It seems that there a few people impersonating members for malicious purposes (Well, what other purpose would it be?)
Here are a few things you can do to prevent getting scammed:
Use a middleman: Using a trusted middleman may be a pain in the ass to find but it can help prevent you from being scammed. Even the suggestion of using a middleman can put some scammers off. Typically if someone tries to convince you to not use a middleman, they are probably trying to scam you.
Verify Identity: If you are contacted off site by a user, be sure to verify that you are speaking to them off site by sending them a PM. Scammers impersonate trusted members by contacting you off site, that way they do not need to have access to the users account and you are less likely to question whether they are legit or not.
People also try to impersonate onsite by putting special characters in their name to have it similar to another user, be cautious of this also!
For an example of this, you can view a community alert thread I made with this issue
Use Contracts: Contracts are a public way to show that you are dealing with a member, although these do not prevent you entirely from being scammed, it is a step to trading a little more securely.
When using contracts DO NOT send any money/products/services before the other party has accepted the Contract! So if a Contract is not active, do not send anything!
To learn more about contracts, View Vitani's in-depth thread about contracts
Check their trust scan: This is a useful feature if you have access to it as it allows you to check if there are any deal disputes on the member you are wanting to trade with. You can also use the Deal Dispute Search database
Check their B-Rating: This will show you how many contracts the user has had & their feedback, B-rating is layed out as Positive/Neutral/Negative
I will be adding a Google form & spreadsheet soon so that we can start building a spreadsheet of offsite impersonator usernames (For example on skype)
Be sure to do your research when trading with people! If I have missed anything from this thread please let me know so i can add it
Here are a few things you can do to prevent getting scammed:
Use a middleman: Using a trusted middleman may be a pain in the ass to find but it can help prevent you from being scammed. Even the suggestion of using a middleman can put some scammers off. Typically if someone tries to convince you to not use a middleman, they are probably trying to scam you.
Verify Identity: If you are contacted off site by a user, be sure to verify that you are speaking to them off site by sending them a PM. Scammers impersonate trusted members by contacting you off site, that way they do not need to have access to the users account and you are less likely to question whether they are legit or not.
People also try to impersonate onsite by putting special characters in their name to have it similar to another user, be cautious of this also!
For an example of this, you can view a community alert thread I made with this issue
Use Contracts: Contracts are a public way to show that you are dealing with a member, although these do not prevent you entirely from being scammed, it is a step to trading a little more securely.
When using contracts DO NOT send any money/products/services before the other party has accepted the Contract! So if a Contract is not active, do not send anything!
To learn more about contracts, View Vitani's in-depth thread about contracts
Check their trust scan: This is a useful feature if you have access to it as it allows you to check if there are any deal disputes on the member you are wanting to trade with. You can also use the Deal Dispute Search database
Check their B-Rating: This will show you how many contracts the user has had & their feedback, B-rating is layed out as Positive/Neutral/Negative
I will be adding a Google form & spreadsheet soon so that we can start building a spreadsheet of offsite impersonator usernames (For example on skype)
Be sure to do your research when trading with people! If I have missed anything from this thread please let me know so i can add it
