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I start this post because i see no one is talking about this mode of operating from scammers, is the most common one, and for what i see is also one that even experts preffer to fall just to not loose the client, but for me is an insult to the system and me as a freelancer.

It is very simple, a client will contact you and normally will be a very polite, communicative and patience before the offer. Thats why is hard to detect this kind of scamms. 

The problem beggins once the offer is accepted, they will accept the offer and instantly will add a new file to the offer's chat. This file inside has a deeper description of what they want, including some of the chat you had with them and adding a lot more that they didnt revealed before.

This is a scamm, normally will increase the amount of work by 50% or some times double or tripple. The document is always very detailed and is pressented in a way that the Fiverr's Ai will not considere an extra work like for example:

“Hey Emmanuel, what is your email, I want to give you access to this Google Drive, please thoroughly review this document before starting as I put a lot of thought into it for you: freelancer_design_brief.”

So here you have 2 scamms steeps: the email, that is not wrong to share when they send a file, and the file it self.

Even after reading the file you may feel that maybe you can talk about the differences with the client but the truth is they will transform into a completly closed and unflexible person, totally opposite to the personallity before the offer was accepted.

This kind of instroductions will trick the AI, if you talk to the Custom Support AI for help it will repeat it self constantly asking you (the freelancer) to continue with the project because nothing seems out of the ordinary (for the ai is just a quality description of the requested project, but is not).

First of all be carefull, if the client ask for cancelation first, you will suffer a negative impact to your score and will take very long time before custommer service fixes it.

What you have to do is go to the AI helper, and dont mediate word with it, just ask to create a ticket for this order about cancellation without impact. The AI will read the order and insist you cancel it first, but is very importat to not cancel it until you have a ticket open and active.

Once the ticket is created, detail your problems there beign particular specific about the extra work that was not detailed in the order (here is why is so important to be very detailed on the order description before sending one) and ask to remove any kind of impact on your profile since the client is the one that is asking more than what is needed and is using “an extra file THAT WAS NOT REQUESTED AND NOT PRESENTED ON THE CHAT BEFORE THE ORDER STARTED to hide their intentions.” Once your ticket is responded, they will tell you that the order still runing and need you to cancel it so now you can cancel the order.

The reason to not cancel it before is how the system priorize orders: a running order has high priority, a cancelled order is not that important so they will take their time before responding.

Is very common practice for clients when they think they are hiring you like an employee, they dont understand that the difference between freelance and employee is they can't push orders from thin air without talking about costs first.

Also, this scamm trick is pretty common by third party “fake” freelancers, they normally take jobs in other platforms, and then come to fiverr looking for a cheaper solution, once they catch you they will send this file, it probably was the original order from the beggining, they dont send it right away because they want to push you to the minimum possible or to the most close version of it, also they dont want you to be searching on the open briefs or other platforms for the same offer, and of course they become completly unflexible and uncommunicative because probably the client in the other platform will become suspicious for the delay on questions and requests (that's why an other method to prevent scamms is to have “buffer days”, if it is a big project, add extra time before really starting, be communicative but hold the working until you are sure they are not adding more stuff).

Hope this helps new commers and old freelancers to fight this bad practice that is becomming quite common this days.

The most common Scamm: the "extra file"

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