BrickLink Discussion Forum

In Suggestions, Heartbricker writes:

I believe that if Bricklink will allow new sellers to set up a shop ONLY AFTER
THEY HAVE COMPLETED 10 successful transactions as buyers- the scams by 0 feedback
sellers (that pop everyday) will stop by a high margin.

The beauty of this is that they can't start multiple new seller accounts
to prop up their buying feedbacks too.

I think this will work...

Putting aside all the posts that say it wont work, I think it is a great idea.
It will not stop 100% of all the scammers but it will stop at least 95% (like
you said). Yes, as one poster said, coming up with an idea that would stop 100%
of the scammers of course would be better but to stop 95% with just one simple
change like this would be great.

Here are just 3 thoughts as to why I think your idea would work great at stopping
95% of the scum scammers:

1, Scammers like to make their money fast and disappear. Needing 10 FB's
would cause them to have to wait until they placed 10 orders, receive invoices
and pay for all 10, and then wait until they receive their needed 10 FB's
from 10 sellers. This would take more time and effort them most scammers would
be willing to spend.

2, Going along with the #1 above, scammers like to set up one fake account take
as many suckers as they can then disappear as that seller and then open up different
fake account, scam some more suckers, etc. They cant do that with out waiting
for those 10 feedbacks for every account they open. Also, for every false account
they open they will need a real address for each fake account or they will not
be getting any of their orders. Some of those orders will be returned which will
also start to raise flags.

3, Scammers DO NOT like to spend their own money, they only want to take ours.
Even if they only place 10 cent orders the postage will still be at least around
lets say $2.50 so times that by 10 equals at least 26.00 bucks.

Jim

Author:

Stuart9

Posted:

Feb 2, 2017 13:05

Subject:

Marker to show stores that have items listed.

Viewed:

88 times

Topic:

Status:

Discarded

This would help in searching for scammers, no stock, no immediate problem.
Many scammers launch quickly with stock as they need fast orders, payments and
then leave.

If we could see this on the members listings along with the squares denoting
buyer and / or seller it would allow these to be checked first rather than wade
through them all.

Author:

SylvainLS

Posted:

Feb 2, 2017 12:58

Subject:

Re: This will reduce scammers by 95%

Viewed:

51 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, axaday writes:

In Suggestions, Heartbricker writes:

What is stopping them from making a few fake seller accounts and "selling" themselves
some fake stuff and giving themselves feedback for it?

They can’t create those “few fake seller accounts” because these accounts also
would need to buy before starting selling.
If you can’t create one seller account before having bought, you can’t create
10 more.

Author:

axaday

Posted:

Feb 2, 2017 12:24

Subject:

Re: This will reduce scammers by 95%

Viewed:

45 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, Heartbricker writes:

What is stopping them from making a few fake seller accounts and "selling" themselves
some fake stuff and giving themselves feedback for it?

Author:

FigBits

Posted:

Feb 2, 2017 12:16

Subject:

Re: This will reduce scammers by 95%

Viewed:

44 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, Proprietor writes:

I thought the implementation of on-site payments was supposed to help in some
way. Was it only by requiring Paypal for new sellers? We know that's no
guarantee.

I'm pretty sure it is, actually. If the purchase qualifies for buyer protection,
the buyer is protected (regardless of whether Paypal can successfully recover
the funds or not). They changed their terms while back.

Wonder if there's a way for BL to work with PP so that new BL
sellers have their funds held at PP for a number of days until buyers confirm
receipt. And maybe it needs to be receipt by buyers who have a minimum of X
feedback or Y years of membership, so it's not sham buyers validating delivery.

Question is whether the burden dissuades more legit new sellers than it thwarts
shams. Considering the surplus of sellers here, I'd think it worth a try.

Having an escrow-type way to hold funds was part of the plan that was rolled
out at the summit in Chicago a year and a half ago. When BL discussed it on the
forum, a lot of people on the forum complained very loudly that it was a terrible
idea, and we haven't heard a lot about it since then. It's too bad, because
I thought (and still think) that it's a fantastic idea. (A side benefit of
it is that BL could LOWER our Paypal fees, as well.)

--
Marc.

Author:

udenbricks

Posted:

Feb 2, 2017 12:16

Subject:

Re: This will reduce scammers by 95%

Viewed:

41 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, Heartbricker writes:

In Suggestions, udenbricks writes:

In Suggestions, Heartbricker writes:

I dont think this will work, it is very easy to make some fake accounts and
buy 10 times and give 10 x feedback.

Maybe it is possible to add a sort of "verified account" status.
Only if an account is verified they can sell.
Or only If they are verified a red flag turns in a green flag. As long as a seller
has a red flag every buyer in that shop gets a popup at checkout with warnings
to be carefull before purchasing.

A group of "certified" volunteers can verify all the adress and account-info
before turning it into a green flag. With every adress or account change a seller
must go through the process of verifying again. (to prefend hackers or accounts
taken over by other persons)

Subscribe me as a volunteer.

regards,

Nico

The whole point of starting from 10 successful buying transaction is that they
cannot start multiple seller accounts to gain feedback.
Also isn't it better to make a scammer jump through some obstacles before
being able to scam? this suggestion makes the seller do some work to gain access
to selling where NOW he can just scam, if it doesn't work he opens a new
account and starts again- so easy. having to make 10 purchases will make the
person get a paypal account (most scammers don't have PP they ask for wire
transfers)
This idea is good because it is simple to implement- it won't solve the problem
100%- but will over 90%

I agree with you, your idea is great.
But why not going for 99,8% instead of 90%

I've seen scammers do more for less effort.
Also here on Bricklin; making several accounts, buying from each other for several
weeks and then at a sudden they sell the "If it seems too good to be true, it
probably is" things

My 2 Euro

Author:

FigBits

Posted:

Feb 2, 2017 12:10

Subject:

Re: This will reduce scammers by 95%

Viewed:

49 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, Heartbricker writes:

The risk is that for the scammers who put in that extra work, their account now
looks a lot more trustworthy, so when they move on to the scam, they are a lot
more likely to be successful at it. Ebay had a similar problem (I don't know
if they still do) -- sellers would sell a few dozen items for a penny, take
the loss, and then when their account looked great, with lots of praising feedback,
they'd flip it into a scam.

--
Marc.

Author:

Heartbricker

Posted:

Feb 2, 2017 11:28

Subject:

Re: This will reduce scammers by 95%

Viewed:

47 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, Proprietor writes:

I thought the implementation of on-site payments was supposed to help in some
way. Was it only by requiring Paypal for new sellers? We know that's no
guarantee. Wonder if there's a way for BL to work with PP so that new BL
sellers have their funds held at PP for a number of days until buyers confirm
receipt. And maybe it needs to be receipt by buyers who have a minimum of X
feedback or Y years of membership, so it's not sham buyers validating delivery.

Question is whether the burden dissuades more legit new sellers than it thwarts
shams. Considering the surplus of sellers here, I'd think it worth a try.

I'd agree with you BUT the normal scam is that the new sellers claim to have
a PP account and then tell the buyers to send the money through wire transfers/western
union/other methods that cannot be circumvented...

Author:

Proprietor

Posted:

Feb 2, 2017 11:23

Subject:

Re: This will reduce scammers by 95%

Viewed:

35 times

Topic:

Author:

Heartbricker

Posted:

Feb 2, 2017 10:20

Subject:

Re: This will reduce scammers by 95%

Viewed:

77 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, udenbricks writes:

In Suggestions, Heartbricker writes:

regards,

Nico

Author:

FigBits

Posted:

Feb 2, 2017 10:04

Subject:

Re: Orders Placed page - add horizontal lines

Viewed:

32 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, WhiteVanMan writes:

In Suggestions, Teup writes:

In Suggestions, brisbane_qld writes:

It would be very helpful if you could include some horizontal lines (and possibly
an alternating light background shade) on the "Orders Placed" page between the
listed orders so the eye can easily track from the order number on the left to
the Status & Feedback fields to ensure buyers are changing the Status and adding
feedback to the correct order.

Agree. I still don't understand the new BL's love for contrasting white
with extremely light gray. This applies to set inventories, part-outs, etc. as
well. It's hard to enough to sell Lego just having to figure out Light Gray,
Light Bluish Gray, Pearl Light Gray, Flat Silver...!

This tracking from left to right that you describe has become a kind of bottleneck
in my otherwise smoothly automated selling routine. It's a potential cause
for mistakes, it's tedious and there's no reason for it to be that way.

I can see each order without any issues.

Maybe you could change the contrast on your computer screen?

Paul

I do also see the alternating shades for each line. However, this doesn't
do a lot to avoid the issue of having to scroll horizontally (and potentially
losing track of what line we are looking at).

There are a few ways this could be fixed. I think the first thing would be to
let each order take up 2 lines. Even though this would take up more vertical
space, vertical scrolling is MUCH better than horizontal scrolling on a webpage.

Second, all of the editable fields and button should be grouped together. We
shouldn't need to scroll all the way over to click the feedback button
or add a tracking number. Anything interactive should be on the left, so we know
it all belongs to the same order, and the non-interactive info (the dates, the
payment type, the grand total) can be off to the side a bit. Better yet, let
us arrange the columns however we like.

And third, a lot of this should be editable on the Order Details screen. That
way, we have a single order up, we can see exactly what is in the order, making
it really easy to enter information like shipping cost, tracking number, and
leaving feedback (and knowing for sure that we are entering this on the right
order).

--
Marc.

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Feb 2, 2017 08:53

Subject:

Re: Orders Placed page - add horizontal lines

Viewed:

30 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, WhiteVanMan writes:

In Suggestions, Teup writes:

In Suggestions, brisbane_qld writes:

I can see each order without any issues.

Maybe you could change the contrast on your computer screen?

Paul

Hmm, I will check, thanks. Well, I guess I can "see" it, but it does involve
some frequent frowning and since my screen is 60 cm wide it's not immediately
clear at first glance. I mean, it only takes me 2 seconds to figure out who paid,
but if if they did something about the layout it could be clear to me in 0.1
second instead of 2 and I would have more overview. (An option to turn on colour-coding
the entire line would be helpful for me, for example when a buyer marks an order
as paid). It's no immediate problem, but I do experience it as the least
smooth part of the routine that could be improved easily.

Author:

WhiteVanMan

Posted:

Feb 2, 2017 08:43

Subject:

Re: Orders Placed page - add horizontal lines

Viewed:

31 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, Teup writes:

In Suggestions, brisbane_qld writes:

I can see each order without any issues.

Maybe you could change the contrast on your computer screen?

Paul

Author:

Teup

Posted:

Feb 2, 2017 08:38

Subject:

Re: Orders Placed page - add horizontal lines

Viewed:

28 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, brisbane_qld writes:

Author:

brisbane_qld

Posted:

Feb 2, 2017 08:07

Subject:

Orders Placed page - add horizontal lines

Viewed:

79 times

Topic:

Status:

Already Exists

Author:

yorbrick

Posted:

Feb 2, 2017 07:51

Subject:

Re: This will reduce scammers by 95%

Viewed:

65 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, Heartbricker writes:

How do you verify their address? They could easily buy a few penny parts and
have them shipped for minimal postage costs to a random address. Do that ten
times. They don't care if they arrive or not.

The first scam they do easily outweighs the costs of the postage to a false address.

Or they will buy pennies worth from stores, say sorry that they placed the order
by mistake and they'll pay for the parts anyway to compensate the seller
(and so the order doesn't actually cancel). That'll be 10 completed sales
for less than 50c.

Even worse, they'll scam sellers as buyers before scamming buyers as sellers.
They'll place 10 orders, get them, do their selling scams, get shut down
and then scam the original sellers by claiming non-receipt.

Author:

udenbricks

Posted:

Feb 2, 2017 05:59

Subject:

Re: This will reduce scammers by 95%

Viewed:

77 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, Heartbricker writes:

regards,

Nico

Author:

wanderer101

Posted:

Feb 2, 2017 05:27

Subject:

Re: This will reduce scammers by 95%

Viewed:

69 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, WindyCity writes:

The only problem is not all sellers buy.It could take a while to get 10 feedback
if you don't buy much.

Well they can buy somebody's Lego on sale to put in their store. I agree
with Heartbricker's suggestion. After all you should know something about
buying Lego and how to package etc. before selling it. Not to mention it would
be nice to know a few things about parts and colors too.

In Suggestions, Heartbricker writes:

Author:

BricksShop

Posted:

Feb 2, 2017 00:48

Subject:

Out-of-office message for shops

Viewed:

124 times

Topic:

Status:

Already Exists

Good morning,

In my normal life beside LEGO I have to travel a lot. During that time I am not
able to manage any orders and my children are to Young to do this Job alone.

Now I have two possibilities at Bricklink which are more or less OK:
a) closing the shop completely - my experience Shows that it takes again a few
days after my shop is re-opened to receive some orders
b) using the announcement in my Settings as a dismissable message. The message
Shows when I will be back to ship the orders. I am afraid that the buyers can
oversee this banner although it's with red Background.

My Suggestion is to have a out-of-Office message like you can have it at - sorry
for using it here - eBay with a Shop. The buyers can see the message that I am
out-of-Office and that there could be delay during the shipment. And in Addition
the buyers are getting an additional message to their order confirmation which
was generated by the System.
The Advantages are that there are two ways of Information of the "delay" for
shipment and that the late shipment is not negative for me (Feedback System at
eBay).

I know that I could Change the auto-Messages in my Settings - but I guess I will
Forget to delete this sentence after return.

Any comments are welcome.

Best regards from Paris (just on a Business trip),
Oliver.

Author:

MasterMinifigs

Posted:

Feb 2, 2017 00:16

Subject:

Re: This will reduce scammers by 95%

Viewed:

112 times

Topic:

The only problem is not all sellers buy.It could take a while to get 10 feedback
if you don't buy much.

In Suggestions, Heartbricker writes:

Author:

Heartbricker

Posted:

Feb 1, 2017 23:40

Subject:

This will reduce scammers by 95%

Viewed:

487 times

Topic:

Status:

Discarded

Author:

QA_Sheryl

Posted:

Feb 1, 2017 17:51

Subject:

Re: Print option for the "wanted list"

Viewed:

60 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, JayBeeOnline writes:

SUGGESTION:

In the "old" BL interface it was possible to print out the wanted lists.
This functionality hasn't been released in the "new" BL interface.

I would highly recommend that this could be implemented.

In a plain, simple, printer- friendly layout please...

This issue has been added to the road map. For further tracking and status information
please refer to the Road Map Page: http://www.bricklink.com/help.asp?helpID=2453.

Author:

nicobubulle

Posted:

Feb 1, 2017 15:10

Subject:

Re: Scam awareness idea

Viewed:

54 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, Jamesf077 writes:

How about some safe buying advice on the loging page warning buyers of common
scams? I.E, brand new store with a massive inventory, lots of orders with no
feedback, prices too good to be true on rare, valuable and sought after items.

Hello, I start to add notification on wanted list for modular building for 2weeks
and I spot 3 scammers... Bricklink should do something for this, it's easy
to spot them, it's the same : newbees so no feedback, low price on rare item.
There is no moderator ?

++ Nico

Author:

QA_Sheryl

Posted:

Feb 1, 2017 14:33

Subject:

Re: Exclude superlot items from Pricing Guide

Viewed:

64 times

Topic:

In Suggestions, mjwest83 writes:

Please exclude all superlot entries from the Price Guide. There are too many
people who do superlots with one item for some insane price, then list all other
entries for a penny or something. That ends up screwing up the averages for everything
in the superlot. If superlot items were just excluded from the Pricing Guide,
then it won't prevent anyone from doing their preferred pricing, while not
harming the pricing averages.

Note that this even helps with other pricing strategies, as the general use is
to price the individual items lower than they otherwise would be, which still
screws up the averages.

This issue has been added to the road map. For further tracking and status information
please refer to the Road Map Page: http://www.bricklink.com/help.asp?helpID=2453

Author:

Geist

Posted:

Feb 1, 2017 12:27

Subject:

Re: Put part numbers in checkout

Viewed:

28 times

Topic: