The issue is that we have already tried many changes to stop a lot of the scamming. The issue is that if you have knowledge of cybersecurity you can easily find ways around the security features that are already implemented to create new accounts and just scam more. This occurs with any website at some point. There will never be a 100% way to stop scammers. However, this should eliminate some/most of them.
The second problem is that we are flooded with comments/messages/reports saying that we do nothing to stop scammers.
Either way people will be upset whether the change goes live or not. If it doesn’t go live it affects the buyers and we gain less traffic as most buyers are likely not to return if they are scammed on their first transaction. If the changes go live we upset the older sellers.
This was way down on the list of changes and we already attempted all the changes before it without gaining good results.
I understand everyones frustration and I see both sides of the argument. People want their privacy online.
On the other side of the coin the scammers are making tons of accounts that just get banned and then just create a new account. Personally I have banned the same scammer from here for over a year that makes roughly three to four accounts a day. I do not know how many scams are successful but we ideally want scams cut down drastically.
Edit: Heres one of the scammers as an example: Type in “system” using the search bar in the top right and scroll down to the usernames that start with system.
While you still haven’t answered my questions about polls, I believe that the mindset that admins/mods are mostly responsible for the scammers is where you could change. Who are these people saying you’re not doing enough to combat scammers?
Someone had already mentioned it in this thread, but people don’t really care about scammers until they become a victim themselves, and they only learn after being scammed. In that case, when Admins/Mods are already doing their due diligence in warning the community about scammers, common scams and their methods & banning known scammers, then why are we babying these people?
If these people who are flooding your messages/reports saying you’re not doing enough to stop scammers, are transacting with new sellers with a 3 day old account that only takes crypto (I also don’t trust EpicNPC Middlemen, and I won’t go first either even though my account is 3 days old!) and gets scammed, then I’m sorry but it’s completely your fault for being an absolute idiot.
These are the types of people who would pick up a phone call and buy $5,000 worth of gift cards to bail Prince Snetoyahazar from Nigeria out of his country so that he can take his $100 billion oil inheritance and come to your country to marry you.
When I was a new member, I dealt with only reputable sellers/buyers with confirmed feedback using G&S payment methods because sellers didnt trust me to use F&F. I was scammed twice and both times were completely my fault for ignoring the signs (new account, avoided MM). Members should absolutely not be blaming admin/mods for not covering their asses 24/7 just because they can’t be bothered to do their own research first. The only scams acceptable for falling for should be account recalls or payment chargebacks, unless it’s an exit scam from a long time member.
This is why financial institutions like banks do not cover their customer’s asses when they are scammed. There’s too much that is out of their control. Sure, you had a receipt from a restaurant that charged you more than stated? They’ll help. Someone broke into your account and stole your credit card info? They’ll help, that’s fraud. But if you bought $5,000 worth of gift cards to send to some Nigerian Prince out of your own volition? Tough luck.
Why should you be responsible for more than what a financial institution is responsible for? You guys literally just run a random forum for the gaming community. Note that I’m not criticizing the mods/admins, but honestly people need to own up to their actions. If they get scammed selling their $50 account, then so be it. They learn a lesson for such a small price compared to $5000. You can’t please everybody, so why not go with the majority through polls?
As for me? I’ll probably just have a trusted friend that already verified sell my stuff for me, since this change is going through anyways and I don’t want to verify myself.