For my graphic work, I automatically write-off anyone who comes asking for samples as a time-waster. There’s plenty of samples, especially of recently delivered work, on my gig profile. What that tells me is that they didn’t bother to read and/or view without contacting me, or they’re fishing for ideas. Ex. One guy came to me recently for a cover design and had a bunch of questions. I spent time giving him advice on his genre and why X won’t work and Y will. Then he asked me to give him a couple of ideas of how I would design his cover for him. I told him the truth: I never know until I start designing. His reply was, “I know you probably don’t want to tell me because I haven’t ordered yet…” This immediately tipped me off to what he was doing. So I sent him a custom offer and told him that we would talk more once he placed the order. He replied, “Fine.” But he never did place the order. Turns out he had an order with a $5 seller the entire time and was trying to use me for ideas to pass on to the other seller (I tracked him). He wanted my knowledge but he didn’t want to pay for it. For my blurb writing gig, I don’t share samples of previous work out of confidentiality. Unless a client chose to share their work when leaving a review so it pops up on my profile, I won’t share it with anyone. There are two different buyers with this gig. Those who reply with, “I won’t buy your gig since I don’t know the quality of your writing”, and those who reply with, “Oh, okay, I understand. Please send me a custom offer for…” I’ve never had any problems with the latter. That said, this is just my own way of doing things. It’s worked for me. You just have to use your judgment and past experiences with bad clients to develop your own '“screening” method. Thank you so much for your reply! you’ve given me a much needed knowledge about tis , since this is only my second month as a seller, I lack experience in handling such situations, so thank you again!