I posted this elsewhere, I had this thread in mind when I typed it up so thought I'd crosspost it here, it's mostly relevant and I don't want to respond here with a separate post saying pretty much the same thing.
(In response to several angry pms, I decided afterwards to build on it a bit, remove the quotes for readability/privacy, and post it publicly)
I don't do scammer tags dude, that's admins, not mods. I can request one, but I still have to meet the same burden of evidence as everyone else does, including you. I can't do anything you can't easily do yourself. Theymos has full and complete discretion regarding scammer tags, this is his forum. He also has a lot of duties and little time on his hands. We've tried outsourcing it, there's even a thread about it, but nobody really wants to do it in the end, especially for free. How much do you value your time? How long did it take you to decide to send that guy 500 dollars? How long do you expect someone else to spend deciding whether this guy should receive a scammer tag or not? How much do you think that guys time is worth?
What kind of deterrent would you suggest? What do you think will stop predators like this? They surround any forum related to money, it isn't just this forum, it's just more rampant because of no chargebacks, no authority to turn to, and the lack of personal responsibility so many have when it comes to their money because they are so used to depending on others (credit card companies or the bank for example). So they run to the forum in order to post a thread, get angry and try to pin all their problem on the forums and the big evil people who just won't give that totally anonymous guy the scammer tag he so richly deserves so he can be appropriately punished
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What I said was it's pretty much a waste of time to give him a tag. I don't think it's a complete waste of time to give him a scammer tag, and no that isn't "policy". If he did scam you he probably needs a scammer tag to save the next sucker, but he can easily make another account (IP's are easily faked or hidden) and those same dupes you linked me earlier that are in the process of perhaps getting scammed are just gonna get scammed anyway. They are sending money to a fresh account with 13 posts. It being a month old means nothing, the guy has probably scamming here for longer than a month if you just stop and think about the situation objectively. Any forum revolving around money is going to have scammers in the wings, and this one is no exception, probably even more so due to how easy bitcoin is to "play" with and the fact that the people who tend to get scammed via paypal/moneypak are young people wanting to buy drugs from wherever.
People who get scammed so easily are hurting this forum by bringing more and more scammers, and I hate seeing naive people like you (I really do hate it, that's why I ignore this subforum mostly, my time is better spent elsewhere) lose their money to predators who scam, get tags, and just abandon the account and start again. I wouldn't be surprised if that guy has 50 accounts running through proxies, just scamming people left and right, just queueing up new accounts to replace the ones that get a tag. Banning won't help either.
I may be harsh, I may be a dick, but I won't apologize for it and I won't delete my posts. I love bitcoin and this forum (many hours of entertainment to be had here) and I hate seeing what it's turned into with how gullible people are and how easy it is to get scammed, and how rampant scamming is with a currency of this sort that has no failsafes.
It's actually been quite illuminating, I don't even know if people are ready for something like bitcoin. I've never been of the opinion that it will take over world trade and cause the end of the banks or whatever, it's just not very convenient for the kind of transactions I do daily. Maybe it will be in the future, maybe someone will build on it and use bitcoin and the blockchain as a backbone to do something really awesome. It's still useful, but it doesn't need to do everything to be useful and valuable.
Edit: Actually you know what, in the end I agree with you, we should just remove the scammer tag system. People depend on it too much and use it as justification to be dumb assholes and send money to anonymous people on the internet (who couldn't possibly be lying), then blame the forum for their dumb asshole mistakes so they don't have to admit they're a dumb asshole.
Edit part deux:
Here, I'll one up you and
quote the most important post in that thread. This whole post can be directed at you as well.
Here's a concise guide to moneypak scammers: Anyone who sells btc for moneypak turns out as a scammer.
TLDRPeople need to take more personal responsibility and stop depending on others to do things for them, and relying on scammer tags to keep you and your money safe is, in the end, just dumb. But if you send me a pm, I'll take time out of my weekend of liquor, card games, and women to try and get this guy the scammer tag he so richly deserves and ruin his reputation forever and ever, then everything will be ok and he will never ever come back.
I may be slightly jaded
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