatically after a few hours (brilliant idea). Then they did add the block that only you could lift but the messages would keep slipping through. And CS wouldn't see any issues with that whatsoever. 

I’m an insomniac so I’d look at my phone at 4 in the morning and there’d be: “I can see that you blocked me. I was just wondering why can’t we talk. Why am I not treated well?” Wooo, good stuff. At least now when you block an account, it remains blocked.

Edited November 15, 2024 by lenasemenkova

[gwyneth_galvin]

1 hour ago, lenasemenkova said:

Remember when blocking people didn’t work, too? There was a ‘temporary block’ that would lift automatically after a few hours (brilliant idea). Then they did add the block that only you could lift but the messages would keep slipping through. And CS wouldn't see any issues with that whatsoever. 

I’m an insomniac so I’d look at my phone at 4 in the morning and there’d be: “I can see that you blocked me. I was just wondering why can’t we talk. Why am I not treated well?” Wooo, good stuff. At least now when you block an account, it remains blocked.

Good grief. You know what, the block function still doesn't work all the time. It seems to be totally random which conversations have a block option. Sometimes it shows up, other times there's nothing there. Sometimes, you have to go to the person's profile, sometimes that only works on the mobile app, etc., etc.

It's honestly a joke. 

[imagination7413]

On 11/15/2024 at 4:26 AM, gwyneth_galvin said:

Side note, when I googled 

Might not be entirely Fiverr's fault.

I once Googled "2009 Ford Focus CV axle" and got something along the lines of 'shop now and find new 2009 Ford Focus CV axle for all makes and models'. Wish I'd taken a screenshot. The plug-search-into-sentence can have funny results. 

[mandyzines]

On 11/15/2024 at 12:52 AM, gwyneth_galvin said:

I've reported this to Fiverr CS but weirdly, I haven't heard back. I'm not sure if this just coincides with the switch to the chat bot (this feature sucks - please restore our ability to contact CS directly with an email/ticket) but it's surprising because as a TRS I usually hear back in 6-12 hours.

Please say by now a human has responded. Have you tried emailing directly?

[catwriter]

On 11/15/2024 at 12:41 PM, gwyneth_galvin said:

I don't want to say too much on this public forum about the results of the first police report. But I will say that Fiverr worked with the police to try and resolve it. I'm hoping it doesn't reach the point of needing to contact the police again.

If the CS still isn't responding, perhaps contacting the police and letting the police contact Fiverr would help? Hopefully they wouldn't switch the police to the chat bot...