Community Scammer Awareness Campaign

[chensta]

Hey guys, recently there seem to be an increasing number of scammers around the forums. Another buyer here, DiamonStarFalls and myself have kind of made it a mission, to call out the really obvious scammers in their threads. So far, we have pretty much been spot on every time.

Example: http://www.ownedcore.com/forums/diab...million-2.html (WTB SOFTCORE. US server gold> $1.65 per million. EU>1.35 per million.)

I think it's about time that we as the Ownedcore community all do our part.

Now I am not saying that we should flag every new, low rep user as potential scammers, but to create awareness on some of the ways you can get scammed, as well as warning people of potential scammers and let them decide if they want to go ahead and take the risk.

Have you ever seen a thread like this?

"Buying at XX (20-30c higher than Market price)! Low rep, but will go first"
"Buying 500m, just starting out on Ownedcore, HAPPY to pay first"

How about 1 day old users with 10 reps from 1-2 rep new users?

I am sure your scammer senses go into overdrive, but more than likely, you will stay away, but what about the other poor people who don't know better?

The biggest issue here is not common sense, but some people have some very dangerous misconceptions about trade. These who do not know how chargebacks work, and these who place too much trust in rep.

Here is a message I quickly came up with -----

***Community Message***
Just a heads up to potential sellers about 2 common trade misconceptions.

1) If they pay first, nothing can go wrong:
One word….Chargebacks. It doesn't really matter if they leave a note saying they won't chargeback, if they claim it wasn't them who did the transaction (unauthorised transaction, my account got hacked etc)

2) If they have high rep, nothing can go wrong:
Beware of fake reps, and many reps from other low rep/new users.

--------

I am happy to take your thoughts as a community, and I do respect you if you think this is unfair, or going overboard.

Thanks guys!

[DiamondStarFall]

in to support the thread! dear sellers, do take some time to look thru it i believe it would be really useful~

[bobdan]

good idea needs to be done!

[Zoidberg]

Hey guys, recently there seem to be an increasing number of scammers around the forums. Another buyer here, DiamonStarFalls and myself have kind of made it a mission, to call out the really obvious scammers in their threads. So far, we have pretty much been spot on every time.

The problem with this, is that this can very quickly turn into a witch hunt and new members whose purpose is to do legitimate trades, are going to have a hard time if everyone is going to warn about them in their trade threads. At some point you're going to accuse a legit guy... or gal.

Instead of calling out possible scammers, a long sticky guide on how chargebacks work, things to look for when it comes to suspicion about scammers, common sense, other tips and tricks, etc, would be a good idea. Lucky Ace (2dgreengiant) has already made a similar (New trade section info and reading material as of 12/08/2011) thread about this last year, but's a bit hidden (WoW trading section) and probably slightly outdated.

1) Don't report members you think are scammers, we're not going to do anything without proof.
2) BUT please do report suspicious threads where all the feedback are 1rep, just registered users.
3) Don't call out users in their threads with little to no proof.

Use your common sense, stay away from "1rep, just registered" members if you're paranoid/afraid of getting scammed. Check their rep and judge yourself if you think they seem legitimate.

[Kryoshiro]

adding notes to trades doesn't help against chargebacks?

is the only way to avoid getting scammed, to just find ID guys who have been doing their business since D3 launch?

[Happy2k]

+1 Zoidberg

[anrew]

I want to support you but...

How? How are we supposed to "catch" them?

[ManhManh]

Some scammers are just more obvious than others and it's easy to 100% tell. But nothing can be done until they scam somebody or there is proof.

[mrduric]

Some scammers are really obvious while others are somewhat more innovative.

Last time this one dude added me on skype claiming to be a moderator on OwnedCore, to his big dissapointment he could not log in to the website to send me a PM.
So what he did is mail me from the emailadress [email protected] (I did a traceback and this was obviously sent from another mail adress).

but people should be aware for stuff like this too, always try to let someone send you a PM on oc and try to verify email adress or ID from very new users.
Or just go with a trusted buyer, get 5-6 dollars less for the trade and don't risk being chargebacked the next day. Nothing is worse than waking up, checking your mail on your smartphone
and finding new emails from paypal requesting you to respond to a held payment.


Sell safely!

[chensta]

Yeah sorry guys, to clarify, this isn't to flag everyone as scammer.

But lets say you spot a suspicious post, it doesn't hurt to leave a message to potential buyers/sellers to let them know of 'potential pitfalls'

[mrduric]

Yeah sorry guys, to clarify, this isn't to flag everyone as scammer.

But lets say you spot a suspicious post, it doesn't hurt to leave a message to potential buyers/sellers to let them know of 'potential pitfalls'

Thats exactly my opinion, I mean mentioning someones name here might show up on google search results (can help alot when researching a buyer ).

[amiren]

great idea.. we defenitly need some wastewatchers in our tradeforum.. i tried it myself after i got scammed, and was right on every 3 of my accusations.

you have to learn it the hard way to detect a scammer, like me and many others, or some people like chensta and diamondstar prevent you of getting scammed..

+1

[DiamondStarFall]

The problem with this, is that this can very quickly turn into a witch hunt and new members whose purpose is to do legitimate trades, are going to have a hard time if everyone is going to warn about them in their trade threads. At some point you're going to accuse a legit guy... or gal.

Instead of calling out possible scammers, a long sticky guide on how chargebacks work, things to look for when it comes to suspicion about scammers, common sense, other tips and tricks, etc, would be a good idea. Lucky Ace (2dgreengiant) has already made a similar (New trade section info and reading material as of 12/08/2011) thread about this last year, but's a bit hidden (WoW trading section) and probably slightly outdated.

1) Don't report members you think are scammers, we're not going to do anything without proof.
2) BUT please do report suspicious threads where all the feedback are 1rep, just registered users.
3) Don't call out users in their threads with little to no proof.

Use your common sense, stay away from "1rep, just registered" members if you're paranoid/afraid of getting scammed. Check their rep and judge yourself if you think they seem legitimate.

i do agree with your suggestion but we r not trying encourage the flagging of all new user as a scammer, just those that r highly suspicious i think it is already briefly being covered in point 1 and 2 under community massage(Things to look out for). probably a detailed point for 1)how does charge back works and also 2)how can ya provide sufficient evidence in your favor to win a legit paypal chargeback case should the buyer/seller filed a chargeback on ya can be added.

Some scammers are just more obvious than others and it's easy to 100% tell. But nothing can be done until they scam somebody or there is proof.

this some r pretty obvious and ya can catch them thru some observations.

[xilverxurfer]

I support this mission as well. I have not been here around here long enough but stupid enough to have been scammed 3 times in 3 days consecutively just because I had low rep and did not kow better and trusted that gamers inthe forum would be honest enough to make a good trade.

Mentioned many times over and over again are ways to look out for in dealing a trade. Imposters, fake high repped members, fake vouches.

As I have said before, once gold is handed over from seller, it is gone. But once payment has been made, chargeback can happen. So what is the proper way to trade?

Does it then make any sense that any trades involved should have the payment made first before gold is handed over?

As to regards on chargebacks, though leaving notes do not stand any ground, how about proof in pictures or video of trades taken? Can they be considered by paypal to win in favour of the person who have received the funds for virtual goods traded? Does anyone have had any experience on that and win on the chargeback?

In just a few days, we have recently seen MANY high repped NEW members who are in for a day showing interest to buy gold at higher prices then it really should. New sellers often fall into these traps, I know I did long ago. And its already too late.

I know it may be hard work for mods here to be able to monitor every new member that sign up here and do checks on them. Its not possible.

One can created 10 new names in this forum, and all give rep points to 1 new created name. But date of creation of members dont lie. Perhaps instead of just showing the Month joined, the date joined showed on the members name would be 1 small step towards showing how new the member is and how on earth it would be possible for a 1 day or 2 day or member get 10 rep points or more.

just my 2 gold worth of thoughts.

[somaliasky]

I think if you are new, you should buy/sell 10-20m a day and gradually build up your reputation and increase the transaction amount. I started like that not long ago, and I don't see why any new trader can't do it. If you want 100m the first day you trade on this forum, then it`s your problem.