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WTS Red Flags on BST

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The community is so great and friendly and it's sad to see that there are uncaring people who come to ruin this forum.

Would it be possible to have a seller's rating like you can find on eBay, for example? It must be a lot more complex to integrate than I think but it would be a good way to at least have an idea!
 
It's sad when sometimes even general guidelines don't apply.

I actually am still waiting on a purchase from a member here for two months now and all I can say is if something in a transaction feels off, always better be safe than sorry and move on.
 
KasumiJLA said:
The community is so great and friendly and it's sad to see that there are uncaring people who come to ruin this forum.

Would it be possible to have a seller's rating like you can find on eBay, for example? It must be a lot more complex to integrate than I think but it would be a good way to at least have an idea!
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I've mentioned this idea before and I think it would be great to have. We also can have it vice versa for buyers as well. If it is too complicated to integrate it, we can DM a mod/admin with proof of a successful sale and they can add it to our profile.
 
cleanfil said:
It's sad when sometimes even general guidelines don't apply.

I actually am still waiting on a purchase from a member here for two months now and all I can say is if something in a transaction feels off, always better be safe than sorry and move on.
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You’re new. They prey on people like you. The general guideline is that you use goods and services.
 
I don't want it to seem more of a problem than it is. If memory serves, there were two maybe three transactions where someone got ripped off in the last year. And there are a lot of transactions on here.

"Rating" sellers would be an administrative nightmare that I for one want no part of.
 
daveb said:
I don't want it to seem more of a problem than it is. If memory serves, there were two maybe three transactions where someone got ripped off in the last year. And there are a lot of transactions on here.

"Rating" sellers would be an administrative nightmare that I for one want no part of.
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That's actually a very low rate vs other "marketplaces" like this.

I will say one common and best practice that I ve seen when doing a WTB post is requiring someone to reply to your post with "DMd". Let's community see who is pinging you as well.
 
The other side of the issue is that selling to new members or members with low activity using G&S should be done carefully by the sellers. PayPal very often sides with the buyer, so sellers should be careful too. Even worse to sell G&S to someone outside of the US.
 
Barmoley said:
The other side of the issue is that selling to new members or members with low activity using G&S should be done carefully by the sellers. PayPal very often sides with the buyer, so sellers should be careful too. Even worse to sell G&S to someone outside of the US.
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This is very true as well. A lot of shipping scams with fake tracking and especially PayPal dispute scams.

Unfortunately it's bad for buyer and seller both but good thing is that 99 percent of the community here is legit.
 
Corradobrit1 said:
It seems the greatest opportunities for the scammer are when they have control of a Zombie account. The unsuspecting buyer sees when they joined and if the knife is a so called 'unicorn' or flavour of the month, will jump to secure the 'deal', assuming the seller is established on the forum. It might be good housekeeping to retire any accounts that have been inactive for say 3 years.
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Barmoley said:
Or at least suspend them. This is a red flag if someone hasn't posted in years and then starts selling. Can be real, but caution is warranted.

I am still missing a difference between someone requesting paypal ff only vs wise, zelle, money order, etc. In theory anyone requesting anything other than PayPal g&s or venmo with purchase protection is asking for the same and should be reported?
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Hacking old accounts is a new phenomena here but it led to at least one of the "rip offs" that have come to the mods attention in the last year.

Forums live and die based on member numbers but I'll ask to explore the feasibility of at least shutting down bst for dormant accounts.
 
daveb said:
Hacking old accounts is a new phenomena here but it led to at least one of the "rip offs" that have come to the mods attention in the last year.

Forums live and die based on member numbers but I'll ask to explore the feasibility of at least shutting down bst for dormant accounts.
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I count at least 2 occasions of old accounts being hacked and used for selling in the last several months. Both were very convincing at first sniff. The knives offered would have encouraged a rapid purchase decision lest it was lost to another buyer. While the mods are only human, some reports took a couple of hours to see a response, by which time many buyers could have fallen victim. These unicorns are seeing triggers pulled within minutes of the post appearing.

Maybe Barmoley's suggestion for the account to be inactivated but not deleted ie lose posting rights etc, requiring the owner to double authenticate to reactivate full posting privileges, is a good one. Having to go through a vetting process might discourage the scammy fraternity.
 
Metallicats44 said:
A search on Google and Instagram of the username and Paypal email has helped me confirm legitimacy a couple times. A lil sleuthing can go a long way.
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True. And always google the email address the seller provides. One that comes back with zero hits is a big red flag and indicates it was likely created to facilitate the scam.

Another slightly more obscure test of veracity is to check the EXIF file of photos. Often the file stores the GPS location and the date taken. Either one could expose the scammer.
 
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My experience: most scamming comes from direct conversations after WTB posts.

All those scammers use images of older posts and fake them very professionally.

Is it technically possible to hide images of for example posts older than 3 months until a new member has made for example 50 posts in forums other than BST? Same for opening a conversation and post in BST?
 
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Barmoley said:
The other side of the issue is that selling to new members or members with low activity using G&S should be done carefully by the sellers. PayPal very often sides with the buyer, so sellers should be careful too. Even worse to sell G&S to someone outside of the US.
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Honestly this is my main concern as a frequent seller here, and I don’t see how it reconciles with the rules as set out by @daveb

As an example, I have a WTS and someone messages me wanting to buy. They are a new member with little or no activity on the forum, so I decline payment via G&S in order to avoid falling victim to a dispute scam (which has happened to me before). Am I in the wrong? Because from the earlier guidance that sounds like it would be a reportable offence.
 
Ok__mode_6953 said:
Honestly this is my main concern as a frequent seller here, and I don’t see how it reconciles with the rules as set out by @daveb

As an example, I have a WTS and someone messages me wanting to buy. They are a new member with little or no activity on the forum, so I decline payment via G&S in order to avoid falling victim to a dispute scam (which has happened to me before). Am I in the wrong? Because from the earlier guidance that sounds like it would be a reportable offence.
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Just because it might be reported does not mean any action would be taken. If you are a legitimate seller nothing to worry about. I would also politely refuse to sell to a new member with little history on the forum. They are then free to offer a different means of payment ie not G&S if they really want the item. The ball is in their court.
 
Forum could still take actions against what happens in DMs. Also allowing critical comments in sale posts could be good. Issues such as bad pics and condition not accurately shown should be fair game to mention in comments.
 
Anything based on 'reputation' or trade history mostly creates a false sense of security that makes it all the more attractive to abuse hacked accounts. And not only dormant accounts have been hacked in the past.

Using common sense IMO is still the most important... and also why - at least when buying - using someting that offers proper buyer protection makes so much sense.

As to how to protect sellers against scamming buyers... I'm at a loss. Caveat venditor? The downside of F&F and G&S that both of them always offload all the risk to one party...
 
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