I'd happily pay £20 to scam someone out of a few 100* unfortunately it won't stop them.
To date no scammer has got even close to 50 posts. They contact users directly via PM hoping the recipient doesn’t check their post count or length of membership. The disturbing trend is to clone an established name, e.g. just closely misspell a letter, add an underscore or whatever, again trying to trick people who don’t check.
The only realistic options available to me are:
a) Just shit-can the whole classifieds area and have sales as trade & me only.
b) Keep the >50 post criteria and put the classified area on a locked/hidden annual subscription basis at say £20 per year. This would work well for me as I could really do with better monetising the site as I’m effectively losing >10% income a year at present (I’m just not covering inflation/energy prices etc, everything is going up except my income!).
c) Do nothing.
Being honest c) is the most likely.
D) tighten up the classified rules, ensuring all offers and negotiations take place via the forums and not PMs, and incorporate something like this https://www.postoffice.co.uk/identity/easyid which could be made mandatory for remote sellers (i.e. when shipping the items, not meeting up and trading in person) to prove to a buyer who they are, along with being required to provide their full contact details. Buyers could also be encouraged to have a quick video chat with a seller before parting with their money. It all might sound like a bit of a faff but I expect for the value of stuff being sold here, and the relative infrequency of which the average buyer or seller will do a deal, it's worth it for peace of mind.
B would be fine by me and will help us support what this site offers, but there is more you can do
This case is sad to read though. Unfortunately it's possible to fairly convincingly photoshop most things nowadays
Please NO! not another AV Forums. Tony really dosent want to be moderating the classifieds and that would add so much work and so much annoyance like the Av Forums.
'No' to which bit?
I have bought and sold numerous things through there and not once has it felt like an 'annoyance'. It's also a considerably larger forum than here which means any extra moderation aspect will be minimal on PFM's part.
"ensuring all offers and negotiations take place via the forums and not PMs"
This bit. This is how AVForums do it, and the moderation requirements are massively enhanced and the threads become absolutely ridiculous over time.
Tony really dosent want to be moderating the classifieds and that would add so much work and so much annoyance like the Av Forums.
Agreed. I really can’t afford to moderate the classified area, hence the current system that requires members to take responsibility themselves. Any change has to be automated or self administered, there really isn’t a moderation budget for this!
Personally I buy more from AV forums than any other forum but there are some right clowns on AV forums classifieds, I've literally seen people arguing over 50p.
The mod team over there take no shit though.
Perhaps each seller would agree to pay a fee to Tony? Eg 2, 3 or 5%? Up for debate?
Perhaps each seller would agree to pay a fee to Tony? Eg 2, 3 or 5%? Up for debate?
This has only happened here once to my knowledge. The legitimate account owner quickly let me know and I fixed it. As ever it is a lesson to use secure and unique passwords.