DIPSLICK Posted February 2, 2015 Posted February 2, 2015 I have personally passed on many a bargain after going through the sellers profile and realizing that they are not active members. Better safe than sorry. I have also taken calculated risks and bought from 0 post sellers, turned out well for me luckily and then rated the seller.Problem is that you get a lot of "tyre kickers" so how long before these "verifiers" decline this help from people stuffing them around. I have received many mails in reply to ads where the person is simply fishing!!Yes you can get 50 or 100 posts pretty quickly but a buyer will also be able to see just as quickly if they are meaningful posts or not. **At the end of the day by not being an active, participating member; through contributing by posting; you are in fact excuding yourself from this community. The community is not complete, it is an open door, participation is the way you join. Lurking achieves very little aside from what you may learn from the knowledge which is regularly dispensed. Imagine if nobody shared their knowledge, experiences, etc, where would "your" community be then???Funny how the Lurkers seem to have so much to say now yet find it hard to contribute elsewhere????love this post, couldnt agree more, PART OF THE COMMUNITY in every sense
sakkiebomskok Posted February 2, 2015 Posted February 2, 2015 Once again. It doesn't have to be posts. As admin said. It could be through friend endorsement on facebook etc. Lets face it. These scammers are not generally the friendly type who cycles everyday so it would be hard for them to find someone to endorse them. And to get 50 posts will take them time and if they then still post a scam and it gets reported they have to start all over again with a new profile. Its not a full proof system but its like the first layer of barbedwire at your house. After that there are still doors to get through and then eventually you to get past.
DIPSLICK Posted February 2, 2015 Posted February 2, 2015 good point sakkie, but their is at least the barb wire, there is no system that works 100% i still think the reason thehub works is because hubbers dont just see the scam and move on they hit report, how many people report on scamtree, a few but most just think WHAT EVAAA another scam, some sucker is going to get caught i cant believe people are so dumb, they dont know the people so they dont care thats where the community forum kicks in, when i see a dodge ad i think bugger this ill report if i am right then it will be removed and i could possibly save one of the hubbers i know from getting taken for a ride, if i am wrong then so be it. hubbers are much sharper than we give each other credit for and i trust their judgement
DubbelBuys Posted February 2, 2015 Posted February 2, 2015 Always do a google search of the image & see whether it's posted on any other sites. Then obviously ask for some close ups of certain sections as well. Or even easier: just phone
Tubehunter Posted February 2, 2015 Posted February 2, 2015 I like what you guys are doing and suggesting in order to keep the scurge of scammers away! Kudos to Admin, his crew and all the community involved in looking out for one another! There is no silver bullet to cut it all out. There will always be someone who invests more time and effort to break the rules than learning how to live with them. The single biggest asset and most effective tool we have is for the community to hit the report button on anything suspicious. That along with all new posters to the classifieds having their post reviewed before publishing should make for a fairly robust but not scamproof trading platform! Certainly far safer than what is out there!
ZakAttak Posted February 2, 2015 Posted February 2, 2015 Ok, My share of Scammers this weekend...: My bike is adevrtised both here and on Gumtree... So I get a SMS from someone interested in the bike... Wanting to know when they can come view and where I stay... Gave them the necessary details and then get an SMS stating: "My brother will come view, he lives close to you" at this point alarm bells start ringing... Just there, I called up the guy asking him what his name was, he replies "Anewton" or "Newton" or something like that, couldn't really make out... The guys says he's from JHB and moved to Cape Town, living in Somerset West... Anyway, conversation continues, and then I said to him, that if he is interested, I only deal in cash, no cheques, no eft's no funny business... He reckons in a now angry voice "what you mean no funny business?" And he carried on, anyway, I cancelled the call, never to hear back from him... I did a quick search of his Cell Number and he has an ad on OLX selling cellphones, latest stuff, iPhone 6's etc under the name of Hilton... Anyway... that's just my experience... EDIT: Grammar
DikBuffalo Posted February 2, 2015 Posted February 2, 2015 So I've just had a quick look at the current classified posts and the number of posts the advertiser has.....out of the 10 (which were the most current and thumb-nailed at that time) that I looked at, of those only ONE had a post count of over 50.Put in the over 50 and will we see classifieds and bargains (that are taken up every day) disappearing off the Hub? It would be very interesting to see the amount sales taking place where either the buyer of seller are less than 50 posts....I bet it's the majority. Having other Hubbers endorse you.....so what happens if I endorse another Hubber, and the deal goes bad......do I become accountable - because I can see that exactly happening. All of sudden I'm the one your going to be contacting and complaining to about the guy in my cycling group (who I said I knew) who's taken you for a ride. All I'm saying is be careful you do not isolate a large percentage of Hubbers (correct me if I'm wrong, but these silent Hubbers are reading posts, clicking on links etc, etc, which increases the amount of page views and ultimately allows Matt to grow the Hub - the fact that we do not want to post daily, but are more than happy and often first in line to help out when a good cause comes around, should not make it more difficult for us to partake in any section of the Hub) sk27 - "Funny how the Lurkers seem to have so much to say, now, yet find it so hard to contribute elsewhere????".....that's just playing the man and not the ball (then you ask why you don't have more people dipping there toes into discussions) Anyway...at the heart of this is that we are lazy. We all want a good deal at the minimum amount of invested time, we don't want to make an extra effort of meeting up, of phoning and checking, drawing funds and paying cash etc etc. If you not willing to do your homework.........
ZakAttak Posted February 2, 2015 Posted February 2, 2015 ADMIN: Just an idea and I don't know if this have been stated... but after the verification process of sellers on the hub, can't we have next to the ad or the name of the person selling or on the ad itself somewhere, stating that this seller is a verified seller... with a medallion of sorts? Obviously to become a verified seller, that criteria needs to be confirmed, maybe have a rating of above 5 or 10 with proper comments stating the experience of the sale between buyer and seller? Something similar to what eBay does? Like this:
Hairy Posted February 2, 2015 Posted February 2, 2015 ADMIN: Just an idea and I don't know if this have been stated... but after the verification process of sellers on the hub, can't we have next to the ad or the name of the person selling or on the ad itself somewhere, stating that this seller is a verified seller... with a medallion of sorts? Obviously to become a verified seller, that criteria needs to be confirmed, maybe have a rating of above 5 or 10 with proper comments stating the experience of the sale between buyer and seller? Something similar to what eBay does? Like this: Top Rated.JPGCan I triple like this post please
Tubehunter Posted February 2, 2015 Posted February 2, 2015 So I've just had a quick look at the current classified posts and the number of posts the advertiser has.....out of the 10 (which were the most current and thumb-nailed at that time) that I looked at, of those only ONE had a post count of over 50.Put in the over 50 and will we see classifieds and bargains (that are taken up every day) disappearing off the Hub? It would be very interesting to see the amount sales taking place where either the buyer of seller are less than 50 posts....I bet it's the majority. Having other Hubbers endorse you.....so what happens if I endorse another Hubber, and the deal goes bad......do I become accountable - because I can see that exactly happening. All of sudden I'm the one your going to be contacting and complaining to about the guy in my cycling group (who I said I knew) who's taken you for a ride. All I'm saying is be careful you do not isolate a large percentage of Hubbers (correct me if I'm wrong, but these silent Hubbers are reading posts, clicking on links etc, etc, which increases the amount of page views and ultimately allows Matt to grow the Hub - the fact that we do not want to post daily, but are more than happy and often first in line to help out when a good cause comes around, should not make it more difficult for us to partake in any section of the Hub) sk27 - "Funny how the Lurkers seem to have so much to say, now, yet find it so hard to contribute elsewhere????".....that's just playing the man and not the ball (then you ask why you don't have more people dipping there toes into discussions) Anyway...at the heart of this is that we are lazy. We all want a good deal at the minimum amount of invested time, we don't want to make an extra effort of meeting up, of phoning and checking, drawing funds and paying cash etc etc. If you not willing to do your homework......... Sounds like you're defending your opinion. Awesome. That's what the rest of us attempt to do here when we have discussions. I think the model that Matt has described of having someone do their first classified post that is hidden until it is reviewed, is the best way forward. This will keep the clueless bulk scammers at bay and we'll need the community involvement to check on the hardcore scammer who is pretending to be an upstanding member by participating once he has got through that hurdle.
Matt Posted February 2, 2015 Posted February 2, 2015 So I've just had a quick look at the current classified posts and the number of posts the advertiser has.....out of the 10 (which were the most current and thumb-nailed at that time) that I looked at, of those only ONE had a post count of over 50.Put in the over 50 and will we see classifieds and bargains (that are taken up every day) disappearing off the Hub? It would be very interesting to see the amount sales taking place where either the buyer of seller are less than 50 posts....I bet it's the majority. Having other Hubbers endorse you.....so what happens if I endorse another Hubber, and the deal goes bad......do I become accountable - because I can see that exactly happening. All of sudden I'm the one your going to be contacting and complaining to about the guy in my cycling group (who I said I knew) who's taken you for a ride. All I'm saying is be careful you do not isolate a large percentage of Hubbers (correct me if I'm wrong, but these silent Hubbers are reading posts, clicking on links etc, etc, which increases the amount of page views and ultimately allows Matt to grow the Hub - the fact that we do not want to post daily, but are more than happy and often first in line to help out when a good cause comes around, should not make it more difficult for us to partake in any section of the Hub) sk27 - "Funny how the Lurkers seem to have so much to say, now, yet find it so hard to contribute elsewhere????".....that's just playing the man and not the ball (then you ask why you don't have more people dipping there toes into discussions) Anyway...at the heart of this is that we are lazy. We all want a good deal at the minimum amount of invested time, we don't want to make an extra effort of meeting up, of phoning and checking, drawing funds and paying cash etc etc. If you not willing to do your homework.........Spot on - while the post count rule works very effectively in purely forum based classifieds, it's not an effective and inclusive solution for us. The classifieds here was once just a small part of the forums and back then a post count criteria would have made sense, but not now. Classifieds is the most used feature on the site, it receives more than double the traffic of the forums and 99% of ads and deals go through without issues. Implementing a forum post count criteria for Classifieds would only harm the community (both classifieds and forums). We'd see a drop off in the number of ads posted (most of which would be good deals from reputable people who just aren't inclined to use the forums). And we'd see an increase in frivolous posts with people just trying to get their post count up. Neither of those are a win in my book. It's a solution that can work and does for many others, but it won't work for The Hub. However, as mentioned in my earlier post, we're not ignoring the calls for stricter criteria in posting ads, just looking to implement it in a more inclusive and sensible manner. As others have said: the current reporting system already works very well, but still it could work better. We often will receive a report after an ad like this already has 5-10 comments from user suspecting a scam, but not have reported it. Don't stop posting comments as it helps warn others, but PLEASE hit report on the ad.
rouxtjie Posted February 2, 2015 Posted February 2, 2015 If its a free for all, well then you must treat every advertisement as a gumtree ad....with caution. Luckily for us, a transaction needs a willing buyer and a willing seller.
jimmycool Posted February 2, 2015 Posted February 2, 2015 An idea I have put forward before is to simply require a user who wishes to sell something to take a cellphone pic of their ID book and send it to admin before being able to post their first classified ad. It would not take too long to do and would surely discourage chancers from posting something for sale.If admin thinks it is a bit fishy then they could request a pic of the persons utility bill, just to verify their name and address. ie if someone was using a stolen id book they probably wouldn't also have an eskom bill lying around with the same name on it.
ZakAttak Posted February 2, 2015 Posted February 2, 2015 An idea I have put forward before is to simply require a user who wishes to sell something to take a cellphone pic of their ID book and send it to admin before being able to post their first classified ad. It would not take too long to do and would surely discourage chancers from posting something for sale.If admin thinks it is a bit fishy then they could request a pic of the persons utility bill, just to verify their name and address. ie if someone was using a stolen id book they probably wouldn't also have an eskom bill lying around with the same name on it. So basically you saying the sellers should HICA for the Hub as in RICA for Cellphone and FICA for Banking... Could work....
jimmycool Posted February 2, 2015 Posted February 2, 2015 So basically you saying the sellers should HICA for the Hub as in RICA for Cellphone and FICA for Banking... Could work.... 100% correct. And realistically it would only take a person 1 or 2 minutes to do it. It could even be sent by mms if the person can't figure out how to upload pictures to the hub (which they should be able to do if they are in the process of selling something online)
jimmycool Posted February 2, 2015 Posted February 2, 2015 And if the admins really wanted to verify someone they could request a selfie of the person holding up their id book just below their head, mugshot style, to go along with the closeup picture of the id book. It would be rather clear to spot a scam this way if the id book says Cindy Brown and the dude in the mugshot is a big scary nigerian scamster.
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