Donors and Scam Quitting. 2500$ In a week

Do what I do, think of everyone as a fucking scammer and don’t trade anyone ever.

If you absolutely MUST trade then do one of two things;

1. Always use a middleman
2. Be ok with losing what you’re about to trade

If you are in a position that losing your item would cause you financial harm then I implore you to use an MM.

Donor status does imply trust to almost every Sythe user, post count as well to some people.

I wonder if we can create a generic “Donor” status and remove the monetary amount as that does nothing but assist someone in scamming.

Also, I called Pak and Sticktalk out on Discord for being scammers. It’s painfully obvious sometimes. But for someone who hasn’t been around for as long as me I can see how they can fall for it.

 

Yea it's definitely a tool being used. I think a way to do it could be to remove people posting their donor status first in sale thread titles


Looking at any sales section usually the first thing you read on titles is "500 donated,300 donated" ect.

Which is playing on the fact that creates trust when we all know it doesn't mean safety

 

So thats why every time I consider starting my services again everyone is offering them for less and less?

If you really, really want to be safe just use an OMM. It could be a small cost on you, but if you're doing a trade worth hundreds thats not too big of a price to pay to guarantee that things go smoothly.

 

It's been said hundreds of times since I joined, it'll be a problem until either A. In order to trade, you must provide information such as ID, photo, etc. so in the event that a scam occurs, action can be taken (Which isn't all that smart given the fact that this is a black market). Or B. Getting rid of all Donor ranks and not allowing users to incorporate them in their threads (also not a smart idea as donors have every right to show off).

All boils down to simply refraining from trading with anyone until you fully understand the consequences. Its a vicious cycle that most likely won't go away any time soon.

I would like for new users to be put through a test or process if you will that gives them key indicators of scammers and how to avoid getting scammed and perhaps giving them a mini-rank upon completion and require them to finish this process before gaining access to the Market sections. This will at the very least give them a little more insight as to what they should be looking out for because let's be honest, not many new members whom are eager to start using the Market look at those handy sticky threads at the top. They should, but most do not.

 

I agree new member education is key. I would say there is a lot of room to improve there without stepping on anyone's feet or effecting the good members because of the few who scam.

For example a one time dismissable pop up the first time you enter the market with such information clearly stated.


Everyone seems to say donor rank doesn't equal trust or vouches are king, or to use a middleman ect but I don't see us telling new members that in a convenient manner.

 

Like a "stronghold of security" for sythe?

 

Yeah... not going to happen. Naive and idealistic at best, you're gonma scare off more legit newcomers than deter more scammers who, trust me, know their way around cheating a simple so-called 'test'.

Test or no test, there'll always be scammers. And Sythe as it is already needs to fight in an increasingly saturated market for new buyers and traders alike. Any measure that'll discourage newcomers in any form is a strict no from admins. Dont believe me? Go try this as a suggestion and you'll see it denied in an instant by admins. And I wont disagree with em for doing that tbh

 

The latest scam they mention donor as the reason they trusted them

OmightyOne Scammed me.


We can all say in threads like these people SHOULDN'T trust members based off donor status, but the environment does not tell new members that.

Instead many reputable and obviously non reputable sellers are listing their donor status in front of vouches in their titles, their threads ect

The most diplomatic way to solve this is simple new member education like many have mentioned. Creating a more educated first time buyer won't hurt honest sellers.


And the ongoing theme of ' if you are stupid enough to get scammed nothing will save you". Obviously we can't stop all scams, but if with 10 seconds of education we could stop 10% of scams that would save hundreds of members a year. Every new member stopped from being scammed means they will stay around and buy other services, maybe even become donors themselves.


The education can also be used to promote middlemen services creating a more healthy trade environment.

 

I feel as though you misunderstood the underlying purpose of that suggestion if you read it again, it has nothing to do with stopping scammers. I have been around long enough to know the harsh reality that comes with forums like these. "Legit newcomers" is a pair of words I don't like, if you want to be trusted, your account needs to be older than 2018 and you need to at least have 100 vouches before I would even consider trusting you with anything of mine. If those two requirements aren't met, there is nothing further to discuss. THAT is my own personal standard when dealing with anyone on this forum and should be a universal standard for all "newcomers".

I do think Sythe can do a better job at repaying its users who are scammed, however its easier said than done unless Sythe requires a user to make a deposit in order to open a store on Sythe, if I want to sell my OSRS account for 700M I should have to deposit 350M (50% of the asking price).

 

If you consider 2018 users as long standing users you deserve to be scammed. Sythe wants his donations to keep up with his Australian farm or w/e, therefore scammers will always be around. Staff are not allowed to headhunt ban evaders therefore they'll always be around, even when they are allowed to headhunt them some will still manage to slip past us. Yes, scammers and such (scamquitting isn't a thing) are able to be combated but no we'll never overcome them. They remain part of the community because it's so easy to scam someone you don't know without any actual consequenses.

 

Exactly my point, our efforts shouldn't be placed on preventing the scammer at all but rather ensuring the misguided new users know that a $500 Donator who joined in 2017 isn't a "long standing pillar of the community", but rather someone you should still be cautious of. Although it's not always the case, more times than not it is.

 

I didn't get scammed by Pak, but if you think anyone deserves to be scammed your input is worthless to me frankly. The primary way evil prevails is for good men to sit around and do nothing.

No one DESERVES to be scammed.

If you truly believe a certain population of people deserve to be scammed because they are not informed, too trusting , mentally handicapped or for any reason I am glad you're not a mod anymore and hope other moderators don't share your negative views.


People donating to sythe isn't the problem, the problem is new users don't know that donors doesn't mean security or trust

 

This may be a long reach but is there anyway to implement a system similar to player auctions into this forum? I know there's people that middle man but that can be a pain sometimes and that requires trust too. Not that I don't trust any people middle-manning here but it seems that trusted people scam a lot here.

 

A good idea but I think it's too far out of reach and not aligning with their goals.

IMO the best chance we have for change suggested here so far is new member education.

A one time 5 second popup or something explaining vouches are king, what donor status does and doesn't mean, to use a middleman if possible and you're new ( which would positively effect MM) and such.


Basically what everyone said here many times but new members aren't seeing.


It would take less than a hour to implement, help educate a ton of new members on safe trade practices and I don't see a downside of kept easy to close and one time upon entering the trade sections.

 

Why too far out of reach though? I think it would make the site much more appealing to outside people if they knew all trades would be 100% safe. Implement it the same way playerauctions does so people can still run gold shops n what not.

 

Just because they mentioned not ever wanting to do things like deposits or such and it would take a lot of work to maintain.

Trust me I like anything that would promote safety and if it was up to me a system like that makes sense but based on what they are doing it's a big step.

 

I feel like maintaining something like that would be a small price to pay for the amount of positive changes it would make but thats just me. Idk I think it would make the site much more active and safe just my opinion though.

 

You must be really brainless to value donated amount over amount/quality of vouches. I don't even advertise donated amount anywhere because it's really irrelevant.

As prizford said, just pay few cents more and stay safe.

 

Brainless or not, it's new members that are getting sucked into that way of thinking.

It's not about some next generation system change, it's simply new member education because that seems to be the target audience - otherwise it wouldn't be happening so often.

 

Agreed completely. It's not about who's too smart to get scammed or who's "dumb" enough. It's about the community , and maybe a small step to make it easier for new members to make better decisions.