Silk Road forums

Discussion => Silk Road discussion => Topic started by: friendlyoutlaw on April 22, 2012, 03:13 pm

Title: Scammers using the no-commission to inflate ratings
Post by: friendlyoutlaw on April 22, 2012, 03:13 pm
Something just occurred to me this morning, when I saw some suspicious feedback on an account.

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Title: Re: Scammers using the no-commission to inflate ratings
Post by: Horizons on April 22, 2012, 03:16 pm
Feedback can be forged by vendors buying 0.00 BTC custom listings from themselves. Unlike buyer stats, which reveal how much a buyer has spent, vendor feedback is displayed based solely on the number of transactions and the grade given out of 5 in each case. So the lack of commission doesn't really change anything.
Title: Re: Scammers using the no-commission to inflate ratings
Post by: friendlyoutlaw on April 22, 2012, 03:29 pm
Uh, you missed the point.

<Clarifying details removed>
Title: Re: Scammers using the no-commission to inflate ratings
Post by: Dread Pirate Roberts on April 22, 2012, 04:04 pm
great point, we'll be sure to look for this behavior.  we did in fact already find someone doing just this.
Title: Re: Scammers using the no-commission to inflate ratings
Post by: Prawl42 on April 22, 2012, 04:10 pm
Seeing as DPR has seen this post maybe delete it? idk but i would think the less people that would see this the better just incase you give anyone the idea
Title: Re: Scammers using the no-commission to inflate ratings
Post by: hunter2 on April 22, 2012, 04:12 pm
Seeing as DPR has seen this post maybe delete it? idk but i would think the less people that would see this the better just incase you give anyone the idea
Title: Re: Scammers using the no-commission to inflate ratings
Post by: friendlyoutlaw on April 22, 2012, 04:15 pm
Ok, editing it now.
Title: Re: Scammers using the no-commission to inflate ratings
Post by: anarcho47 on April 22, 2012, 04:49 pm
Feedback can be forged by vendors buying 0.00 BTC custom listings from themselves. Unlike buyer stats, which reveal how much a buyer has spent, vendor feedback is displayed based solely on the number of transactions and the grade given out of 5 in each case. So the lack of commission doesn't really change anything.

Just a note.  It would take thousands and thousands of 0.00 btc listings to actually impact your feedback significantly as far as vendor rank goes.  The way feedback is applied to rank is weighted by the price of the item sold.  It can appear "legit" at first glance, but a buyer should have more questions once they have seen that a vendor has over 300 transactions and is still only in the top 75% of vendors.

However if you do see this kind of stuff going on post it in the scammer thread, send it to a couple of forum mods and forward it to SR Support, who are very diligent about watching out for this kind of stuff. 
Title: Re: Scammers using the no-commission to inflate ratings
Post by: Joeyjojojr on April 23, 2012, 12:45 am
How about.....

When a buyer makes his or her first purchase from a vendor a randomized number would be generated and displayed next to their comments. This number would show up for every purchase from that vendor. New buyers would be able to see how many feedbacks were coming from that user and it would remain anonymous because the number would be randomized for each vendor. Along with the number it could have a member for x amount of time. If all the feedback is from accounts made that day for example people could see that and judge accordingly.

This would not affect anonymity and would prevent sellers from inflating their rating.

It really is way to easy for sellers to fake feedback. I know its impossible to totally prevent this, but i think it should be a little harder for the scammer vendors and i feel my method could be effective.

Thanks for reading.
Title: Re: Scammers using the no-commission to inflate ratings
Post by: SuperDerp on April 23, 2012, 08:27 am
This kind of system will always have flaws because it doesn't use the WoT model every other bitcoin marketplace uses and instead uses the failed ebay model. Too late now, would be impossible to change feedback every vendor would revolt at the loss of status
Title: Re: Scammers using the no-commission to inflate ratings
Post by: CharasBros on April 23, 2012, 09:16 am
This kind of system will always have flaws because it doesn't use the WoT model every other bitcoin marketplace uses and instead uses the failed ebay model. Too late now, would be impossible to change feedback every vendor would revolt at the loss of status

why vendors would revolt against better feedback system? vendors been blackmailed with bad feedback and consequent forum post on daily basis.
Title: Re: Scammers using the no-commission to inflate ratings
Post by: cindylove on April 23, 2012, 01:31 pm
This kind of system will always have flaws because it doesn't use the WoT model every other bitcoin marketplace uses and instead uses the failed ebay model. Too late now, would be impossible to change feedback every vendor would revolt at the loss of status

Could you please explain what the "WoT" model is? And why is the "ebay" model a failure?