Suggestion, regarding safe trading on here

[Micky]

After my experiences, and hearing of at least one other member who got scammed, I was thinking, would it be a good idea to have a sub forum where bad sellers could be listed?

Also could be a place to name and shame eBay sellers that have ripped people off, but proof would be needed for legal reasons i guess. This would stop the scammers getting our members hard earned.

Kind of a place where moderators could add names of bad sellers, and good sellers that have been proven and trusted etc.

Discuss..

[dayene]

that's a good idea....

1. AZN

[Tommie]

Yes that wood be good and maybee send the bad sellers "scammers" ip
and info by a link to interpol..)

[tjeagles]

Also could be a place to name and shame eBay sellers that have ripped people off, but proof would be needed for legal reasons i guess. This would stop the scammers getting our members hard earned.



Discuss..

Also watch how the sellers write up there items as they can go in under new ids..... this happened to me not with the phone though and got email to sell private he did only get my private email cause l brought a buy it now item but never sent the money as ebay was onto him but two weeks later he came back different id but the format was the same and photos were so ebay was informed and he was taken off.

[psood21]

we can also do one thing...if anyone has to post an item here he/she should not be a newbie and at least should have around 100-150 posts....

[ralph]

GSi-R's

nice idea and ,maybe worth a try ........

however reading all the ebay / paypal / forum's advice section is a first start.

what tjeagles said about reporting suspicions can not be overstated !

AS a buyer if ( IF) you follow the rules you have a good chance on being refunded if things go wrong

as a seller don't use paypal for items costing more that the insurance covered by your courier / Royal Mail..........

limit the the ebay buyers / sellers naming good or bad to items directly linked to this sites field of interest........ and beware of slandering a good seller by mistake!


hope the idea works out


Ralph

[dayene]

it'll be nice too if someone that's planning to buy can ask us first what we think of the ebay seller or site they're going to buy from so we can inspect it and post suggestions.

[dayene]

so post a sticky that says, "before buying a n95/phone please read here".

[tjeagles]

so post a sticky that says, "before buying a n95/phone please read here".

Good Idea there !

[Micky]

Morning bump

[ziffos]

All good ideas and suggestions however I would recommend caution when thinking about "naming and shaming" as it would only take one "named" trader to start proceedings which would not just be against the individual buyer but also the forum "organisers". It would only take this one "trader" to win his case for it to "empty" the pockets of the individual buyer, the forum organisers and close down the forum.
Remember also that as defendant you would need to prove - totally and beyond doubt - that the trader was at fault and not just his item that was faulty.
I am sorry to perhaps "throw cold water" on the excellent ideas but I do speak from experience!!!!

What we could do however is list the "traders" where we have had good transactions.

[salada2k]

Unfortunately all of the methods you guys have mentioned will be ineffective. A user can sign up with any name at any time, so naming and shaming will not work. We can't limit it to people's post counts, as the figure would have to be relatively small and could be easily reached by someone who was motivated, in one night.

If we have a whitelist of traders they would have to trade a lot, at least more than once, and most people probably don't have that much N95 related items to sell, unless they are full blown and then would be appealing to a much bigger market with an ebay account, or even a company website.

The fact is there is no way to truly identify someone on the other end of a wire smashing away on a keyboard unless you are either extrememly skilled or have access to info that lot of us simply don't have. So when you enter into a transaction with someone, and you send your money into the ether, you'd better hope there is a trustworthy person on the other end, because if there isn't, you're screwed.

Site owner/moderators are currently debating this topic, and action to prevent further scams is being taken. More TBA.

[mariokarter]

Advice for transactions:
1)Seller gives buyer adress
2)buyer mails seller a unique whatever
3)Seller posts picture of unique something
4)Buyer pays
5)Seller sends item

now, if the buyer fails to recieve the item, they simply report "the resident of ..." to the police. perhaps not 100% foolproof but better than nothing for forum transactions.

[salada2k]

6) Seller denies everything?

You see the problem is that nothing can in fact be guaranteed, people pinch mail from mailboxes and scammers probably have a mail box/address set up for that exact kind of thing. Plenty of examples in 419's.

[mariokarter]

6) Seller denies everything?

You see the problem is that nothing can in fact be guaranteed, people pinch mail from mailboxes and scammers probably have a mail box/address set up for that exact kind of thing. Plenty of examples in 419's.

Yeah, I agree. The seller could totally operate out of a church address or some other public place where they could intercept the mail/money with arousing suspition. But seriously, why even do a transaction over forums at all? Do it over ebay and pay with a credit card for buyer protection, on items which don't have stock images, from people with good feedback (from people that arn't new accounts), and remember that if the price is too good to be true it is likely a scam even if you can get your money back. Or just buy from dell/amazon/walmart/,insert reputable retailer of choice>.

[Micky]

All good points, and all welcomed. Keep them coming folks.

What about implementing something into the forums software that auto-detects if an IP address is registered as another user?

[mancini86]

well i'm about to buy an expensive phone from a forum member

he seems legit but what do I have to go on other the his word?

[Micky]

Who's the member?

[ralph]

"well i'm about to buy an expensive phone from a forum member

he seems legit but what do I have to go on other the his word?"

nothing !

you do have better protection as a buyer if IF IF you follow the rules.

If you pay him use a credit card through paypal or/and consider collecting it so as to inspect it .


have a read of eBay View About Me for bella*s-posting

Ralph

[Calamity]

great points from everyone. and its a shame some things cant be implemented as effectively as we'd like them to be, i honestly feel the best and probably only way to help it out is education on the subject.

what to look for, what to avoid, how to make transactions so that things can be better resolved if you DO get scammed.

[ziffos]

well i'm about to buy an expensive phone from a forum member

he seems legit but what do I have to go on other the his word?

Simple - pay him by Paypal but using your credit card to fund the transaction.
If anything goes wrong with either the "deal" or the item then your credit card company is jointly responsible with the "seller" for your problem and will re-imburse you.

[rofsilk]

Well taking into account that you are about to buy an expensive item, I did the best I could to insure you wouldn't be scammed. Let's see, I've done the following:
Post my ebay account id with feedback for review
The ebay account is several years old (bought and sold)
I said u can email the ebay account and I would respond to confirm
I took a pic of the item with current newspaper so u can verify
I met w/another user on the forum to verify the fon is authentic and legit
The other forum user, guru status, confirms possession and authencity

I am not sure what else can be done to put your mind at ease. I understand you're not taking a stab at me, per se, however, if u continue to feel uneasy then may I suggest you buy from a store? It may cost you heck of a lot more but then that is the price of peace of mind, right?