Scam Hunters

[killat]

I can see that more and more posts promote scam projects and unfortunately this affects every day the reputation of this forum. I think people should be somehow motivated to act as a BitcoinTalk ambassadors.



These are my ideas on how we can lower this phenomenon to near zero:

 - one of the Administrators could create, moderate and promote a new topic with the "Scam Hunters" contest
 - prices could be: "ambassadors badges" , merit points etc. (at a certain number of validated/confirmed scams by admins you can receive different badges: bronze, silver, gold ...)
 - of the other side, people promoting scams will be discouraged to insist into these operations knowing that the ambassadors are motivated to find them fast
 - I know that this can be done today, also, via "Report to moderator" link, but I feel like something is missing as people do not use this option as it should.

What do you think, guys, about this?

[1714061290]

1714061290

[1714061290]

1714061290

[1714061290]

1714061290

[Upgrade00]

- one of the Administrators could create, moderate and promote a new topic with the "Scam Hunters" contest...
... - I know that this can be done today, also, via "Report to moderator" link, but I feel like something is missing as people do not use this option as it should.

The report to moderator option is being used for its specific function, which is to report low posts which add no value to discussions, and also any other situation where mods can take action.
Scams are not moderated by the forum for a number of reasons, hence they are not reported, instead you can open a post in the scan accusation board - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=83.0 ,Or use the negative feedback or trust flags.

[killat]

- one of the Administrators could create, moderate and promote a new topic with the "Scam Hunters" contest...
... - I know that this can be done today, also, via "Report to moderator" link, but I feel like something is missing as people do not use this option as it should.

The report to moderator option is being used for its specific function, which is to report low posts which add no value to discussions, and also any other situation where mods can take action.
Scams are not moderated by the forum for a number of reasons, hence they are not reported, instead you can open a post in the scan accusation board - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=83.0 ,Or use the negative feedback or trust flags.

I know, but even so, there are still tons of scams being promoted as the reactivity of the members is rather low regarding these facts. I was just thinking that motivating people to "fight" against the scammers might help.

[CristianOff]

I really appreciate hunting those scammers, but the worst part about scam hunters is that sometimes projects with good ethical standards
and, in case of materialization high potential to be useful are also sometimes taken as scams. This may affect the overall outcome and potentially
affect this industry and forum more than those scammers.
The only way to avoid scam projects is to educate people to avoid scam projects.



I will give you another context. Assume you made $5 million in 2017 from Bitcoin mining (2015-2017) and you cashed out in a bank because you wanted
to buy a house or a car. The bank will usually involve police, investigators, digital forensics analysts, etc. because they think you did money laundering or
something. This is a case where you are perfectly legal yet in that moment I promise you would feel like a criminal.

I don't want us to take this as a model. Education is the only way you stop scammers and improve this forum. Maybe badges are a good idea but I would
use them in a different way / context.

[Upgrade00]

I was just thinking that motivating people to "fight" against the scammers might help.

This is similar to what theymos was planning as regards to reports and badges being used as an incentive to encourage members to report spam posts. But that was put on hold...

Sorry for the wait, when I went to implement this it ended up being quite a bit more of a can of worms than I originally thought because of opting out, preventing certain report-count-padding strategies, etc. It's still on my to-do list, but there are several things above it.

Implementing another badge may not be plausible at this time due to the same reasons and other projects which are yet to be done.

[RapTarX]

It's never possible to control scam by admin/mod panel. It will create a false sense among the newbie that they aren't going to be scammed while they certainly will be eventually. Therefore, it's better not moderating scam here. The number of forum users are beyond controlling scam I guess.
DT members are doing much better by tagging scammers & possible scammers. I guess that's enough for people who are having trades here & have a little awareness of self- defendant.

[AdolfinWolf]

It's never possible to control scam by admin/mod panel. It will create a false sense among the newbie that they aren't going to be scammed while they certainly will be eventually. Therefore, it's better not moderating scam here. The number of forum users are beyond controlling scam I guess.

I agree.

We (as in the forum) shouldn't promote behaviour that leads to users trying to find scams in every company. Sure- someone pointing out scams should be rewarded for it, perhaps, somehow, but it shouldn't become a goal. (for each user to find x amounts of projects to report, which is essentially what you'll do by adding "badges"..)

I've come to believe that, as far as altcoin project tokens go, not the forum but the user itself is responsible for checking whether the project is legit. Maybe i'm a bit too libertard in this, but i don't really feel the need for 10 badged users telling me that every altcoin project i see is a scam -- i know.

- of the other side, people promoting scams will be discouraged to insist into these operations knowing that the ambassadors are motivated to find them fast

something something social credit system. No. we don't need more "systems", more badges, which only takes away from actual discussion and instead promotes meaningless circlejerking.

I don't know. I hate most altcoin projects as much as the next guy, but this seems to center the forum around reporting other users, instead of creating meaningful content yourself.

[Thirdspace]

The only way to avoid scam projects is to educate people to avoid scam projects.

I agree, the best way to fight scam(mer) is by educating people
learning/knowing how to spot a scam by yourself is better than be told by others
other ways we can do to help are by tagging, flagging, and starting scam accusation thread
those would alarm newbie and other people about certain shady potentially scam project or scammer

[Slow death]

I can see that more and more posts promote scam projects...

If you think a project is scam, then you should create thread in this section:  Scam Accusations

and you should post Proof

What do you think, guys, about this?

The normal is that each person should do their own research to know if a project is scam or not. But unfortunately few people do research. The current forum template is very good and it works, that's all that matters.

I really appreciate hunting those scammers, but the worst part about scam hunters is that sometimes projects with good ethical standards
and, in case of materialization high potential to be useful are also sometimes taken as scams. This may affect the overall outcome and potentially
affect this industry and forum more than those scammers.

There are cases where team members are real people and have very good skills according to their social networks, but have plagiarized whitepaper.

Let's think:

If have 10 smart and skillful people on the team and the idea of the project came out of their minds, then why plagiarize whitepaper? a project that has plagiarized whitepaper is very suspicious and untrustworthy project

[UserU]

IINM, scams are not moderated so the ones you see are usually judged by the members of the community. But the Scam Accusations is a good base to build awareness.

One very "famous" example is the one offering casino protection services.

[hugeblack]

The fastest solution is to completely remove signatures and prevent people from making any profit by using this forum.

- prices could be: "ambassadors badges" , merit points etc. (at a certain number of validated/confirmed scams by admins you can receive different badges: bronze, silver, gold ...)

This way you will make things more complicated. You gave these people an opportunity to earn some money by creating more scam projects with the intention of reporting them and earning some money.

The higher the awareness, the higher the risk and the less scam.

[Pmalek]

- prices could be: merit points

Merit is not meant to be a currency or a reward system for services on the forum. You are free to merit any post you like and scam hunters are deservedly merited but merit is not = service reward. Although I did propose something similar in the past I realize it will never happen.

- of the other side, people promoting scams will be discouraged to insist into these operations knowing that the ambassadors are motivated to find them fast

We already have scam busters who inform the community of new scams. If proven as scammers users get tagged and it is the responsibility of any individual to check the reputation of a user he deals with in any way.

 - I know that this can be done today, also, via "Report to moderator"

Scam reports shouldn't be sent to moderators because the forum doesn't moderate scams. Users of the forum do. A topic of a scammer might be trashed or deleted if it violates forum rules but I don't know if it will be deleted because someone thinks it is a scam.

[libert19]

Again more work at admin's hand . You can never make something safe enough, in the end it's in users hand. I feel like if only people use their brain, report to mods if they feel something shady or comment under the thread that it's likely to be scam. It would be enough.

New 'bump' feature has already curbed scammy projects from staying on top (to some extent).