In my mind, this is essentially an intrinsic problem to any system. There will always be some tipping point with respect to risk. I guess I'd go towards three (or until I get bored) points.
Firstly, I think I should say that we all understand the market is a "buyer beware" market (and to a lesser extent a "seller beware" market as well). The problems we see are pretty universal to buying on the internet.
Secondly, I kinda think the thing to do is to make sure buyers know what they are getting into. For any set of restrictions, there will be some amount of scammers who get through, that's just life. There are quite a few sales facilitated by the site, and the vast majority of them go smoothly. There are a couple that don't. I think some basic common sense can fix the vast majority of things. If you're nervous there are some simple protections you can take.
1) Make sure you see actual pictures, don't buy something otherwise.
2) Avoid strange payment methods (western union, boxes of rocks, uncut diamonds, whatever)
3) Use a service that gives you protection, or if very nervous or dealing with an expensive item bite the bullet and use an e-escrow service.
4) Don't let the period to file a claim expire, ever. If you haven't seen an item in 45 days, you're not getting it. And if you do, you can apologize.
5) Don't trade with someone you're nervous with.
6) As a seller, GET TRACKING. Know the rules, get signature confirmation for items over $250.
But, "what about honesty, what about stricter rules," etc etc?
I just don't think that's going to come about. Scammers are scammers. Scammers will jump through whatever hoops they need to. Not many, but a few. If there were a simple, known set of rules that kept all scammers from bothering, we wouldn't have this issue. Some kind of threshold, be it posts, or time, or a deposit with Faust (who doesn't need the headache) will reduce the number of sellers both good and bad, but nothing will completely stop scammers from participating. Even a whitelist of tentative transactions and community reputation will be gamed occasionally. If I'm right, more strict constraints on which sellers can participate will just reduce what is sold on the market, not the trustworthiness of such.
Firstly, I think I should say that we all understand the market is a "buyer beware" market (and to a lesser extent a "seller beware" market as well). The problems we see are pretty universal to buying on the internet.
Secondly, I kinda think the thing to do is to make sure buyers know what they are getting into. For any set of restrictions, there will be some amount of scammers who get through, that's just life. There are quite a few sales facilitated by the site, and the vast majority of them go smoothly. There are a couple that don't. I think some basic common sense can fix the vast majority of things. If you're nervous there are some simple protections you can take.
1) Make sure you see actual pictures, don't buy something otherwise.
2) Avoid strange payment methods (western union, boxes of rocks, uncut diamonds, whatever)
3) Use a service that gives you protection, or if very nervous or dealing with an expensive item bite the bullet and use an e-escrow service.
4) Don't let the period to file a claim expire, ever. If you haven't seen an item in 45 days, you're not getting it. And if you do, you can apologize.
5) Don't trade with someone you're nervous with.
6) As a seller, GET TRACKING. Know the rules, get signature confirmation for items over $250.
But, "what about honesty, what about stricter rules," etc etc?
I just don't think that's going to come about. Scammers are scammers. Scammers will jump through whatever hoops they need to. Not many, but a few. If there were a simple, known set of rules that kept all scammers from bothering, we wouldn't have this issue. Some kind of threshold, be it posts, or time, or a deposit with Faust (who doesn't need the headache) will reduce the number of sellers both good and bad, but nothing will completely stop scammers from participating. Even a whitelist of tentative transactions and community reputation will be gamed occasionally. If I'm right, more strict constraints on which sellers can participate will just reduce what is sold on the market, not the trustworthiness of such.
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