Character Sales Scams

I posted this here because it directly impacts the Community. Character sales are one of the biggest areas in the Black Market. More than half the posts on the Black Market forums come from Character sales. This also seems to be the section with the least moderation, and the least control. It is quite important to do whatever is possible to stop these scams, because many members get a quickly tainted perception of Sythe after being scammed. The site would GREATLY benefit from a safer trade zone, and I believe there are many possibilities for improvement.

The real problem here is that Character sales are by far the biggest scams on the site. Looking at the Report a Scammer page right now, more than 80% of the first page scams are Character sales. The real problem here is that the rules only require you to unset recoveries, which in no means prevents an account from getting stolen back. Anyone knows that an account with membership paid by any way other than PIN's can be taken back with the membership info.

This is not an easy problem to solve. I mean, a player can just say they paid with PIN's, and have no membership information. Or, a player can just give false information, or none at all. It also surprises me that there are no stickies to even warn of this type of scam on Character Sales. It's time we get a Sticky on every single one of these forums that states something along the lines of:

"Accounts with membership can EASILY be stolen back. If you MUST purchase a members account (which Sythe does NOT advise), please be sure to gather ALL payment information, previous passwords, and original password."

This would be a good start. Furthermore, the way the forum runs needs to be looked at. I'm a firm disbeliever in post count requirements, because that just encourages spam. However, the fact that someone who joined yesterday can come to Sythe and sell a 126 Member Account on the same forums as someone who joined in May 2005 seems a little off-kilter. One idea would be to just ban the sales of member accounts altogether. Now, I agree this would cause great outcry in the community, and is unfair to the legit members, but it would be the right wing way to go.

Other solutions include making it MANDATORY to include ALL membership payment information. Although this would by no means stop all the scams, it would at least weed out the dumber kids. Another possibility is a join date limit to SELL an account. Buying would remain legal for any member, but members who have not been around for over a month would not have the privelege of making new posts on the Character Sales forums. Also, if they were found selling accounts through replies, they would be warned and then infracted.

Anyways, these are just a few ideas. I would love to hear what the Community thinks about the subject. I am just interested in continuing to advance Sythe, and widen the gap between it and the rest of the Cheating world through discussion.

 

>_> There have been many threads about this sort of thing. I don't know, I think they died out. Good luck.

 

There's ton of guides on how to prevent account scamming..

I think all the members on here can read so if they do get scammed it's because of their own greediness.

But I agree any threads without ALL membership information should be deleted.

If you cannot remember your information you don't need to be selling your account.

 

Well the reason there are so many posts about it is because it's one of the biggest issues on the forums. Obviously there's no easy solution, but with discussion I believe we can find some good ideas to try and alleviate the problem.

 

Character sales should be provided by sythe staff. Give infos to admin/mod and let them sell account, then recive money from sale.

 

That wouldn't prevent them from taking back the account. ONce they get the money they can easily take it back.

But I agree with the 1 month registration before you can sell a account. This would bring down 90% of the scammers. The only way these scammers are being fueld is being able to register again as soon as they are banned. If they were forced to wait 1month each time, then they would just go to a new site.

 

okay i don't care what you think you can do about a sale.... no matter what an acocunt can be taken back, you guys need to realise that

you can give all the information you want, but the original owner still has the information to take it back (even if they change recovery, password, and add membership)

if you guys have a problem with the black market, then don't use it


as far as i know, about half of them don't know how to take their account back once everything is changed
(so as long as we keep asking for recovery unset and pin, that is good enough)

that wouldn't change a thing, the characters only get taken back after the trade is complete... they have no problem completing the trade >.>

 

So what about if there was a requirement for selling an account? Even 1 month, or 50 posts would SERIOUSLY diminish the amount of scammers who get banned and just come back. The real issue here is, you can get banned, change your ip, and come back the same day and be selling the same account again. Which basically means, the whole banning process does nothing at all.

 

thats a good idea

 

1 month wouldn't work, and post count wouldn't work

they would just register a bunch of acocunts (easy to do)
and they would spam for post count (even easier)

 

I disagree with restrictions on users, sythe is using a proxy blocker to prevent scammers from returning so you cant say nothing is really being done about the scamming problem. There is also a sticky in the black market which is a survey on how many accounts get taken back so awareness is also being raised. So with the warnings out there i believe only one person is to blame if someone gets scammed. Its for this reason why i dont purchase accounts

 

You cannot set a join date restriction; it's just as easy to get around. Scammers would wisen up quickly and create multiple accounts at once, while legit traders would be discouraged from selling at all.

I do believe the warnings should be more clear, and I'll try to make it so.

As an MM, though, I never told the seller the specific information I would ask about the account before the trade, so he would have no time to prepare answers: I caught many people claiming their past recovery answers as "aejrawekjr", and membership pins with alpha-numeric combinations. By contrast, most people who copied and pasted pre-typed answers - which looked perfectly legitimate - were scammers. Therefore, making a "required info" template seems a bit foolish.

Furthermore, even accounts that have never been a member can be recovered. I have seen many in my tenure as an MM, and it makes no sense to disallow membered accounts while allowing just as risky ones. (On that note, I believe the stickies are misleading. From my experience, accounts with past membership are just as easy to recover as accounts with current membership; the main difference is merely how long it takes for Jagex to read it.)

However, I do feel properly scolded for largely ignoring the character forums; there are so many posts too keep up with in the market, and it's impossible to keep up with all of them - especially when scams are easiest to spot in Misc, User Services, and membership, and the biggest scams tend to be in Gold/Items. I will try to pay more attention to the character sales, though. And, with Death's permission, I will try to take up the scammed account list in his absence.

 

For as long as ive been around, ive always told people that ask about buying a character that its the most retarded thing you can do.

MM's can be used, all precautions can be taken, but in the end, none of it works, if your not buying an account from a RL friend, expect to get scammed...sooner, or later.

 

If you set the 1 month restriction how would they beable to make multiple accounts without us noticeing? Im sure theres some way to see how many ip adresses are exactly the same and you could just ban them all if they are from the same person? Not sure if it would work but seems like its a good idea .

 

We cannot ban someone merely for having multiple accounts. A lot of people have accounts that they've never posted with; that doesn't mean they're scammers. It's equally possible that they forgot their password or decided they wanted a different nickname (which often happens when people sign up with their RSN, and regret it).

Even as it is, there are plenty of multi-accounters that haven't been caught yet. It's impossible to do exhaustive IP searches on every single member.

 

I myself have been scammed over 50+ on accounts.
And just about every single account sale i've MM'ed for, taking every precaution, the buyer always pm's me a couple days/weeks later, "HE STOLE MY ACCOUNT BACK!!"

There is no way to stop it.

 

I agree with the stickies, it needs to be made clear that Buying an account is a dangerous process. Even so we aren't going to see it happen, this thread is a wonderful effort R2, and I agree it's something that should be addressed, but user input is not something valued here at Sythe.

 

I agree with what your saying there is a large amount of account scams going on.
How about if you make it, you are only allowed to sell accounts if you have had a certain number of legit trades before, with no scams?

 

i think there should be a post minimum to enter like fagex like 250+ posts to enter character sales forum,that will cut down scammers who join the same day with 1 post
and 2 month min to post is a good thing

 

This would give would-be scammers an even greater motive to do an account scam.


They can do 2 or 3 legit trades for GP, then say they are selling a lvl 120 or something...their "history" is good, sure, but then when they scam one account, they are probably making a good amount of GP back, plus whatever is put on the account :/

Once again;

BUYING ACCOUNTS IS RETARDED, you can buy an account today, and then lose everything in 3 days, 3 months, or 3 years, it does not matter, it can be taken back at any time, and will be if it is a good account, trust me!