My apologies if a thread like this has already been created. Also, I apologize for the long post, but I feel this is something that should have been addressed several weeks prior.
I've been on CAG for a few years now and have dealt with dozens upon dozens of wonderful people from across the map. Honestly, with the 60+ transactions I've done, there's been only three that I actually felt nothing short of content with. I'm sure most of you can say the same. I just love the sense of community here and how everyone can be so open with each other about things. And as a semi-English major, I love how the majority of you use proper spelling and grammar, which is something eBay or Amazon have never impressed me with, heh.
But I digress. I've noticed in the past two months, the number of stickied threads regarding scammers has increased alarmingly. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I never recall a time where so many people were independently scammed in such a short time. In the years prior, I recall the occassional thread every few months of a seller that had been conducting some shady deals here and there, like selling stolen goods and such, but nowadays it seems like there's a new thread regarding a scam each time I check the trading forums.
Yes, it's to be understood that there comes a certain risk in doing any sort of deal with people over the internet and we are to sell, buy and trade at our own risk, but I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking that it's getting out of hand. I suppose some of it could be blamed on the increased popularity of the site, which opens it to a larger audience and thus more people of ill-intent find their way here. Either way, with so many years of thousands of mostly smooth transactions, there's no reason why this trend cannot extend into future days.
Ultimately, I was wondering if there's anything that can be done to further protect the majority of the users here from these ever-increasing scams. I'm not sure how to go about such an ordeal, which is why I post this to ask of everyone's opinion on the matter. Naturally, preventing a situation is the key here, but the only ideas I have involve intrusions of users' privacy, which is something I wouldn't readily support. I am proud to admit that probably 90% of my video game purchases are your used copies. Please don't let make me go back to Circuit City, GameStop and the like.
tl;dr: We need to stop the scams. Any ideas?
I've been on CAG for a few years now and have dealt with dozens upon dozens of wonderful people from across the map. Honestly, with the 60+ transactions I've done, there's been only three that I actually felt nothing short of content with. I'm sure most of you can say the same. I just love the sense of community here and how everyone can be so open with each other about things. And as a semi-English major, I love how the majority of you use proper spelling and grammar, which is something eBay or Amazon have never impressed me with, heh.
But I digress. I've noticed in the past two months, the number of stickied threads regarding scammers has increased alarmingly. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I never recall a time where so many people were independently scammed in such a short time. In the years prior, I recall the occassional thread every few months of a seller that had been conducting some shady deals here and there, like selling stolen goods and such, but nowadays it seems like there's a new thread regarding a scam each time I check the trading forums.
Yes, it's to be understood that there comes a certain risk in doing any sort of deal with people over the internet and we are to sell, buy and trade at our own risk, but I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking that it's getting out of hand. I suppose some of it could be blamed on the increased popularity of the site, which opens it to a larger audience and thus more people of ill-intent find their way here. Either way, with so many years of thousands of mostly smooth transactions, there's no reason why this trend cannot extend into future days.
Ultimately, I was wondering if there's anything that can be done to further protect the majority of the users here from these ever-increasing scams. I'm not sure how to go about such an ordeal, which is why I post this to ask of everyone's opinion on the matter. Naturally, preventing a situation is the key here, but the only ideas I have involve intrusions of users' privacy, which is something I wouldn't readily support. I am proud to admit that probably 90% of my video game purchases are your used copies. Please don't let make me go back to Circuit City, GameStop and the like.
tl;dr: We need to stop the scams. Any ideas?
