How to trade safely

[Aes]

Hey, so i decided to write a guide about my own methods i use to 'screen' people to see how trusted they are and if it would be safe to trade with them. You might think some of these procedures are over the top but let me tell you, i have made well over 5000 trades in the past 6months and have never been scammed, not once. I'm not much of a guide writer or a good thread formatter but who cares, this is all good information so use it!
(have a killer headache atm so might change this around a bit later on)

1. First, before i do anything, when someone adds me on skype, i right click their name and view profile to check how much info they show, Some people dont show anything at all, others give a great deal of info. What i mainly look for (in this example im talking about a new member with a join date less than like 2 months old) is the amount of skype contacts they have. If they have for example, 2 or 3 people id see that as suspicious, who has 3 people on their Skype? could they have made a new Skype just for scamming? They might also have other information like phone number, country, etc. All good, useable info to gather.



2. My next step in 'screening' them would be putting their Skype name into the Ownedcore searchbox to find anything related to their Skype name. I also Google their Skype name for any results you may find related to trading etc. Most of the time you'll find something like old trades they have done, etc. This step is mainly to see if they have scammed in the past or any other interesting things.

NOTE: Don't google their skype display name, google their SKYPE NAME. For example, my skype name is aestyoc

Example of googling the skype user wow.exclusive:


3. Now after those 2 quick checks i start talking to the person, ask them things like have they bought xxxx before, have they read your thread, etc. Just chat with them for like 2-5mins see what they are like and make sure they understand your terms and read your faq.
A) Once your ready to trade, get them to post in your thread to verify who they are. Go to their Ownedcore profile, do a quick search on their recent posts if they have done any trades before, see how the trades went etc.
B) Now, if they are a new member 1 post 1 rep join date of that month or they are someone who doesn't even have an Ownedcore account, get them to make an account to post in your thread (most scammers want to trade already by now and your just annoying them)

4. Probably the last step here, if in step 3 you have found the info your looking for, see they are a trusted member whether they have done successful trades before or are a reputable member on the site id say its pretty damn safe to trade them them.

5. If you have found NOTHING at all on their Skype name, Ownedcore account (if they even have one), nothing at all. What i do is get them to link me their Facebook page to verify they are who they are. I match the name on Facebook to the name on their PayPal and on their Skype account(if they are using their name) if the person does link you their Facebook (or any other form of verification you want them to show you) and all information matches id say its a safe trade (Make sure the Facebook account is active, looks real like has friends, picture comments, whatever). If that person refuses to link you their Facebook for whatever reason (like they don't have Facebook or something like that) I would just avoid them, At that point you still have NOTHING on the person beside a Skype name. Even if they ARE a legit person who wont scam you, would you take that risk of losing your money?

6. Just use your common sense here, do YOU think they are trustworthy, do you think you have the info you need to verify them. Do you think you have enough info on them, when if something DOES happen, you can act using the information you gathered on them. this step cant be taught, purely relys on you and your judgement.


Now some of you might think this is a waste of time you just want the trade over and done with, but all it takes is literally 5 minutes to do all this, if you enjoy getting scammed for not spending 5 minutes checking everything is ok then this guide is not for you. So far doing all this i have never been scammed, now it might be my rank on the site but i have been scammed in the past selling unmerged accounts but that was only 2 cases but 1 of them was a long time ownedcore member and the other was just some idiot that didn't read my terms of service. I won both cases anyway. Now im not saying this guide is the only way to prevent you 100% from being scammed, but it will make it harder for the scammers to get you, make it a bigger hassle for them, etc.

I do still get contacted by scammers often, i normally weed them out by just searching their Skype name and finding them, some people are just stupid, yet, sometimes that's all it takes to find a scammer, LOTS of people i have helped who have been scammed, all it took for me was to google their Skype name to get 10+ results of them scamming people.


TL:DR
Don't be stupid with trading, take precautions
Don't trust the internet
Spend an extra 5 minutes to gather info about the buyer
Read the guide, not this part scrub, and take your left hand off your face

[Dante]

Contents:

I. How to spot a potential scammer and avoid being scammed

II. Trading Awareness! [How to minimize the risks of being scammed!]

III. Different scam methods

[adicutz]

I am doing pretty much the same, however the facebook thingie is quite cool.
Thanks for it, have some rep.