A Beginner's Guide to the Sythe Market

Hey guys! I have put hours into this thread and am still trying to improve it. If you have time, I would really appreciate it if you left a quick comment or some constructive feedback about the layout, content, or anything that comes to mind.
If this guide prevented one scam, then it was worth the time I put into it.
Thankyou all!

The Sythe Market​

Hello guys. If you're reading this guide, you have come across the Sythe.org marketplace, one of the largest on the internet trading bases out there. With greatness, though, comes responsibility. This guide will help outline the proper etiquette, methods, and most importantly the safety measures (a.k.a. anti-scam methods) that are necessary to use the marketplace to its fullest.

To begin, if you have not yet done this, please read through the official sythe.org rules. These are guidelines as to how Sythe members should act toward each other, including punishments for certain offences.
Offical Sythe.org Rules

Before we begin, I am going to leave you with three extremely important words of advice which I will constantly refer to. I can not emphasize these enough!

1. If you EVER feel unsafe in a trade, do not hesitate to stop a trade, even if it is an amazing deal. I seriously mean any doubt.
   
   
2. Always take video and screenshots of any trade and any detail that you can possibly get your hands on.
   
   
3. NEVER accept Paypal from untrusted Users.

Table of contents:
1a: Conducting a Trade

1b: Purchasing Goods or Services
1c: Selling Goods or Services​

2a: Dissecting the Sythe User.

3a: Some Common Scams to Watch out For.

4a:What is a Middleman and how do I use it?

5a: I got Scammed. What do I do now?




Conducting a Trade
Unlike many websites which sell gold and offer services that you can find on Sythe, we are powered by the trades of other players rather than a stockpile being sold by a single website. This provides benefits such as cheaper pricing and better customer service, but it can also pose problems as many members have been known to take advantage of our site and scam other players of their resources.


Purchasing Goods or Services

Head to the Market section. Once there, follow the sub-forums to find the specific type of trade you are looking for. ​

From here, search for an offer that fits your needs. There are literally hundreds of these being posted each day! ​

Once you click on an offer, you will be directed to their selling page which should include all information regarding the trade!​

Contacting your Seller:

Once you have chosen a safe looking seller, you're going to want to get in touch with him.

This can be done by posting on the seller's thread or Sending him or her a Private Message. It is important to include your preferred method of trading and what you wish to trade in this message.

Soon, the seller should contact you with more information.
​

Negotiating and Conducting the Trade

This is a very simple process which must be treated with utmost care. During your conversation with the seller, make sure that you discuss everything on the checklist provided below. ​

• The Player's Identity has been Confirmed
  
• You have conducted a survey regarding the safety of the seller
  
• All aspects of the trade have been agreed upon
  
• A middleman had been contacted to help perform the trade

Conducting the Trade

If you are using a middleman, he or she will be able to walk you through the trade easily. If not, please refer below to ensure a safe trade. ​

If you are going first in the trade:

• Exercise EXTREME Caution in any Case
  
• Double check that both parties agree to each other's terms
  
• Make sure that you are delivering the goods to the correct character
  
• Collect evidence of your delivery
  
• Request Payment

• 
  

If you are going second in the trade:

• Make sure that both parties have agreed to all terms
  
• Receive your goods from the other player
  
• Make sure that you are delivering to the right character
  
• Deliver the goods to the other player

Leave a Vouch of Integrity

After a successful trade, many Sythe users will request that you vouch them.

Vouches should only be posted on a Sythe.org vouch thread.

They should include details of the trade, and then whatever you would like to throw in.

To create a vouch thread, please Click Here!​

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Selling Goods or Offering your Services

To post up your offer, simply direct yourself to the sub-forum in the marketplace that applies to what you are selling.

Once here, press the large "New Topic" icon and you will be lead to the thread interface.

From here describe your offer in a post, provide contact information, and add whatever you like to spice up your thread! ​

The following is a great example of a very satisfactory gold selling thread.
This came from a new user who got his gold sold fast and safely!




Bumping and Advertising

Bumping: You are permitted to comment on your thread once every 8 hours with a simple message like "bump.". This will send it to the top of the sub-forum!

By going to (UserCP>> Edit Signature) you can edit a link into your signature. Especially if you're community involved, this is a great way to get your thread noticed!
​

Conducting the Trade

All of the precautions used in buying a product should be followed here. Please refer to "Negotiating and Conducting the Trade" and "Conducting the Trade" above!​

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Dissecting A Sythe User

The most important thing you can do to stay safe is to know who you are trading with. To get a good idea of how "Safe" the player you are trading with is, you should consider many things, including:​

• Number and Quality of Vouches
• User Icons
• Join Date
• Post Count

Vouches

Vouches are the most important factor in determining how well you can trust a Sythe user.

To observe these vouches, you need to view the other users vouch thread. There will normally be a link in the users signature to his vouch thread, or you can request it.

If the user has no vouches, then you should be VERY careful in trading him or her.​

Quantity

The sheer number of vouches a player is an important factor to consider.

Some players have dozens of vouches for upgrading player accounts (under $10 each). But do not have many high value vouches.

This means that this user might be trusted with low value trades but not high value trades! ​

Quality:

The Quality of a vouch can be determined by it's value, trading method, and integrity of the voucher. ​

Trading Method:

The trading method can make or break the value of a vouch.

An important thing to consider in a vouch is "who went first" in the trade.

If the vouched player delivered his end first, It does not show any sign of trust.

If the vouched player delivered the goods second it may be a good sign that that use is trustworthy up to or less than the value of those vouches​

Value

The value of the vouch is also important. If a player has a genuine vouch for $500, it is much more notable than one for $5! ​

Integrity

Many people create multiple files to leave themselves vouches which were not earned.

The best way to determine whether a vouch has any integrity is to click the symbol and view the original vouch.

If the user seems trustworthy, it is probably a valid vouch. If there is no symbol or the vouch seems fake, please report it to a moderator immediately! ​

User Icons

User icons are extremely important in determining how trustworthy a Sythe User may be. They can be found under the user image. A good example are the icons outlined below from the user "Snow Patrol".​

What do these icons mean?




Anyone with one of these ranks I would deem immediately trust worthy to go first to in many trades on Sythe. They are either Administrator, Ex-Administrators, or have been granted the very rare rank of "Highly Trusted" by the owner of the website, Sythe.





(Or any moderator rank)


If a player has any of these ranks, you will also be expected to go first or use a legitimate OMM in a trade. They are extremely trustworthy. Even so, it is not advised to put all of your trust into any user when handling trades of very high value.




If a player has a trade with caution, you should take extreme care in trading him. This rank is generally given because the staff believe he or she is a threat to the website.





Under no circumstances should you ever trade a user with these rank. These are given because the user has broken the Sythe rules/Scammed or the user believes that the security of his or her file has been compromised.



Understanding Donator Ranks

Donator ranks are given to acknowledged contributions to Sythe.org.
They can be used to show some integrity in trading.

For example, if a player has a $5 donation rank, you will want to consider all other aspects of that payer before deciding on how you will conduct your trade. If he or she has a $1000 donation rank, though, you can be fairly sure that you can trust that person with many trades under their donated value.​

Post Count and Join Date

A high post count (especially in the thousands) and an early join date (generally 2005-2008) shows some signs of integrity. You should never let this be the basis of your decision on whether to trust a user.​

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Some Common Scams to Watch For

Paypal Scams:

Paypal is NOT safe. Although there are many different methods of payment on Sythe Paypal is undoubtedly the largest. However, be extremely cautious when accepting paypal from a player. Paypal does NOT support the trade of virtual goods so the buyer can many times request his money back! Only accept paypal from members who you deem trusted. ​

Teamviewer Scams:

It is suggested that you never let another player control your computer through teamviewer for any reason. He has the potential to drop all of your valuable items before you trade!
​

The "Rushed" Trader:

Many times a potential trader will you offer a very good deal but explain that they are very rushed and you must trade them soon or lose their offer. If this is a scammer, he or she will be trying to make you frantic, getting you to trade first. Be very cautious around these types of trades. Remember, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.​

The Imposter:

This is probably the most common method of trapping a player into a scam, and is the easiest to prevent. Many times a player will create a msn address that is extremely similar to that of a trusted member. Their goal is to trick you into thinking that they are actually the trusted member. This can be prevented by carefully comparing the msn of who you are talking to and ALWAYS asking for a private message on Sythe before you conduct any trade.​

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What is a "Middleman" and how do I use it?
Middlemen are users who agree to hold the goods involved in both the buyer and seller's agreement, and redistribute it after the agreement has been confirmed.

User A is selling User B 100m gold for $60.

Both users have agreed to use a middleman.

After everything has been agreed, User A will trade the gold to the middleman.

The middleman will then confirm that he has received the gold and give confirmation for User B to send the payment.

After the payment has been confirmed, the middleman will deliver the gold to User B.​

How do I choose my middleman?

Middlemen are divided into two simple groups: Official Middlemen and Unofficial. An "Official Middleman" has already gone through a vigorous process and has been deemed trustworthy by the upper staff.

OMMs will have the following rank:

​

Regular Middlemen vs. "OMMs"

It is completely up to you and your trade partner who you choose as a middleman.

Many OMMs charge fees which may not be worth it if you are only trading for a couple dollars.

There are also many well known, trusted regular middlemen.​

Some helpful links:
Sythe.org Middleman Section
FireZ OMM Services [Free for Tips/ $250+]
Any Official Middlemen are Listed Here
​

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I got Scammed. What do I do?
This is where all that evidence that you collected during your trade comes into play. If something goes wrong in a trade and you get scammed you're going to need to compile a scam report against the other user, providing enough evidence to get that player banned from the site.
This is a very simple process. There are three easy steps in filing a report:

1. Visit the "Report a Scammer" Section [link]
2. Find the template that concerns you in Blupig's sticky "Templates for Reporting a Scammer -- MUST USE!" [Link]
3. Create your topic, fill out the template, and upload all significant evidence.

Good Evidence:

• Videos of any sort regarding the trade
• Screenshots of MSN Conversations (not logs)
• Confirmation of the Delivery of Goods [Example]
• Confirmation of Payment
• Screenshots which show that the MSN of the scammer matches the MSN that the Sythe user gave you.

Bad Evidence

• MSN Chat Logs
• Edited Screenshots or Videos
• Evidence Which Does Not Connect the Scammer [via. Username, MSN, etc.] to his/her Sythe Profile

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Thankyou for reading my guide. For further information please refer to these links and stay safe on Sythe!
Thankyou Stui for helping compile the "Helpful Link" section.
Thankyou SuF for his extensive feedback.

Other Helpful Guides

• Sythe.org FAQ
• How To Avoid Getting Hacked by HappyFace01010
• Uploading and posting pictures by SuF
• How to Catch a Ban Evader by Stui
• How To Always Catch Your Scammer by Shoopadoop
• How To Avoid Frauded Paypals By RS2PLEASENT
• How To Catch a Mils/GP Scammer By Dingo212
• A WalkThrough Of Sythe.org by Lordhooters
• How To Make A Successful Trade by WeRNIS
• How To Post A Thread Selling Your Runescape Account by blade bro4
• How to Make a Successful Account Trade [Very Detailed] by SmperFidelis
  

​

Any staff member has permission to edit this for grammatical and factual errors.

 

It seems you've put a lot of time and effort into this and have delivered a fantastically described guide.

I can definitely see this benefiting and assisting any newcomer alike.

Great job.

 

Thankyou Jeff. That mean's a lot
Do you think that I should add a table of contents with ctrl-F links?
I think it may just look cluttered.

 

lol everyone has taken my useful guides part

 

I got permission and I cited you though

 

its useful , I didn't know the part from Paypal scammers
thank you ;D

 

Bump.

 

thanks for the tips! great guide!

 

You're very welcome!
If you have any constructive input please don't hold back

 

Nice guide, most thing I allready now

 

Very good and informative guide. Will help a lot of sythes users!

 

Thankyou for your feedback guys!
If you have any ideas at all for additions, structure, improvements please don't hold back!

 

I read this guide, and I thought this was perfect for newbies/new marketers. Great job, it looked like you put in your time/effort, and it paid off. Also, hope you don't mind if I also link your guide in mine?

 

No problem! Thankyou for the feedback!

 

Still waiting for feedback from SuF, but kindly accepting any given advice. I'm constantly trying to improve this guide

 

I'ma lazy bum is all. My first impression is that the guide is really hard to sit down and read. There is inconsistent formatting throughout and a lot of whitespace that makes finding where your eyes should go hard. I really don't like the whole quoting the numbered bullets as the quote box distracts you from what you really should be looking at. Compare these:

1. The Player's Identity has been Confirmed
   To confirm the identity of the player, it is extremely important that you request a pm on Sythe from the player you are trading. NEVER conduct a trade without pm confirmation that you are discussing or conducting a trade.
2. You have conducted a survey regarding the safety of the seller
   Please refer to "Dissecting the Average Sythe User" at the end of this guide before conducting any trade.
3. All aspects of the trade have been agreed upon
   Make sure that the price, nature of the trade, etc. have been confirmed. Double check that you're talking to the right person!
4. A middleman had been contacted to help perform the trade
   Unless the user you are purchasing from is extremely trusted, a middleman is of utmost necessity. It will greatly reduce the likelihood of a scam, and make the trade smoother as a whole.

I really find the second one to be much smoother than the first so everything flows better. Secondly, instead of making the person jump around the guide or being limited to short sentences in small font about what each number means, you could do the list as more of a table of contents of this section and then proceed to explain more in depth right after the list. That way people can do a quick glance to make sure they've covered all their bases or they can read through the guide and learn it all easily.

You may also want to reorder the guide slightly so that it follows the path that a real trade would follow. Mainly, start with finding a trade (buying or selling) and then proceed to vetting the person, agreeing on terms, finding an MM, avoiding scams during the trade, and finally end with vouching the person or whatever. I just feel that preventing scams is one of the most important parts of any new market guide and those should be closer to the top instead of just stuck at the bottom.

One thing I really like is this:

Good Evidence:

• Videos of any sort regarding the trade
• Screenshots of MSN Conversations (not logs)
• Confirmation of the Delivery of Goods [Example]
• Confirmation of Payment
• Screenshots which show that the MSN of the scammer matches the MSN that the Sythe user gave you.

Bad Evidence

• MSN Chat Logs
• Edited Screenshots or Videos

Not really the content but the fact that it stands out very well and lists the important information in a clear concise. Doing something like this for the steps of avoiding a scam as a checklist for someone to use as they are trading would be great as it sticks right now and is a list... because its easy to follow lists... Just check stuff off and its easy to go back and see if your forgot anything.

Also:

Learn​

to​

use​

indentation.​

It makes it VERY clear what belongs in which section so its very easy to figure out what section your are reading and easy to find the section you are looking for. Example: http://sythe.org/showthread.php?t=1230245

Compare:

Layout:

The way in which your information appears on the page will make or break your guide. I’m just going to list some suggestions since layout could be a guide in itself:

Do not center anything but your title:

This is mainly a personal preference, but centering text makes it extremely hard to read. The lines start at different places and end at different places which has a jarring effect when there is more than one line. If you do choose to center your guide anyways, do not use bullets. Bulleting and centering do not play nice together and it looks stupid when people do it, so don’t.​

Make your headings stand out:

Underline them, make them bigger, change the color, change the font, do whatever. There needs to be an indication to the reader that something is a header and not more body text. However, do not go extreme with the headings. Do something subtle and just enough to get the point across. Large, underlined, bright pink headings just look ugly.​

Use indentation:

If you are left justifying your guide, indent your body text under your headings. It makes it easier to read your headings, which makes them stand out better and it just looks nice.
​

Use whitespace:

Whitespace is just any character that is invisible (tab, enter, space, etc). Use whitespace to break up your guide into reasonable sections. This makes it easier to navigate as well as read.​

To:

What to watch out for: Scamming and Common Methods of Scamming


Be scared of Paypal. Be very Scared. : There are many different methods of payment on Sythe, with Paypal being undoubtedly the largest. Be extremely cautious when accepting paypal from a player though. Paypal does not support the trade of virtual goods so the buyer can many times request his money back! Only accept paypal from members who you deem trusted.

Teamviewer Scams: It is suggested that you never let another player control your computer through teamviewer for any reason. He has the potential to drop all of your valuable items before you trade!

The "Rushed" Trader: Many times a potential trader will you offer a very good deal but explain that they are very rushed and you must trade them soon or lose their offer. If this is a scammer, he or she will be trying to make you frantic, getting you to trade first. Be very cautious around these types of trades. Remember, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

The Imposter: This is probably the most common method of trapping a player into a scam, and is the easiest to prevent. Many times a player will create a msn address that is extremely similar to that of a trusted member. Their goal is to trick you into thinking that they are actually the trusted member. This can be prevented by carefully comparing the msn of who you are talking to and ALWAYS asking for a private message on Sythe before you conduct any trade.

To:

Some Common Scams to Watch For

Paypal Scams:

Paypal is NOT safe. Although there are many different methods of payment on Sythe Paypal is undoubtedly the largest. However, be extremely cautious when accepting paypal from a player. Paypal does NOT support the trade of virtual goods so the buyer can many times request his money back! Only accept paypal from members who you deem trusted. ​

Teamviewer Scams:

It is suggested that you never let another player control your computer through teamviewer for any reason. He has the potential to drop all of your valuable items before you trade!
​

The "Rushed" Trader:

Many times a potential trader will you offer a very good deal but explain that they are very rushed and you must trade them soon or lose their offer. If this is a scammer, he or she will be trying to make you frantic, getting you to trade first. Be very cautious around these types of trades. Remember, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.​

The Imposter:

This is probably the most common method of trapping a player into a scam, and is the easiest to prevent. Many times a player will create a msn address that is extremely similar to that of a trusted member. Their goal is to trick you into thinking that they are actually the trusted member. This can be prevented by carefully comparing the msn of who you are talking to and ALWAYS asking for a private message on Sythe before you conduct any trade.​

Now, I've taken like 9000 liberties with that section but right off the bat it looks better. I've bolded the section title so that they stand out from the normal text more. I've changed the names of the titles to make the point very clear. I've indented the sections to make it easy to tell what is in what and makes the text separate from the titles. I've also added a sentence to the Paypal title that states right off the bat that Paypal isn't safe. You've got to assume the reader won't actually read everything and you need to get their attention and give them the most important information (aka Paypal isn't safe) right off the bat so that they will finish reading the whole section. You may even want to change the section title to tell the reader that Paypal isn't safe.

I think that's a good start for some improvements.

 

Wow. Thankyou very much for your feedback SuF. I'm going to get right on this.
Your work isn't going unnoticed

 

thanks

 

Very detailed guide. I was thinking about recording all of my trades, however I don't know what would be the best programme for that. What would you guys suggest? I tried Fraps, but I didn't really like it.

 

Darn, I forget the name of the program that I use. when I get my laptop back I'll send you a message and maybe add some download links. Thanks for the feedback!

Still getting around to incorporating SuF's feedback.