if you force users to make at least one post before sending a PM then this problem would be solved.
These s{c,p}ammers could throw an small auto-translated post into a small regional subforum and bam mission accomplished. I didn't knew that shdvb or Blazedout419 were worthy of being impersonated so I for one would leave the posts by their impersonators undeleted (as long as they weren't too badly autotranslated or too insubstantial).
Compared to the time it takes to create an account and send a PM this would be huge. For all intensive purposes each of these accounts is only going to be able to send one PM before it will be reported and they get a trade with caution tag. As it stands now it takes 6 (maybe 7) minutes to create an account, create a payment address, write and send a PM to someone.
If you force them to make one semi-substantial post then they need to wait 6 minutes to make their first post, spend a minute or two writing/translating it, then another 6 minutes to send a PM. Not only that but if they plan on impersonating someone then there is still a chance they will get negative trust before they shoot off their PM.
At a minimum it will take them 12 minutes per account verses 6 minutes, that is a 100% increase in the effort they need to put into it. More realistically it will be ~15 minutes per account verses 7 minutes which is a ~114% increase in effort.
Maybe a flashing bright red "NEWBIE" warning on PMs by newbies would be enough to deter impersonators/scammers, while not preventing legitimate new users from asking their questions?
Onkel Paul
It used to be that the first number was red when you had neutral trust.
I get 5-10 PMs a week from newbies / literally just signed up accounts asking legitimate questions or asking for help. These are accounts that more often then not become useful members of the community. You can't paint everyone with the same brush.
Is there a reason why they can post the question publicly?
I don't see one. People would likely want to post a question privately because they are embarrassed that they appear dumb, however this does not matter because it is a brand new account anyway.
Plus posting questions publicly means that the next person who has the same question can find it via searching instead of having to wait for an answer