I’m not sure if this has been suggested before; if it has you’ll have to forgive me.

My suggestion is this – temporary bans on accounts suspected of scamming.

I’ve spend my time doing trades in nearly all diablo2 realms, in the sports section and in the Runescape section. What I’ve noticed, as no doubt many of you have, is that there are a lot of scammers. Now, I don’t know what powers the Meds/Trusted have, but I think a “Temporary suspension” should be available to lock accounts that are suspected of being scammers. This suspension would last for a duration of two days, implemented immediately. In that time a Med/Trusted will have the time to gather evidence and decide whether the player is indeed involved in scamming.

This will not mean someone is guilty of scamming; only that they are suspected and that they are awaiting a decision as to their case.

My reasons for this are;
1. The time period in which it takes to get a scammer locked is too large.
2. During the time it takes for an account to get locked, it’s usually too late to really affect the accused and cause them any true loss.
3. This will give the meds another option, one in which they haven’t made a decision they can’t easily overturn if turns out the accused is indeed innocent.
4. It will increase faith in trading in the forums.
5. It protects the community more against those individuals wanting to scam.

As Meds and Trusted are usually (usually) fairly smart and good mannered individuals, I think this option should be available to them. And the big man, with little feet and large pockets(yeah, njaguar) should realise that every person that gets scammed is another potential client lost. It should be a goal to do everything that can be done to eliminate scamming in the forums. I’m tired of seeing obvious scammers who everyone knows is a scammer and it takes days for them to get locked. Maybe the suspension period could be increased, but the person who implements the lock should take responsibility for dealing with the case and looking at the evidence and making a decision. If they don’t have enough evidence within the time of the suspension, then the suspended account should be returned to full working order with all trade abilities.

Whether this is the right option or not, that’s not up to me to decide. Yet I really think something does need to be done, it’s sometimes ridiculous how long it takes for an account to get locked, in which time they have already traded all their gold and no longer have use for their account anyway and don’t lose anything.

Let me know what you guys think – or if there are some better options. Scammers really f*****g annoy me.

Voted no.

no.
firstly Meds and trusted's do not manage the s/a forum.
only very certain moderators do.
secondly if there is sufficient evidence gathered action is promptly taken.
We do not lock people nor suspend them for lack of evidence.
What if the accusation is a false one? they are suspended for 2 days and can lose potential trades etc.

The way we do things in s/a in my opinion is perfectly fine.

No, it's not fine. My suggestion might not be perfect, but the way things are done are certainly not fine. Countless times scammers go on to scam repeatedly before they get locked, if you think that's fine then that's where things are going wrong.

Just because you cannot see what happens behind closed doors, it does not mean we do not take action.



exactly.

This post was edited by Meridyth on Oct 18 2012 04:30pm

they are innocent until proven guilty

voted no

I'm judging it on the fact that scammers get to scam repeatedly before they are locked. If what you were doing behind closed doors was working, then this wouldn't happen.

this quote is more sufficient answer.
We do not take action blindly. We need evidence before we can do anything.
If it is a proven false accusation then what? We have victimized the person accused of scamming and they are perfectly innocent.
This is why we have s/a helpers.
They gather evidence and if they see anything like a mass potential scammer in action. they know who to notify.

In theory all you say makes sense, it's just a shame it doesn't work all the time (a lot of the time). Perhaps I should have clarified that it shouldn't be just one report - it should be a minimum of 2-3 reports on any suspected account. It's just annoying when I see so many people getting scammed by others already known for scamming.

The team has their own way of dealing with this.