Path to a scam-free Sythe - The Sythe Bond

I've been thinking this for a relatively long time and I feel the idea is mature enough to share it with the community.

Current situation and problems

- After lurking for a few years and watching a lot of people getting banned, from newcommers to members with the highly trusted rank, I think that what most worries me are the scamquits. A commonly observed pattern is a member that builds the community's trust with vouches, postcount, ranks (mostly donation), trades legitimately until he feels that the trade is big enough to offset and amortize their time, or donation rank.

- In order to simply gain the community's trust, a member usually opts for donating for their rank, when it gives no guarantee that user will not scamquit as described above.

- The current middlemanning system is slow, and also doesn't guarantee you will not get scammed.


The (possible) solution

- To solve the three problems described previously, my idea is the Sythe Bond. A member can choose to have a bond with Sythe, say $50, for a small fee, that is recoverable at any time of the user wants, and in case that member is a proved scammer, the amount scammed would be refunded to the member he scammed.

- The bond a user currently holds could be a rank, so the trader has the guarantee from Sythe itself that the member is a legitimate trader (at least for quantities up to his current bond), and he will be refunded up to the bond's amount in case he gets scammed.

- The Sythe bondholder could have the same amount bonded with Matthew or Richard, just to guarantee the correct operation. In change, the bondholder would receive a percentage of the amount bonded for his service.


To sum up, the Sythe Bond system would work like a 100% guaranteed legit and efficient middleman without the figure of a middleman and its disadvantages, would build real trust as it wouldn't make sense for someone with a bond to scam, and a member who decides to quit can have his bond back, preventing valuable scamquits.

 

Here we go with bonds again =S
It's just not a viable option, i also believe its on the DNS list.
Richard would have to trust someone enough to rely on them not to scam the bond in the first place, then someone has to collect pay out, go though faked scam reports yadada

 

This, it wouldn't work as money can be chargedback.

 

You said that the person can choose to have a bond?
Wouldn't people with scamming intentions just chose not to buy a bond ? I Don't understand the concept.

 

@Travis and Raze

Bonds don't have to cover all payment methods. It could only cover BTC, for example. And about finding someone Richard could trust, I already said that the amount bonded from the users could be also bonded with him, so what the bondholder does is he acts like a middleman so Sythe doesn't have to do all the work, in change of some fees. Also, fake reports don't take much to spot. Usually most don't have a PM confirmation, and it ends there. And it's not on the DNS list.

 

Ahh i think i know what you mean now.

So you could buy the bond thing to increase trust (would be kinda like donor, but refundable) and if you scam you lose it. But can refund it whenever you want to.


Seems like a lot of coding tbh, has to be fail proof.
Also i think Sythe is already working on a similar project.

 

This is similar to using Sythe as an overarching middleman/escrow service which has been clear isn't wanted. There's nothing to stop the people who bought these bonds from charging back on their cash and logistics is a pain.

I would be more in support of:
- A "bond" can be purchased via non-refundable payment (RSGP) to Sythe.
- This would be done via bond holders that can charge whatever percentage they see fit.
- The bond amount would be moved onto a Sythe-controlled account
- If a user is scammed by that individual, they receive a port of a bond that is purchased (other percentage would go to Sythe.)

Note: I said RSGP because it is something widely used, RSGP fluctuates, but the bond could be based on the GP, not the cost.


Basically a donation system that offers a scammed victim a 80% return on what he/she "donated."

 

An escrow system was put in to development but was never finished and I don't think there was overwhelming demand for it either. It may be finished in the future - who knows.

Any manual bond holding system would require a vast number of bond holders, who then take the, for example RSGP as stated above, and could still potentially be banned with it or something. It's a lot of aggro that could be avoided if people just used some common sense when trading.

 

That's exactly what I meant.

What about BTC? Although not that widely used currently, I'm sure that if a bond system based on bitcoins would increase its popularity. Plus, it is much faster than any other methods, there's no chargebacks and it can be easily turned into normal cash. The only downside I can think of is the fluctuation of its market price.

 

If the bond was displayed as a rank wouldn't it replace website donation status? Money that would have been donated to the website would be left in limbo instead.

 

That's what this bit was based on

 

A great idea in retrospect OP, don't get me wrong, but I gotta side with Roary. Some ppl just need more common sense, in my short time of being here I've seen so many obvious scam attempts it's not even funny. (sometimes even go in the ban section when I'm smoking just to have a good laugh at what they say.) I can't believe this is a thing tbh, just trade honestly and have some common sense/courtesy when doing so.

 

Scamming will always happen no matter what, people just need to exercise safe trading habits to reduce their chances of being scammed.

People get scammed so easily. There's no excuse for getting scammed by a skype imposter (Click on Skype buttons, or use direct add links in threads) -- and highly trusted users should be forced to add 2-step authentication to their Sythe accounts to avoid their accounts from being hacked so easily. (since they become high-priority targets)

The reality is people just aren't cautious enough, they get scammed and fall for common scam techniques (Fake PMs, Skype Imposters). None of these suggested "solutions" will work.

I wrote a few practical suggestions in this thread, that I use every time and have prevented hundreds of scams: http://www.sythe.org/market-discussion/1775136-how-avoid-being-scammed-healthy-tip.html

Edit: Would it be possible to add a stronger password requirement on Sythe, that requires at least 1 caps and number in the password?

 

Well... What would you do in a situation where multiple people are scammed?

Suppose:
User A buys a bond worth $50 USD.
User A goes out and scams 3 different people for $25 each.

Now obviously the bond holder can only refund 2/3 people, but since he had a $50 Bond users assumed they would be refunded up to $50 regardless.

 

Reasons why it wont happen:

-Donations are 100% free money for richard. Good luck convincing him to walk away from free money.

- They would have to accept a variety of payment methods. Some of the biggest are paypal and runescape. Paypal can be charge back'd and Runescape accounts banned. Risking money for nothing in sythes eyes.

- Sythe doesnt care if your scammed honestly. He's not here to watch your money or catch scammers. He created this website for botting and ended up with the best online gaming community. It was a stroke of luck and now he gets paid for it. He wont change anything that's not broken. Hell he doesnt even want to update it lol

-Did i mention the free money? He lives in the bush because of this website with a radio tower of his own creating.

 

Bitcoins Is very Unstable CryptoCurrency, And another thing is, Some of the

newer member Trying to make a name for themselves Don't Have the same

financial situation at other people. This In turn Is an issue for alot of people

that don't have the intention of scamming But also Dont have Finances to

pay for said Bond.

 

Not going to happen