[EDU] How to spot a scammer in the Digital Goods section

[Robertt]

This will hopefully help some people as I see people getting scammed here almost every day and it sucks. Also, it seems that it's mostly the new members that get pulled into these scams because they aren't aware of scams/carders and decide to trust anyone with a higher activity number than their own. Also with the amount of accounts being bought, even legendary ranked accounts will scam for these amounts.

1: Gift card sellers with auto buy links. Auto buy links include;
- Satoshibox
- Payivy
- Sellfy
- Payivy
- Slut.io (Thanks krunox123)
Never buy a gift card from an autobuy link as literally 90% of all gift card scams happened with an autobuy link. The seller just makes an account, creates a payivy account, puts something of value IE: "$5000 Amazon Gift Card" and offers it for a really low price. Examples include;
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1321388.0 - Apparent scam
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1314691.0 - Scam or carded GC
There are many users doing these kind of things, here are a few that I found on the first page;
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=507629
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=715817

2: Uses broken English in posts & is brand new. IE: Says [Sell gift card] instead of [Selling]
These users are almost always scammers. Newbie + bad English = Very bad sign. I'm not saying that if they don't know English they're scammers, but if they go straight to selling high value gift cards/items then you know the drill.. Always use escrow & say you want to use card/item before releasing funds.

3: Ignores escrow. Most scammers will completely ignore offers to use escrow because they don't have the item that they claim to be selling. Also, "guarantees" or "warranties" are pretty much lies. They never replace your codes or items, so don't bother asking if they have a warranty. Always use escrow and say you want the funds to be held until you can use the card/item you are buying.

4: Changed password. If someone has changed their password recently (visible on their trust page) and they go sell something of high value, it's most likely a scam. Be sure to use escrow with anyone who has changed their password or be safe. Check recent posts & compare the writing style with posts from earlier.

5: Asks for 50% of payment upfront instead of escrow to "save time". People fall for this, but it's pretty easy to just not deal with people asking for upfront payment and ignoring escrow. Never send money upfront if the person is suspicious or they make some lie about escrow. Be safe.

How to not get scammed
This should be pretty easy, but I guess some people don't really care until they get scammed. Here are some steps to prevent you from getting scammed (not 100% perfect but anything is better than nothing)

1: When buying an item, use an escrow from this list (unless the person has a substantial amount of trust and you trust them); https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=855778.0
If you're buying a gift card or something similar, ask for escrow to hold funds until gift card is fully used because if you bought a carded or stolen gift card it won't go well for you.
If carded; Card will get your account banned if it's on a site.
If stolen; It's possible for you to get doxed by the real owner of the card. Lots of stolen eBay cards going around right now + Nike. Those are easy to dox with. Be safe.

2: Deal on site. Don't use things like ICQ or Skype if the person you're trading with is a Newbie, Jr Member, etc. Search their Skype username and ICQ number online, sometimes a search brings up a lot of information. Most scammers can't be bothered to change their details on alternate accounts and that's what gets them caught. You can use Skype or ICQ if you want but it's more safe on the site so if you get scammed you can use your account as proof, easier communication, etc.

3: Don't buy it if it seems too good to be true. Remember, "If it seems too good to be true, it's not". $50000000 Amazon Gift Card for $2000 = scam. People make threads selling things for cheap prices because they think people will be attracted, and it's an easy scam. If you pay first there is nothing forcing them to give you a code, they can easily sell it again on another site & make more money. Deal with trusted users, if the user isn't trusted use escrow or something

"Google the address the other person is requesting the payment to, and search for linked addresses(via walletexplorer), to know if the account is an alt of a scammer"

If I have time I'll update this, I wrote this on my iPad so there might be spelling mistakes & that's also why the layout is ugly
thx

[krunox123]

Please include Slut.io in the auto buy links area.
Well, anyone with common sense or a brain will know that which is legit or which is not legit. But most of the time, the buyer will not use their common sense or brain and just purchase the digital items because the big discounts makes them blind.

[TheBrute]

Good topic ! This should be sticky  
Also trust and recent activity/post helps too!
here should be restriction for selling specially in digital goods  like one month old accounts etc !  

[Robertt]

@krunox123 Thanks for the site, I forgot about slut.io. Probably because I rarely see it but it's mainly used to sell cracked accounts here lol. I'll update the thread in a few minutes once I can.
@TheBrute I'll add some things about activity/posts & trust which will hopefully help because some people forget to read the trust ratings, even if it is just from untrustwd which is why I set untrustwd to show as default.

[krunox123]

@krunox123 Thanks for the site, I forgot about slut.io. Probably because I rarely see it but it's mainly used to sell cracked accounts here lol. I'll update the thread in a few minutes once I can.

You are welcome. And, yeah, Slut.io are not widely used in this forum. IMO, it is similar to Payivy.

[Robertt]

Okay, I updated the thread & added Slut.io.
If anyone has any more suggestions to add on the first post, feel free to leave them! anything helps to prevent people from getting scammed & scammers getting money.

[krunox123]

Okay, I updated the thread & added Slut.io.
If anyone has any more suggestions to add on the first post, feel free to leave them! anything helps to prevent people from getting scammed & scammers getting money.

Oh, forgot to mention this. I'm not sure if you noticed about this or not because Payivy is listed twice in the OP.

[Robertt]

My bad, I was supposed to add slut.io the first time but added payivy twice lol
Anyway, looks like we have more impersonators/scammers in the digital good section; https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1322879.0;topicseen
DWC, I wouldn't recommend dealing/talking to that user at all.

[Revelation Machine]

Good topic ! This should be sticky 
Also trust and recent activity/post helps too!
here should be restriction for selling specially in digital goods  like one month old accounts etc ! 

It would be good if this thread was sticky. I don't know if the mods will do this.

Selling restriction might be good.

[aliwaqar35]

Thanks Robertt .. For Posting..

[realestone]

sound advice those are all good things to look for

[krunox123]

My bad, I was supposed to add slut.io the first time but added payivy twice lol
Anyway, looks like we have more impersonators/scammers in the digital good section; https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1322879.0;topicseen
DWC, I wouldn't recommend dealing/talking to that user at all.

I'm not sure but I can't seem to find an impersonator in the thread link that you gave. Always use escrow when doing trades.

[chri521]

My bad, I was supposed to add slut.io the first time but added payivy twice lol
Anyway, looks like we have more impersonators/scammers in the digital good section; https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1322879.0;topicseen
DWC, I wouldn't recommend dealing/talking to that user at all.

I'm not sure but I can't seem to find an impersonator in the thread link that you gave. Always use escrow when doing trades.

There were a few impersonators especially with similar handles and also skype or other offline addresses.
I think mods were spot-on in taking swift action in deleting threads and freezing accounts once the reports rolled in at the multiple scam attempts.

[player514]

Also, locked threads are always fishy.

[krunox123]

Also, locked threads are always fishy.

Indeed. If they don't want anyone to reply in their sales thread, why don't just make their thread self-moderated? :O

[nitrodancer]

Using escrow on bitcointalk isn't a good idea in my opinion. These people will abuse their position. Notice the guys sticky on the escrow thread -2/ trust rating. There's even a fee depending on which member you choose. Not to mention escrow accounts get sold all the time for scamming. Many newbies won't even know how to setup PGP or look for signatures.

[enhu]

Using escrow on bitcointalk isn't a good idea in my opinion. These people will abuse their position. Notice the guys sticky on the escrow thread -2/ trust rating. There's even a fee depending on which member you choose. Not to mention escrow accounts get sold all the time for scamming. Many newbies won't even know how to setup PGP or look for signatures.

Maybe that was because of MasterP but normally it works so long as they're in the list of trusted escrows and also they need fees too.
Most scammers wants you to send the first and so that's a sign, you gotta check thier trust ratings first before doing transactions to avoid scam, i think people are aware of these stuff though.

[mexxer-2]

Good advice there, another thing I may add is "Google the address the other person is requesting the payment to, and search for linked addresses(via walletexplorer), to know if the account is an alt of a scammer"

[pjsonowal]

Nice and thanks Robertt. Well that is a very imp. and needed threaded to aware the users who are new to the goods section.

Good advice there, another thing I may add is "Google the address the other person is requesting the payment to, and search for linked addresses(via walletexplorer), to know if the account is an alt of a scammer"

yeah imp. point to spot up a scammer. @Robertt update the thread with this point too

[Zeroxal]

Your thread shows Payivy 2 times. I would add payco.re to the autobuy list.