Bitcoin Forum

Please register/login before buy/sell anything from Bitcointalk

Are you wondering why I made this post on Bitcointalk (Forum itself)? Let me explain,

First please read this case; jamesclef is a SCAMMER luxsocks account (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5101897.msg49408123#msg49408123), you can see a user scammed by a well known scammer who have tagged by multiple Default Trusted (DT) members. But unfortunately victim was not logged in or registered on forum. So was not able to see a warning below scammer profile; "Warning: Trade with extreme caution!"  and here is victim statement;

So if you are not logged in on this forum you will not able to see this red warning on current trust system. Perhaps on future admin will enable trust view for guest. But until that you should create account or logged in(if you already registered).

Before buy sell something on this forum you should know about reputation of that buyer or seller. If you see red warning below profile then please check his trust page by click on trust. After that you can read feedback's by DT or other user.

I made this post for newbie and guest. May be this post will show on Google search. So prevention is better then cure. For better deal always try to use escrow service from forum. Just search simply you will get who is providing escrow service or make a post for help. Stay safe be happy  :)

I doubt If admins would ever enable trust rating for guests,if one is sure that he or she wants to trade on the forum then it is only wise that they own an account here in the forum where they can ascertain the credibility of their potential partners.
I think this is a rare case(mistake)and one that shouldn't be made,it costs little or nothing to get an account on BTT, and one can conscript his or her account based on the purpose of creation as long as it isn't against the rules

Well it is really the victim's fault since we all know that if you discussed about guest is that it doesn't have a lots of permission so it's better to registere to add more permission. It's like going to a place and you're not VIP then you are restricted to go a certaib place like bitcointalk when you are not log in or registered means you are restricted on some features that the registered account had like able to post, pm and see warnings.

Good warning.

This indeed one good reason to show trusts to users not logged in.

Maybe this is an old practice to incentive account creation, but this forum certainly doesnt need it anymore.

You know I'm a fan of always saying the forum has a solution to every problem well this is one of those problem they're still yet to provide a solution for guest forum users. The forum should show a warning message on marketplace board and some other trade related subboard for guests (only) informing them "Not to make a trade (buy/sell) without registering an account on Bitcointalk" and maybe a short note explaining the reason for that warning. Something like "The trust rating of other users can only be seen as a login forum user, beware of scammers".

Since theymos isn't ready to show the trust rating of forum users to guest yet (reasons best know to him) then a warning message will do the trick perfectly.

This warning needs to be stickied for guests to be able to see it and comply with it. The worst cases are, when these people who come here and use this forum as guests, don't really know who they are dealing with due to no trust ratings being shown (and they don't even bother checking the rules and even stickies, so chances are they're likely going to get scammed and if this thread or at least the content of this isn't stickied, it's meaningless to debate about it as they won't be able to see it due to the thread sliding down after newer topics popping up); so I urge the admins that instead of just allowing the members of the forum alone, please allow everyone (including guests) to see trust ratings of each and every user to let them decide whom they should deal with. Otherwise what's the meaning of having this trust system and why would anyone be using the forum as a "guest"?

Not offending, but is this a strategy to convert guests to forum members by making them register to use full features of the forum? Well then, at least trust system must be excluded from those features which are not allowed to guest parties.

Agree with you. They such actually include a warning note in red, alerting guest users of the possibility of getting scammed if they don't check the trust ratings of their trade partners.

If the major aim is to encourage guest users to sign up, then whenever users try to visit certain boards where trading always takes place. They can be prompted to first sign up before visiting the board.

This is a topic that has been discussed on the forum recently about viewing trust rating of member when not logged in and how it can be changed by the forum
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5100111.0

Account sales is allowed, but the forum community generally kicks against it, and for good reasons. Getting a trusted escrow to supervise the sale of an account on the forun may not be possible as members tend to steer clear of such trades.
Even without being logged in, one should be aware of the obvious threat of scams if they have been reading around the forum and learning a thing or two, maybe the admins would consider your suggestion.

Its a nice approach OP. Basically forum guests able to see users trust here after registration  Thats why always there's been a chance if they don't bother about login or registration. At this situation its not possible for them to be sure about untrustworthy user.

Yeah If our forum admin update the system for guests to see the trust without login or registration can be a nice step. But on the otherhand it has some demerits too. I think it could be looking bad if guests see red trust on users profile.

Actually I feel it stupid to put a blind eye to safe trading practice and instead put faith in system like "Trust".  When Theymos himself encouraging not to use default trust and this topic is a step backward.

@OP, How the user is protected , if the  some user decided to scam for very first time?

In that situation its not so easy for a new user to commit scams. I beleive no one going to make deals with a newbie user who haven't got  enough experience & reputation yet.

What can we do if anyone make deals or beleive a new user? I hope nothing. 

Account sells allowed but its highly discouraged by forum. Don't encourage someone for buy account. Do you know 99% account sellers are fake ? Even they don't have any account with them. Their intention is just scam peoples who want to buy account. They deserve scam who are encourage to buy account. That's why we tagged both account seller and buyers as well. If people's don't want to follow warning then we can't save them.

Apologies, I didn't got you point exactly. Are you asking about very new user ? That's why I made this thread. Perhaps it will help on Google search. Usually people's visit B&H board when they are very new, so may be they can read it. I will be proud if at least I can save single people from scammers.

I know that before users can actually post and create threads here as "anonymous" in the forum without even registering or logging in your account, but you can't do that anymore. So I think what you are asking is doable for our guesses to show the trust scores by default without even logging in. Creating an account right now is the best prevention but I don't think that that buying an account is really that recommended to anyone, I mean by default account sellers are tagged right away just by posting their advertisements you may never really know who to trust even if you can see their trust scores.

I understand the part about showing trust ratings to guests and agree to that. It will be really helpful. However, I do think that it's not only the forum who should protect people from being scammed. People who have intentions in dealing online (probably buying/selling) should protect themselves too.

In your example, the person dealt with jamesclef. Most likely he saw the offer thread here in the forum. Simply searching the name/username of the person in google could have saved him from being scammed. Searching jamesclef or jamesclef bitcointalk shows results about him being a scammer.

Don't trust so easily. Scammers are everywhere and this forum isn't an exception. Do thorough research before dealing.

I believe you misunderstood @r1s2g3 statement, let me clear you. What he's trying to say is, what if the user trying to scam is the first scam attend could be a legendary user or any rank, that's to say the user doesn't have a warning red tag on his account how then is the guest user protected if he can see trust score.

In conclusion, he's saying we shouldn't depend on the trust system but take matters into our own hands and protect our funds by doing some research before trading with any user on forum.

That's why DYOR or Do Your Own Research is used as a phrase to caution everyone even when hiring for an escrow, as after those escrow scams that shook the whole forum community, everyone here needs to be extra cautious about conducting any such trades here or anywhere. The fact is, we don't really know the intentions of the opposite party as and when we want to trade with them, so it's better to go for trusted ones only and not choose even less trusted over them.

Up for newcomer