First order might be SCAM - help!

[Guest julipete]

MY FIRST JOB REQUEST CAME IN.
I received a proofreading request for a 10,000 page book that needs done over the next 3 months. (THAT sounds suspicious.) Then, the buyer asked me to contact someone else for an interview through gmail IM and sent me an email to contact the person and to say “I’m here for my interview.”

I looked up the person’s name, and they are with that company, but I’m finding it suspicious that someone would use a gmail. Also, the person is in NZ - it’s 4 a.m. on Saturday there now. Conducting an interview for a proofreading job?

How do I verify that this is real?

[cubittaudio]

A 10,000 word proofread in 3 months isn’t suspicious by itself, but you’re right to think that the remainder of the process is certainly a bit off.

One thing to point out - you say that this person has sent you an email? Does that mean that you gave your email to this person? If so, you’ve broken Fiverr’s TOS in a pretty serious way, as all communication relating to orders must happen through the Fiverr messaging system. Like you say, you shouldn’t need to ‘interview’ for a proofreading job… any questions should be sent to you via Fiverr message, and if the seller wishes to engage with you, they can do so from the order itself.

My advice to you would be to swiftly advise this person that you will not be engaging in any communication outside of Fiverr, and leave it at that. If they ask you again to communicate off-Fiverr, block them and move on.

And if you haven’t already, I’d recommend having a look at the TOS - you might think I’m labouring the point, but Fiverr can (and do) remove people’s accounts for communicating off-platform.

https://www.fiverr.com/terms_of_service

[Guest julipete]

A 10,000 word proofread in 3 months isn’t suspicious by itself, but you’re right to think that the remainder of the process is certainly a bit off.

One thing to point out - you say that this person has sent you an email? Does that mean that you gave your email to this person? If so, you’ve broken Fiverr’s TOS in a pretty serious way, as all communication relating to orders must happen through the Fiverr messaging system. Like you say, you shouldn’t need to ‘interview’ for a proofreading job… any questions should be sent to you via Fiverr message, and if the seller wishes to engage with you, they can do so from the order itself.

My advice to you would be to swiftly advise this person that you will not be engaging in any communication outside of Fiverr, and leave it at that. If they ask you again to communicate off-Fiverr, block them and move on.

And if you haven’t already, I’d recommend having a look at the TOS - you might think I’m labouring the point, but Fiverr can (and do) remove people’s accounts for communicating off-platform.

I did not engage via email. The buyer asked me to do an interview via gmail IM and I advised him that it would be against the rules to conduct any business outside of Fiverr. He then said “The Interview is just to know how capable you can handle the task”

Well, this is my first contact from a buyer and I don’t have time to deal with scammers. I thought this would be a good platform, highly rated, but if there is no screening of this kind of thing, I’m out.

[Guest julipete]

A 10,000 word proofread in 3 months isn’t suspicious by itself, but you’re right to think that the remainder of the process is certainly a bit off.

One thing to point out - you say that this person has sent you an email? Does that mean that you gave your email to this person? If so, you’ve broken Fiverr’s TOS in a pretty serious way, as all communication relating to orders must happen through the Fiverr messaging system. Like you say, you shouldn’t need to ‘interview’ for a proofreading job… any questions should be sent to you via Fiverr message, and if the seller wishes to engage with you, they can do so from the order itself.

My advice to you would be to swiftly advise this person that you will not be engaging in any communication outside of Fiverr, and leave it at that. If they ask you again to communicate off-Fiverr, block them and move on.

And if you haven’t already, I’d recommend having a look at the TOS - you might think I’m labouring the point, but Fiverr can (and do) remove people’s accounts for communicating off-platform.

And it was a 10,000 PAGE proofread. Not words. PAGES.

[cubittaudio]

I did not engage via email. The buyer asked me to do an interview via gmail IM and I advised him that it would be against the rules to conduct any business outside of Fiverr. He then said “The Interview is just to know how capable you can handle the task”

Well, this is my first contact from a buyer and I don’t have time to deal with scammers. I thought this would be a good platform, highly rated, but if there is no screening of this kind of thing, I’m out.

I did not engage via email. The buyer asked me to do an interview via gmail IM and I advised him that it would be against the rules to conduct any business outside of Fiverr. He then said “The Interview is just to know how capable you can handle the task”

I did say “Does that mean you gave your email to this person?”, as it wasn’t clear from your original post whether you had or hadn’t, I deliberately didn’t make any assumptions. You’ve not, which is great, your response to the potential buyer was perfect. You should not have to interview, and I wouldn’t bother engaging this buyer any further. You could even report them for attempting to contact off-Fiverr.

Well, this is my first contact from a buyer and I don’t have time to deal with scammers. I thought this would be a good platform, highly rated, but if there is no screening of this kind of thing, I’m out.

That’s a shame. As you say, this is your first contact, so it would be a shame to base your whole experience off of that one interaction. How could Fiverr screen this kind of thing? There are bad apples, not just here, but on any platform. Sometimes you have to deal with them. We get a handful of dodgy buyers each month, but for the most part, our buyers are fantastic. Also, this may not be a ‘scam’, this could simply be a buyer who has delusions of grandeur, and doesn’t understand how Fiverr works. The system makes it easy enough to block these individuals and move on.

And it was a 10,000 PAGE proofread. Not words. PAGES.

I misread your post, and for that I apologise.

[Guest julipete]

I did not engage via email. The buyer asked me to do an interview via gmail IM and I advised him that it would be against the rules to conduct any business outside of Fiverr. He then said “The Interview is just to know how capable you can handle the task”

I did say “Does that mean you gave your email to this person?”, as it wasn’t clear from your original post whether you had or hadn’t, I deliberately didn’t make any assumptions. You’ve not, which is great, your response to the potential buyer was perfect. You should not have to interview, and I wouldn’t bother engaging this buyer any further. You could even report them for attempting to contact off-Fiverr.

Well, this is my first contact from a buyer and I don’t have time to deal with scammers. I thought this would be a good platform, highly rated, but if there is no screening of this kind of thing, I’m out.

That’s a shame. As you say, this is your first contact, so it would be a shame to base your whole experience off of that one interaction. How could Fiverr screen this kind of thing? There are bad apples, not just here, but on any platform. Sometimes you have to deal with them. We get a handful of dodgy buyers each month, but for the most part, our buyers are fantastic. Also, this may not be a ‘scam’, this could simply be a buyer who has delusions of grandeur, and doesn’t understand how Fiverr works. The system makes it easy enough to block these individuals and move on.

And it was a 10,000 PAGE proofread. Not words. PAGES.

I misread your post, and for that I apologise.

So would you recommend that I flag it, block it, ignore it…? I would suspect the person targeted me because I’m new. Perhaps I’m highly suspicious… Been through the mill lately with losing my job and just trying to find some work to make ends meet and this site was recommended. Thanks for your quick response.

[misscrystal]

So would you recommend that I flag it, block it, ignore it…? I would suspect the person targeted me because I’m new. Perhaps I’m highly suspicious… Been through the mill lately with losing my job and just trying to find some work to make ends meet and this site was recommended. Thanks for your quick response.

I would tell them that you are not able to do the job and block the person. Don’t waste more time puzzling over this. It’s not worth the time you are putting into it.

Unless they placed an order they are not a “buyer”. Just someone who is wasting your time for some type of bogus scam attempt.

[cubittaudio]

So would you recommend that I flag it, block it, ignore it…? I would suspect the person targeted me because I’m new. Perhaps I’m highly suspicious… Been through the mill lately with losing my job and just trying to find some work to make ends meet and this site was recommended. Thanks for your quick response.

You’re spot-on that scammers do often target those who are new, although this one isn’t clear-cut. It could literally be someone who thinks Fiverr is a jobs-board, and doesn’t understand how they should be using the site. Someone asking you to communicate off-Fiverr usually goes one of two ways;

1. You advise them that communicating off-Fiverr is against the TOS and the buyer accepts this/makes a comment about them thinking it’s a silly rule, but still accepts it…
2. You advise them that communicating off-Fiverr is against the TOS, and the buyer continues to push you to do it.

If it’s the latter, that’s your red flag, and at that point, I’d flag the message to Customer Support and block the buyer.

I’m really sorry to hear about the situation with your job, that’s tough. Fiverr can absolutely be a place to earn some additional income, although it does take some time. It would be a real shame to see you go because of this, so I hope you decide to stick around - I’m sure your next contact will be better. And there are lots of people on the forum to provide help and advice should you need it!

[brenna_n]

yeah its a scam. they tend to prey on new sellers

[personalletters]

Ask them to place an order.

[Guest drawn2write]

This isn’t legit, avoid at all costs! I had someone prompting me to message them through gmail, I asked why and they wouldn’t respond with anything other than their gmail account…

[humanissocial]

Are these interviews within the scope of the order or is the buyer just expecting you to do extra things? That wouldn’t necessarily be sketchy, but would definitely be a sign of an entitled buyer.

[arty182925]

First what I noticed here is 10,000 pages book. For more then 2,000 books I formatted, I never saw book that big. Biggest book I formatted was around 1,300 pages. And, if I am right, there are only 2 books in the word that have more then 10k pages. I don’t believe that buyer wrote book that big.

Second, buyer wanted your email and that is forbidden.

This looks like big “NO NO!”

[miiila]

So would you recommend that I flag it, block it, ignore it…? I would suspect the person targeted me because I’m new. Perhaps I’m highly suspicious… Been through the mill lately with losing my job and just trying to find some work to make ends meet and this site was recommended. Thanks for your quick response.

Don’t give up too fast. It’s a great site.

Scammers preferably target people with new accounts, yes, they are usually easier prey as some don’t (yet) know the terms of use of the site (and some will get banned before they ever read them) and don’t have the experience in dealing with some situations, can be too afraid to say no to something because they fear a bad review as it would hurt them more than someone who has already lots of good reviews, etc. You’re already two steps ahead by knowing that communication off-site is a big no and by having realized that there is a forum where you can find all sorts of tips and also ask more experienced people whenever you’re in doubt about something.

Scammers and spammers are a side-effect of online platforms, it’s not really possible to screen and police everything 100% all the time and a platform like this wants an as easy as possible onboarding process, too, but don’t let that put you off an opportunity that could prove to be just what you need.

You can also set up “quick responses” for any kind of actual requests as well as scammy or spammy ones and use those as are or slightly altered to suit the occasion to not waste too much time with those kinds of messages.

Welcome to the forum and I hope you’ll get a message that doesn’t set off your inner alarm, and your first gig very soon.

[Alex.M]

MY FIRST JOB REQUEST CAME IN.

I received a proofreading request for a 10,000 page book that needs done over the next 3 months. (THAT sounds suspicious.) Then, the buyer asked me to contact someone else for an interview through gmail IM and sent me an email to contact the person and to say “I’m here for my interview.”

I looked up the person’s name, and they are with that company, but I’m finding it suspicious that someone would use a gmail. Also, the person is in NZ - it’s 4 a.m. on Saturday there now. Conducting an interview for a proofreading job?

How do I verify that this is real?

received a proofreading request for a 10,000 page book that needs done over the next 3 months.

this might be against the tos… the maximum delivery time as far as I know is 29 days