Fake illustrators selling on Fiverr

[magnocloud]

Hello! I just want to know if anyone else have notice this situation. Since the beginning of this year, I 've seen several gigs from different sellers that called them self “illustrators” offering illustrations for children’s books, and the illustrations are made with clipart that everyone can find for free on internet. I saw it in different ways, some of them were exactly like the ones I saw on internet, and another ones are modified.

The first time I saw 2 and it was weird that two persons were offering very similar illustrations, until one day a friend talked me about a website called freepik, i visited it and I saw a couple of characters there exactly like those I saw on those gigs.

Now I’ve seen A LOT of profiles selling that, and the worst thing is that the peolpe is buying illustrations for their books, and they don’t know if the illustrations are made by those sellers, they don’t know if the images are original (lets take in count the “commercial use” extra which they, of course, use it), and they don’t see that some of the illustrations they receive, just have a copy & paste from another illustration they already buyed.

I saw another sellers that have in their 3 samples images, illustrations from a known illustrator, and then if you see the illustrations that person have delivered, are totally different from those samples. I wrote to fiverr customer support about this and they didn’t said and made anything. Maybe the delivered illustrations are made by that person, but not the illustrations from the cover.

Why am I complaining about this? It is because I’m an illustrator, I made my own illustrations, and since this year, I’ve seen SEVERAL profiles like those, I know that fake sellers have been always around, but this time I’ve seen TOO MANY of them, and lately some people have wrote me to say that they love my illustrations but they think it is expensive, and they show me one of these profiles and said “this person offers illustrations for a lower price and faster”; And of course they deliver those illustrations for lower prices and faster, if aren’t made by them.

I think Fiverr should be a little more careful about this, and also the buyers, because they want to create a product (a children’s book) that they want to sell in the future, and they don’t know that those illustrations are not original, and that is something they can made by themself. I think the people should know this, if they are buying an illustration, they need to know that is made with cliparts.

Sorry for my english! Is not my mother language. Hope someone can read this and give its opinion.

[catwriter]

Hello! I just want to know if anyone else have notice this situation. Since the beginning of this year, I 've seen several gigs from different sellers that called them self “illustrators” offering illustrations for children’s books, and the illustrations are made with clipart that everyone can find for free on internet. I saw it in different ways, some of them were exactly like the ones I saw on internet, and another ones are modified.

The first time I saw 2 and it was weird that two persons were offering very similar illustrations, until one day a friend talked me about a website called freepik, i visited it and I saw a couple of characters there exactly like those I saw on those gigs.

Now I’ve seen A LOT of profiles selling that, and the worst thing is that the peolpe is buying illustrations for their books, and they don’t know if the illustrations are made by those sellers, they don’t know if the images are original (lets take in count the “commercial use” extra which they, of course, use it), and they don’t see that some of the illustrations they receive, just have a copy & paste from another illustration they already buyed.

I saw another sellers that have in their 3 samples images, illustrations from a known illustrator, and then if you see the illustrations that person have delivered, are totally different from those samples. I wrote to fiverr customer support about this and they didn’t said and made anything. Maybe the delivered illustrations are made by that person, but not the illustrations from the cover.

Why am I complaining about this? It is because I’m an illustrator, I made my own illustrations, and since this year, I’ve seen SEVERAL profiles like those, I know that fake sellers have been always around, but this time I’ve seen TOO MANY of them, and lately some people have wrote me to say that they love my illustrations but they think it is expensive, and they show me one of these profiles and said “this person offers illustrations for a lower price and faster”; And of course they deliver those illustrations for lower prices and faster, if aren’t made by them.

I think Fiverr should be a little more careful about this, and also the buyers, because they want to create a product (a children’s book) that they want to sell in the future, and they don’t know that those illustrations are not original, and that is something they can made by themself. I think the people should know this, if they are buying an illustration, they need to know that is made with cliparts.

Sorry for my english! Is not my mother language. Hope someone can read this and give its opinion.

lately some people have wrote me to say that they love my illustrations but they think it is expensive, and they show me one of these profiles and said “this person offers illustrations for a lower price and faster”; And of course they deliver those illustrations for lower prices and faster, if aren’t made by them.

Use that to your advantage! 🙂 Explain in your gig description that you draw everything from scratch, by hand (if your illustrations are also hand-drawn), that it takes time to draw everything by yourself (as opposed to simply using clipart), and that your customers will always receive completely unique illustrations made specifically for them and their wonderful books (or whatever).

[thecreativeguys]

Because Fiverr is a huge marketplace and anyone can sign up and add any service they wish without being screened it’s inevitable that several dozen (probably way more) sellers try to forge their way through the system.

Focus on what sets you apart from the fake competion and I can assure you that being honest always ends up winning.

Best of luck!

[pedromleitao]

Those guys will be probably selling a lot of 5$ gigs just to send something pre-made to the client. That’s not your playing field. If you are a professional, quality illustrator, you would be crazy to charge so little - go big! You will get more money and, equally important, better clients!

[romli90]

how tricky is it…hard and sweat for real illustrator

[looseink]

I think what has happened (from what I’ve read in some of the posts from new members) is that a number of people from all over the world have lost their jobs due to COVID-19.

Somewhere (likely on YouTube) there has been “advice” posted by “experts” that have indicated that Fiverr is a quick way to make some instant cash.

I’ve been on Fiverr for almost 5 years, but only active on the Forum for a few weeks.

In that time, I have counted no less than 25 posts per day from newbies.

I am sure the actual number is higher.

This means that a lot, and I mean a lot, of people are surfacing on Fiverr who had never heard of it before.

It also means that with that influx has been a large number of, shall we say, under-qualified freelancers.

It has watered down the opportunities for those of us who have been here a while and I suspect that over the next year we’ll see many of those types of Sellers disappear.

[psykkopatte]

It’s not something new from the graphic designers niche…