Trader Insurance

With all the scams that are so routine around here and elsewhere, I was wondering if if people would be willing to to buy some sort of insurance against scammers.

My idea is this.

One or both parties to a trade would deposit money with a trusted third party during a trade and that money would be held until the trade passed approval. Anyone caught scamming would forefeit their funds to the other party. This would absolutely eliminate the scammers as they could not get away with going red. The insurer would collect a small fee from despited funds on each trade - maybe just a few percent.

Not that I have the technical ability to do this but would anyone be interested?

i wanna be the insurer P...but it seems sort of complicated to me...

Sounds like an interesting idea but if the transaction were done via paypal, you have to take into account that sending money back and forth and facing any paypal fees would basically make you end up with less than you started out with.

Ever hear of Escrow?


If you really want to be safe with the money, you would use that service...draw back is that its not popular

I know a long time ago we were talking about this but we would have to take a % to make it worth the crapload of effort. I think we decided it was a good idea but too hard to implement...

I also remember reading about this in the threads a while ago, it was almost exactly the same idea and follow up posts (haha). Seems like it would be a huge task for the scene...

[quote38d6bee69d="Big War Bird"]With all the scams that are so routine around here and elsewhere, I was wondering if if people would be willing to to buy some sort of insurance against scammers.

My idea is this.

One or both parties to a trade would deposit money with a trusted third party during a trade and that money would be held until the trade passed approval. Anyone caught scamming would forefeit their funds to the other party. This would absolutely eliminate the scammers as they could not get away with going red. The insurer would collect a small fee from despited funds on each trade - maybe just a few percent.

Not that I have the technical ability to do this but would anyone be interested?[/quote38d6bee69d]
Would the deposited funds be more than or less than the price for the referral? If it is more, then it seems to defeat the whole purpose, as the person who is doing the site loses more money than he/she gains during the period of time before the approval. In this manner, it would be better to just pay on approval.

If the deposit is less than the price of the referral, if the person that is looking for referrals gets scammed, he/she only gets back a portion of what he/she first invested, losing money to the scammer. Also, if both parties are legitimate, the person that is greening on the site earns less money than they could have without the insurance in the time period before site approval. This would involve an intricate balance.

It seems like too much trouble to me. ?

Boy this seems like a lot of work for just $20, I mean if you can't afford to lose $20 this probably isn't for you. Just a thought, maybe I'm wrong

If there is enough support I might be able to open up a site dedicated to insure that the transaction occurs smoothly. The costs can be as low as 1.5% to 2.5% depending on many factors. But if there is enough support for this I would definitely open up a site dedicated to insuring trades and just about any exchange.

I know that there are alot of us that would like to find a way to keep from being scammed and to keep from giving our money to the scammers, so I believe that with the combined intelligence of this forum there has to be a solution. We need to have a brainstorming session through posting or something. I know that Big War Bird's idea is a good one but people see it as a huge undertaking that would cost more money so if others have any ideas then they need to bring them to the forum and lets all work together to find a solution that the majority would be happy with. Even if it is adding another section in the forum for listing "Honest Newbies". If a newbie signs up and wants to go green for money, then the first trade has to be confirmed by the site owner, and then the trader posts this under that heading so we all know they have at least passed approval on one trade, it could stop alot of the scamming. I don't know that this is plausible or infallible but it could help. If the site owners would agreed to this, since they would have to eventually check them anyways, it could save us from finding out when we put in for approval and then rushing to find another referral. It could also keep some of the scammers away since they would know that they would get put through approval first before anyone else would trade with them. It's just a thought and would appreciate any feedback on it. It's not that I can't afford to lose $20 but I would rather not lose it, if there was a way to stop it. Thanks for reading.

I am just recently having problems with reds for my referrals. Seems like it just started in March. Something needs to be implemented because its more of a hassle trying to get that last referral to replace the red than losing $$ for me.

Just becase someone goes red doesnt mean that they are scamming you. Sometimes accidents happen. Also, I can see 2 people getting together and figuring out how to cheat the system.

Accidents do happen zr2152 but if it is an accident than the person should be able to clear it up pretty quickly. I think that this thread is about trying to figure out how to make it harder on scammers to take advantage of everyone. Scammers spend more time trying to figure out how to get around the right way of doing things and how to do things the wrong way. They will always find a way to cheat the system, but if we can stop just a few of them by taking a few extra steps to prevent it, then I am willing to try. If we were to spend more time working together to figure out a system to prevent them from scamming us instead of criticizing people's ideas on prevention we might actually come up with a solid solution. It seems that people find it easier to say "that won't work" instead of saying "that's a good idea, but maybe we should try this too". I think both Big War Bird and HVACgal have good ideas and hope that this blossoms into a solution to slow down the number of scammers on this forum.

Just a thought... What if the admin's made it against the rules to declare "Will pay upon green" this might slow the scammer problem.

[quote99c71894fa="secondjob"]Just a thought... What if the admin's made it against the rules to declare "Will pay upon green" this might slow the scammer problem.[/quote99c71894fa]

why would they do this??? and if they do it, how can noobs have a competitive reply to high TR paying upon approval??

I'm just saying that most of the scammers are taking advantage of people who are paying upon green. Although if your TR is higher than the person that you are greening for payment upon green would be fine. Like I said before, just a thought...

[quote5d5d044ab2]Just a thought... What if the admin's made it against the rules to declare "Will pay upon green" this might slow the scammer problem.[/quote5d5d044ab2]
Just wanted to say that when I started, I didn't have $2 in paypal.
So I done offers for members and got enoght to start working on my sites.
Now 95 trades later, I've made money and have good sum in paypal.
Do not make anyone not be able to pay on green. You'll lose a lot of possible members.
My thoughts only.
Thanks,
Waterman

Paying upon approval or shipment/payout alleviates that particular risk.

I would not want to wait till payout or approval because when you are new it can take months to get a top prize on a site.