Fraud Seller - Lost $7100

[obbmarketing]

I’m writing this because I feel absolutely cheated and I want my money back from this seller as I’m extremely disappointed with my order. I’ve been working with a seller since July of 2020 and he’s an app developer. His communication was great in the beginning, when trying to convince me to buy, so I figured this would be a great guy to work with! The game app cost me a total of $7100 thus far. Upon ordering from this seller I’ve always had to “release” the payment by approving the order in the beginning so that he could pay his designers. So I would “release” these payments in the beginning before receiving anything. I believed him because I didn’t know any better as I was relatively new to Fiverr at the time. So as time went on the game was eventually published on both Android and iOS - it’s a great game by the way - but it’s incomplete and the seller has tried to get me to pay off of Fiverr which I’ve disagreed with. He takes weeks to respond to me or update me and since early November of 2020 he’s yet to deliver on his latest promise and I feel absolutely cheated. His account “can no longer be contacted” and below this message reads “check out similar sellers.”

I’m in desperate need of support and I want this game gone and a refund if possible. Ever since Halloween of 2020 he’s said “it’ll be done in a few days” and it’s been months at this point and I don’t know what to do. I’ve tried contacting him on his other account to which he’s directed me to in the past but he logs off for days and when he does log on, I still don’t get a reply from him. He’s also asked for money to help him with reviews where he would place an order and I would do so out of generosity because at the time I still didn’t know any better and his communication still remains poor.

I have nobody to email or contact about this and I feel absolutely cheated by this guy. Extremely poor communication. Someone please guide me to who I can contact. I had no other choice but to come here to the forums.

Thank you!

[lloydsolutions]

@obbmarketing

Someone please guide me to who I can contact.

Here is the link for Customer Support:

https://www.fiverr.com/support_tickets/new

We are just buyers and sellers on the forum.

[visualstudios]

@obbmarketing

Upon ordering from this seller I’ve always had to “release” the payment by approving the order in the beginning so that he could pay his designers.

This is against terms of service. Fiverr can’t protect you if you don’t follow the rules. It’s your responsibility to read the terms of service you agree with when creating an account on any platform.

[english_voice]

I agree with @visualstudios - there are rules in place to protect buyers and sellers.

If you choose to break the rules, then you must expect the consequences. Ignorance of the rules is no excuse.

[marinapomorac]

@obbmarketing

Upon ordering from this seller I’ve always had to “release” the payment by approving the order in the beginning so that he could pay his designers.

The amount you lost and the time you lost are probably gone forever.

Sometimes life gives us very hard lessons and we must learn from them. But right now it is all fresh and new to you so please understand we can’t do anything about it. Of course, we understand how stressful all of this is to you.

You accepted empty delivery and the seller is no longer on site. There is nothing Fiverr can do about this.
You basically gave away an envelope filled with cash to a guy wearing a red shirt, blue pants, and brown shoes.
He is long gone and Fiverr cant trace him, plus if the original payment were in July Paypal and the bank can’t do anything also.

You made a lot of mistakes you probably never will again and us pointing out your mistakes now once you lost an average annual salary is only going to make things worst.

I hope you recover from this soon.

[obbmarketing]

Thank you for your response. I was new at the time and put my faith into this seller since he had all great reviews and communicated very well in the beginning - however - I still believe sellers should be held accountable for these kinds of things. I’ll see what I can do with the support team and keep you all posted anyways!

[visualstudios]

And they are accountable. That guy was banned from the platform/closed his account. If you do that as a seller (demanding money upfront), you’ll lose your account. Is that not accountability enough?

[lenasemenkova]

@obbmarketing

So I would “release” these payments in the beginning before receiving anything. I believed him because I didn’t know any better

This is the exact summary of all the $500+ fraud complaints I’ve seen on here.
With smaller amounts, you can sometimes see some impressive and creative scam tactics but after a certain price point, it’s just “It’s not finished but give me the money”. And it works every time.

[maegan_bertrand]

@obbmarketing

I’ve tried contacting him on his other account to which he’s directed me to in the past but he logs off for days and when he does log on, I still don’t get a reply from him.

This was another violation of TOS on the seller’s part, users are allowed one account, doesn’t matter what their excuse is. What a louse !

[looseink]

Wow!

Did you ever make a mistake.

Hopefully others reading about your experience will learn from this.

Both Buyers and Sellers.