Simple Instructions: How to avoid getting scammed on any marketplace?
Posted by: DeepDotWeb October 27, 2013
I found this old post on the old silk road forum – some sort of “checklist” of stuff you should do if you want to scam-proof yourself, yeah it actually takes some time to cover all of them but im pretty sure that once you follow all these simple guidelines you can be pretty safe.
==Quote from here =====
Well i have been around quite a while (even before this user) and i see all the “i got scammed” threads floating around so i thought it might be a good idea to start a thread about how to make an “almost fool proof check” if a seller is reliable (As a buyer, i cannot do the same from the other side at this point, so sorry if your a vendor)
Its always possible to get scammed – but we must know that we did our best with trying not to. i believe that anyone that will go trough all these details will increase their chances to find higher quality products from higher quality vendors. im very experienced with internet buying and selling and at the most part this things will be correct for any other site as well.
So, when i want to know if a seller is reliable i do this:
1) Check the product page to see if: Price is reasonable (not TOO cheap for the product), if have a normal description.
2) Check Vendor Page:
– see how detailed it is with policies and info, links to forum threads etc
– PGP key provided,
– how long is he a vendor
– how many transactions
– what is the satisfaction rating
– look for any “weird” requirements such as “Everyone must FE!”
– does he offer safe shipping methods (with tracking etc…)?
– non arrival policies (does he refund? reship? partial refund?)
3) Check the feedback for specific products + feedback on all the other products the vendor has, and look for:
– too many FE’s
– non arrivals
– low quality complaints – for me its enough to see just 2 – 3 to understand that quality will be shit, even if there are 50 saying its good.
– see in feedback whats the outcome of disputes is the seller flexible and sorted stuff out?
4) Contact the seller and ask a few questions –
– see if he communicates,
– how long is the response time to get an answer from him.
– is he polite and give straight answers?
This one is most important:
5) Check out the vendor forum thread – if none exists – than this vendor is a no-go for me.
– see the response in threads from other people
– how many responses?
– old members or new members?
– is he responsive on thread?
– Any other threads regarding this vendor?
– reviews regarding samples of vendor if new
once all these points been checked and at the final calculation i could say that most seems 90% + legit, i would feel pretty safe to try out this vendor.
are there any other checks possible that i missed? (might add a few more later)
======End of quote========
Hope this helps – if you see any interesting thread on the old Silkroad Forum (https://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion/) Please send to me as i think it will not be up for long and its a good idea to preserve the information.
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Updated: 2013-10-27