Making Steam sales safer

I'm a long time Sythe lurker (And RL friend of a well-known forum mod ) and i've noticed how insecure Steam sales appear to be. There are far too many scams about and it scares away potential traders (Like myself). I know you can use an OMM or a MM but then again that's hardly any more reassuring for new traders. No, in my opinion, the system offers far too many opportunities for scammers.

What i'm proposing is a complete overhaul of the system that will make it far easier to find, buy and sell steam accounts in a way that's secure and smooth.

The current system is as follows

1. Seller creates a thread and lists the accounts available and their contact details
2. Buyers either give out their email address or add the buyer directly through IM. Even worse, they operate through PM.
3. The buyer and seller agree on a price and they either do a direct deal or use a MM

In my eyes, there are numerous issues with a system like this

1. Scammers and ban evaders can easily scam and scam again without much difficulty. IP bans are pointless, for most people their IP changes every 24 hours and even if it doesn't they can easily use a proxy or VPN to get around a ban. By the time a mod notices the re-reg they may have already scammed someone.

2. OMM and MM aren't always readily available and don't offer much reassurance to members who aren't familiar with sythe's community. It also adds a lot of unnecessary "clunk" to the sale and makes the process a whole lot less smoother.

3. Operating entirely over IM makes it easy for impersonators. There is also the problem of user's emails getting targeted for spam.

4. The vouch system while functional is too clunky. It's not uniform and there is potential for fradulent vouches. There is also the problem of people not vouching after a successful trade thereby leaving legitimate traders without the reputation they deserve.

5. Navigation is a major issue. There are WTB, WTS and WTT ads throughout the forum alongside shops selling multiple accounts. Finding accounts with specific games is even more difficult.

6. Sending payments with a declaration saying that you've already received an item without having actually received an item is not on.

Here are my suggestions to rectify some of these issues

- A complete overhaul of the forum system. I can't speak for other markets but for the steam market a system like photoposts classified would serve well as a base
http://techimo.stores.yahoo.net/photlic.html

I've seen this used on many sites to great effect. Sythe is a market for virtual goods, so why shouldn't it use similar systems as those for tangible goods? An example of this is
www.adverts.ie

The benefits of a system like this is that
It integrates perfectly well with the current vBulletin forum and adopts the same userbase meaning that it acts as a MOD for the site rather than an extension. Less work for the admins in other words.

It will seperate sections for WTB, WTS and WTT ads.

It can be set so that photos and certain data fields are made mandatory for posts. This will help standardise the website making it easier to browse. For example the fields for a steam account
No. Digits
Verification status
No. Games
League Proof
Last Online
Date Registered
Photo

All new members with less than five posts will have their adverts premoderated before posting to weed out obvious re-regs or suspect sellers.

A new feedback system wherein users MUST give each other either positive, neutral or negative feedback.

A new trading process that is more transparent and easier to trace to eliminate scammers. I'd envisage the new process to be something along the lines of the following
1. Buyer views ad
2. Buyer makes offer on ad page
3. Seller negotiates and accepts. Requests IM contact.
4. Buyer visits seller's user profile and contacts using appropriate IM client.
5. Buyer and seller negotiate over IM and begin trade using the new trade system that I shall discuss later in this post.
In this transaction the buyer would be bound by the following rules

• They must make fair and genuine offers. Thread spoiling or price comparisons with other sellers should not occur.
• They must read the ad fully to understand the particulars of the item they wish to buy. Particular emphasis on asking price.
• They must not offer above asking price so as to avoid price wars and confusion.
• All offers MUST be made in public on the forum. No PMs are to be exchanged until a deal is preliminarily agreed on the main forum.
• They must not include any contact details in their comments to prevent off-thread dealing.
• They must honour any commitments to buy within reason. Consistently making offers without intention to buy will result in an infraction and then ban.
• Buyers must not flame or start fights with the OP. If they believe them to be fradulent, they report the post.

As for sellers

• They must not post contact details on their ads. All contact details are to be exchanged via PM ONLY. This is to prevent impostors.
• Having multiple accounts or evading a ban is an instant permanent ban.
• All communications must be in English within reason.
• Personal abuse or flaming in threads must not be tolerated. Thread spoiling posts are reported and left to the mods to deal with. Infractions for those who choose to "back-seat moderate"
• Profiteering must be forbidden. If a seller is found to be buying accounts on sythe and selling them on again for a higher price they will face a temporary ban.
• Bulk traders selling more than five accounts without prior authorisation by the site staff must not be permitted. The sale of rare or valuable accounts without prior authorisation by site staff must also not be permitted.
• Once you agree to sell, you must have good reason to pull out of the sale or face negative feedback for timewasting.
• No soliciting sales via PM or IM. All deals must be preliminarily agreed upon in public before venturing to PM and IM.
• Asking prices MUST be included on all ads. It cannot be increased after being set.
• All details must be kept current and sold accounts must be marked as such immediately following receiving feedback.

I may have missed something in all of that but it's late so excuse me this one time.

Now as for the system of payments my suggestion is a mandatory centralised escrow system of sorts. OMMs create a dedicated paypal trading account for the service and a rota of sorts is formed so there is always at least one OMM online at all times. For each transaction they receive a fee with larger fees depending on transaction value or complexity.

For example, a run of the mill $5 steam account
1. The OMM receives the account details and verifies that it matches the advert description.
2. If all is well with the account, the OMM instructs the buyer to pay.
3. The buyer sends the money + fees to the OMM and receives the account details.
4. The buyer secures the account and confirms to the OMM.
5. After 24 hours the OMM releases the funds to the seller.

A more complex example, a valuable 2 digit steam account worth $500
1. The OMM receives the account details and verifies that it matches the advert description.
2. If all is well with the account, the OMM instructs the buyer to pay in full + fees.
3. The OMM releases account details to the buyer and instructs them to secure the account. The buyer confirms once finished the process.
4. The OMM releases the funds to the seller in increments of $250 or less. The first payment occurs directly after buyer confirmation and the second following 3 days of end of sale.

 

Some of these things could be useful and help clean up the section because it is a bit cluttered right now with buying and selling both being stuck together.

 

Any other feedback to my suggestions?

 

Very intelligent and thought out my friend. I believe something like this was brought up in the past but could not be implemented because our current version of vBulletin was outdated. If we were to upgrade there could be dangers of losing information and it isn't that straight forward to do so. After saying this, I'm not an expert in that field but that's what I've heard.

If it was possible, then by all means it would mean a much safer Steam section and could be expanded to other sections too. I like the idea of pre-moderation, where-by moderators could approve new threads made my users, it would stop alot of ban evading etc. Although it could take alot of teamwork to do so, as well as the issue that if it can be implemented in our current outdated version of vBulletin.

After saying that, if possible it is definitely a worthy suggestion but from the way I see it, I don't think it will happen any time soon. Props to you for taking your time to analyse the situation in the section.

 

I Believe this is a great Idea just keep in mind that sythe is a forum yes its a marketplace aswell but I think that the forum format should be kept the same as it is very friendlily. I feel like this update would change sythe to much and I believe it would be an entirely new site. I don't support this idea as sythe would no longer be a fourm and a marketplace it would strictly be a marketplace where you can't comment on peoples items as easy as you can now

 

Hey man! To everyone else, HamJam is the "old real life friend" of mine that I mentioned in the OP.

There are ways of preventing any data loss. If this suggestion gets to that stage then there are many different ways of safeguarding the site. It's as straightforward as making a portal to the forum and then just giving it access to the main sythe database. Nothing too technical and i'm fairly sure the site's version of vBulletin would suffice for that particular mod. There are other similar mods of course.

Pre-moderation would tend to weed out the more dim witted scammers and ban evaders alright

Ah but that's the great thing about a mod like Photopost. It tags on to the current forum and integrates perfectly well with vBulletin forums. You won't need to register new accounts or acclimatise to any new layouts or anything.

You've got the wrong idea of the mod. It's a forum mod that allows for a more efficient marketplace. It's nowhere near as exclusively a marketplace as say ebay is. Besides that, the forum and the marketplace will be linked together by means of sharing the same database.

If anything, it's worth a try. Even if it were to be tried on a small scale on a separate server.