PM restriction for new accounts is needed

[Tomatocage]

Seems like every day I'm hearing about brand new accounts with names very similar to long-standing trusted accounts who are PM'ing people about offers to buy/sell coins. Examples:

1. sndvb impersonating shdvb
2. Blaizedout419 impersonating Blazedout419
3. deuthedev impersonating devthedev
4. dooqlas impersonating dooglas
5. 0gNazty impersonating OgNasty

The list goes on ad nauseum. They'll PM a new user with an offer that's too good to pass up, dropping a link to the real user's trusted profile. I can't help but think that there are actually people who fall for this.

So can we revisit the idea of putting some sort of time/Activity-based restriction on new users with regard to sending PMs at least?

[leex1528]

I think this is a great idea, I often get messages too regarding great deals I cannot pass up.  Would be wise to stop it, make it so new accounts can only reply to a PM for a bit or something?

[Quickseller]

+1

It is also very common to get a PM from one of these imposters after inquiring about a good or publicly making an offer for something. It is very obvious to me that they are fake however the amount of money involved is usually large so they would only need to scam one person to make it worth their while.

I think a good balance would be a one post requirement before you can send a PM in order to make these imposter accounts more visible (and hopefully visable enough to get tagged with negative trust)

[koshgel]

Agreed. These scammers will also hover in auction and goods section waiting for offers to go up, so that they can message potential buyers and push through a quick sale with a newbie account name that looks similar to the seller's.

Piggybacking on this idea. There should be restrictions on newbie members making new topics outside of the Beginners section.

[Blazed]

I agree also 100% on this. I always drop them negative trust when their profiles are linked.

[Blazed]

Agreed. These scammers will also hover in auction and goods section waiting for offers to go up, so that they can message potential buyers and push through a quick sale with a newbie account name that looks similar to the seller's.

Piggybacking on this idea. There should be restrictions on newbie members making new topics outside of the Beginners section.

It is not a sale thread these days without a scam attempt

[RodeoX]

The evil part of me wants to start a dialog with them and play along until the day I take their precious and use it to fund a crypto class for cops.  

[mitzie]

+1 with the OP

[redsn0w]

I agree with tomatocage , maybe post it in the "New forum software" section and the various devs can "add" this new feature.

[dogie]

I get 5-10 PMs a week from newbies / literally just signed up accounts asking legitimate questions or asking for help. These are accounts that more often then not become useful members of the community. You can't paint everyone with the same brush.

[devthedev]

Agreed. These scammers will also hover in auction and goods section waiting for offers to go up, so that they can message potential buyers and push through a quick sale with a newbie account name that looks similar to the seller's.

Piggybacking on this idea. There should be restrictions on newbie members making new topics outside of the Beginners section.

I agree, I think we should bring back the newly created account limitation and limit them to "Beginner's and Help" for a certain period.

The evil part of me wants to start a dialog with them and play along until the day I take their precious and use it to fund a crypto class for cops.  

I do this all the time in the Bitcoin-OTC channels, we should partner up.

I agree with tomatocage , maybe post it in the "New forum software" section and the various devs can "add" this new feature.

I don't think it would be too hard to implement in the current forum software.

[Quickseller]

I get 5-10 PMs a week from newbies / literally just signed up accounts asking legitimate questions or asking for help. These are accounts that more often then not become useful members of the community. You can't paint everyone with the same brush.

if you force users to make at least one post before sending a PM then this problem would be solved.

[dogie]

I get 5-10 PMs a week from newbies / literally just signed up accounts asking legitimate questions or asking for help. These are accounts that more often then not become useful members of the community. You can't paint everyone with the same brush.

if you force users to make at least one post before sending a PM then this problem would be solved.

Forcing someone to post for the sake of posting will likely feed the other forum issues of low quality / spam. Also that user would then have to wait 10 minutes before being able to PM me.

[Quickseller]

I get 5-10 PMs a week from newbies / literally just signed up accounts asking legitimate questions or asking for help. These are accounts that more often then not become useful members of the community. You can't paint everyone with the same brush.

if you force users to make at least one post before sending a PM then this problem would be solved.

Forcing someone to post for the sake of posting will likely feed the other forum issues of low quality / spam. Also that user would then have to wait 10 minutes before being able to PM me.

I think one post is a very low threshold. A thread in beginners could easily be created/stickied for a "first post".

They need to wait 6 minutes before being able to post after logging in so if they post once they would need to wait a total of 12 minutes. There is a good chance they will be able to learn a lot in that time.

[OnkelPaul]

Maybe a flashing bright red "NEWBIE" warning on PMs by newbies would be enough to deter impersonators/scammers, while not preventing legitimate new users from asking their questions?

Onkel Paul

[hilariousandco]

I get 5-10 PMs a week from newbies / literally just signed up accounts asking legitimate questions or asking for help. These are accounts that more often then not become useful members of the community. You can't paint everyone with the same brush.

Exactly. How much do you people want to babysit idiots? If someone falls for a scam because the offer was 'too good to be true' then that's their own fault. Anyone can see the relevant details of activity/post count/rank via PMs and if you get scammed by a newb called sat05hi with 0 posts and zero everything else then I honestly don't think adding more restrictions is going to stop these people from getting scammed.

I get 5-10 PMs a week from newbies / literally just signed up accounts asking legitimate questions or asking for help. These are accounts that more often then not become useful members of the community. You can't paint everyone with the same brush.

if you force users to make at least one post before sending a PM then this problem would be solved.

What will forcing them to make one post achieve?

Maybe a flashing bright red "NEWBIE" warning on PMs by newbies would be enough to deter impersonators/scammers, while not preventing legitimate new users from asking their questions?

Onkel Paul

And perhaps a piercing Air Raid siren sound can be blasted out from their speakers once they open the PM?

[Quickseller]

Making them make one post would give more chances for someone to notice that someone is using a "fake" account and call them out for it and/or give them negative trust. (It increased visibility to the account)

If they don't make a post they are more likely to have neutral trust as of when they send the message.

[Welsh]

Making them make one post would give more chances for someone to notice that someone is using a "fake" account and call them out for it and/or give them negative trust. (It increased visibility to the account)

If they don't make a post they are more likely to have neutral trust as of when they send the message.

People should be able to use their brain, I Know it doesn't go on a lot these days but, we can't spoon feed everyone. This restriction would just lead to unwanted messages which the mods would have to deal with.

[hilariousandco]

Making them make one post would give more chances for someone to notice that someone is using a "fake" account and call them out for it and/or give them negative trust. (It increased visibility to the account)

If they don't make a post they are more likely to have neutral trust as of when they send the message.

Maybe, but it doesn't guarantee they will be spotted and they'd likely just try make the post in some obscure thread in some obscure sub and hope it goes unnoticed. Besides, redsnow or someone else usually busts them before they get a chance to scam anyway. I just think whatever restrictions are put in place people will just wait them out and get round them and adding this one just because someone gets scammed once in a blue moon by an imposter seems overkill.

[Quickseller]

Making them make one post would give more chances for someone to notice that someone is using a "fake" account and call them out for it and/or give them negative trust. (It increased visibility to the account)

If they don't make a post they are more likely to have neutral trust as of when they send the message.

Maybe, but it doesn't guarantee they will be spotted and they'd likely just try make the post in some obscure thread in some obscure sub and hope it goes unnoticed. Besides, redsnow or someone else usually busts them before they get a chance to scam anyway. I just think whatever restrictions are put in place people will just wait them out and get round them and adding this one just because someone gets scammed once in a blue moon by an imposter seems overkill.

There is a reason why they don't make any posts before sending the PMs. It is not uncommon for them to have neutral trust when the PM is sent.

It is not just the impersonators that is a problem, I have gotten several unsolicited PMs advertising some website or service from brand new accounts, forcing them to make one post will make this much more difficult for these spammers.

They wouldn't *have* to post in the thread but it would just be there if they don't have anything else to post.