ptrgar

There are way too many cases of the same scam and the worst part is seeing Fiverr not doing anything against this even though there are many things that they could do. From sharing more statistics of the buyer (which you can see if you pay for Fiverr plus) to having a resolution center that takes the time to see the evidence from both sides. Currently they just issue a refund, it doesn't matter that there are no proofs or even if what the buyer is contradicting himself. I think this is killing Fiverr and making them loose a lot of money and sellers, no wonder why their stock is down 90% from their all time highs. After it happened to me I google Fiverr scam and I was shocked with many horror stories. In my case I was able to recoup my money after a exhausting struggle but only because I took precautions and was able to present solid proofs that I did my job. But I can see that for some kinds of services it would be very hard or impossible to take this precautions. One additional precaution I'm taking is not accepting anything from a new account that has little or no reputation. Besides taking precautions I think it's useful to kindly contact their CEO by email or social media, sometimes people high up are genuinely not aware of what is going on at the micro level, but I think if he sees that complaints are multiplying he would make something about it. And might also help other sellers to be more careful.

It's a big problem of Fiverr and there are too many cases of the same behavior but I don't think they will allow to rate buyers who cancel orders. Maybe we sellers should create a website to post scammers so we can consult them before accepting an order. Besides that we have to make sure that before accepting an order every aspect of the work needs to be clear. So there is no way that in the future they can say you didn't do your job. Maybe someone can clear this up, but I don't think buyers can cancel orders just because they don't want the work anymore, that would be extremely unfair. If they can show that you didn't do your job then it would be fair for them to request a refund. I think having the conversation 100% inside of Fiverr chat also helps, I don't give any other contact information. I guess when they told you they have done this in the past and will do it again it wasn't in fiverr chat because it would be a solid proof that they are scammers.

This was a long story and I almost lost hope but because I was able to provide solid evidence and kept fighting my case I was able to get my money back. I was paid to develop an app with many functionalities. I was forced to deliver 9 revisions even though I offered only 3 because Fiverr allows buyers to abuse that functionality. I sent video proof of every functionality in Fiverr chat. 7 of those revisions were not actually revisions but the client requesting for free work that was not included in my gig. (deploying and publishing the app). A week after the order was auto-completed the client requested a refund and it was given, he said the app wasn't working without any proof. I was told they asked him for proof of his claims but a few days later Fiverr just sent me an email saying my order was cancelled with no explanation, the link for the explanation doesn't lead anywhere. The shameless buyer then used Fiverr and his same account to pay another developer to just change the icon you see in your phone screen and the icon you see when the app is loading. Why would you do that if the app is not working? Why wouldn't you ask him to fix the app? The buyer also uploaded my work to Github (on a public repository 😆) where you can see he didn't change any functionality and created a file with .keystore extension which you need to upload the app on the Android Store. Again, why would you do that if the app isn't working? So I was able to present many pieces of verifiable evidence that lead to the same conclusion: The client claims were false, he is a scammer, he lied, he is using my work and my work was done correctly. I just hope they ban this scammer because it's very likely that he will try again. I think Fiverr should modify their policies, there are too many similar stories. It's not ok to take someone's money without even explaining why. It's not ok to cancel the withdraws of your hard earned money that has nothing to do with the order in dispute, specially after you already refunded the money from the order. I'm very happy that in the end I was able to get my money back. I had to use this forum, customer service, social media, emailing and tweeting the CEO so it wasn't easy but in the end they did what was right. Happy new year.

My only doubt of this idea is: Would this help in case the buyer then decides to ask for a refund? Maybe they would get a refund for their last milestone, but maybe not and in that case this idea would not help at all to avoid being scammed.

Today I discovered another proof the scammer is using my code. Not only he used Fiverr and the same account to ask for a modification to another developer. I just discovered that he is working with my code because I found it on github, on a public repository 😆. The same date he told CS that the app didn't work at all, he was uploading the code to github with little modifications. I compared his code with mine and he just changed 5 lines of code (5 of literally thousands lines of code) that have nothing to do with functionality, he just modified an image and deleted a table from one screen and put it into another. That's all... With all this evidence I think Fiverr must cancel his refund and give me my money back. He tried to scam me but he also tried to scam Fiverr twice (the first one was when he asked me to do this job outside of Fiverr). Needless to say that Fiverr still don't answer, I've been waiting for 5 days now....

Thank you, and I agree that they should do something, even more considering that he used their own platform to pass my work to another seller. I sent the screenshots to CS. But reading about fiverr scams I read more than one case where the scammer is selling on Amazon and other places the product they stole and Fiverr didn't do anything. If this is my case I will never be back on Fiverr, it would mean that it's just infested with scammer but that Fiverr IS a scam.

I have to add something I just discovered: The client is using my app, in fact he sent my app to somebody else on Fiverr in order to add a few little things. He cannot claim he is not using my work. So now I'm 100% sure of being scammed.

I'm trying to figure out ways to protect ourselves from being scammed. Because after being scammed for $560 and a lot of hard work I'm rethinking the viability of being a freelancer in Fiverr. Scams are just way too easy, the order can be completed with everything the client asked but if they decide to ask for a refund they will get it, Fiverr will not protect you, they will not even ask the buyer for proof of his claims and they will ignore any proof that you present which contradicts his claims. They will also freeze all your money, including what has nothing to do with the order in question and will continue to do so after they refund, which is another scam on its own. So given that we are on our own here, or worse, and scams are so common I'm thinking about ways to protect ourselves and these are my ideas so far. I don't think they are enough so I'm still questioning the viability of Fiverr freelancing for medium or large projects. Please share yours and let me know if any of my ideas may not work: 1) Avoid buyers with new accounts. 2) Divide your gig in steps: That way if they claim something is wrong, they cannot claim it about the complete project and maybe they won't get a full refund? I'm not sure about this one. 3) Be aware of clients in certain geographical regions, take extra precautions. This is not racist or something alike, I'm Latin American and I recognize as most people here that in our culture corruption and cheating are almost glorified by many, if someone can get something for free and get away with it, they will do it and feel great about it. Just think that the three times someone from my region contacted me, all of them have been the only ones to offer me to do the business outside of Fiverr, that's not a coincidence. 4) Create a website where we sellers can report scammers showing our side of the story so we can search for the user before accepting an order. At this moment someone can steal your money and you cannot even give them a bad review so they are free to continue scamming with the protection of Fiverr. Things that I thought would help but didn't: 1) Having all the conversation in Fiverr chat so you can have a backup of what the client is saying. 2) Sending proof showing that your work was done properly, Fiverr will simply ignore it. 3) Customer service. They will spend a few seconds on your case and will give generic answers, some of them will have nothing to do with the case and some will be contradictory, which clearly shows they only care about answering something so the next agent has to deal with your issue, and the next one does the same thing, it's an infinite loop on incompetence.

I developed an app for $560 USD with many functions and sent videos in Fiverr chat of every function of the app. The order was auto completed because at the 9th delivery the client forgot to review my work. I had to include 9 revisions even though I offered just 3 because Fiverr allows buyers to use that function without limits. The buyer all that had to do was to execute the command "expo start" but he tipped expo star (without t at the end), the console told him the command was with a T but he used that to say the app wasn't working. He just refused to try again typing the command correctly. Then he used that to say the app wasn't working and told me he was going to ask for a refund (without even opening my last delivery). Fiverr offered to mediate between us and we have been dealing with this for over 2 weeks, I'm attaching all the interactions. The client had to present proof of his claims and we were waiting for that but he never did. Then 3 days ago Fiverr just stopped answering me and now I receive an email saying the order was canceled, and to know the reason click here, but the link doesn't work... If that wasn't unfair enough, Fiverr disabled the function to withdraw my money including what has nothing to do with this order, and now that they issued a refund they are still not allowing me to withdraw my funds. This is extremely messed up. This is more than unfair, it's an abuse, part allowed by Fiver and part of the abuse is made 100% by them. So sellers be aware... I really don't understand how they allow to scam so easily, when I googled fiverr scam I was shocked to see that this kind of scam has been going on for so long and they don't do anything against it, in fact they do more in favor of scammers.

I've got the same issue, they are holding all my money including what has nothing to do with the order with an issue. I've been fighting this for 2 weeks and the last answer was 48 hours ago, the last thing they told me it was that my case would be reviewed by "a relevant member".