First of all look at a sellers reputation, quality of vouches far outweighs quantity. Vouches where the buyer went first show more trust on the sellers part. Until you're more knowledgable on who's trustworthy in the matket, you should trade with high profile 'businesses', you can tell who these are by the sheer size and age of their threads, you're not stupid you know what I mean.
Whilst trading you should screenshot every stage of the trade.
- Their profile/PM including their contact details.
- Proof you aren't talking with an imposter if you're using Skype by taking a screenshot of the contact's profile displaying the users Skype name.
- Screen shots of the entire conversation, chat logs (text files) don't count - only raw, un-cropped conversation screen shots. If you're using MSN don't close the conversation until you have all of this. E-buddy isn't recommended.
- Make sure they confirm their payment details, for example, Paypal e-mail.
- Screen shot proof of you sending payment to the confirmed details.
Keep this information well organised should a chargeback occur in future.
If you are scammed, read this thread:
http://www.sythe.org/report-scammer/1109411-how-make-proper-scam-report-rules-guidelines.html
Then post a scam report here which explains the trade in depth and provide as much proof to assist staff as possible:
http://www.sythe.org/report-scammer/
If the user is found guilty they will be banned. You will need to be refunded if they intend to make a pardon or they were hacked. Otherwise, there's no guarantee of repayment.
To assist with a trade you can use a middleman.
You can find one here:
http://www.sythe.org/middleman-forums/
An official middleman has been deemed trustworthy by the administration team.
Middlemen are there to, as the name suggests, literally middleman the transaction. They forward on the payment to the seller once you have received the goods. Some middlemen charge for the service, and are optional.
PM me if you need to know anything else.