Increasing Fraud Case

[mwasj209]

I congratulate Fiverr for making online trade affordable and Fun. However i must admit that enough has not been done to protect users from Fraud. To go straight onto the point. Its obvious that most fiverr sellers deal with digital products, . With that in mind, such products cannot be turned back once sold. There is group of fraudsters who have learned the Art of obtaining free items from Fiverr. Its pretty simple to them, Just Order> receive what you need , then raise a Paypal Dispute. Its Easy for them since once they raise Paypal Dispute, they receive a full refund without any Problem. Its time Fiverr became innovative and sealed this loophole. Its possible to get a solution for this otherwise we are suffering. If you have ever lost money through such order cancellation please contribute to this thread.

[thepromogirl]

If a buyer doesn’t pay for said order or works, the Seller contains all legal Copyright to the created content. You can file a DMCA complain if you find your content being used and any site or company will pull the content as they don’t want legal repercussions. Buyer will not get away with “free product” the risk of legal action against them is pretty high - you have every legal right to file a Copyright claim against this as Fiverr as a very clear (and an undeletable paper trail).



Filing a Paypal Disput isn’t a loophole at all, as Fiverr’s Terms of Service clearly states: "Filing a transaction dispute or reversing a payment through your payment provider or your bank is a violation to these Terms of Service. Doing so may get your account temporarily disabled to investigate possible security violations. Note: once you have filed a dispute with your payment provider, the funds will be ineligible for a refund due to our obligations towards the payment provider."



So, the buyer won’t get their money back should they file a “dispute” per Fiverr’s terms and their account will be disabled here on Fiverr.

[mwasj209]

Reply to @thepromogirl: I believe you have never experienced such cases but they are very painful. imagine loosing over 500 USD from order cancellation at ago. i don’t think your copyright suggestion helps since not all products sold on fiverr have strong copyright value, so nobody will care. Moreover , how will you get the buyer considering that you dont even have their contact information. Fiverr needs to do something about fraud.

[ceeworks]

Reply to @thepromogirl: Paypal disputes actually do happen, even if they are against Fiverr’s Terms of Service. The buyer gets their account banned from violating the terms, but the seller does not receive payment for their work. The buyer can then create a new fake account. I’ve had this happen before and have contacted customer service, and this was their response to me:



"…chargebacks were filed for the payments made for the orders outside of Fiverr. The funds are now being held by Paypal and are not in our hands.



Whenever a transaction is being reviewed by a payment vendor, we may be required to cancel a transaction or put it on hold (for example - stolen credit card or other fraud activities). This is part of the service we provide to maintain a safe environment for our users.



Please keep in mind that when you don’t get paid, neither does Fiverr, and that we want every Gig order to be successful. If a buyer abused his PayPal privileges, it is something literally beyond our control. Buyers who do file disputes on their payments made to Fiverr, whether intentional or purposely held by Paypal for security screening, must resolve those disputes in order to participate again in the Fiverr community."



This was back in April, so I don’t know if changes have been made since then, but this was case where the buyer succeeded in receiving free work. It may be true that you can file copyright claims and have your work removed if you find it on another site, but you won’t be compensated for the time you initially spent on the order. For me personally, it wasn’t worth the time to try to have an image removed from a social media post.



I enjoy selling on Fiverr and am happy with most of how it operates, but I agree with @mwasj209 that more needs to be done to prevent fraud. Mine were just $10 orders, but I was upset about the losses at the time, and I would be very cautious about doing larger orders through this platform. Of course it is not Fiverr’s fault that there are dishonest buyers who try to scam the system, but it would be nice to have some seller protection.

[thepromogirl]

ceeworks said: For me personally, it wasn't worth the time to try to have an image removed from a social media post.

 

It literally only takes about 1-2 mins to file a DMCA removal form, by law the on-line provider must respond in 6 to 12 hours. All you need to do is contact the site, they will do the rest. If you're okay with your work being stolen and used without your consent that is on you, but this law is here to protect you should you wish to use it. Offenders can get be fined up to $500,000 and can get up to 5 years in jail. The site will remove any content like this because they don't want to get sued. You have all the power if your work is being stolen.

 

I'd also like to note if a buyer does this sort of thing on Paypal they are violation Paypal's Terms of Service - and they can and will get their accounts closed and will be banned from using the Paypal. They won't be able to use the site from that point on because making a new account would require a social security number and/or government issues ID, address, etc. in order to transfer funds. It will catch up to them.

 

[thepromogirl]

mwasj209 said: not all products sold on fiverr have strong copyright value

 

Yes, they do this goes for anything YOU originally create. You only transfer these rights to the buyer only when they pay for the Gig in full. This is in Fiverr's Terms of Service.

 

Copyright protection extends to "original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression, now known or later developed, from which they can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device." The Act defines "works of authorship" as any of the following:

 

-literary works,

-musical works, including any accompanying words,

-dramatic works, including any accompanying music,

-pantomimes and choreographic works,

-pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works,

-motion pictures and other audiovisual works, and

-sound recordings.

It's also actually very easy to find content, see the forum post here for further assistance: http://forum.fiverr.com/discussion/27417/buyers-asking-for-re-dos-or-cancellations-stop-and-read-this-first-/p1

 

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[Guest outliercanada]

There’s a flipside to that coin. I’ve bought four gigs so far, two have been returned and one was absolutely awful (not as represented). I was really quite taken aback and posted a negative review. I immediately got a note from the seller offering a refund if I removed the review - which I declined… I’m miffed that it’s an either/or situation. Getting a refund is easy, but only if I’m not willing to warn other buyers about misrepresented products. IMHO integrity was worth more than a few dollars, but I’d gladly have taken a refund and let the review stand.

[mwasj209]

disputes do occur and should be handled professionally. Thus , Fiverr need to devise a better dispute resolution mechanism. As much as they have done major improvement on user experience, their dispute resolution system has never been updated;

[mrproofreading]

Reply to @outliercanada: There’s also a flipside to that coin.



I don’t know the specifics, so I can only commentate.



Getting a refund and leaving a negative review is like kicking somebody when they’re down. Regardless of whether you liked the work or not, time was spent creating it.



That time is non-refundable, and I’m assuming the service you purchased is non-tangible, meaning that it also cannot be refunded.



If the work can be used offline, such as a poster, then the seller has lost time, has a negative review, and has no money to show for their effort.