Where do we report a scammer posing as someone else using our forums

Showtime

Showtime

Forge Runner

Join Date: Sep 2005

WTB Q9+5e Bows/Q8 14^50 Weapons

R/P

A scammer recently scammed one of our memebers out of a very large sum of arms. Now someone pops up claiming that he was given the scammers well known weapon and that the scammer said here take it and sell it at guru.

Ip check at the very least. No one gives a way a weapon like that especially after scamming a friend for a similar amount of Arms.

Gee does anyone besides me have multiple accounts. I give stuff away to my other accounts all the time.

I'm not the only one thinking this. And if people protect/help scammers,they are just as guilty. Kinda like when they closed my other thread...

In closing plz close that thread cuz we all pretty much know who is most likely behind it. Don't support scammer. He's prob seling for real money.

XI............

Kiki Go Boom

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Dec 2009

Mr Sunqua Blade

Rt/

Well, the only way to find out if the guy selling the unconditional is Jason or not is by IP checking.

Sad to hear that "people" are protecting the scammer though.

P.S. There was some posts in the "Does it exist?" thread that got deleted. It said that he gave the axe to some guy in Piken Square. Idk if you saw them.

AngelWJedi

AngelWJedi

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Sep 2008

orlando,florida

Society of Souls [Argh]

Rt/E

O.o huh im lost so this isnt a thread about scams?

pedrobds

pedrobds

Desert Nomad

Join Date: May 2010

???oo ???ugs ???lan [?????????]

N/

agreed, something is very fishy here.. none of it adds up and posts getting deleted just adds even more to these suspicions..

LicensedLuny

Badly Influenced

Join Date: Dec 2005

Buying Humps! (No kidding! Check my buy thread)

Hello Kitty Krewe [HKK] Forever!-ish

Thanks for the PM head's up about this Showtime. Rather than reply by PM, I'll post my thoughts here.

Having met most of the current "upper management" at Ventari's and Guru as a whole while I was helping mod myself, I find it highly likely they're aware of the situation and have looked at it closely.

Sadly, there is only so much that can actually be proven from the standpoint of running a fansite.

I applaud Guru's stand on such matters that they will only "take sides" and take administrative action when they can prove wrongdoing from the resources and data available to them. Guru is not part of ArenaNet - they cannot take official stand based on rumors of what happens on ArenaNet's servers, no matter how convincing those rumors may be.



I argue that the final responsibility falls to us, the individual users. We are each capable of searching Guru and reading posts left in public. We are each capable of deciding how much faith we put in hearsay. We are each capable of forming our own, individual opinions.

And we are each capable of deciding who we will or will not trade pixels with in a video game.


EDIT - Regarding deleted posts, I think it's a mistake to interpret that as "protecting" anyone at all. It has always been Guru policy that public accusations are frowned upon and subject to deletion, as they wind up leading only to innuendo and flamewars.

I see a lot of short-sighted people who don't seem to realize how very different it must be for a mod to act in official capacity vs. how they might choose to act as an individual player.

I would rather they keep the standards they have, even if it means some really shitty little brats get away with their nonsense now and then. If they did start moderating based on rumors instead of facts they can prove, then I think the community as a whole would suffer for it.


EDIT 2 - If this has anything to do with my recent decisions on who I would and would not trade pixels with, then I urge you to refresh the page where I made that public to the other bidders. I left more context there in an edit specifically hoping to avoid starting any more rumors about all this crap.

Kvinna

Kvinna

Administrator

Join Date: Aug 2009

Luny pretty much nailed it on the head. Jason was immediately banned from Guru once we found out the story, as was his alt account. We do not condone such actions, especially from our mods. No one is protecting anyone here. For future's reference, if you think someone is scamming here on the forums, report it just like you would any other thread/post and we'll take a look at it.

Just saw Luny's first edit and once again, nailed it. I don't think I can say it any better, so just read her post. (But to add, thread derailment gets deleted, too.)

If you have questions, you can PM me or Jenn to talk about it privately.

jimbo32

jimbo32

Site Contributor

Join Date: Aug 2008

Canada

Gentlemens Club [GC]

W/

First, I reported the thread selling that axe when it was first created, and I'm sure I wasn't the only one. I'm sure the moderators took a very close look at it - including the IP. If their findings were either inconclusive or they're satisfied that the thread should remain, that's perfectly fine with me. People are capable of exercising their judgment regarding bidding though - if you feel that it's dodgy, stay away.

Second, I also reported the off-topic foolishness in the "Does it Exist?" thread which I would imagine led to the deletion of some posts. Hijacking a thread for personal axe-grinding (so to speak :P) has no place in Trader's Outpost or anywhere else imo.

From what I've seen, there's no conspiracy here, and nobody's protecting anyone.

Showtime

Showtime

Forge Runner

Join Date: Sep 2005

WTB Q9+5e Bows/Q8 14^50 Weapons

R/P

I'm not putting it all on the mods or anyone. I would have made this thread earlier if I didn't have my auction going and didn't want to risk a ban since it's unclear what warrants it at times.

In this situation where someone is banned and their very specific item pops up, the thread should be closed if the IP checks or not. And it's not just this event. It's the thought process that goes into whether an item like that is allowed. That Axe is well known. There's several ways to circumvent the ip check, but that Axe is one of a kind. He's not stealing from someone and then giving it away to some random person. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if he tried to scam someone using it as bait so trade at your own risk. Buy it and show it off to your close friends. But show up here with it and you'll be labeled and hopefully banned. He screwed over one of our members and the next one could be you.

Greed isn't always good, my friends.

Jenn

Jenn

Resigned.

Join Date: Sep 2006

Showtime,

We will absolutely not make assumptions on who owns the axe if physical evidence doesn't check out. I'm sorry if that disappoints you, and I'm sorry that people can get away with being sneaky (believe me, more than anyone, I wish they couldn't), but I will absolutely not allow Guru mods to start banning on a whim. That's a bad precedent. No one is standing up and defending him for what he did, but you must realize that a lot more people could be wronged if we followed the route of banning someone when we only think something bad was done.

With regards to the whole scam thing - it's a big deal because people want to make it a big deal. I'm very sorry to those who were scammed, but this is why Guru hasn't officially moderated trades in years. Though he was only a PC Guru, he still represents us in a way and so it's pretty obvious why staff doesn't moderate trades. People should not have gone to the staff list and picked a person at random to moderate the trade because you are always taking a gamble, regardless of who it is.

The only thing left that needs to be said is that the ball is in aNet's court. We've taken actions on our (Guru's) end, even though our site did not even facilitate the trade thread, but aNet support will have to deal with the seller, buyer and scammer. There's nothing left we can do here and this isn't the place to constantly be bringing the up the scam/parties involved.

Anymore comments can be directed to myself or Kvinna, thanks.