Banning Fiverr Sellers

[jeffry_designs]

Very recently I came across couple of topics stating that Fiverr has banned their accounts. This really concerns me, cause I am currently having a steady income and I work hard to get here. If the same thing happens to me it will make me go insane. Doesn’t Fiverr check the details prior banning a seller? Or at least hear what the other seller has to say about it. I feel like it is very unfair to ban an account without prior notice. Most of the bans were related to copying other seller images. I understand that some people can do that but without warning is kinda harsh isn’t it not?

[mariashtelle1]

Very recently I came across couple of topics stating that Fiverr has banned their accounts. This really concerns me, cause I am currently having a steady income and I work hard to get here. If the same thing happens to me it will make me go insane. Doesn’t Fiverr check the details prior banning a seller? Or at least hear what the other seller has to say about it. I feel like it is very unfair to ban an account without prior notice. Most of the bans were related to copying other seller images. I understand that some people can do that but without warning is kinda harsh isn’t it not?

Doesn’t Fiverr check the details prior banning a seller?

They do check and they ban only if people really broke the rules.

You might see a lot of stories with “I haven’t done anything, why I got banned?” But at the end we do find out that they indeed broke rules.

The only case in all this years that we saw where seller was mistakenly banned but got his account back is @iamsachmusic

Just don’t break rules and you wouldn’t loose your account and there would be nothing to be scared of.

And of course it’s never a good idea to put all you eggs in one basket aka fiverr

[catwriter]

Very recently I came across couple of topics stating that Fiverr has banned their accounts. This really concerns me, cause I am currently having a steady income and I work hard to get here. If the same thing happens to me it will make me go insane. Doesn’t Fiverr check the details prior banning a seller? Or at least hear what the other seller has to say about it. I feel like it is very unfair to ban an account without prior notice. Most of the bans were related to copying other seller images. I understand that some people can do that but without warning is kinda harsh isn’t it not?

In addition to what @mariashtelle1 said, I’ve heard that a permanent ban is always a decision of a few staff members, it’s never just one person who makes the decision.

Most of the bans were related to copying other seller images. I understand that some people can do that but without warning is kinda harsh isn’t it not?

I doubt that sellers who repeatedly get their images (and their hard work) stolen would find it harsh. Also, if someone claims to be a designer, but steals someone else’s images, it’s at least two different violations at once.

[jonbaas]

Very recently I came across couple of topics stating that Fiverr has banned their accounts. This really concerns me, cause I am currently having a steady income and I work hard to get here. If the same thing happens to me it will make me go insane. Doesn’t Fiverr check the details prior banning a seller? Or at least hear what the other seller has to say about it. I feel like it is very unfair to ban an account without prior notice. Most of the bans were related to copying other seller images. I understand that some people can do that but without warning is kinda harsh isn’t it not?

Very recently I came across couple of topics stating that Fiverr has banned their accounts. This really concerns me, cause I am currently having a steady income and I work hard to get here. If the same thing happens to me it will make me go insane.

Why are you worrying about something that may never happen? As long as you follow all of the rules stated on the Fiverr Terms of Service page, then you won’t be breaking any rules that would get your account banned.

[stervelar]

On 7/11/2020 at 12:41 PM, mariashtelle1 said:

They do check and they ban only if people really broke the rules.

You might see a lot of stories with “I haven’t done anything, why I got banned?” But at the end we do find out that they indeed broke rules.

The only case in all this years that we saw where seller was mistakenly banned but got his account back is @iamsachmusic

Just don’t break rules and you wouldn’t loose your account and there would be nothing to be scared of.

And of course it’s never a good idea to put all you eggs in one basket aka fiverr

Well, I'm sorry but I just got my account back from an unjustified ban. They claimed that the images I used to present my digital portraits gig contained "unoriginal" or "stolen" images. I thought that I made the mistake to include a fanart, but then I confirmed I didn't even do that, all three images were original characters I recently painted. They randomly banned my account without any warning, over my own original paintings, Can you see any "copyright" infringement with them? Apparently I stole my own paintings. The ban on my account was 100% Fiver's mistake, no rules broken on my part. Which I think is unfair, because I had an active order with someone else, and in the process Fiver customer Service cancelled the order without warning and that seller is now stuck with an unfair "cancelled" order in their stats. I had to prove to them that I didn't cancel the order, which was also uncomfortable, because I was unable to access my account, but wanted to explain that I didn't randomly cancel the order after they did the job like they initially thought.

Just because you haven't seen that or haven't happened to you, doesn't mean it does not happen or people are being dishonest. I'm scared to use the platform and loose money or indirectly harm other people's performance over "mishaps" like this one. 

[chessart_studio]

To be honest, I think Fiverr has no much idea of what is original and what isn´t. My own logo, yes this one you can see in my profile with chess pieces, was marked as "non-original" first time I used it in Fiverr, I had to show source file to prove that this logo is mine and I created it myself.

But (now prepare, because this is realy absurd), there is a lot of false gigs in 2D animation category that is using famous japanese anime cutscene, like this guy in the image the obvously is using a cutscene from Boruto!!!! I hid his name because I don´t know if I can show name of other users in Fiverr´s forum. But as you can see in the images, this guy is using Boruto´s video and images and thats ok, for Fiverr this is 100% original! How Fiverr don´t knows who is Boruto?

And before someone argues "well maybe he worked on Boruto´s production), that is obvious that he didn´t! If he did, he would be a Seller Pro, but he isn´t. Boruto is so famous that how he didn´t apply for Pro Seller yet? And check his country, he don´t speak japanese. Just to point: most of these false gigs cames from same country, one that begins with "n".

[newsmike]

On 7/11/2020 at 11:37 AM, jeffry_designs said:

Doesn’t Fiverr check the details prior banning a seller? 

Of course they do. The problem is that everyone who gets caught and then banned for breaking the rules comes here and posts "Fiverr banned me for no reason."  

As to banning for plagiarism, no that is not harsh, it is theft of IP, and should be banned. 

Edited June 7, 2022 by newsmike

[smashradio]

On 7/11/2020 at 5:37 PM, jeffry_designs said:

Very recently I came across couple of topics stating that Fiverr has banned their accounts. This really concerns me, cause I am currently having a steady income and I work hard to get here. If the same thing happens to me it will make me go insane. Doesn’t Fiverr check the details prior banning a seller? Or at least hear what the other seller has to say about it. I feel like it is very unfair to ban an account without prior notice. Most of the bans were related to copying other seller images. I understand that some people can do that but without warning is kinda harsh isn’t it not?

Just because these sellers don't understand why they've broken the rules doesn't mean they haven't broken the rules. 

It's your responsibility, as a seller, to learn and follow all the terms on Fiverr. If you don't, then it's by no means unfair if you get banned. 

Also, stealing other people's work is not just a violation of Fiverr rules. It's criminal. It's theft of intellectual property. 

If someone stole my gig content, they should worry more about the legal action I'm going to take than Fiverr banning their fake seller profile. 

Edited June 7, 2022 by smashradio

[smashradio]

5 minutes ago, chessart_studio said:

I had to show source file to prove that this logo is mine and I created it myself.

And you're still here. That just confirms what we've been saying: You don't get banned for "no reason". 

 

[chessart_studio]

1 minute ago, smashradio said:

And you're still here. That just confirms what we've been saying: You don't get banned for "no reason". 

 

Yes, but, what parameters Fiverr uses to say "your logo isn´t original" and to the other guy from from country "N" Fiverr says "Oh yeah, you´re using Boruto japanese video and images, we believes that your video and images is 100% original, thats ok!"?? What is the Fiverr´s parameters to say what is original and what isn´t? The other guy didn´t have to prove that he worked in japan drawing Boruto´s episodes, asks that guy if he has the source file of this cutscene, go on, asks him... 

[newsmike]

6 minutes ago, chessart_studio said:

Yes, but, what parameters Fiverr uses to say "your logo isn´t original"

It is usually set in motion by someone reporting your gig as suspect. Fiverr doesn't look at a gig once they have already approved it, unless someone calls their attention to it. That could be a competitor, a wannabe, someone who has actually had their IP stolen, or even an unhappy buyer. Once it is on their radar, I cannot tell you how the process works, and Fiverr will not tell you. 

Edited June 7, 2022 by newsmike

[miiila]

Someone reporting images or videos that (they think) violate IP, certainly is one reason. Another possibility could be that an AI checks images, and if you use images as your Gig images that are posted elsewhere, like on your own web presence, DeviantArt, or somewhere, the AI might feel triggered. That kind of check perhaps works better with images than videos. As for Fiverr staff going through Gigs, I'd expect that they'd recognize Mickey Mouse, but not necessarily Boruto. 

[chessart_studio]

8 minutes ago, newsmike said:

Fiverr doesn't look at a gig once they have already approved it, unless someone calls their attention to it.

And what is the parameter to aprove a gig? Why gigs with obvious famous japanese industry anime cutscenes is approved? Seens like Fiverr never heard about animes. I just saw a gig with Star Wars cutscene before!

[smashradio]

36 minutes ago, chessart_studio said:

And what is the parameter to aprove a gig? Why gigs with obvious famous japanese industry anime cutscenes is approved? Seens like Fiverr never heard about animes. I just saw a gig with Star Wars cutscene before!

I think the problem here is that you expect Fiverr to be a fair system, when in fact, it's a platform with millions of sellers. If each gig were manually approved by an industry expert who knew enough to identify every piece of copyrighted material, Fiverr would need an army. Armies cost money and Fiverr wouldn't be here if they spent the money like that. The shareholders – me included – would be furious. 

So what is Fiverr to do, given that there's considerable risk of liability if they allow potentially copyrighted material to be sold on the platform, without the owners permission? 

They make an automated system, of course. This system is in place to keep Fiverr from facing too much liability. It's there to maintain some sort of order on the platform. 

The system is not there to be 100% perfect, fair and correct all the time. You can't expect it to. 

And if the Trust and Safety team had to spend hours investigating each gig that receives a report, they would never be able to do their job. 

Will unfair stuff happen? Yes. It might happen to you, it might happen to me. 

Having realistic expectations about this is part of the business world. 

When you own a brick and mortar store, it might burn down. Or maybe a disgruntled client reports you to the authorities for doing something illegal. Someone might steal your stuff. Or maybe the shopping mall you're based in decides that they want to use the entire floor you're on for a ping pong tournament that lasts for eight weeks and forces your store to close down three hours early every night. (Yes, this last part actually happened at a store I used to work at many years ago.)

My point is: business isn't fair. It's not meant to be. And if you keep all  your eggs in one basket, that's really your mistake, not Fiverr's. Fiverr have to take care of Fiverr, to make shareholders like me happy. That's their job. 

[nomuffinsforyou]

6 hours ago, chessart_studio said:

And what is the parameter to aprove a gig? Why gigs with obvious famous japanese industry anime cutscenes is approved? Seens like Fiverr never heard about animes. I just saw a gig with Star Wars cutscene before!

Heyo! I will echo what @smashradio said here, Fiverr just does not want any trouble ;u;

I had a similar experience elsewhere that is not Fiverr where I sold something and it got taken down. I asked customer service and I got the same reply of "we do not know if the drawing you used is made by you". I think if it is not from the algorithm made by Fiverr, it could be that someone else that reported it. The way some companies see this kind of report is that they don't usually check the claim because it would take them too much time, and they just take it down. They really don't know if it is made by you! Company does not want to get sued by anything regarding copyright, especially companies that have services that can be used for commercial use. Of course if you can prove that it is yours and they will put it back, and maybe give you a feedback on how to make sure that you will not get the same report again. 

I really hope though that it was just a mistake by Fiverr and not out of someone's malicious intent. Taking down their competitors by reporting them... o_o;; 

[chessart_studio]

On 6/8/2022 at 12:25 AM, nomuffinsforyou said:

Heyo! I will echo what @smashradio said here, Fiverr just does not want any trouble ;u;

I had a similar experience elsewhere that is not Fiverr where I sold something and it got taken down. I asked customer service and I got the same reply of "we do not know if the drawing you used is made by you". I think if it is not from the algorithm made by Fiverr, it could be that someone else that reported it. The way some companies see this kind of report is that they don't usually check the claim because it would take them too much time, and they just take it down. They really don't know if it is made by you! Company does not want to get sued by anything regarding copyright, especially companies that have services that can be used for commercial use. Of course if you can prove that it is yours and they will put it back, and maybe give you a feedback on how to make sure that you will not get the same report again. 

I really hope though that it was just a mistake by Fiverr and not out of someone's malicious intent. Taking down their competitors by reporting them... o_o;; 

Nomuffinsforyou, let me explain exactly why I´m upset:

I draw my own logo, I create a gig selling solos and used the logo that I myself designed and Fiverr didn´t aproved it saying that my logo isn´t original. Then I needed to prove to Fiverr, sending source file that I created all logos in showcase of my gig.

But...

A lot of nigerians creates a lot of gigs using famous animes cutscenes in its gigs showcases. So I´m asking: How couldn´t Fiverr knows that these cutscenes isn´t originals? I see a lot of famous anime cutscenes being used in a lot of gigs (most of these gigs created by nigerians), and Fiverr just aproved all. Even Boruto is in that gigs. 

As you can see in this print, there is Dragon Ball and Atack on Titan in these gigs!

Fiver, you must be kidding! Do you realy believe that these Dragon Ball scene, and Atack on Titan scene dubbed in japanese was made by a nigerian freelancer?

While real artists with their own original artwork is having problens with copyrights, someothers has no problem using materials that is obvious and incontestable that has copyrights.

This thing doesn´t makes any sense for me.

 

[mariashtelle1]

9 minutes ago, chessart_studio said:

A lot of nigerians creates a lot of gigs using famous animes cutscenes in its gigs showcases. So I´m asking: How couldn´t Fiverr knows that these cutscenes isn´t originals? I see a lot of famous anime cutscenes being used in a lot of gigs (most of these gigs created by nigerians), and Fiverr just aproved all. Even Boruto is in that gigs. 

Look as others explained in this topic, fiverr can’t possibly check everything and anything. Especially if it scenes from a movie algorithm wouldn’t detect it because it’s just a screenshot from a video a most likely there is no exact jpeg on the internet to trigger the algorithm. 
 

If you are so triggered by it then please report those sellers with links to the original movie/art etc and their gigs will be removed. 

[chessart_studio]

3 minutes ago, mariashtelle1 said:

Look as others explained in this topic, fiverr can’t possibly check everything and anything. Especially if it scenes from a movie algorithm wouldn’t detect it because it’s just a screenshot from a video a most likely there is no exact jpeg on the internet to trigger the algorithm. 
 

If you are so triggered by it then please report those sellers with links to the original movie/art etc and their gigs will be removed. 

I understands your point.

Offering 2D character anime style animations here is being a pain. Search for "2D anime" in Character Animation category and lets see: I found 507 gigs, between these gigs, 272 (more than half) is created by nigerians and most of them is using famous anime scenes in their fake gigs. I think this number is realy high. This isn´t good for serious sellers. Everybody that is looking for anime style animation would give up to find a serious seller among this ocean of fake gigs.

You all can check by yourselves.

Fiverr realy should do something about this ammount of fake gigs.

Ps: I knows that some nigerians is trying to work honestly and hard, but a lot of them isn´t.

[mariashtelle1]

2 minutes ago, chessart_studio said:

and most of them is using famous anime scenes in their fake gigs. I think this number is realy high.

Then just report those gigs 😉 

Fake sellers exist everywhere, in each category, you haven’t even seen logo category and how much stolen logos sellers present there. and you can also do your part by reporting those sellers. 

[chessart_studio]

3 minutes ago, mariashtelle1 said:

Then just report those gigs 😉 

I just reported the Boruto gig, and someother gigs, days ago and these gigs is still active. I don´t know how many days is needed to Fiverr do something, but I hope they do.

[theratypist]

2 hours ago, chessart_studio said:

I just reported the Boruto gig, and someother gigs, days ago and these gigs is still active. I don´t know how many days is needed to Fiverr do something, but I hope they do.

Have you tried reaching out to CS regarding these gigs? Like sharing the exact links. At least you get an explanation if these gigs would be banned by them or not

[wordsfire]

On 6/7/2022 at 1:37 PM, chessart_studio said:

To be honest, I think Fiverr has no much idea of what is original and what isn´t. My own logo, yes this one you can see in my profile with chess pieces, was marked as "non-original" first time I used it in Fiverr, I had to show source file to prove that this logo is mine and I created it myself

As if it's not possible to 'recreate' a copyrighted material and have the source file ready. The assumption that source files somehow prove ownership alone is enough to say they have zero idea of what is or isn't original. Otherwise, there are far better and effective ways to confirm the originality of an artwork. But, eh. 

[newsmike]

5 hours ago, mariashtelle1 said:

If you are so triggered by it then please report those sellers with links to the original movie/art etc and their gigs will be removed. 

Seems to be an epidemic of hyper sensitive folks getting awfully triggered by what others are doing, as opposed to just concentrating on making their own services top notch. Interesting that these are also the same people who think that badmouthing Fiverr publicly is a smart move.  

Edited June 14, 2022 by newsmike

[chessart_studio]

15 hours ago, newsmike said:

Seems to be an epidemic of hyper sensitive folks getting awfully triggered by what others are doing, as opposed to just concentrating on making their own services top notch. Interesting that these are also the same people who think that badmouthing Fiverr publicly is a smart move.  

I will show you how you are wrong when you say that we are "sensitive folks getting awfully triggered by what others are doing, as opposed to just concentrating on making their own services top notch". Having a good service matters, or course, but having good neighboors matters too. I will prove how you are wrong.

There is 4 variables (The 4 P of Marketing, by Jerome McCarthy) that can directly influence your sales:

1 - Product: as we are Fiverr sellers, product is our services.
2 - Price: doesn´t matter how good is your product or service if your buyers doesn´t want to pay for it or doesn´t have enough money for purchase it.
3 - Place: Yes, the place wich you are selling is important too. And your neighboors counts. For us, Fiverr sellers, our place is Fiverr plataform.
4 - Promotion: Just let people knows you have a service to sell.

I will focus now in the variable 3: Place. Yes, it is realy important what others are doing.

Imagine you are a very good citizen, you are a very good guy, you go to church, you don´t smoke, you don´t drink, you are a respectfull person, you are honest and work hard everyday, (yes, you are an exemplar person, you concentrated all your energies to make yourself a top notch). But you walk with bandit friends and all your friends are rogues and junkies, but you are no like them, you are "top notch". You are being seen walking around with all kind of bad people. What other people would think about you? They will think you are a good citizen and a good guy? Do you realy thinks that when you find the girl of your dreams, she will believes that you are not a bandit or junkie like your friends? "I want to find a good boyfriend, a good guy, an honest man handsome and hardworking, I will search in that group of bandits there." - Says the girl! Really? Do you realy think a good girl would say that? I don´t think so.

Now lets apply the same concept to our business: A person wants a 2D character animated in anime style. He has a lot of money and he is willing to pay a lot for a very good animation, original and beautifull. You are the right guy to do it, you know it. You knows that when this person sees your gig, he will hire you for sure, because you are competent, you have a very good service, you draw beautifull, you´re amazing, your service is "top notch". Then this person goes to Fiverr and types in search "2D anime style animation" and what he finds is a lot of fake gigs using famous anime cutscenes in its showcases. More than half of these gigs are fake gigs. He clicks one gigs and see a Dragon Ball scene from an episode he just saw before, obvious this gig is a fake, then he clicks another and sees "My Hero Academia", then "Atack on Titan", he also found "Sailor Moon" in one of these gigs. All gigs that he thinks has a good quality animation is fake. In the fifth click he will just be thinking "Whats going on?", in the eighth click he will be thinking "Enough, everybody here is scammers!" He won´t think "Oh, maybe someone here is a "top notch", I will keep searching these 270 fake gigs one by one until I find the "top notch". Let´s be realistic, he won´t keep searching until to find your "top notch" gig service! It is almost useless to be a "top notch" in a sea of fake gigs. The chance to someone has a hope to find someone so good like you is almost 0. What a person willing to spend so much money will think is: "Fiverr is a place full of scammers, I won´t risk my money there. I will find another freelancer plattaform, with more credibility and hire someone there."

You would give up searching too if you see a lot of scammers sellers in any sales plataform like Shopee, E-bay, Ali Express... You don´t go to a marketplace that is known to have more than half sellers as "scammers". If you go to a supermarketing, and all products there is low quality, except one, you won´t keep going there just to buy one product. And supose you remember that you need some specific product, and you don´t know if that supermarketing has or not, you won´t go there because you just know that that supermaketing has just low quality products. You won´t have any hope to find a "top notch" product there.

So, this argument of "focus just on your service and don´t care about others" falls now. Your 3 P, (Place), realy counts. I don´t want to be seen among rogues. I don´t want to have my gig seen among 200+ fake gigs. I don´t want to be in a plataform full of scammers. So, just focus in my service isn´t enough.

Remember the 4 Ps to sell: Product, Price, Place and Promotion.

[newsmike]

2 hours ago, chessart_studio said:

 I will prove how you are wrong.

An interesting post, but I see nothing that "proves me wrong" that there are some hyper sensitive adults here who get triggered like a 5 year old who has dropped their ice cream. BTW, I was not referring to you.