This forum is infested with scammers

[Beepbop]

WoT will empower the users to make more informed decisions about scammers, but I think we should retain the warning about ponzi schemes as well. A ponzi or pyramid scheme will have almost purely satisfied customers until the day that it collapses; there might be complaints about technical or customer service issues, but everyone who join will earn money on it until the last guys left holding the bag. The scheme will thus have a positive rating on WoT until the day it collapses.

[BadBear]

WoT will empower the users to make more informed decisions about scammers, but I think we should retain the warning about ponzi schemes as well. A ponzi or pyramid scheme will have almost purely satisfied customers until the day that it collapses; there might be complaints about technical or customer service issues, but everyone who join will earn money on it until the last guys left holding the bag. The scheme will thus have a positive rating on WoT until the day it collapses.

Agreed.

[MAC]

I really hate the amount of scammers here.
Am I wrong for assuming that it makes it harder for legitimate people to get loans?
A solution to this could be requiring ID checks.
Scammers will be only able to scam once.

MAC

[Monster Tent]

I really hate the amount of scammers here.
Am I wrong for assuming that it makes it harder for legitimate people to get loans?
A solution to this could be requiring ID checks.
Scammers will be only able to scam once.

MAC

Whats worse than losing a few coins t a scam ?

Handing over all your ID and now a scammer has it.

Im surprised people like Nefario who got peoples Id for glbse and btcjam havent taken out massive  credit card debts on behalf of people who hand that over.

[Brunic]

I really hate the amount of scammers here.
Am I wrong for assuming that it makes it harder for legitimate people to get loans?
A solution to this could be requiring ID checks.
Scammers will be only able to scam once.

MAC

Trendon Shavers aka Pirate is probably the guy on which we have the most information around here.

I stayed away from Pirate for a long time, but at some point I decided to jump on too. Why? Mainly because of his #otc ratings and how this was supposed to help to protect one from scammers. Then many reported that they got paid, so whatever he did appeared to work to some degree. Of course there were warnings that it was probably a scam, but most of those ran similar projects so it wasn't easy to determine if those warnings were just part of a mud-fight. Also don't forget that Pirate met with a few of his investors face to face. Also I'm not sure if I was scammed by Pirate or paybtc.
Some might say that the promises were too good to be true; but look at the btc price development: from less than cents to around $45 now in 2+ years. People laughed at bitcoin at the beginning and said it's just a scam; but look at it right now.

Don't forget he was part-owner of GPUMax, a start-up similar to what Coinlab is trying to do. GPUMax was dominant in the mining market back then.

Shavers, even with his information, reputation and business on the line, still went on with the scam. It's just to show that some scammers are ready to lose a lot for their scam. There's no secret recipe against scammers, some will still be able to break the system. It's not a matter of "let's do that and problem solved". It's a job of constant vigilance and sharing of information.

[desired_username]

I cannot even understand why are the forum owners allowing people to lend or borrow money? Not to mention the suspicious BTC funds appearing.

If these activities were banned then it would raise the quality of the forums surely.

I would like to add that the people who gets scammed on a forum partly deserves what she/he got. It's not wise to lend money on the internets or believe anything what a stranger offers (remember what your mom said about things like this)

[Brunic]

I cannot even understand why are the forum owners allowing people to lend or borrow money? Not to mention the suspicious BTC funds appearing.

If these activities were banned then it would raise the quality of the forums surely.

I would like to add that the people who gets scammed on a forum partly deserves what she/he got. It's not wise to lend money on the internets or believe anything what a stranger offers (remember what your mom said about things like this)

Lending and borrowing money is a legal activity and Bitcoin is used as a currency. How are you supposed to develop an economy if you ban simple trading?

As for blaming the victims, it may be satisfying for the ego of some people and help them feel better about themselves, but it doesn't do anything productive. An economy is built on trust, and scammers simply destroy that trust/economy. We're looking to make the economy better, not make it worse.

[Mike Christ]

The scammer saturation on this forum is good enough.  You absolutely need scammers to show people who not to deal with.  Some people are going to lose money, and it's going to hurt, and they will learn from the mistake and others who witness it happen will learn from that person's mistake.  It locks in who to trust, and who not to trust.  Thus, trust is formed, and locks out the scammers.  If nobody on this forum scammed, it would be INCREDIBLY easy for a potential scammer to get away with it.  And it has happened.  And people attempt to scam that way, and are unsuccessful.

[desired_username]

I cannot even understand why are the forum owners allowing people to lend or borrow money? Not to mention the suspicious BTC funds appearing.

If these activities were banned then it would raise the quality of the forums surely.

I would like to add that the people who gets scammed on a forum partly deserves what she/he got. It's not wise to lend money on the internets or believe anything what a stranger offers (remember what your mom said about things like this)

Lending and borrowing money is a legal activity and Bitcoin is used as a currency. How are you supposed to develop an economy if you ban simple trading?

As for blaming the victims, it may be satisfying for the ego of some people and help them feel better about themselves, but it doesn't do anything productive. An economy is built on trust, and scammers simply destroy that trust/economy. We're looking to make the economy better, not make it worse.

No, lending and borrowing is not necessary. If you don't have money to do something then you shouldn't play with others funds. If you have a significant (worthwhile) project which needs funding then there are other ways to fund it (even with BTC).

The bitcoin economy is not equal to people doing shady businesses on this forum.

[Matthew N. Wright]

I cannot even understand why are the forum owners allowing people to lend or borrow money? Not to mention the suspicious BTC funds appearing.

If these activities were banned then it would raise the quality of the forums surely.

I would like to add that the people who gets scammed on a forum partly deserves what she/he got. It's not wise to lend money on the internets or believe anything what a stranger offers (remember what your mom said about things like this)

Lending and borrowing money is a legal activity and Bitcoin is used as a currency. How are you supposed to develop an economy if you ban simple trading?

As for blaming the victims, it may be satisfying for the ego of some people and help them feel better about themselves, but it doesn't do anything productive. An economy is built on trust, and scammers simply destroy that trust/economy. We're looking to make the economy better, not make it worse.

No, lending and borrowing is not necessary. If you don't have money to do something then you shouldn't play with others funds. If you have a significant (worthwhile) project which needs funding then there are other ways to fund it (even with BTC).

The bitcoin economy is not equal to people doing shady businesses on this forum.

I understand what your message is believe it or not, but I have to disagree. Lending is necessary for the life of any economy. Think about what would happen if no one was allowed to borrow anything from anyone else. It gets out of hand if not managed responsibly (like most things), but borrowing isn't bad. Go read about the differences between"good debt" and "bad debt".

On a side note, lending BTC should only be done by people who are long BTC.

[repentance]

It's probably worth pointing out that we're likely to see more people default on BTC loans as the price keeps rising. 

[b!z]

Add an interstitial warning page for those sections of the forum and require the user to type, "I understand that someone will attempt to attempt to scam me here." in a confirmation text box before proceeding.

I would definitely like to see something like this happen.