Bitcoin Forum

Would anyone be interested in a searchable scammer database? Let's say you find a scammer. You enter as much info you know about them as you can.

Example:

firstname: bob
lastname: scamy
mobilephone: +61425775238
homephone: null
address: 17 fake street
photoid: (Uploaded image that would be indexed by Google so you can use reverse image search)
email: bob@gmail.com
description: Bob Scamy has scammed 10 bitcoins out of me by completely ignoring my emails.
forumthread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?fdsfdsfsdfsd
otc-nick: bobscamy

Oh, great. Now you want to give the governments a complete list of Bitcoin users. :P

It'd be important to know how it's moderated and who moderates it. I think, though perhaps its authority is waning, the SCAMMER tag is most appropriate for the forum. It doesn't reveal personal info, and it probably shouldn't. The trouble with scammers is... they tend to bullshit. This can certainly include bullshit ID. Publishing bullshit (even unknowingly) is a very bad idea, so it's important there be a stringent requirement for someone's information being on a list, as well as requirement that any information published be verified. For example, if everyone thought "Pirate" lived at 123 Wilmington St., Bradford, AR without it being verified, some completely undeserving people could end up with some unwelcome, belligerent visitors who've been leaving threatening phone messages for the past month.

It is called google site:bitcointalk.org

the scammer db would probably arc across services, not be just for the forum.

on the other hand, google would probably find the bitcointalk forum entries quickly enough.  even with scammers names, emails, etc. documented and pulling up #1 on google searches, people are still getting hit - obviously not even checking.

I like the idea of a scammer db, but share similar concerns about how information is vetted and moderated.

A tool has been created to help fill this niche in the #bitcoin-otc chatroom:  http://otc.armed.us/  It is not strictly devoted to scammers, but rather shows the pattern of events related to a name, hostmask, or other info.  There are ways to add custom entries (like "SCAMMER" tag, "SQUATTER" tag, "SUSPECT" tag) as well.


http://otc.armed.us/

the site could use a Help/FAQ.  Search terms match an entire field, so use wildcard * around terms if you want to find any occurrence within a field, i.e.
http://otc.armed.us/?*rr.com* (http://otc.armed.us/?*rr.com*)

the scammer db has been fairly successful, but many people don't seem to know about it.

learn it, use it, love it

I built something like this already - specifically designed for tomato cage actually. But I didn't do anything with it.

http://bitcoinscammers.net

If you want the domain 0.1 btc :-)

Yes, something like this needs to take off.

Unfortunately the people most likely to be scammed (new users) would not use it, IMHO.

I'd be embarrassed by how few fields I'd be filling in! I think it'd only really work if it was incorporated within the site. Going to another site involves reading stickies which people who get scammed haven't done or don't take it in!

lol http://Bitcoinscammers.com does this already! Search for the site then post the users and any information that might be relevant!

No need for any of this. I just searched for "ian bakewell" in a private browser session, on a public LTE IP, and still the first page of results clearly shows that he is being called a scammer by many.