Scams and Reporting scammers

Alright ya'll I think it's time we make a sub-forum on scammers and reporting them. I don't think this should be strictly limited to the "WTB" function on the "For Sale" forum, but to all types of payments and transactions where one is trusting another with receiving an item and payment getting thoroughly processed. I think most people are aware of the fact that there are clear indicators that point towards a potential scam such as a user having a suspicious name, little to no activity on their account, the user being new, as well as the user asking you to pay through shady money services that don't require verification or receiving money back guarantee's on scams. 

The main reason for wanting to set something up like this is that scammers are sometimes clever and don't have to fit all these requirements. One of my friends had gotten scammed on a posting he made where he was asking to buy a pair of relatively cheap camalots and when he received a message from a "trusted user", he had sent the money but the person hadn't shipped the item or completed the transaction in any way. He also lost complete contact with the person where he couldn't get his money back and was scammed out of hundreds of dollars. I had received multiple replies from people who had accounts like this but I was lucky enough to spot those connections I had seen in my friends interaction, but others may not be so lucky. What I'm asking is if it's possible to create a forum that reports these users and their profile so that we can make buying on this website a more trustworthy environment. This could sound crazy but it would be really nice to have a forum dedicated to these kinds of interactions.

A sticky thread at the top of the FS forum ought to do it.

What is a "trusted user"? 

You can get your money back through PayPal, unless you make the mistake of paying via "family and friends."

A forum for potential scammers will not work and you may sweep up some valid users. And MP might get sued for mistakenly identifying someone as a potential scammer.

Caveat emptor.

$8 blue check marks?

Good ideas unfortunately the onx overlords don't give a rats ass about what happens on mountain project.

Daniel Chode Riderwrote:

Good ideas unfortunately the onx overlords don't give a rats ass about what happens on mountain project.

Why should they - or anyone - care about adult teenagers?

WF WF51wrote:

Why should they - or anyone - care about adult teenagers?

The forums are 2% traffic on MP. Realistically whoevers running the site should not care about the forums and rather spend time improving the functionality of the database. 

To give one blatant example, make the fixed hardware database editable by someone other than the page author, dammit! It's completely useless at the current time.

Asking the right questions during a transaction is extremely important. Also theres a big difference between “trusted” users that you see comment here and there and trusted sellers with established history. I also keep a list of shady individuals I’ve previously dealt with and after you’re on said list I’ll never respond to you again, no matter how good the deal. Those guidelines have kept me safe in putting together my full ice and rock rack (100% of it came used from the forum over ~20 or so transactions) over the past 2 years. I’m not sure that making this sticky would even help as the thief’s will just make a new account with a new name and unaware people will continue to bite on the “too good to be true” deal.