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[desertstars]

Reporting Possible Scams in Shop & Swap and Cloudy Nights Classifieds

Your first line of defense against scammers in S&S and the CN Classifieds is caution. If you don’t like what you see, or don’t care for the answers you receive from a buyer or seller with whom you have made contact, terminate the discussion. The chances that you will miss the deal of a lifetime are slim to none. The chance of avoiding being ripped off is much larger.

Having had your suspicions aroused it will only seem natural to warn the rest of the forum community. As in all things on CN (or in life generally), there’s a right and a wrong way to accomplish this.

The wrong way is to start a thread announcing the suspicious advertisement to fellow forum members. There are two problems with such an approach.

First, discussing a potential scam on the forum accomplishes very little with regards to shutting down the scam if it is, in fact, a scam. The moderators and administrators of CN do not read each and every thread or post – that would be an unrealistic expectation to have of a group of volunteers. The discussion of a suspicious ad could easily go on for a day or two before we notice it. During that time, no matter how many people read the thread, many more are likely to browse S&S and Classifieds and be unaware of the risk. By contacting an individual moderator or administrator directly when you spot something suspicious you greatly reduce the time a possible scam remains posted.

Second, open discussion of a suspicious ad on the forum carries a risk for CN. After all, what if it isn't a scam? A price that seems too good to be true could be the result of a lack of knowledge, or haste needed to deal with a financial crisis. A seeming unwillingness to provide information might reflect no more than lack of experience with online transactions. And, sad to say, false accusations have been made as a way of attacking legitimate sellers. We have no way of knowing what is really going on. Allowing unproven accusations on the forum (the fancy word is defamation ) creates a legal risk we cannot expect the sponsors of Cloudy Nights to take.

The right way to deal with a possible scammer is to contact a moderator or administrator directly and immediately. Do not hesitate. If you are wrong about the matter, no harm whatsoever will be done. Of course, if you are right, and we can pull the ad that much sooner, you just might save someone a great deal of trouble… and money!