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Bay · 07-11-2011 07:46 PM

[Image: How_To_Trade_Safely__Avoid_Scammers.png]

I believe this topic needs some much updates and clarifications.
It's very common knowledge that where there are sales, there are scammers.
Sadly, there isn't any miracle to get rid of scamming, but there is power in knowledge.
Scammers come in many shapes and sizes, a big way to avoid them is to know how to spot them.

[Image: readifscammed.png]

Contact staff with the following.

Link to the scammer’s profile. This is to prevent confusion if a username change occurs.
Link to the thread in question if it exists where you may have been scammed.
Search Scam Reports area for any existing threads with the scammer. Search by username and also uid. If everyone adds the users profile then UID will be very effective.
Post any images/screenshots that you can provide as evidence of the scam. Best option is to use the spoiler tags for images.

There can be a lot of confusion and frustration when it comes to buying products, especially very popular ones.
Make sure you familiarize yourself with the product by reading the ENTIRE post.
Go and read through all of the people who have purchased the product as well and note things such as how happy they are with the product, customer support, and so on.
Make sure that you read the Terms of Service, often abbreviated to ToS.
The user will often have refund policies, guarantees, and that they aren't responsible for your actions.
Ignorance is not a defense for when you are unhappy with a product.
If the seller clearly had addressed certain things in their ToS, then you accepted them when you bought the product, and sadly there is nothing that can be done.
Terms of Service is often used to protect the seller or company, it's pretty much like signing an online contract.

[Image: When_The_Deal_Is_too_Good.png]

Yes, this may seem obvious and something you've been fed since a child, but this is something that should definitely not be overlooked by a buyer, or even a seller.
You should look at the original post, then at the poster and ask yourself, "What's the catch?"
More than often, if it is much cheaper, it is stolen or gotten by illegal means.
Now depending on the product, this may be ok, but you need to make sure you can secure it if that's the case.
You should do research into the user that you are inquiring to buy or sell to; This will be talked about in our next section.
With Hack Forums being such a huge site and revolving around the world of hacking, many accounts and products may be loot from their actions.
Things such as Xbox Gamertags, Minecraft accounts, and many prevalent gaming accounts are made in the aspect of the owner being able to easily recover.
It doesn’t hurt to go into a sale’s thread with skepticism, but please try and be respectful and use ALL of the information in my you gather in my thread.
Much of being safe in doing a deal is having a cynical outlook upon the world and the internet.
You need to know that a lot people aren't who they put themselves out to be and who they say they really are.
Being cynical isn’t a crime, but don’t always get into a paranoid mindset, and staying in this mindset can lead to aggravation among the forum.
Lastly, you may want to view their threads to see how the success of their previous sales went.
If there are multiple unsuccessful threads selling the same item, it is usually a bad sign and they may be best to avoid.

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This is more prevalent than most of you would think.
In general, most scammers have fairly bad grammar that even users that learned English as a second language could point out.
Also be aware of the user telling you about "past experiences". The user will probably flat out refuse to go first due to expressing being scammed in the past.
I'd say over half of the people relaying this have the intention of scamming.
A lot of the times scammers will make up excuses, some of which I will insert here in a code box:

Quote:[User A: Hey man, I sent the money!]
[User B: Great, let me check!]
Situation A: [User B: Awww man, my internet is bugging out…]
Situation B: [User B: Huh, that’s weird, I can’t login to my PayPal account]
Situation C: [User B: I didn’t receive the payment, did you send it to the right address?]
Situation D: [User B: User B has logged off. Any messages sent will be sent once they come back.]

You can catch my drift by now. This is where capturing screenshots of the conversation comes in handy.
Screen capturing and keeping logs are discussed in another section, see the Index.
Remember, if you feel uneasy about something, it’s your decision on whether to go through with the deal or not.
If at any time something about the user you are dealing with seems odd, just simply back away.