Is this top buyer trying to scam?

[quadro_studio]

Hello everyone, I am quite new. And I’d like to have your opinion to understand if this buyer is trying to scam some how (I have a weird feeling).

Introduction: He asks for kind of a big work, I make my honest offer, and he starts pushing to get a considerable discount, (almost 50% off), he promises more work coming and bla bla bla.

But this is not the point. Things that make me suspicious are:

1- He requests this: “Please send me an offer with this description text for the description: Services for the adaptation of marketing material including web for specific needs of the UK targeted market.
This is for my internal accounting system.”
(which is not really related to the gig I had to do)

2- he wasn’t able to describe clearly what he needed, and asked me to sign up with my email to his company coming webinar, and watch it to understand what the project was. And sent me a webinar link.

Then I say myself. He is a top Buyer he must be good!

So, I go check his profile he is a member only since july 2020, and has soo many reviews (even 4 or 5 per day in the last days) all of them are 5 stars and none of them says anything specific about a gig or a project.

Then I checked the reviews he has left to sellers (some of them are level 2 or top sellers) and they are all like “great work” and never say anything about gigs. and no review shows the delivered work.

What do you guys think?

Also, I feel so bittered thinking that there may be a huge exchange of fake reviews on the platform, and lots of top sellers are involved.

Many thanks in advance for your contribution

[lloydsolutions]

Hello everyone, I am quite new. And I’d like to have your opinion to understand if this buyer is trying to scam some how (I have a weird feeling).

Introduction: He asks for kind of a big work, I make my honest offer, and he starts pushing to get a considerable discount, (almost 50% off), he promises more work coming and bla bla bla.

But this is not the point. Things that make me suspicious are:

1- He requests this: “Please send me an offer with this description text for the description: Services for the adaptation of marketing material including web for specific needs of the UK targeted market.

This is for my internal accounting system.”

(which is not really related to the gig I had to do)

2- he wasn’t able to describe clearly what he needed, and asked me to sign up with my email to his company coming webinar, and watch it to understand what the project was. And sent me a webinar link.

Then I say myself. He is a top Buyer he must be good!

So, I go check his profile he is a member only since july 2020, and has soo many reviews (even 4 or 5 per day in the last days) all of them are 5 stars and none of them says anything specific about a gig or a project.

Then I checked the reviews he has left to sellers (some of them are level 2 or top sellers) and they are all like “great work” and never say anything about gigs. and no review shows the delivered work.

What do you guys think?

Also, I feel so bittered thinking that there may be a huge exchange of fake reviews on the platform, and lots of top sellers are involved.

Many thanks in advance for your contribution

(I have a weird feeling).

Always listen to your weird feelings.

Check this out:

So many newbies are being taken advantage of here on Fiverr by a small minority of predatory “buyers”. This is my take on how to protect yourself, thereby reducing the chances of a cancellation or negative review.

Special shout out to @melissaharlowvo for the buyer requirements section. Enjoy!

[juanitataylor]

On top of being just shady in general, they already broke the terms of service by asking for an exchange of emails. I would report and block them, because there are too many red flags.

Also, if someone is haggling you to take half off your prices, you probably shouldn’t work with them to begin with since they don’t fully value you and your work.

[olyasr]

Once, when I was a new seller, top buyer found me and he needed my service. I also had a weird feeling about him, but I saw that he was top and all reviews was 5 start revies, but it was first and last time when I was scammed - he’s got a high quality job for free, and I spent a week of my life hard working for nothing.

Start to work ONLY when the buyer gives you clear explanation of what exactly he needs and when the order with clear requirements is started.

If you still have weird feeling, better say no - later you will have much more good buyers, but this time - just keep your time and nervous system safe. Or ask more questions until he tells what exactly he needs

[olyasr]

And also, buyer, asking for too much discount, is a BIG red flag - real top buyers knows, what is the cost of work, they know how hard we work, just because they work hard as well. So good buyer will never ask to work almost for free

[mashas_studio]

Always go what your gut says you to do. First of all he is not valuing your time and effort, he just shows up and says “Hey, I want you to do the work in half a price”, then he promises he will come back, and he probably won’t, and even if he comes back again you will have to work for him in half a price. Top buyer badge isn’t a good person badge, there is a lot of them that just keep ordering and ask for a refund, and I am not sure how they get the badge, but I think that it is by amount of orders they have placed, no matter is they accept them or cancel them… You don’t have to work with everyone that comes as ask you to. For example I avoid rude people lacking the basic manners, some of them just shows up without even saying “Hi” and just say “I need a logo”. Yeah, sure you didn’t come here to buy cookies… It may be just me, or I have some kind of standards, but if something smell fishy avoid it. And if he is a serious buyer who knows what he needs he will send you a brief and not tell you to go to some sort of webinar… 🙂

[quadro_studio]

Thank you all for sharing your past experiences and considerations. It helped enormously.

I did my considerations as well, and ended up reporting him, hope it will stop him. Also, I withdrawn my first offer, I have no intention to work with him in any case.

PS.
He just wrote back:
“Do I still have a collaborator in Italy?”

How slimy!

[andreicosmin1]

It seems they broke the TOS at least once.

It’s not hard to get high ratings, many people give high rankings just out of politeness.

[quadro_studio]

Also, how can I block him? on his profile I can only see the link to report him.

Thanks

[mashas_studio]

Also, how can I block him? on his profile I can only see the link to report him.

Thanks

When you open his profile you will see it under his name.

[quadro_studio]

You can only block users from the desktop version if you had a previous order with them, but if you open it on your Fiverr app then you’ll be able to block them even if they haven’t placed an order with you.

Wow this is great! You just solved a huge Fiverr’s mystery! I wasn’t able to find such information anywhere online

Many thanks

[jolfikorhaydara]

Wow this is great!

thanks