This is the biggest problem. People shouldn't be vouching for them until it is clearly not a scam and irrevocable. They also need to undo any recommendation if they need to for any reason.
Agreed. It’s also possible that the scammers do complete a couple small transactions fully to get house legit users to vouch for them, and then find a big fish to scam. Buying a few little things like lounge passes for $20 is a small cost in a subsequent scam for a few thousand.
The other thing to remember is that someone “vouching for a member” does not necessarily mean that that new member is trustworthy. If the new member paid first and then you sent them whatever you sold, all you now know is that they exist and did a deal. You do NOT know that they’re trustworthy- they did precisely nothing that required trust.
Short of some verification system on DDF (which I don’t think is necessary), I’d just not trade with new members. Personally, when someone PMs about a transaction, the first thing that I do is look at their post history. Even if their account is a year or two old, if all they’ve ever posted about was buying/selling a few specific things, to me that’s still a bit of a red flag. I try to deal with people who have posted meaningfully in other threads outside of GFST. (I say meaningfully as it’s easy enough to post a simple “Thanks” or something to get some posts outside of GFST.) It’s not foolproof, but it’s just something I’d recommend.
Lastly, I’d say that IF people place any weight on
this thread:
1. Anything there that’s posted by a relatively new member should be disregarded.
2. Maybe all posts there should include something like:
- Member Name
- Transaction value
- Did the member actually do anything that required trust? (Seems second paragraph above.)
/.02