Is Fiverr Scam?

There are a lot of misconceptions about Fiverr. I saw some people claiming on Twitter that Fiverr is a scam after having a bad experience with a seller. There are also questions about the quality of the service that you can get on Fiverr. I will try to clarify all the questions so that you can make the decision whether you should choose a service on Fiverr or not.

First of all, Fiverr itself is a Legit Platform but it does not mean all of its users(Sellers and Buyers) are also Legit. Fiverr provides a platform to connect Sellers and Buyers. However, there is no screening process to select Sellers. So anyone can join the platform and provide services whether he has skills or not. So, the most common scam is providing low-quality work after claiming a lot of things to customers.

On Fiverr, there are cases of scams from both Freelancer’s end and Buyer’s end. Here I will discuss scams from Freelancer’s(Sellers) that are most common:

Quality of Service on Fiverr

You can get both high-quality services and low-quality services on Fiverr. As I mentioned before that there is no screening process so anyone can join the platform and provide services. In short, Fiverr expects buyers to screen the Freelancers before making a final selection. So if you will choose Freelancer based on his claims and low price without properly interviewing him or checking previous records then the chances that you will get low quality or get scammed by a seller will be higher.

I have already discussed one popular scam related to speed optimization on Fiverr and other freelancing platforms as well.

Fake Freelance Profiles

Hard to digest but it is true that a large number of Freelancers on Fiverr operate through Fake Identities with fake profile pictures, fake degrees, and certificates. Most of these fake profiles show their gender as female(although they are not) to grab more attention from the buyers. Fiverr allows everyone to create profiles without verifying the identity of the freelancer. So if you are thinking to hire someone on Fiverr make sure to interview him through a Zoom call on Fiverr to make sure the freelancer is with a real identity and not scamming you.

Although we have discussed the scams on Fiverr but even after scamming it’s not easy for a Freelancer to get your money and run away. Fiverr has a clearance period for released payment. So even if Freelancer has scammed you can still get a refund by contacting Fiverr Customer support.

Fiverr always gives more priority to buyers as compared to Sellers or Freelancers but still quality of Service on Fiverr is a big question mark.

How to avoid Scam on Fiverr?

Although it’s very hard to find quality services on Fiverr unless Fiverr implements some restrictions for the Freelancers joining the platform and conducts interviews like Upwork does to verify Freelancers’ identity still I’m mentioning some suggestions that will help you find quality services on Fiverr:

• Check how old the Profile of Freelancer is.
• Number of Reviews and percentage of positive feedback that freelancer has.
• Ask him to schedule a zoom meeting with you regarding your project.

Conclusion

Fiverr is one of the most popular Freelancing Marketplace with millions of users but it’s sad that the platform has never focused on improving the quality of the service. The most basic thing for improving the quality of service on the platform would be to verify the skills and identity of Freelancers before allowing them to create Live Gigs because a Freelancer without skills can ruin the running business of someone.

Before buying services on Fiverr, you as a buyer should make sure that you are hiring the right person with all the necessary skills.

If you have already hired someone on Fiverr let us know in the comments how was your experience on Fiverr?