Reporting players

Ok, I have 1 question to ask when it comes to reporting players in game.

Before i ask that question let me start by saying this.
In my 3 years of playing Guild Wars i have come across scammers and have been scammed myself. Many of you will say that the fault of getting scammed is with the person who allowed themselves to be scammed. In many ways I agree, but this doesn't mean im not going to get mad at the person who scammed me.
This whole question of mine came to me after just being scammed. This scammer although seemed to go a little further in scamming me then anyone else who has scammed me before. Here is the scenario.
I had just opened a 2nd year bday present and recieved a mini Gwen (HOORAY!) So i want to sell it. I find a guy who wants to buy for 60,000 gold. I agree. I open a trade and submit my mini Gwen. He puts in 60k. I accept and the tading session is canceled. idk why. We try again. I see he has put in 60k and i hit accept. Same thing happened it gets canceled. We repeat this about 2 more times. I am by this time frustrated and know for a fact that he was hitting accepet. ( I waited to see if he was. and he was. ) So we try one more time. By this time i am frustrated and am hopeing it will work. It does. I then look into my inventory to find that I am short 54k because he only gave me 6k.

I go to report him...but i cannot. He has put me on his ignored list and left the game.

Here is my question.
Why does a player have to be in the same district as you to report them?
For this matter why do they even have to be in the game?
This makes it very easy for a scammer to just leave the game and avoid being reported. I know that even if I could report him most likely nothing would happen to him, but that is beside the point.
Please comment with what you guys think a good answer would be. I am curious.
THX in Advanced.
P.S.
I know that this is mostly my fault for being scammed. You dont have to say YDI.

Why? Well, both sides to this argument have problems.
Guildmate A: DUDE! SCAMMER JA JUST SCAMMED ME! (Bonus points for figuring out what JA is..)
Guildmates C,D,E,F...X,Y,Z,AA,AB...ZZ: DUDE! LET'S ALL REPORT HIM!
Guy gets 20-50 reports within seconds. Replace guildmates with friends, if desired.

Also, Guildmate A could have been lying, or wrong about a scam. For instance, if someone was selling "Nicholas gifts", and gave him a gift of the huntsman, that's not a scam. Misunderstanding, but not a scam(Although many will disagree with me on this, but let's assume it isn't), and Anet has to wade through 20-50 reports on this guy, because they have to go through each of them to figure it out.
It also may be a programming thing, I.E. they pull up the chatlogs from the time of the event, and use the district to find the exact logs.

That also has it's downfalls, as you stated. As soon as the scam is over, the person logs out, never to be found again. If you really want to report him, use your scam as bait (Let's use the nick gifts), for instance, on a different account
"Hey Scammer JA, I hear you're selling Nick gifts pretty cheap. Mind selling me some?", and when you meet, /report and screen shot it.
I've gotten at least 3 scammers that way.

Also, as a rule of thumb, if someone cancels the trade more then twice, call him a scammer, put him on your ignore list, and start spamming to sell again.

I agree with killamus, although I have never gotten scammed before,that sounds like a good way to catch `em. I know you already told people not say this but......just try to be carefull. Although I guess you where pretty angry, I suggest that you go slowly when doing trades, and treat everyone like your enemy. Apart from that, I cant really think of a way to catch a scammer, exept having someone else volunteer to be scammed, then pretend they didnt know they where scammed. The scammer may be lulled into false security......allowing your friend to report him ^^

First, the trade could be auto cancelled if:
a) your bank was maxed at 100k;
b) his inventory was full.

If that ever happens to me, I check mine and if not full, ask them if their inventory/bank is full. It does sometimes happen that it's one of the two.

As to reporting a scammer, no clue what Anet was thinking on them having to be in district. It's the same for those that pop in and say, "WTB accounts for xxx gold", etc. and then immediately change districts/towns.

You can always screenshot your transactions and if scammed ~ send a ticket to Support (with the ss as an attachment) to report the person. I'd also send a screenshot of them ignoring you, too.

I agree that the report function in Guild wars is very odd and in my opinion badly designed and thought out, but seriously,after the trade had cancelled so many times what were you thinking continuing with it ,after it had cancelled once you should have instantly been suspicious,if it then cancelled again you should have just refused to continue the trade with the guy and started spamming to sell the item again.

That's what makes Screenshots + the "ask a question" on the Guild Wars official site (in the support section) so useful!

But the repeated "trade cancelled" message is a BIG clue that the other party is hoping to get you to stop paying attention to the trade window and what's actually there. I get suspicious after the first cancellation, but I ask if their inventory (or cash) is full. If it's cancelled a second time,

I'm very reluctant to try a third time. If I do, then the third time is it. The other party either:
A) accepts (about time),
B) declines (I'm done. Not gonna give you a fourth try), or
C) puts up garbage (SS+reported, loser!).

I'm not up for debating about why they left the same district requirement on /report.

But OP, you know you can still report him by submitting a support ticket through the website. You'll need his IGN, what time and what district that it happened. Tell them that and the story you posted here. I doubt you have to provide screenshots. Supposedly, they can check back through trade and chat logs if you give them what names to look for and a timeframe/area to go on.

I doubt you'll get the rest of your money or your Gwen back.