Silk Road forums
Discussion => Silk Road discussion => Topic started by: tony76 on February 17, 2012, 02:35 am
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Note: I'm not saying this guy is 100% a scammer, because i have not ordered from him but take a look.
RandomGuy1970
has been a member for 11 days
was last seen: today
ranked #9 out of 321 sellers with 99.4% positive feedback from 415 transactions
send RandomGuy1970 a message
-ALL- of his feedback is for a "win a free ounce of weed lottery"
Not a single person out of his 415 transactions has received an item.
I encourage you all to THOROUGHLY research your vendors before you place an order and finalize early (Myself included)
Tips to avoid being scammed:
1.View the vendors entire feedback
2.In their feedback hold your mouse over the item link, and it will list what the item was, so you know they were actual items and not bullshit
3.Search their name in the forums.. If you see someone has 500+ transactions yet not a single mention in the forums, something is fishy
Scammer vendors ruin it for all of us. Buyers and Vendors included.
When people lose faith in the system, and get a bad taste in their mouth from losing a few hundred dollars, they are less likely to make another purchase. Less people buying = less vendors listings products = more vendors scamming a bunch of people on their way out
Just my thoughts.
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Good post Tony. Newbs check everyone out! EVERYONE!
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I fell for the "lottery" bullshit. I am THE ONLY ONE to go back and change my rating from 5 to 1.
I think I will do this from now on for any early finalize.
But yeah, it's bullshit for sure, and he's not the only one. Now Obamagirl has a "lottery" going.
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It doesn't seem fair that they can inflate their feedback ratings by doing this.
Vendors like Tony have to work hard to make every single person they deal with happy...
Why provide good customer service when you could just do a lottery? :-\
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The lottery is blowin' up... but I don't think any drawings have taken place yet. So we'll see... it could be a good thing, it will probably be a scam.
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The lottery is blowin' up... but I don't think any drawings have taken place yet. So we'll see... it could be a good thing, it will probably be a scam.
how could it possibly be a good thing even if it was a legit lottery?
Here's a great recipe for a scam:
1.) Open a vendor account
2.) Offer a free entry lottery to 1oz of weed
3.) Let it rack up about 400 positive feedback
4.) Make a fake username
5.) Make your fake username with the lottery
6.) Make a bunch of listings for high priced items, make users finalize early
Now you have a shitload of money. And even if they leave a 1 out of 5 feedback you will still most likely have a 98% Feedback score since you have 400 positive feedbacks from the lottery
Am i missing something?
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haha good point... the house never loses!
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thanks tony! I definitely agree with you. there are actually a few lotteries popping now. some for bud, some for dope; and I'm sure more will be coming along as well.
although, they can be fun and definitely a cool way to mix it up and attract potential buyers to a new vender, anyone who enters a lotto, definitely SHOULD NOT give the vender a 5/5 - at the VERY MOST - a 3/5 (and even that's pushing it)
and that is definitely not to be a dick. it's logical. a 5/5 means that the vender has done an extremely satisfactory job with:
1. communication
2. shipping
3. packaging
4. product
and you could possibly even add more variables as to why a 5/5 is an appropriate, deserving score for a vender. the point being, the perfect feedback rating comes to those venders who WORK for it.
as for the lottos, the winner - and ONLY the winner (if there is a *real* winner) should be giving the vender a perfect rating - and that's ONLY if they even receive the damn product and everything else was satisfactory.
as for everyone else, anything above a 3/5 is just plain absurd and stupid. if the vender happens to be a scammer, you're just adding to his potential scam and helping them fuck many, many other people over.
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The vendor ranking formula needs to weight the value of transactions, i.e. ratings on a $2000 order will have a larger impact on ranking and their X/100 score than smaller orders. This will also provide a disincentive to vendors considering selective scamming.
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Ultimately, there is no need for these rafflers NOT to ship....
1. set up raffle
2. sell more raffle tickets then the cost of the item being raffled
3. declare a winner from your pool of rafflees, if you are going to cherry pick a winner pick someone thats well established on SRs forums for more legit feedback
4. Place order for item with established reputable vendor on SR who stocks the item you claimed to be raffling but have it shipped to the winner
5. Pocket the difference
6. Enjoy your elevated seller feedback rating
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How the fuck is this allowed. This fucking prick is making a mockery of the rating system.
Dread Pirate Roberts, ban this cunt and anyone else abusing the system please.
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As with anything else, scammers will attempt to do what they do in any environment.
The only way a new vendor, or buyer for that matter, can be truly vetted by the community is through time, experience, and peer review. A vendor artificially jacking up ratings accomplishes nothing AS LONG AS BUYERS TAKE THE TIME TO ACTUALLY READ THE FEEDBACK. It's obvious when it occurs if you take the time to read and digest the information instead of just looking at the numbers.
That being said, I don't see anything wrong with a legitimate raffle to get your name out there. If the raffle turns out to be legit, the vendor will gain status. If not, the vendor will be outed as a scammer. Banning creativity in a free market isn't a solution- all vendors are free to employ the same tactics.
Caveat emptor... Or let the buyer get screwed.
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Dread Pirate Roberts has announced plans to change the weighting of feedback so that small items like digital goods or lotto tickets have no weighting towards feedback rank, and higher priced items actually DO. (this is good for me because the smallest thing I sell is 1/4oz).
I'm running a lotto, for the record. but mostly because I want to generate some new business. I'm the oldest fucking weed seller on here now lol. And I had almost 500 transactions done, in the bag, my review thread is over 8 months old, has 250+ posts from long-standing members, and over 4,700 views. Watch out for newbs gaming the system, but let us old dogs play a little ;)
Anarcho47
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i am about 90% certain Random is a scammer
i think i fell for it. i usually don't do mp swaps with anyone other that SugarMama and BTCPal, but neither were available and I was drunk. Said he'd get it to me last night. Now, over 24 hours later, no replies, no coin.
Didn't read the forums like I usually do for real vendors, but oh well.
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i dont think you are the only one. i think there is another topic where several people have complained he ripped them off on mps, if he is still selling and doing that i think thats fucked up. sr needs to suspend his account, atleast until these accusations are cleared. its not just 1 person here, but i have seen atleast 3 saying he fucked them off for moneypaks, and not to mention this whole lottery thing is shady as fuck.
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I hate all this "lottery" stuff.
also,
RandomGuy 1970 has been banned.
Missit has been banned
CripledCranium has been banned.
Jabberwockylover has been banned.
Bitcoinexchange has been banned.
~DigitalAlch
RG1970 has been banned - rejoice.
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Great post Tony. Now I read forums that go back to a vendors start up time all the way up to present or until Im satified. When I read feedback...I start from first feedback and go backwards to first feedback. I look for trends that are desireable. They improve...and feedback jives or flows well together with their forum posts by buyers.
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Good post and very useful. Have to agree - all those "lotto" crap going on around definitely boosts the ratings...
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Good post and very useful. Have to agree - all those "lotto" crap going on around definitely boosts the ratings...
As I have said before one of the easiest ways to avoid scammers is NEVER do business with a vendor who has lotto's, for a site like this they have no useful purpose other than setting up buyers for the big cash grab.
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As I have said before one of the easiest ways to avoid scammers is NEVER do business with a vendor who has lotto's, for a site like this they have no useful purpose other than setting up buyers for the big cash grab.
I agree. I'm not sure why lottery's aren't banned on this site. Worst case scenario, disallow feedback on lotto postings.
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didn't sr make it so any purchase under 10 dollars didn't count in the vendors score? I've always wanted to do a lottery, just for fun, not to alter my vendors rating. But, It looks like lotteries are frowned upon. but wouldn't they be ok if the vendor has no intention on trying to get his/her rep up?
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My thoughts exactly. I did one more for the sake of marketing, didn't lose money (bonus!), and two people who have never tried my stuff before are now getting some nice AAA grade White Widow in their mailbox for all of .10 Bitcents...
The only reason I can see it being a piss-off for buyers is having to click a few pages of feedback to get to non-lottery finalizations, but with the new changes to the site lottos have virtually no effect on rank anymore, so sellers can't pad rank stats with it.