Why does fiverr not delete fake accounts with stolen pictures?

[lauramadey]

Hi,
I reported a lot of fake accounts to cs. They all use stolen images without exception and tick a few other red flags.
Fiverr doesn’t do anything about it.
I know one of the artists who’s picture was used without consent. She reported it to cs and the only thing that happened is that the one stolen picture was replaced by a different stolen picture ( google reverse image search clearly shows that).
Why does fiverr want to keep those fraudulent accounts?
It’s not like they accidentally used a copyrighted photo for a cover, but they are pretending that children’s books illustrations were drawn by them, when they clearly were not.

[alison_writes]

Hi,

I reported a lot of fake accounts to cs. They all use stolen images without exception and tick a few other red flags.

Fiverr doesn’t do anything about it.

I know one of the artists who’s picture was used without consent. She reported it to cs and the only thing that happened is that the one stolen picture was replaced by a different stolen picture ( google reverse image search clearly shows that).

Why does fiverr want to keep those fraudulent accounts?

It’s not like they accidentally used a copyrighted photo for a cover, but they are pretending that children’s books illustrations were drawn by them, when they clearly were not.

Why does fiverr want to keep those fraudulent accounts?

It’s not like they accidentally used a copyrighted photo for a cover, but they are pretending that children’s books illustrations were drawn by them, when they clearly were not.

Are these fake accounts violating any of Fiverr’s Terms of Service? Are they violating copyright laws by using fake photographs?

According to my knowledge using someone’s image isn’t violating any copyright laws unless the person in question or a photographer owns the copyright to the image.

However, it is against Fiverr’s Terms of Service to create gigs (not profiles) that mislead buyers, or gigs that infringe on Copyrights and Trademarks.

Of course, if anyone feels their intellectual property is being infringed on they can always file a DMCA infringement here:

https://www.fiverr.com/intellectual-property

Doing this may cause Fiverr to take the case seriously and suspend the account. But, most times anyone who creates these “fake accounts” has studied the rules, finding loopholes in the Terms of Service that allow them to operate without any adverse consequences.

But, all the best trying to get Fiverr CS to listen and help.

[Alex.M]

Hi,

I reported a lot of fake accounts to cs. They all use stolen images without exception and tick a few other red flags.

Fiverr doesn’t do anything about it.

I know one of the artists who’s picture was used without consent. She reported it to cs and the only thing that happened is that the one stolen picture was replaced by a different stolen picture ( google reverse image search clearly shows that).

Why does fiverr want to keep those fraudulent accounts?

It’s not like they accidentally used a copyrighted photo for a cover, but they are pretending that children’s books illustrations were drawn by them, when they clearly were not.

I reported a lot of fake accounts to cs

how does that work , how you tell if they are fake or not ?

It’s not like they accidentally used a copyrighted photo for a cover, but they are pretending that children’s books illustrations were drawn by them, when they clearly were not.

well maybe they are drawn by them , how can you check ? maybe they have accounts in other places as well

[lauramadey]

It’s about drawings not photos. And there are countless new seller accounts who offer very cheap illustrations and their gig portfolio shows illustrations from famous award winning illustrators, often the same pictures are used for four or five different accounts. Then I know it’s 100 % fake. And I know that some of the illustrators contacted cs and they took down the specific picture. But it was just replaced with another picture that was not drawn by them, but the seller account is still online.
As far as I understand that it’s a tos and copyright violation to tell the buyer to check your work in the portfolio, when the work is not theirs.
And I would just like to understand why fiverr wants to keep them on their platform.

[eoinfinnegan]

Why they don’t I don’t know. I do wish they would though. If sufficient evidence was produced then I’d prefer if the seller was banned.

[alison_writes]

It’s about drawings not photos. And there are countless new seller accounts who offer very cheap illustrations and their gig portfolio shows illustrations from famous award winning illustrators, often the same pictures are used for four or five different accounts. Then I know it’s 100 % fake. And I know that some of the illustrators contacted cs and they took down the specific picture. But it was just replaced with another picture that was not drawn by them, but the seller account is still online.

As far as I understand that it’s a tos and copyright violation to tell the buyer to check your work in the portfolio, when the work is not theirs.

And I would just like to understand why fiverr wants to keep them on their platform.

And I would just like to understand why fiverr wants to keep them on their platform.

I can only speculate, but it’s likely got to do with the fact that Fiverr’s entire business has to do with gigs getting orders. And the cheaper gigs generally generate more orders and are synonymous with the site’s branding that you can get quality work for cheap. Usually, the buyers purchasing these $5 gigs aren’t interested in who’s work the seller is representing as their own, as they only want an illustration for cheap.

[humanissocial]

Why does fiverr want to keep those fraudulent accounts?

It’s not like they accidentally used a copyrighted photo for a cover, but they are pretending that children’s books illustrations were drawn by them, when they clearly were not.

Are these fake accounts violating any of Fiverr’s Terms of Service? Are they violating copyright laws by using fake photographs?

According to my knowledge using someone’s image isn’t violating any copyright laws unless the person in question or a photographer owns the copyright to the image.

However, it is against Fiverr’s Terms of Service to create gigs (not profiles) that mislead buyers, or gigs that infringe on Copyrights and Trademarks.

Of course, if anyone feels their intellectual property is being infringed on they can always file a DMCA infringement here:

https://www.fiverr.com/intellectual-property

Doing this may cause Fiverr to take the case seriously and suspend the account. But, most times anyone who creates these “fake accounts” has studied the rules, finding loopholes in the Terms of Service that allow them to operate without any adverse consequences.

But, all the best trying to get Fiverr CS to listen and help.

Using someone else’s work without their consent, as she explained (for financial gain) of course breaches the ToS. It isn’t just a copyright infringement. It is fraud.

[misscrystal]

You need to find the owner of the work and tell them. It’s left to the owner to complain, not random people who are not the owners.

I did that one time, notified the actual person their image was being used.

[alison_writes]

Using someone else’s work without their consent, as she explained (for financial gain) of course breaches the ToS. It isn’t just a copyright infringement. It is fraud.

You’re right.

My understanding at first was that she was saying they’re using profile images of famous artists - which can be fraud - but as far as I’ve seen isn’t covered in the ToS.

If they’re using the work of those artists, however, in their gig portfolios without the artist’s consent, then the artist in question has to file a DMCA notice with Fiverr. That’s the only way to remove these accounts, as any repeat offender will be removed from the platform.

[lauramadey]

You need to find the owner of the work and tell them. It’s left to the owner to complain, not random people who are not the owners.

I did that one time, notified the actual person their image was being used.

But why? That is so much work for me to do and should not be my job. And on the cases where I did thru, they only took one or two pictures down, but kept the account and the seller just replaced the picture with another stolen image. And I don’t understand why fiverr seems to want these accounts on their platform.

[lauramadey]

And I would just like to understand why fiverr wants to keep them on their platform.

I can only speculate, but it’s likely got to do with the fact that Fiverr’s entire business has to do with gigs getting orders. And the cheaper gigs generally generate more orders and are synonymous with the site’s branding that you can get quality work for cheap. Usually, the buyers purchasing these $5 gigs aren’t interested in who’s work the seller is representing as their own, as they only want an illustration for cheap.

Thank you. That does unfortunately make a lot of sense. Sad that this seems to be the case and that they are not interested in keeping the platform fraud free. They make it so hard to report fraud accounts and then they don’t act unless it is reported by the right person. So sad.

[misscrystal]

But why? That is so much work for me to do and should not be my job. And on the cases where I did thru, they only took one or two pictures down, but kept the account and the seller just replaced the picture with another stolen image. And I don’t understand why fiverr seems to want these accounts on their platform.

But why? That is so much work for me to do and should not be my job.

Why? Because you’re right it’s not your job. I suggest if you aren’t willing to contact the owner, then you should forget your mission. Obviously, if you think about it. they cannot respond to random people making random claims. It HAS TO BE THE OWNER.

[fastcopywriter]

Maybe because Fiverr doesn’t know who stole it first. Suppose you have a cool gig image of kittens, maybe that came from a stock photography site that everyone has access to, so your gig image might look stolen even if you didn’t steal it.

Also, Fiverr is a marketplace-based platform, that means the marketplace makes most of the decision. If every seller had to prove his or her abilities before selling here, few people would sell here, few would buy here, Fiverr would simply be another platform with lots of red tape.

CS has better things to do than worry about fake accounts.

[lauramadey]

But why? That is so much work for me to do and should not be my job.

Why? Because you’re right it’s not your job. I suggest if you aren’t willing to contact the owner, then you should forget your mission. Obviously, if you think about it. they cannot respond to random people making random claims. It HAS TO BE THE OWNER.

cannot

My mission. You are funny. I’m just trying to understand why this platform tolerates obvious fraud. I worked in online content management for a long time and most websites don’t want obviously stolen content on their website. So it doesn’t always has to be the owner who reports something that is obviously not ok. But it’s good to know that this is the case on this specific platform. Make it hard for the honest ones and protect the cheaters and scammers.

You know some platforms hire people who check their content for fraud and check reported content, even if it wasn’t reported by the owner.

[lauramadey]

Maybe because Fiverr doesn’t know who stole it first. Suppose you have a cool gig image of kittens, maybe that came from a stock photography site that everyone has access to, so your gig image might look stolen even if you didn’t steal it.

Also, Fiverr is a marketplace-based platform, that means the marketplace makes most of the decision. If every seller had to prove his or her abilities before selling here, few people would sell here, few would buy here, Fiverr would simply be another platform with lots of red tape.

CS has better things to do than worry about fake accounts.

But it is not about stock images. It’s about drawings that they did not draw, but pretend they did.

[fastcopywriter]

But it is not about stock images. It’s about drawings that they did not draw, but pretend they did.

How do you know they didn’t draw them? Are the pictures exactly alike to others you’ve seen? What if they’re tracing over existing images?

[mariashtelle1]

But why? That is so much work for me to do and should not be my job. And on the cases where I did thru, they only took one or two pictures down, but kept the account and the seller just replaced the picture with another stolen image. And I don’t understand why fiverr seems to want these accounts on their platform.

why fiverr seems to want these accounts on their platform.

No, fiver doesn’t want them.

But if you read TOS you’ll see that they have a rule of 3 different warnings or 2 same warnings.

First time you reported them they got a warning and their gig removed. (Account in question didn’t listen and just recreated the same gig with new stolen pictures). So if someone will report them again their account will be permanently banned.

No one wants to see stolen work in the portfolio.

But unfortunately it is an international platform and in some cultures for some reason it’s not considered bad to showcase stolen work. It’s too many of those people and fiverr is doing everything they can.

[misscrystal]

Even google doesn’t check every site it indexes for fraud. It’s up to the owner to do that. And there are huge law firms who do nothing but that. It’s not your job. And it’s not fiverr’s job. You are not understanding and I can’t figure out how to explain it to you.

Maybe set yourself up as an online detective people can hire to find this stuff for them? You seem to have an interest in this so it might be a new job calling for you.
Famous people do have a need for this service.

You are inserting yourself into something that has no relation to you. But if someone hires you to do it, that’s different.

[lauramadey]

Even google doesn’t check every site it indexes for fraud. It’s up to the owner to do that. And there are huge law firms who do nothing but that. It’s not your job. And it’s not fiverr’s job. You are not understanding and I can’t figure out how to explain it to you.

Maybe set yourself up as an online detective people can hire to find this stuff for them? You seem to have an interest in this so it might be a new job calling for you.

Famous people do have a need for this service.

You are inserting yourself into something that has no relation to you. But if someone hires you to do it, that’s different.

I don’t have an intrest in it. I did this as a job for a long time.

I wanted to hire an illustrator. And I was surprised to see that many of the sellers had identical pictures in their portfolio. Some of the illustrations were copies of famous children’s books ( copies not redrawn) and I did not expect this amount of fraud.

I know that it was fraud and I know how to check. Someone else might not. So I reported the accounts and contacted some of the illustrators whos art was stolen.

I am not on a mission, but I expected that the buyers here would be better protected. Obviously this is not the case and I was just curious why.

Now I’m wondering why you seem to have a problem with this.

[misscrystal]

I don’t have an intrest in it. I did this as a job for a long time.

I wanted to hire an illustrator. And I was surprised to see that many of the sellers had identical pictures in their portfolio. Some of the illustrations were copies of famous children’s books ( copies not redrawn) and I did not expect this amount of fraud.

I know that it was fraud and I know how to check. Someone else might not. So I reported the accounts and contacted some of the illustrators whos art was stolen.

I am not on a mission, but I expected that the buyers here would be better protected. Obviously this is not the case and I was just curious why.

Now I’m wondering why you seem to have a problem with this.

I’m wondering why you seem to have a problem with this.

I was trying to explain it to you. I don’t have a problem with it. You asked a question.

I contacted a famous person one time when I was new on fiverr and told them someone was using their picture and got it taken down. I saw right after I did that it was gone from the seller’s profile. I realized the problem is big and I don’t have time to make it a part time unpaid job.

And the seller I reported simply used a different famous person’s picture which he is still using today.

I just reported another person who copied my entire gig. I do that at least once a month.

[lauramadey]

I’m wondering why you seem to have a problem with this.

I was trying to explain it to you. I don’t have a problem with it. You asked a question.

I contacted a famous person one time when I was new on fiverr and told them someone was using their picture and got it taken down. I saw right after I did that it was gone from the seller’s profile. I realized the problem is big and I don’t have time to make it a part time unpaid job.

And the seller I reported simply used a different famous person’s picture which he is still using today.

I just reported another person who copied my entire gig. I do that at least once a month.

I contacted a famous person one time when I was new on fiverr and told them someone was using their picture and got it taken down. I saw right after I did that it was gone from the seller’s profile. I realized the problem is big and I don’t have time to make it a part time unpaid job.

So you had a similar experience as I did and just as you don’t have time for this unpaid job, I don’t have time for it. I am just surprised and curious why the obstacles to get a fraud account down are so high on this platform, compared to many other websites. It makes me wonder if there is a reason that fiverr does not delete fake and fraud accounts more efficiently. And you did not answer my question, you just confirmed the way they handle things right now.

They clearly could do better and choose not to. I would love to see this platform being safer. But I think I got my answer and I could have known before.

They think they do or they do make more money with those accounts than they would with a safer platform. And those ridiculously high obstacles to fight fraud accounts just shows that they are not interested in it.

[misscrystal]

I contacted a famous person one time when I was new on fiverr and told them someone was using their picture and got it taken down. I saw right after I did that it was gone from the seller’s profile. I realized the problem is big and I don’t have time to make it a part time unpaid job.

So you had a similar experience as I did and just as you don’t have time for this unpaid job, I don’t have time for it. I am just surprised and curious why the obstacles to get a fraud account down are so high on this platform, compared to many other websites. It makes me wonder if there is a reason that fiverr does not delete fake and fraud accounts more efficiently. And you did not answer my question, you just confirmed the way they handle things right now.

They clearly could do better and choose not to. I would love to see this platform being safer. But I think I got my answer and I could have known before.

They think they do or they do make more money with those accounts than they would with a safer platform. And those ridiculously high obstacles to fight fraud accounts just shows that they are not interested in it.

No, they do take it down when it’s the person’s own picture or art who reports it. I wish I could explain better why they don’t actively check each and every gig then track down the owner of the art or picture but I guess, like google, they expect the owners to take that responsibility.

I have gigs and art and images that have been stolen from me all over the internet. I gave up a long time ago. It would be a full time job to go after it all. I know right now there are full copies of my gigs on other sites. Pictures and photos of mine are also all over the internet. My name is stolen and used, everything. I have only so much time and hours in a day to do my job and eat and other necessities.

I even have an overlay watermark on some images and those are used complete with the watermark.

Right now there is a complete copy of my gig on fiverr and I just now asked them to take it down.

[cyaxrex]

Why they don’t I don’t know. I do wish they would though. If sufficient evidence was produced then I’d prefer if the seller was banned.

Why they don’t I don’t know. I do wish they would though.

I’d also like to see anyone who ever steals another sellers gig description get a lifetime ban. It is a bit strange how many legitimate sellers live in a state of fear over bans and warnings. However, obvious thieves seem to be able to roam the search pages as they please.

[lauramadey]

No, they do take it down when it’s the person’s own picture or art who reports it. I wish I could explain better why they don’t actively check each and every gig then track down the owner of the art or picture but I guess, like google, they expect the owners to take that responsibility.

I have gigs and art and images that have been stolen from me all over the internet. I gave up a long time ago. It would be a full time job to go after it all. I know right now there are full copies of my gigs on other sites. Pictures and photos of mine are also all over the internet. My name is stolen and used, everything. I have only so much time and hours in a day to do my job and eat and other necessities.

I even have an overlay watermark on some images and those are used complete with the watermark.

Right now there is a complete copy of my gig on fiverr and I just now asked them to take it down.

As I said, they choose to do this the way they do for a reason and that reason is obviously money. Other market places have tools in place to prevent buyers from fraud, without this artificially high obstacles and that is a choice that I don’t understand. Just because you repeat what they does not makes me understand why they don’t want to protect their buyers. To take the gig down once the rights holder intervenes is the absolute minimum. And I know they could do better and choose not to do better.

[misscrystal]

As I said, they choose to do this the way they do for a reason and that reason is obviously money. Other market places have tools in place to prevent buyers from fraud, without this artificially high obstacles and that is a choice that I don’t understand. Just because you repeat what they does not makes me understand why they don’t want to protect their buyers. To take the gig down once the rights holder intervenes is the absolute minimum. And I know they could do better and choose not to do better.

You could ask them. Maybe you would get an explanation.

You could ask google why my name images and gigs are all over google while you’re at it.