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I wanted to bring up an issue I’ve recently encountered that I think highlights a serious problem on Fiverr: potential design theft by clients. 

Here’s what happened:
 A client ordered a design from me. I delivered the work, and they didn’t raise any concerns initially. However, they later requested a full refund, claiming dissatisfaction. While reviewing their Fiverr profile, I discovered they had placed orders for the exact same type of banner design with two other sellers, a few days after their order with me. 

This raises a huge red flag for me. My suspicion is that they:
 1. Paid me, a more expensive designer, to create the design.
 2. Liked my design but decided to take it to other sellers offering cheaper prices, essentially having it recreated for a fraction of the cost.
 3. Are now trying to get their money back from me after benefiting from my creative work. 

If this is true, it’s not only dishonest—it’s outright design theft. Fiverr’s system makes it easy for clients to exploit sellers in this way, leaving us with little protection. 

I’m struggling with how to handle this:
 • Should I reject the refund outright and escalate this to Fiverr?
 • How can we, as sellers, better protect ourselves from clients who might be gaming the system like this? Especially when the review and private review systems hold as much weight as they do. 

To me, this kind of behavior is deeply unfair. It devalues our time, skills, and intellectual property. I’ve already reached out to Fiverr Support, but I wanted to share this here to see if others have faced something similar and how they handled it. 

What would you do in this situation? Should Fiverr implement better safeguards to prevent design theft like this? 

I’d love to hear your thoughts and advice. This feels like an issue that affects all of us, and I hope Fiverr takes it seriously. 

When Clients Steal Your Work to Save Money

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