Verified badge for the buyers

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Anjan

I think there should be a verification badge for the buyers. Recently I have seen many spammers posted projects with website links to get more traffic. If a freelancer sends proposal to that project then that will be definitely a waste of credit.

So if a buyer verifies their account with credit card detail or any other payment method then I am sure the number of spam projects will decrease.

Also once the buyer verifies their account there should be a badge for them. So that who are the genuine buyers and who are here to wasting freelancers' credits.

I hope you will consider this important suggestion.

Thanks

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8 comments

Date Votes
  • Official comment
    YannisS
    • Edited

    Hi Anjan, Aladin,

    Your request totally makes sense, and that's why it's already in our backlog. 

    Until we implement this, you can use various buyer stats (listed below) that we share which can help you decide whether you should work with the buyer or not. I understand that these might not be quite helpful for new buyers, but we are planning to enhance our buyer verification process in the near future.

    • Projects completed / Projects awarded / Freelancers worked with / Last project
      These stats are shown in the Project view page (see screenshot below). Also, in case a buyer belongs to the top 1% of our buyers, we display the V.I.B. badge (Very Important Buyer).
    • In addition, in the buyer profile page, we show their Response time and Last active date

     

    Hope these stats will help you decide whether a buyer is trustworthy to work with, till we roll out the rest of the enhancements in the buyer verification flow.

    Thank you

     

    All the best,
    Yannis
    Product Manager @ PeoplePerHour

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  • Aladin

    This is a good idea that can improve freelancer protection. Some practical ideas to implement it :

    - Credit card verification

    -Identity verification (like freelancers)

    - First project by a new buyer must be approved by a moderator before being published

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  • Anjan

    Yeah, 3rd one is even better in fact.

    PPH team moderates the "Clarification Board" questions from the freelancers. So I believe they can moderate at least the first project from a new buyer.

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  • Luca

    I absolutely support that request, actually, it's a long time that I'm discussing with the PPH team for the same exact reason, and that way I've discovered that there was a forum (I was unaware of that, should be more evident and more used by freelancers and buyers to talk about ways to improve the platform)

    I'm active in the translation section, and in the last few weeks, well - I should say months -, there were actually more spam offers than real ones, even if I'm active for multiple language pairings.

    I was answered that making those control on buyers would discourage them to join, but that sound me like a weak excuse, and I don't understand why freelancers have to give so much details, plus the bank data's, while clients could create spam as easily. Moderation in the first proposal as Aladin suggested (it's usually always the same kind of spam, with very rich offers and first time users) will also solve the problem in a really smart way. Surely easier and faster than have to deal with all the freelancers affected by the problem/spam, without forgetting the risk that a hostile scam could produce on users devices.

    Buyers and freelancers join/use a platform if that platform works well, and with a safe environment with real offers form real clients, freelancers and clients would surely have a better experience. The lack of real offers is really worrysome, and should be a vital problem for the PPH staff too.

     

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  • Luca

    That's the perfect example:

    https://www.peopleperhour.com/freelance-jobs/translation/other/i-want-to-translate-my-audio-story-into-your-language-2939834

    I've already reported that same scam multiple times, more than a dozen for sure, but it's always back. Same text, same generous offer, same kind of link, always from Pakistan. There was a time in which was posted daily. And a lot of times has been active for hours and hours, with the risk that imply for freelancers.

    (image attached as the offer will be deleted at some point)

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  • Anjan

    Hi Luca
    You are right. My personal though is PPH favors buyers more than freelancers. They concern less about us as long as the number of project posting goes high. If a freelancer finishes his credits then he will buy again.

    A new freelancer has to go through different verification levels but unfortunately for a buyer it's nothing like that. They can create a new account everyday with new name and post the same project. If a new freelancer doesn't get a project in 2 months then he has to pay PPH to activate his account or something.

    I believe it's some kind of their business model. But it's a shame that in every way freelancers have to suffer the most. I am sorry if I am wrong.

    But I am very sad that in this process, PPH gradually becomes a platform with lots of spam. I liked PPH a lot because of it's project qualities. I had a good profile but left another freelancing platform only because of spams.

    Some of my friends moved to another platform from PPH because their projects are more genuine.

    If PPH doesn't do something special for it then I am sure they will loose some more users.

    Hope to see a solution soon.

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  • Luca
    • Edited

    While I agree on almost everything you wrote, I don't think that is a case of favouring buyers and discouraging freelancers, not voluntarily at least (I hope).

    It would be a very bad choice for them, because the result is exactly what you were explaining: freelancers searching for other platforms, and starting to abandon that one. I'm honest, I had started in that one, but now I'm a lot more active in others, as there's no traffic of offers at all (in the translation section at least - I cannot even use the 15 proposals I have, there're not 15 real offers in a month, and that's really sad), and we are even required to report scam as we were responsable for security... (btw, the scam offer I posted last night, is still active now after more than 15 hours even reporting it, and freelancers are still at risk)

    I think it's just a case of bad management-choices or lack of people working to improve the site. And that's going to affect them, with the loss of users and therefore money and incomes generated.

    I hope to see solutions too, but I'm not that positive about it.

     

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  • Shahbaz

    I see that this request is still in the backlog. I have noticed that the number of jobs posted on PeoplePerHour is reduced. We have to add new features and do marketing on this platform to bring new buyers in, adding a verified buyer badge would attract authentic buyers.

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