Donors and Scam Quitting. 2500$ In a week

So with sticktalks and Pak both scam quitting being large donors and long time members of the community it got me thinking and I just wanted to have a discussion about it.


Why do users like Sticktalks wave their donor amount around in sale titles and such? Obviously because it creates trust.

Being scammers they probably donated solely for the purpose of that trust. Although I am sure many do donate genuinely to support the site. This discussion is aimed at how scammers leverage donor status

Sticktalks had it first in his thread title before vouches or anything else. "2k donor ".

New users inevitably see a high amount and assume more security . I know the staff has mentioned that donor status doesn't mean to trust the person but it surely is waved around to mean that by every donor I've ever seen.


But like we've seen in the last week that status means nothing, two large donors robbed members of money and left ithout a trace

This may make you wonder

Should donated money be used to refund those who were scammed?

I agree the answer is no, the money's intended purpose is to help the website run and grow. But it's a damn shame it's also used by scammers like Pak and Sticktalks to create false trust.


I honestly don't know what a resolution would be.

Maybe clearly putting in every sales section donor status doesn't guarantee trust ?

I guess in the end nothing will save some people, I just feel like donor status is used as a tool more than what it should be used for.

And I think after two large donors scam quit in a week it's a discussion the community should have.


TLDR
Although donating is meant to support the site, we have an environment that makes new members believe believe its a gauge of trust and many scammers leverage this.

 

I'll also add that two people scammed by Sticktalk mentioned his donor amount in their post. It creates trust by nature, it persuaded them to do business with him over many other reputable sellers on the site and he's scammed around 9bill from members so far.

I hope for a discussion that helps the community balance this to protect members in the future , although like I said I don't know a remedy myself outside of warning in every sales section "donors are people who support the site, it doesn't guarantee your safety ".

 

First off, Pak was not a long time member of the community and basically everything about him screamed he would scam eventually.

Regarding if donated money should be refunded, I agree as well that the answer will always be a no. Not Sythe's fault that people scam. There is no real "resolution" to stop scammers quite honestly. There are many stickies in all of the market threads warning users to be careful regarding who they trust and all you can really do is hope that the person holding your gp doesn't run off with it. Most people donate for the sole reason to have some sort of commitment and... {for lack of a better term} collateral towards the site and what they do. New users donate so that they can stand out and show... "Hey I donated X amount of dollars so you can trust I won't run off with 5m gp". While I do agree that it does not mean that you SHOULD trust them, you would be more inclined to trust someone with a higher donation amount + a reputable business over someone with less in both.

Stopping users from showing their donation status won't solve anything at all. It is ultimately up to the customer to decide which reputable seller to go to and use their due diligence to judge where their money would be best used/kept safe. Looking at vouches is a big thing - Quality > Quantity.

 

He was a member for a year which I guess is up to personal discretion although I consider it a long time myself.


I agree with everything you said though. I don't know a solution, and I do like the idea of donors.

I also never mentioned removing donor status being displayed . Just that it is 100% being used as a tool by scammers and even if we all say it isn't intended as a mark of trust ,it certainly is used that way in sales threads titles.


Maybe all there is to do is place it more prominently in sales areas stickies that donor status doesn't create trust.

I know it's said here:

Trading 101 - Vouches, donor status and how you can stay safe!


But, you have to dig pretty deep to see it, for example in the gold selling section you have to read many paragraphs click a link, read many more paragraphs ect.


Maybe nothing will come out of this discussion , maybe it'll help one person , but I feel it should be held.

 

The way I see things is, People will always trust a high Donator, they feel the Donator's been on the site awhile and is trust worthy, If your advertising your a $2,000 Donator in all your threads and a new person comes into the market and donates 5$, most of the customers is going to go to the $2,000 Donator because they see a "Value" that donated more then the 5$ person so the higher Donator has to be trusted. It's more or less being irresponsible and not researching before making a commitment. People are starting to become more lazier and doing less research on who they are trading.

 

I agree completely

Being a high donor naturally gives you a lot of trust over new members. The number sticks out first in their thread title, by their name and usually is mentioned by them directly.

Veteran members may know that it doesn't mean trust alone, but that isn't helping newer members .

 

The scams will never stop until Sythe puts a stop to it, What it's going to have to come down to it is removing donation amounts in your title or something. Because I've been in the market since 2012 and I've seen so many people scam just because of the "Donation amount" makes me look trusted.

 

Removing it from sales titles is a interesting idea.

It's placed there for one reason, to add trust.

Which basically every staff member will tell you donor status shouldn't make you trust someone.

 

Generally if someone comes along and within a year they've donated a large amount and started sites / large trades, they're not in it for a good reason. The longer you've been around, the easier it is to spot those people and avoid trading with them.

The only ones I haven't really seen coming are the ones who kept quiet about gambling debts/addiction until it was too late.

 

That is a good point.

I wish there was a way to balance it a little more to help new people make that distinction


There are countless amazing people on here that donate and the donator status is an amazing thing like Hope said as well. I just wish it wasn't used as a tool by some. I guess evil people can use anything for evil.

 

I personaly see no reason that ppls woud get refunded of donated money. And abaut sticktalk scamming i mean guy had like 100 vouches most of them were from services no idea why woud someone go first to him with 5b 07 0IQ move.

 

I don't think that's a answer either. Primarily because normally the scammed amount by the donor is much less than what they donated .

Sticktalk donated somewhere around $2000 but scammed well over $5000 so far.

Also the donation is meant for supporting the site, we just have an environment that makes new members believe its meant to be used as a gauge of trust

 

Very good points and I appreciate your input. Yea it's honestly something I don't see a easy solution for but figured it was worth talking about as maybe something good can come out of it.

 

Wow you are telling me a user on a marketplace on a forum scammed? dude i honestly can not believe this.

Useless as fuck thread, is this your first time on the internet? Spoiler alert: anyone can, and will scam. There is no solution and never will be, if you think the owner of the site will refund donations of users are scammed you need to head over to the circus and apply right away

 

You should learn to read. It's not your strong suit apparently. I never said any of that.

Everyone here is having a rational discussion, no need to start pounding your chest and hurling insults at anyone who will listen.

 

Stick is a registered sex offender & his details are easy to find online but that didn't stop him. It's not really like Sythe admins are gonna travel to his house to get the money back. We're just stuck in a flawed system.

 

Yea I agree I don't think there is any precaution we can have or safety net by the staff in place that can help. The only thing is information to new users.

Maybe about what donor rank means and doesn't mean. It means they supported the site but doesn't mean they won't scam you.

 

Use a middleman, donated money will not be used to refund scams.

 

Lets talk $ here, have you seen the amount of scam reports because of Venezuelans compared to this???

Every week there are report after report of 3rd world people coming, accepting 3-4 services scam quiting and repeating.

There should be a service provider ranking system based on quality etc etc etc.

There should also be a 30 day ban from offering services / quoting services when new users come to avoid this type of issue.

IE < venny scams, 10 minnutes later creates new profile repeats.

If we add a block to said new users offering / creating threads there will be a cut back especially if you add 30 days they will start starving out and this will no longer be a quick fix to their IRL issues.

Stick talk came started services built some momented and scamquit using venezuelans as his backbone....


We need to stop 3rd world people from abusing the system.

Simple as that.

YH