P O S S I B L E ... S C A M M E R ... A L E R T - Page 3  

for WTBs...

for the 'wanted to buys', pretty easy to get them to post a pic with some detail specifically asked for, eg, two boxes of matches in a figure T formation in front of the item, or, more easily specific words on paper.

I am newish here and freak out a lil about bad timing to be a new member (on a mission to get some headphones), as being eager to buy, makes me look troublesome.

I think the WTBs would have the real issues, as with buyers like myself, purchasing from a trusted member, the item would only be shipped once the paypal goes through,..
(yes I read the previous post stating a long time member did accrue a lil extra holiday money!)

Anyhow I have seen which hunts happen on forums, and it is sad cause the otherwise joyus forum gets a big divide and an emotional upset, and well the stuff that binds us is the will to enjoy our hobby, and be surrounded by like people, friends, who we trust.

Cheers, too.. I am glad to finally be a member here.. I have oft been led to these pages when looking for reviews and information over the years.

Just curious...since a sale will happen only after the buyer sends the money via paypal or some other, how can a buyer scam the seller? By saying he hasn't received the item? But that can be easily proved by shipping with proper tracking info. right ?

I haven't read through all of this thoroughly and I'm not going to, but I see a lot of talk about people "who just joined," and I had someone interfere with my own completely legitimate sales thread, pointing out that I was surely a scammer, despite my having disclosed everything about my own original purchase of what I was selling, short of posting my Visa number.

Why is it so difficult to imagine that someone might register in order to sell something, as opposed to registering in order to ask a question, criticize a gadget, etc?

If you want to have a policy against new forum users selling, then create the policy. Until then... Well, I would like to type something less than decorous here, but I won't.

It doesn't seem to me that you're handling sales on the forum, and the danger inherent in allowing sales, very well. These stickies alone make it look like a lot of bluestockings having fits of hysteria.

Establish procedures, and require buyers and sellers to stick to them. Are there any procedures--any at all?

And just now I see this, in another sticky: "PS: Be very cautious of any non-For Sale thread posts where someone says something like: "I'm thinking of selling my XXXX . How much do you think I can get for it?" This can often be bait designed to get people to quickly respond via email or PM hoping to be the first to scoop an item before it officially goes up for sale. A scammer can sell the same item many times over to different people this way, without any public posting to tip everyone off."

This strikes me because: I myself nearly made just such a thread! Do you know why? Because I wondered how much I could get for my IEM. Instead, I made a "best offer" sales thread, and was criticized for that.

Rant over. Talk amongst yourselves.

There was a 50 post prerequisite to post in the FS forums, but mods found that people just posted garbage just to get to 50 posts, so it was let go of. Alec, you don't really need to worry, not everyone is out to get every new forumer, I've dealt with some myself no problem. There is a difference between an honest mistake like yours and a deliberate action. Nobody expects you to know every single rule or thing that is frowned upon, chances are someone will kindly let you know. Note that the person who claimed you were a scammer was a known troll. You provided full disclosure, you had nothing to worry about. Head-Fi isn't a vicious place.

The problem is that new members generally aren't as invested in the community, so it is much easier for someone to pull up their roots after they scam someone. It's profiling, but that doesn't make it ineffective. One does not see long-time members scamming each other...

search trose49.

actually, on all the forums I frequent, PM deals are forbidden, everything must be done and confirmed on the public sales threads, then PM's are only used for personal data exchange.

the first person who says "I'll take it for the price you ask" gets the deal = no scam possible, and hot items go the fastest buyer.

but I'm not suggesting anything or trying to learn anyone how to run a forum, so don't make me say what I didn't say

That sounds good.

Wow interesting, never thought of that... but I'm sure making everything public would have its own fair share of problems too, and doesn't really stop scammers if they're "good"

Did the scammer happen to have six fingers on one of his hands?

i'd think making everything public will create a huge mess on the for sale forums, where the buyer has to scroll all the way to the bottom to see the newest offer for his item

"My name is Indigo Montoya, you killed my father, now prepare to die."

There is a forum here in Portugal that solved that well.. to gain access to the sales forum you have to meet certain metrics but they never announced which. It is automatic but might depend on several factors... perhaps the age of the registration, the number of posts (unknown) or other metrics like maybe replies to your posts. Fact is, people end up getting access by the time they are "mature" at the site and you can't really speed things up by overposting since you're never sute of what will trigger the change.

Most of the "minor" scams are perpetrated by new members, yet the bigger scams are usually by long-time members.