actually banning scammers…?

watch out for dopestash!

One member accused dopestash of being a scammer, everyone else in his feedback thread gave him a positive review. I don't know the details of the case where he was accused of scamming another member, but I'm pretty sure Revolver looked into it and resolved the issue. He can chime in if that's not the case.

I can assure you that confirmed scammers who ignored mods messages and/or didn't resolve the problem they had with another member are permanently banned from the forum. A majority of the time, the mods are able to work with both members until the issue is resolved, if that can't be done, the scammer is banned. Yesterday a member PM'd me and made a thread accusing someone of scamming him, and I talked with both members and the issue was resolved this morning with a full refund because it was just a misunderstanding between them. We can't just ban someone the minute a member accuses them of scamming, we have to look into it and hear from both members involved and figure out what happened and if it can be resolved.

A confirmed scammer list is pointless because if a user is banned for scamming and they want to do it again, they can just register with a different name. That's why it's important to follow the rules and guidelines we've laid out in the sticky's in the marketplace. We have a sticky that warn users about the gift option on PayPal and we have guidelines for making trade agreement threads and people choose to ignore them. I can tell you that in both cases I've dealt with since I've been a mod, the users handled everything in PM's and the buyer paid the seller using the gift option on PayPal, which are two things we warn people not to do in the sticky's.

If someone is dedicated to trying to run scams in the marketplace here, an IP ban isn't going to keep them away for long. The point I'm trying to make is that if members would read the sticky's, which are at the top of the page in each marketplace forum, then sale threads and trade agreement threads would be created, the terms would be laid out in the thread, and both members will agree to the terms of the sale/trade in the thread before the transaction takes place.

The problem we're having is that people are ignoring the sticky's, they are handling everything in PM's, and they are paying with the gift option on PayPal. The minute you use the gift option to pay someone, you lose all support from PayPal, there is no longer any buyer protection. It's probably the best method of payment for a scammer to use, because you lose the option to dispute it with PayPal. A scammer probably won't make a thread agreeing to the terms of the trade and agree to be paid through a standard PayPal payment, which is why we ask users here to make a trade agreement thread and to be cautious of the gift option on PayPal. As I said before, in both cases I've dealt with since I've been a mod, the users handled everything in PM's and the payment was made using the gift option on PayPal.

If users here choose to ignore the sticky's and conduct a trade or sale that goes against all of our recommendations laid out in the marketplace, there isn't a lot we can do. We always work to try and resolve the issue if something doesn't go as planned, and in the event that we can't (which hasn't happened in the cases I've dealt with), the scammer is permanently banned. As a member here, you can always let us know if we've missed a thread that doesn't meet marketplace requirements by private messaging one of us or posting it in the feedback forum. You can also protect yourself as a buyer or trader by following the guidelines we've laid out in the sticky's.