I wish we could ban buying & selling of accounts.

[SatHunter]

Why do we allow accounts to be bought and sold? Who does it really help?

If we want to build up trust, and cut down on scams, shouldn`t we make people responsible for their actions? If someone gets banned now, can`t they just open a new account? You can yell scam all day long, but the scammer can just shrug and open a new account.

As well, you can`t relie on a person`s account to tell you anything. A senior member could have bought the account 2 hours ago. A newbie could be a senior member who just sold their account. People can have 3 or 4 or more accounts, and slowly be building up their post count, ready to sell them.

I ask because my wife just got scammed, and she says there`s no point doing anything about it, because the scammer will just disappear and start a new account. If she says nothing, she can at least find his posts and stop someone else from buying from him. It doesn`t seem like a good way to build trust in forum members.

[LFC_Bitcoin]

Why do we allow accounts to be bought and sold? Who does it really help?

If we want to build up trust, and cut down on scams, shouldn`t we make people responsible for their actions? If someone gets banned now, can`t they just open a new account? You can yell scam all day long, but the scammer can just shrug and open a new account.

As well, you can`t relie on a person`s account to tell you anything. A senior member could have bought the account 2 hours ago. A newbie could be a senior member who just sold their account. People can have 3 or 4 or more accounts, and slowly be building up their post count, ready to sell them.

I ask because my wife just got scammed, and she says there`s no point doing anything about it, because the scammer will just disappear and start a new account. If she says nothing, she can at least find his posts and stop someone else from buying from him. It doesn`t seem like a good way to build trust in forum members.

I probably agree that accounts shouldn't be allowed to be bought/sold but nobody is ever going to be allowed to police it.

There clearly are genuine people who want to buy a high ranked account so they can join signature campaigns & get paid high rates for posting but there is a dark side to account trading too (scammers purchasing trusted/high ranked accounts to use to scam people).

Like I said though it's impossible to police so unfortunately pointless trying to push for a ban on account trading. If the buyer/seller & even escrow keep it discrete nobody is ever going to know until a potential scam.

[shorena]

Why do we allow accounts to be bought and sold? Who does it really help?

So we can have this discussion over and over again.

#1 its impossible to moderate (no thats not a valid reason for many)
#2 it increases the price on scams based on rank
#3 it helps those that are able to sell accounts, which might be aquired through a defaulted loan where the account was used as security
#4 it helps someone that wants to post without restrictions

If we want to build up trust, and cut down on scams, shouldn`t we make people responsible for their actions? If someone gets banned now, can`t they just open a new account? You can yell scam all day long, but the scammer can just shrug and open a new account.

That has nothing to do with trading accounts or banning trades with accounts. Are you trying to prevent alt accounts in general or just the trading with accounts?

As well, you can`t relie on a person`s account to tell you anything. A senior member could have bought the account 2 hours ago. A newbie could be a senior member who just sold their account. People can have 3 or 4 or more accounts, and slowly be building up their post count, ready to sell them.

Correct if they make it smart its hard work and they will ask a price accordingly. If they do it dumb they will get banned for spam.

I ask because my wife just got scammed, and she says there`s no point doing anything about it, because the scammer will just disappear and start a new account. If she says nothing, she can at least find his posts and stop someone else from buying from him. It doesn`t seem like a good way to build trust in forum members.

A trusted account is expensive, which makes it less likely to be used as a scam unless you trust that account more than its worth.

E.g. if you can buy a Hero Level account for 1 BTC, a scammer would need to scam at least the 1 BTC in order to make profit with this. If you do not know who is behind an account use escrow or take other precautions the mitigate the risk. If you get scammed post proof[1] and make that account worthless as well as any alts that will be found.

Edit: and one more thing. Nobody here trust a new account. Try asking for a loan on your first post.

[1] https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=83.0

[SatHunter]

Just about the policing of accounts - couldn`t it be done based on the user`s ip address? Allow 1 account per ip address, and don`t allow it to change.

[--Encrypted--]

Just about the policing of accounts - couldn`t it be done based on the user`s ip address? Allow 1 account per ip address, and don`t allow it to change.

I don't know about everyone else. but my IP address changes from time to time.
also I accidentally visited this site with proxy a few times.

oh, and phones.

[zz11]

Just about the policing of accounts - couldn`t it be done based on the user`s ip address? Allow 1 account per ip address, and don`t allow it to change.

What happens when you are travelling, or your ISP switches IP, or you move, or you switch your ISP, or you want to stay hidden over VPN or tor, or .... you get the idea? Its impossible to do this way.

[ACCTseller]

Just about the policing of accounts - couldn`t it be done based on the user`s ip address? Allow 1 account per ip address, and don`t allow it to change.

Nope. People often use tor to access the forum (which forces you to change your IP address every ~10 minutes), along with VPNs (which would make it easy to sell an account and then, based on IP addresses alone, make it appear that the account was not sold).

The forum generally believes in the free market, and there is no real reason to restrict a market. If there is value to something (an account) then there is no reason to restrict the trade of that item.

[ndnh]

I agree.

I still have some accounts that I got as a collateral but never used (doesn't even remember the password to be honest). Never sold a single account, since I don't want to spam for the sake of activity, nor sell it so that it eventually goes to someone who doesn't have a good intention.

I'd say stop all transfers of accounts. Signature campaigns are not supposed to be taken as a job or business or something.

Positives:
1. Reduces spam.
2. Reduces multiple accounts.
3. Less number of scams.
4. Makes trust feedbacks more meaningful.
.. and a lot more.

+1 on this.

Why do we allow accounts to be bought and sold? Who does it really help?

If we want to build up trust, and cut down on scams, shouldn`t we make people responsible for their actions? If someone gets banned now, can`t they just open a new account? You can yell scam all day long, but the scammer can just shrug and open a new account.

As well, you can`t relie on a person`s account to tell you anything. A senior member could have bought the account 2 hours ago. A newbie could be a senior member who just sold their account. People can have 3 or 4 or more accounts, and slowly be building up their post count, ready to sell them.

I ask because my wife just got scammed, and she says there`s no point doing anything about it, because the scammer will just disappear and start a new account. If she says nothing, she can at least find his posts and stop someone else from buying from him. It doesn`t seem like a good way to build trust in forum members.

[hilariousandco]

I'd say stop all transfers of accounts. Signature campaigns are not supposed to be taken as a job or business or something.

Positives:
1. Reduces spam.
2. Reduces multiple accounts.
3. Less number of scams.
4. Makes trust feedbacks more meaningful.
.. and a lot more.

+1 on this.

But we can't stop it and that's the point. Banning the sale of them here will be utterly futile and only give the impression that it doesn't happen and give a false sense of security to many people. People will still sell them off site anyway and scams would likely go up both for people getting scammed trying to buy accounts and users on here who think an acccount couldn't possibly be bought therefore it is trustworthy. Accounts sales are allowed because like it or not there is nothing that can be realistically done about it and any way we tried to police or restrict it would just be a waste of time.

[BitcoinMagician]

It would be a waste of time, I think. There are way more stuff to deal with. How about we get a few more features, rather than have the mods intervene in other people's businesses.

[erikalui]

It just came to my notice last week that Default Trust accounts too are sold here and may be escrow accounts too. This account sales happen privately and with the result nobody knows who is the new owner of the account and such accounts deserve a negative trust to prove that they are sold but nobody cares. I sometimes wish that Signature Campaigns are banned so that account sales will reduce in number.

[notmyname]

It just came to my notice last week that Default Trust accounts too are sold here and may be escrow accounts too. This account sales happen privately and with the result nobody knows who is the new owner of the account and such accounts deserve a negative trust to prove that they are sold but nobody cares. I sometimes wish that Signature Campaigns are banned so that account sales will reduce in number.

is there a list of default trust accounts?

[--Encrypted--]

It just came to my notice last week that Default Trust accounts too are sold here and may be escrow accounts too. This account sales happen privately and with the result nobody knows who is the new owner of the account and such accounts deserve a negative trust to prove that they are sold but nobody cares. I sometimes wish that Signature Campaigns are banned so that account sales will reduce in number.

is there a list of default trust accounts?

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust
DT users are listed there. the crossed (have (-1) or lower beside their name) don't count. your name will be listed there but it will have a "(0)" beside it so that doesn't count.

[Lethn]

I ask because my wife just got scammed, and she says there`s no point doing anything about it, because the scammer will just disappear and start a new account. If she says nothing, she can at least find his posts and stop someone else from buying from him. It doesn`t seem like a good way to build trust in forum members.

You're wife was actually on Bitcointalk and trying to use Bitcoin to buy an account? Brb, need to start buying up more Bitcoin and get ready to sell, price spike incoming.

But seriously, the mods haven't interfered with personal disputes over at trade with real items, they're not likely to go and do it over some virtual ones just because of some newfound outrage about it.

[BitcoinEXpress]

I think all accounts should be sold.

Imagine how guarded people would be if all accounts cost 1 BTC?



~BCX~

[Enzyme]

A policy like this would be impossible to enforce. You cannot simply ban judging by IP, Chrome on mobile devices use a Google proxy to compress images and data.

[ACCTseller]

It just came to my notice last week that Default Trust accounts too are sold here and may be escrow accounts too. This account sales happen privately and with the result nobody knows who is the new owner of the account and such accounts deserve a negative trust to prove that they are sold but nobody cares. I sometimes wish that Signature Campaigns are banned so that account sales will reduce in number.

is there a list of default trust accounts?

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust
DT users are listed there. the crossed (have (-1) or lower beside their name) don't count. your name will be listed there but it will have a "(0)" beside it so that doesn't count.

This is not true. That link shows your trust network (although it will show DT if you use the default settings). Also a number of zero (0) means that the same number of people excluded them as included them, if they have a negative number then they are excluded by default.

[ACCTseller]

It just came to my notice last week that Default Trust accounts too are sold here and may be escrow accounts too. This account sales happen privately and with the result nobody knows who is the new owner of the account and such accounts deserve a negative trust to prove that they are sold but nobody cares. I sometimes wish that Signature Campaigns are banned so that account sales will reduce in number.

It is true that accounts on default trust (as well as escrow accounts) are sold, however the purchaser has incentives not to scam with them because those types of accounts tend to be very expensive. The purchaser would likely be better off over the long term of acting honestly and continuing to offer their services and collecting fees for such.

With that being said, you should also not trust excessive amounts of money with any one person to avoid giving them incentives to run away (see maidak).

[hilariousandco]

It just came to my notice last week that Default Trust accounts too are sold here and may be escrow accounts too. This account sales happen privately and with the result nobody knows who is the new owner of the account and such accounts deserve a negative trust to prove that they are sold but nobody cares. I sometimes wish that Signature Campaigns are banned so that account sales will reduce in number.

I doubt it would make that much of a difference to account sales. In fact I and others think it would only increase scamming if signature campaigns were banned. Account values would plummet and people would then be able to buy high ranked accounts very cheaply and would do so just to scam unfortunately. Imagine all the accounts that would come on to the market from the people who are only really here because it's profitable. A small percentage of them will probably just try to scam a little money out of their account before they abandon it too.

[Xialla]

I agree with lot of arguments above by ndnhc.

Problem is, that if you want to keep high level of privacy, data protection and security, there is no way, how to prevent usage of multiple accounts and take down account market.

this is just nature of internet. everybody can have multiple accounts to multiple services, accounts are sold and bought daily and this forum is just same. and related point to this is trust rating, what is problem. because anybody can buy high trust rating account, anybody can scam, just because somebody (previous owner) don't have morale borders and integrity.

selling accounts is not dangerous so much, but abusing of trust rating is..