Double Imposter Scams

Today double imposter scams were brought to my attention. There is a major flaw in the way these types of scams are handled.

Imposter Z poses as Seller A, and contacts Buyer B to buy 100m 07 gold.

Imposter Z offers a pm from Seller A to Buyer B, and to succeed in doing so, creates Imposter X to pose as Buyer B, and requests a pm from Seller A.

The real Seller A sends a pm to Buyer B, and now Buyer B is convinced that's Imposter Z is the real Seller A.

I understand that it's the full responsibility of the buyer to read the pm and notice the slight error in the chat/Skype ID. The seller believes they're in contact with their buyer and they can't be held responsible.

The problem is that Seller A, or any trusted market user, could easily become Imposter X and Imposter Z, framing the buyer, sending the pm knowing what he's doing, and accepting no responsibility because the buyer was a victim of a double imposter scam.

I see no way to prevent this from happening or to prove this is happening, so I'm posting this in suggestions hoping someone would have an idea on how to prevent the rogue "trusted" trader from taking advantage of the flaw in this system.

 

I have some ideas

• Require a person to type the skype given to them word for word on their skype to see if they have them as a contact, this would be for both buyer and the seller
• Require them to send a photo to eachother of the skype id they are talking to and a photo oftheir own skype to compare them would help with not mistaking live: or whatever for an impostor, this would be for both buyer and seller
• Make it so it isn't just one PM sent make it compulsory for multiple PMs for extra confirmation
• Make people show photos of chatlogs and not just text, this would be for buyer and the seller as this seems to be a big problem. Or get them to show a photo AND copy pasted text logs to clearly compare them

I think to fix this people literally have to post their pms in a stupidly red and large font to implant it into people's heads

MY ONLY SKYPE IS THIS MAKE SURE YOU CHECK THE SKYPE PROFILE ID TO SEE IF IT MATCHES THIS

 

@sj709
If practices such as these are made requirements in trades then there has to be recourse for failure to comply with the requirements.

They would be more of requirements for the seller to protect the safety of the buyer.

The seller would have to be the one required to receive pms from the buyer and verify the identity of the buyer, in order to ensure they aren't contributing to or masterminding the scam by sending a pm that falsely provides security.

 

I think temporary DNTs of a week or so should be applied not just TWCs but some people might not agree with this but it'll just keep happening otherwise

 

There's not much that the mods/admins can do apart from what they've already done (have threads warning people about skype impersonators). In the end it all boils down to the ignorance of the other party. Whether it's getting a pm with your skype id misspelled and you ignore it chalking it up to a mistake, or if they just willy nilly add the person on skype/accept requests from anyone without checking first. I think it just boils down to users having to accept responsibility for not doing their due diligence so they feel the need to be compensated for getting scammed e.g: person who got impostered has to pay them back.

 

I agree that it's the responsibility of the buyer to be diligent.

The issue is that there's currently no way to prevent any trader, from the super trusted to the new, from taking advantage of this system and masterminding the scam knowing that they will never be held responsible.

It's one thing if the seller is impostered without his knowledge, and another if he is the one behind it. At the moment there is no way to distinguish between the two and no prevention from allowing it to happen.

 

In the instance that someone is constantly getting scam reports thats actually an impostor then yes something should be done for that person specifically. Everything should be done in a case by case basis. Having blanket rules for these types of things generally don't work out

 

I actually fell for this about a year ago when I wasn't aware of this kind of scam and lost 150$.

Professional scammers know how to fool you. And the real guy that pmed me seems to have used very similar response to pm's so scammer knew what he would send me.

I agree there should be somekind new rules /guidelines to this that people should follow otherwise people keep falling for these type of scams.

 

Most MM's are required to copy and past a translog of the skype conversation, which would counter this completely.

 

If someone that is trusted sends the user being scammed a PM, which includes: his skype, the other skype, and the chatlogs, nothing should be done if the user gets scammed.
All the information in the PM would be incorrect, if someone is unable to read skype id's/PM's it's their fault and nobody elses.

 

So you suggest that simply because the inexperienced buyer doesn't realize what's happening, that the trusted user who made his own imposter is not to be held accountable?

 

That's exactly what i just said?

 

All you're saying is use an MM blah blah. Let's be grown ups here and look at the issue how it is. No one uses an MM when they go to someone with a higher level of trust. Are you suggesting that the buyers decision to not use an MM means that any seller has the go ahead to run a double imposter scam and not be held responsible?

 

No im not at all, I am referring to the PM layout required by a OMM, which is to include their skype, the skype they are talking to and to "quote/copy a log from the active skype chat" this gets rid of anyone attempting to PM scam.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out a blatant scam, if a person responds with simply something like "PM , talking on skype" , its not hard to contact them asking to copy the skype logs? like i said this completely removes the ability for people to abuse the PM approach

 

Pretty sure even if you're "inexperienced" you should be able to read lmfao.
"ok hmm, my skype is wrong, his skype is wrong, and the convo is wrong.... i think i'll continue"
Yet this is the person sending the pm's fault, good argument.

 

Apparently you have no idea how elaborate these scams are but thank you for your input.

 

If you are capable to fall for a PM scam then you deserve to be scammed lol , It doesn't take any effort at all to simple ask for a pm with the Skype chats copied (THIS COUNTERS ALL PM SCAMS).

Apparently that's you, as this is the first time iv'e heard of someone being scammed by a PM scam, get off the internet mate.

 

An imposter adds someone while pretending to be someone else, then he pretends to be the user he's trying to scam while talking to the person he's attempting to imposter.
You must be pretty simple-minded, as these scams are impossible to be pulled on someone who has the ability to read.

 

How is this hard to prevent? Literally, all the seller or buyer has to do is confirm Skype ids.