Is Fiverr Legit? How To Avoid Scams As A Buyer Or Seller (2024)

Many negative reviews of Fiverr claim that it is filled with useless gigs. You might be wondering, "Is Fiverr legit?" after reading these reviews or hearing about Fiverr scams.

We can't deny that Fiverr has some absurd gigs, but that's only because of customers who have a $5 mindset. You might want to check out some Fiverr alternatives here if you're ready to pay a bit more.

However, we've worked with Fiverr time and time again and can assure you that it is a fantastic place to complete projects if you're interested in using it as a buyer or seller. 

To safeguard yourself from con artists and Fiverr scams, you should bear a few things in mind before using Fiverr or any other platform.

Is Fiverr legit

 

Is Fiverr Legit? 

So you are wondering after you've seen the cheap prices. Is Fiverr legit? Yes, Fiverr is a reliable marketplace for buyers and sellers of freelancing services. The reason why most prices are so cheap is because these freelancers are from offshore countries, where the dollar amount you are paying has much more value.

Fiverr's negative reputation is only because many people cannot believe that such cheap prices for certain services can be found at all.

Fiverr serves as a sort of middleman, securing the transaction between the buyer and the seller. Using reviews and ratings, you can quickly filter out Fiverr scammers. 

Obviously, scams and scammers are bound to exist on a platform like this, but you can take preventive measres to keep away from them.

Since its debut in 2010, Fiverr has seen a lot of success.

There are currently hundreds of thousands of active sellers and millions of active buyers using it in 160 different nations. We count ourselves amongst the buyers of such services.

Given these figures, you can be sure that Fiverr is a real company.

Its reputation is only tarnished by a few bad eggs.

Millions of dependable customers spend millions on the services of freelancers, and the freelancers invest their valuable time in the platform.

If you know how to use it, Fiverr is a great platform.

Our Review of Fiverr 

We have completed a variety of projects using Fiverr, such as simple Fiverr logo design, SEO, video production, ebooks, and more.

We used Fiverr many years ago, when gigs cost only $5 (hence the name Fiverr!).

This was done long before Fiverr started to trade publicly.

So, is Fiverr legit?

Yes. You should be fine as long as you stick to Fiverr's terms of service and the advice we recommend below.

How safe is Fiverr? 

As long as the transactions between the buyer and seller take place on the platform, Fiverr is very secure.

In order to protect both parties, Fiverr is set up to hold both the buyer's payments and the seller's work.

Transactions are secure and encrypted, so you never have to worry about someone else or Fiverr taking all of your hard-earned money.

Because there is a lot of money involved, the platform must adhere to the strictest security requirements in order to be a Level 1 PCI-DSS service provider.

So, in terms of security, is Fiverr legit? Definitely.

Is your personal data safe on Fiverr? 

Personal data safety Fiverr

All of the personal information you provide to Fiverr is safe and encrypted.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the strictest privacy and security regulation in the world, ensures that all of your information is safeguarded.

You have full access to and control over all of your personal information thanks to Fiverr's compliance with this law.

Your data cannot be used by them or disclosed to third parties.

Therefore, you don't have to be concerned about fraud or theft with Fiverr because your personal information is secure.

Can you get scammed on Fiverr? 

Can you get scammed on Fiverr

Like everything else on the internet, you can only become the victim of fraud if you allow it to happen.

People who want to take advantage of others are not unheard of, even on Fiverr.

But do not worry! We'll give you the best advice on how to stay safe on Fiverr and avoid scams.

Tips To Avoid Getting Scammed On Fiverr

Due to their failure to notice specific warning signs, buyers and sellers on Fiverr are sometimes the victims of fraud.

They put blind faith in others and anticipate receiving fair and honest treatment. The sad reality is that some people genuinely want to take your money and run.

Here are some suggestions to help you steer clear of those con artists, spot warning signs, and expose dishonest buyers and sellers.

Tips For Buyers 

1. Don’t deal outside Fiverr under any circumstances. 

To avoid paying Fiverr's commission, some dishonest sellers will ask you to conduct your business outside of the platform.

Fiverr explicitly states in its terms of service that it does not protect any payments made outside of the platform.

Dealing outside of the platform is never a good idea, especially if you're dealing with a seller you've never dealt with before.

Consider it a warning sign if anyone asks you to conduct business outside of Fiverr because it's probably a scam. Even if it not an explicit Fiverr scam, if the level of the work produced is not to your desired level, you have no-one to turn to.

2. Review orders within three days of delivery

Review orders within three days of delivery

If you're not careful about responding to their messages, a seller may try to con you by delivering your order without fully finishing it.

Your order will be automatically marked as complete after three days, allowing the seller to receive payment. If you didn't have time to review the woirk by then, you might ended up with a partially completed job.

Fortunately, after an order has been marked as complete, Fiverr gives customers a grace period of 13 days.

Fiverr customer service will be able to cancel the order on your behalf during this time.

Naturally, you'll need to get in touch with customer service, which is a pain.

Because the delivered order fell short of what was specified in the gig listings, you must submit a request for cancellation.

Try to review your orders within three days of delivery and make sure they are complete and of high quality to avoid this situation.

Your payment is still protected by Fiverr during this time.

So, is Fiverr legit? Yes, but only if you're at your best.

3. Be thorough about finding a seller. 

Make sure you thoroughly investigate a seller to ensure you get your money's worth.

Check out their profiles, reviews, and the way they carry themselves.

In addition, we would avoid jobs that seem to good to be true like the plague.

For example, we know that nobody can naturally generate an endless amount of website traffic, YouTube views, subscribers, etc. In general, avoid paying anyone for dubious services. Or if you do, be aware that your end result is going to be suspicious.

Because there are so many skilled content creators on Fiverr, we would suggest that invest in quality content and / or jobs.

Tips For Sellers 

1. Don’t deal outside of Fiverr under any circumstances. 

As we mentioned above, sellers should never conduct business with buyers outside of the platform.

Buyers should avoid doing this because they run the risk of losing money.

Because sellers run the risk of losing their accounts, it's even riskier for them.

If a buyer violates Fiverr's terms of service, their account may be terminated, but they can easily create a new one in a matter of minutes.

To move up in the rankings, sellers must build up their profiles with favorable reviews and gigs.

You wouldn't want all of your efforts to be in vain.

As a seller, you must create a new account from scratch.

If you work as a freelancer on Fiverr, you should never conduct business outside of the site, especially with clients you haven't met before.

2. Be transparent and honest with your gigs. 

Detail your skills in your profile and make it appealing to the right clients. The more you niche down, the better, because you develop a skill set that is probably unique to you.

You'll benefit from being truthful about your skills, expertise and capabilities, especially when it comes to custom orders.

You can get paid for the order even if a client requests something that is outside the scope of your skill description by contacting Fiverr's customer support team.

Can you trust Fiverr? Yes, you'll have a positive platform experience if you're just clear and transparent.

Can Fiverr orders get canceled? 

As long as you have a good reason, both buyers and sellers on Fiverr are permitted to cancel orders. For example, if the service provided wasn't what was promised, you can cancel the order.

If a client requests additional work that is outside the scope of your service offering, you may also cancel the order.

Having both the buyer and the seller approve an order is the simplest way to cancel it.

Both parties must submit an order cancellation request by going to the resolution center from the order page.

The person who wants to cancel the agreement must contact Fiverr's customer support team and provide a good reason if one of the two parties is unwilling to do so.

The team will review the situation and manually cancel the order if the request is reasonable.

We do want to emphasize that Fiverr prioritizes the buyer more than the seller, so bear that in mind.

Types of Gigs You Should Avoid On Fiverr 

Gigs to avoid on fiverr

There are some gigs you should avoid because you'll probably waste your money on them.

Be careful with the online purchases you make. If something seems too good to be true, treat it with suspicion.

You're probably already aware of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and that on-page and off-page SEO are its two most important components.

On Fiverr, it's simple to find high-quality On-Page SEO content.

For very reasonable prices, knowledgeable people provide technical SEO services such as keyword research.

A warning sign is when sellers offer off-page SEO. These "services" will eventually lower the ranking of your website because the links that are sent to you will probably be spammy, which Google can easily identify.

2. Traffic and YouTube Views 

Traffic and YouTube views

You can only bring genuine, long-lasting traffic to your website by consistently publishing top-notch content. Many people buy fake traffic on Fiverr out of impatience.

But, in reality these services do not do anything to make any significant improvements to your channel.

While your numbers do increase temporarily, it's not a true increase. The figures you see in your page views and analytics are probably the result of fake traffic tools and / or bots.

Your website or YouTube channel receives bot traffic from these tools, which means no real people are viewing your content and the YouTube algorithms are able to detect such manipulation.

It's a scam if a seller says that they can quickly generate real traffic for you.

So, is Fiverr legit? Of course. However, shady jobs are not.

3. Shoutouts and Promotions 

Obtaining a shoutout or promotion from an account with a very low engagement rate is useless.

Some of these gigs may claim to have millions of followers, but when you check out their accounts, you'll find that their posts receive few likes and comments.

It's unlikely that you'll find someone on Fiverr willing to promote you who has real engagement on their account, but it is possible.

But why would a well-known influencer, for example, post a gig on Fiverr seeking payment in exchange for shoutouts?

There is no reason for them to do that unless the asking price is high.

Again, it will be your responsibility to thoroughly research sellers before placing an order.

Are all Fiverr reviews genuine? 

Are all Fiverr reviews genuine

Reviews on Fiverr can only be written by buyers and sellers who have participated in projects, so the majority of them are sincere.

On new seller accounts, there may, however, be some fake positive reviews.

How did they obtain these ratings so quickly?

Typically, they place an order for it or set up accounts as buyers with the express purpose of leaving 5-star reviews.

Naturally, others may start to trust you after reading some 5-star reviews.

So how do you distinguish dishonest sellers from bad ones? 

How To Find Legitimate Honest Sellers On Fiverr

How To Find Legitimate Honest Sellers On Fiverr

You obviously want to work with trustworthy sellers, but how do you find them? These are our recommendations.

  • Always check out their ratings. See what previous clients have to say about their work. We advise against working with sellers who have less than four stars and who have very few reviews in total.
  • Make sure to carefully read the job description, and only propose projects that fit the seller's expertise. Do not anticipate them going above and beyond the scope of their services.
  • If any details in the gig descriptions need to be clarified, read the FAQ section.

We always start with reading reviews because this is the most important.

Always check out what other buyers are saying before moving on to a seller's description and FAQ sections.

It's also highly advisable to get in touch with the seller first before placing your order. You'll get a good feel of whether they are a good match for what you need by having a conversation with them.

During that conversation is the time to bargain and outline your exact requirements so that they can provide the best service possible.

Last but not least, see if the seller's joining date corresponds to their reviews. It's suspicious if a new account has many positive reviews.

How can you tell fake reviews from real ones? 

If a seller joined Fiverr recently but already has over tens or hundreds of reviews from that same month they joined, it's very likely that those reviews are fake.

It takes some time to develop a solid rating on Fiverr. It could take months or even years.

Based on their consistently excellent performance, sellers can eventually achieve level 1, level 2, or a top-rated badge.

To keep their high ratings, sellers would need to provide customer satisfaction and produce top-notch work. You can feel at ease and believe that a seller's services are authentic if they have a high rating.

Final Thoughts 

Fiverr has been the subject of considerable media attention since it first went live and clearly the platform has some drawbacks, it is not immune to scammers.

As with places that get a lot of traffic, there has been some fraud on Fiverr, and some independent contractors have complained about the platform's required commission.

But Fiverr is still a great resource for both buyers and sellers.

Affordable quality services can be found here and independent contractors can work from home and make a solid living.

If you put in enough effort, Fiverr is definitely a viable source of income for buyers, and CollectiveRay has used Fiverr for many small jobs that we needed to outsource or get done quickly.

Yes, there are aspects of Fiverr that you wouldn't be fond of. As a seller, customers who want to pay cents for high-quality work are a nuisance.

However, it is ultimately up to you, the seller, to decide whether a project is worthwhile.

Although Fiverr is a fantastic platform, some scammy individuals have once again somewhat ruined it for the rest of us.

Finding good people to work with on Fiverr won't be a problem if you stick to the advice we give here. You are largely safe from scammers on the platform as long as you be sensible and steer away from anything which looks sketchy.

Is FIVERR Legit FAQs

Is Fiverr a scam or a legit site?

The freelance marketplace Fiverr is unquestionably legitimate for both buyers and sellers. Although there is a small chance of being scammed on Fiverr if you don't know what to look for before dealing, this does not imply that the platform is fraudulent. You can also rest assured thar Fiverr support will help you if you've had a bad experience with a freelancer.

How does Fiverr operate and what is it?

Fiverr, the world's largest marketplace for digital services, provides both buyers and sellers with a digitally streamlined transactional platform. A 'Gig' is the specific term for a service provided by a seller on Fiverr. Sellers can specify their starting price when creating Gigs.

Can I revoke a Fiverr order?

Yes. Fiverr gives the buyer a higher priority than the seller when it comes to canceling an order. You can also get it canceled by raising a ticket in a situation where the buyer rejects your cancel request. Avoiding certain gigs on Fiverr (such as ones with low ratings or reviews) is strongly advised because these services have not been tried and tested by other people.

About the Author
Shahzad Saeed
Shahzaad Saaed has been featured in a large number of authority websites including EasyDigitalDownloads, OptinMonster and WPBeginner where he is currently employed as a senior content writer. Shahzad is a WordPress expert, web designer and overall technology and design expert. He specializes in content marketing to help business grow their traffic through actionable and experience-backed articles, blogs and expert guides, all taken from his over 10 years of experience in the field.

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