7 Things That Might Get Your Fiverr Account Banned
If you created a Fiverr account, one of the first things you need to realize is that it's up to you as a freelancer to make sure that you don't get your Fiverr account banned. Fiverr is a large freelance marketplace, and like any large marketplace it has rules. If you don't follow these rules it might cause your Fiverr account to get disabled, or in the worst case scenario your Fiverr account might get banned altogether.
Many freelancers get banned without even realizing they were violating the Fiverr terms of service. So in this article I'm going to list 7 things you should avoid doing that will help you avoid a situation where your Fiverr account gets banned.
Top 7 Things That Might Get Your Fiverr Account Banned
01. Asking For Payment Outside Of Fiverr
If you are a freelancer who chose to sell your services on Fiverr.com, sell your services on Fiverr.com. Fiverr is a business that makes money in part by taking a fee from every transaction processed on the platform. So naturally if Fiverr notices people are stealing clients from them by taking them off the platform for payment, they're not going to like that.
Fiverr will take action if it notices you having a conversation with buyers about accepting PayPal payments, electronic money transfers, or basically anything other than being paid through Fiverr. If you don't want to wake up one morning to see that your Fiverr account is disabled, don't do this.
02. Doing School Work For Your Buyers
Preparing academic work is against Fiverr's TOS. You can definitely help tutor people for money on Fiverr, but doing their academic work is against Fiverr's terms. Things like essay writing, or straight up doing people's school assignments for them might get your account disabled, or worse, permanently banned.
Now there are obviously ways to get around this one, for example if it's not discussed that a project is a school assignment specifically. But regardless, tread carefully, my advice is to avoid any situation where you feel you might be violating Fiverr's terms by taking a project that seems like it's for a school project.
03. Creating Multiple Accounts
Creating multiple Fiverr accounts is another common reason people have their Fiverr accounts banned. Fiverr's TOS states that users may have one active Fiverr account and one active Fiverr pro account.
You might think that you can create a new Fiverr account every time an account gets banned. Or that you can create a new Fiverr account when something goes wrong with a past order. Some people even create new accounts to try to game the Fiverr algorithm. Whatever the reason, if Fiverr identifies that you have multiple accounts it might disabled some of them or all of them altogether. Not worth it.
04. Messaging Other Sellers And Spam
Fiverr defines spam as "Inauthentic Behavior" in its community standards document. Basically any messaging activity that is unwanted, repeatedly occurring, and disruptive to the recipient's experience.
This includes the following forms of Fiverr spam:
-Asking Fiverr sellers for work
-Asking for advice on how to sell on Fiverr
-Promoting offers for anything especially things outside of Fiverr
-Offering to do things for free
Don't be a spammer, nobody likes spam, and you might end up getting banned if you send spam messages on Fiverr.
05. Cancelled Orders
Obviously cancelled orders are not good for a seller's reputation on Fiverr. One or two cancelled orders from time to time is normal. But if you have orders cancelled on you all the time this could be a main reason why your Fiverr account gets permanently disabled.
Why would Fiverr allow freelancers that do terrible work, offer poor customer experience, and have a bunch of cancelled orders continue on the platform. So yeah, cancelled orders are a very common reason that Fiverr accounts get banned.
06. Impersonation On Fiverr
Impersonation is one that I see a lot of people guilty of. Fiverr's terms of service state that anyone who uses fake names, fake photos, or in the worst case scenario pretends to be another seller might get their account banned.
Now this one is an interesting one, because it's a bit difficult to determine if someone using stock photos or random info from the internet is impersonating someone else. But my advice on this is to be yourself. Nothing builds trust better than to be genuine, use your own headshot, your own name, and just be you. It's probably one of the best ways to avoid having your Fiverr account disabled for impersonation and it's also just a great way to build trust with your clients.
07. Using Fake Reviews
Fake reviews are a big problem on Fiverr, and for obvious reasons. For starters, fake reviews create a situation where sellers are potentially falsely representing their abilities and skills to buyers on the platform. This can lead to situations where people spend money and receive a service different from what has been advertised.
Fake reviews also create a problem among competing freelancers as it allows less experienced sellers to appear to have more experience and social proof than genuine accounts that have accumulated positive 5 star reviews over a longer period of time by doing real projects.
Now I know that a lot of new sellers consider getting their friends to leave fake reviews on their Fiverr gigs to help speed up the amount of time it takes to get your first order. My advice is to focus on selling services to your friends and family that they actually need. Have them place a real order, actually do the work, and have them leave a real review.
Much better strategy than being one of those people with a Fiverr profile filled with bogus reviews. It's more ethical, and leaves you less likely to have Fiverr support ban your account.
Can You Recover A Disabled Fiverr Account?
If you made it this far you might also be wondering whether it's possible to recover your Fiverr account after it's been disabled. This is a tricky question to answer because whether or not Fiverr bans your account, temporarily disables it, or permanently disables it depends on the severity of the terms of service violation. It's also largely up to the discretion of Fiverr and Fiverr support.
In some cases you might be able to recover your account by contacting Fiverr support. But in a lot of situations you might find that Fiverr support is non-responsive, or stands by their decision to disable your account.
This is why it's my recommendation to spend time reviewing Fiverr's TOS before you create your account. Educate yourself, and make sure you're playing by the rules. This will prevent you from being in a situation where your potentially very lucrative stream of Fiverr income is destroyed.
Anyway, thanks for reading, if your Fiverr account was banned try reaching out to Fiverr directly to see if they can help. But the best thing you can do moving forward is to make sure you are in compliance with the terms of service and community guidelines.
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