Top 15 Fiverr Scams to Avoid (A MUST READ FOR BUYERS & SELLERS!)

Fiverr remains one of the best places for beginners and experts alike to start freelancing gigs but isn’t scam-proof.

It has been around since 2010, so its credibility is not in doubt and is still one of the go-to platforms for on-the-budget projects.

It has also recorded well over 2.1 million active buyers and 830,000 sellers from over 160 countries.

In short, Fiverr is legit and a trustworthy freelancing platform for both buyers and sellers of services. This platform works as a middleman between the buyer and seller to protect the payment and work of both sides.

check out our article on how to make money using Fiverr here.

But as with every platform that brings humans together, there are those who use the platform for fraudulent activities. Although Fiverr is a legitimate website that doesn’t necessarily translate to safety against scams or fraud; it’s not scam-proof.

Is Fiverr Scam Free?        

Relatively, Fiverr is safe. If you don’t go out of the terms of use then you should have nothing to worry over. It holds the buyer’s payment as well as the seller’s work to protect both sides.

Fiverr becomes unsafe when transactions and communications are done outside of the platform. Also, all transactions are secured and encrypted since Fiverr complies with the highest security standards as a Level 1 PCI-DSS service provider.

Scams on Fiverr  to Watch Out For

While playing to the Fiverr terms and conditions of service might keep you safe, it is not a fail-proof method has scammers have always found a workaround.

In this article, we will be observing some of the popular and numerous ways in which people get scammed on Fiverr.

Location Scam

This is arguably the oldest scam in Fiverr history. Many Sellers on Fiverr will claim to be from the United States of America, Australia, or the United Kingdom just so they can scam unsuspecting buyers of services. This is because Fiverr is pretty much popular in these countries and sellers from there often get more sales when compared to other locations.

The only way to verify a location is to check out their local time on their profile page. Fiverr, as most other freelance marketplaces do, should have some kind of location verification system. Whilst they aren’t bulletproof it would remove a lot of the location scamming going on.

Reviews Scam

Not many buyers pay due attention to sellers’ information, especially the review aspect. Many buyers are more interested in the cheap service they hope to get that they ignore the essential part of most transactions.

If you plan on using Fiverr, then it’s important that you go through the seller review page.  Chances are you will find a Seller with loads of reviews, but you need to carefully these reviews. If an appreciable number of the reviews are just one sentence long, then most likely it’s a scam.

Scammers understand that buyers are mostly interested in the number of reviews and not the review itself. So they consistently provide false reviews to populate the review section.

One efficient way to spot a scammer is by viewing their “Negative Reviews”. Most negative reviews come from previous victims; learn from their story. Even if the total star rating is around 4.7, the first thing a buyer should do is to look at the negative reviews diligently.

Overview section scam

The overview section scam works similarly to the review scam. Naturally, the overview section on Fiverr displays the work output of each seller so as to serve as a preview of previous work done. It’s more or less like a portfolio page.

It’s a wise idea to always go through the overview section to ensure that what the Sellers is putting up as previous work done for display matches the actual reviews on its review section. If it does not or there are obvious discrepancies, then clearly it is a scam account. Stay away from it!

Off-Page SEO Scam Gigs

To those that are knowledgeable about search engine optimization (SEO), you are most likely aware then that there are two major forms of SEO.

• On-page SEO
• Off-page SEO

Getting On-page, technical, or keyword research SEO services on Fiverr is easy. There are numerous brilliant sellers for that on the platform.

The issue arises if you are looking to get an off-page SEO service provider. Chances are that you will most likely run into scam artists who will flood your site with worthless spammy backlinks. This will ultimately harm your website rankings and earnings in the long run.

Book Cover and Logos Design Scam

Logo and book cover design scams are common on Fiverr. It’s actually easy for scammers to steal logo designs or variations of it from other people and pass it on as their work. If you’re looking for a logo or a book cover design you need to be very careful about scammers. It’s advisable to spend extra time to verify as much as possible the works displayed by a seller

Apart from outrightly stealing a design, you might find repeated designs as you scroll through a seller’s profile. This is clearly a red flag and should raise your suspicion that it’s most likely to be a scam.

For logos, Google can always help you verify the authenticity of ownership. For book covers, you can check on amazon or any other major book-selling platform. Scam Sellers just copy designs of random or relatively unknown books and logos, claiming it as their work.

Ridiculous Packages Scam

“If it’s too good to be true, then it is too good to be true” is a very popular saying and it also applies to Fiverr. It’s actually common to see sellers charge differently for the same services. The simple truth is that we all can’t charge the same amount. But the difference in charges can’t be a wide margin.

Scam sellers prey on the mentality of buyers that they can get services done for a cheap amount based on the notion of them holding the bargaining power. If the average price for service on Fiverr is around $100 and a seller is offering you the same service for $10, it is most likely a scam.

Buyers often get lucky sometimes, but in most cases, they end up been scammed of their hard-earned money. Buyers beware!

Web Traffic Scam Gigs

The aim of every blogger is to attain steady massive traffic on their blogs. But achieving real traffic to your website, social media pages, YouTube channel or any other online platforms isn’t an easy task. It’s not uncommon to see buyers use the Fiverr platform to outsource this task. All they do is pay and expect to see real traffic flowing in.

While you will get real sellers who are willing to put in the work, you are also most likely to fall prey to the scammer in the guise of web traffic driving sellers.

The reason; the traffic you’ll get on your website, social media pages, YouTube channel, or elsewhere is driven mostly from fake traffic tools. Even though sellers claim that they drive real people to you.

These bots will send thousands of fake/bot traffic to your website or channel and you’ll see the traffic in numbers. The reality of this is that no one will actually be using your website or watching your YouTube channel.

However, the fake traffic will make you happy for a limited time. Ultimately, it will harm your business.

Profile Picture and Sellers name Scam

One common example of this you will find on fiverr.com is of Sellers from another country having someone else’s profile picture as their own. This should warn you enough to beat a hasty retreat.

Fiverr encourages its sellers to use personal pictures of themselves so as to avoid doubts. A seller who uses abstract profile pictures is also likely to be a scam artist on the prowl. Don’t fall victim!

Also, there are some documented cases of scams by impersonation.  In such cases, the scam seller will impersonate just any random or popular Seller from the internet. Your only guard against this is to research the seller and the seller’s name using Google.

Qualification Scam

This is more or less a battle of wits and intellect. Some Sellers expressly state that they received their qualification or certification from popular elite colleges. While this may be true in some cases, in other instances they may raise a red flag for you as a buyer.

Ask questions and pay attention to replies. You can learn a lot by asking the right questions with some obvious answers. If a seller states otherwise, it may be a scam. Use your judgment and trust your instincts. If you have the time, some elite colleges now have online platforms where you can verify certificates from supposed graduates of those institutions.

Promotion and Shout-outs Scam Gigs

Avoid buying shout-outs or promotions gigs by all means. However, if you have to, there are some legit shouts-out gigs sellers that are worth buying from.

The scam promotional gigs are pretty much worthless and you won’t even gain value for the money spent. Most of them provide little or no value, although they might have millions of followers, their posts get few engagements; only a couple of likes and comments.

It is advised to just generally stay away from shout-outs and promotions gigs or conduct extensive research of the seller from which you were going to get the shout-out before placing an order.

The Skype or Notepad document Scam

This is an obvious red flag and is a scam. Any Seller that is quick to try and take business off of Fiverr either with a notepad attachment or their Skype ID is trying to reap you off.

They do this so they can collect payments through PayPal or any other third-party payment system. At first, this was done to save on the 20% cut which Fiverr imposes, but soon scammers found another use for this.

Without the Fiverr platform, there is no real incentive to deliver quality work or even deliver any work at all as the fear of a negative reputation or an obvious refund is completely removed. Your best action to help safeguard the system is to report such a seller to Fiverr immediately.

Mark as Delivered Scam

Sellers often charge a premium for express services and most times, many never meet the requirements of such an order and simply mark it on the due delivery date.

Their usual go-to statement; ‘i am just marking this as delivered, you will get your work shortly’ or ‘i am marking this as delivered, please check back with me in a few hours for your file’. Some simply just ‘mark it as delivered’ without giving an explanation with the hope that the buyer won’t notice or care.

Fiverr has some form of penalty that punishes the seller who defaults; negative reputation or an open to a refund if they miss-delivery time. By simply marking the work as delivered they avoid this penalty and buy themselves some extra time before the project is finalized as complete by Fiverr. In a situation where the buyer isn’t watchful and allows fiver to mark such projects as ‘delivered’, it becomes his or her loss. This is a Fiverr scam.

Unrealistic Target Scam

This also is a common practice of scamming people on Fiverr. A common example is a Seller that promises to advertise to well over 30 or 40 million potential clients in less than 5 days.

Another example of a Fiverr scam gig that promises spectacular results which seem highly unattainable is the; ‘I will double your social media followers in 3 days. While this is possible to attain for some Sellers, it’s also quite possible that you are literarily staring at a scam.

99.9% of the time with these unrealistic targets, you are more likely to get scammed.

Conclusion

Getting scammed is an everyday possibility and the Fiverr platform is not an exception. The Fiverr platform itself is legit, but there is a scam as well; show me a platform that is entirely perfect!

The most important step to keep to is to ensure that all communication is done through the Fiverr platform. If you keep to this, you will be able to provide screenshot evidence and conclusive proof that you have been scammed. You also get your money back.

How to use Fiverr as a buyer