Ranking
Original Post
Anti-Scam Feature (idea)
Many of us have been scammed in the past and the current scam report system just doesn't seem to work too well, for example one situation from my own experience, i bought a Steam wallet card for 200k TC from someone who seemed trust worthy, i sent the TC to him and found out that i've been scammed. The scammer has just spend the TC in bets before the Squad could do anything and i've been told that there is nothing they could do because tracking the bet transactions and the whole undo process would take too much effort and annoy many people to undo their bets winnings and from what i saw it's pretty common to be scammed like that so i thought about a feature that allows you to "handcuff" the scammer yourself instantly right after the scam took place and make him unable to actually spend your TC or items on bets and other ways to gain profit from this and harm your balances. This feature wouldn't do any harm even if someone abused it because all it would do is just lock the certain amount of currency or items and make him unable to transfer it anywhere else for a period of time like 12-24hrs just so the Market Squad has enough time to investigate the situation and take the right actions. The button would be in the transaction history panel next to the transaction log, after clicking it there would be a confirm window pop-up and a warning that abusing this feature will be punished just like they made it for the global broadcasts feature. Time is very important for scam situations and thats why you should be the one who should be allowed to defend your own TC or items without days of waiting for the scam report judging and in order to do that you need the right tool so it's safer for you to do the first step in the future. It would also mean less dirty job for the Market Squad and make them rather real judges instead of the bad guys who say "i'm sorry but it's too late" in most of the cases. A small limit depending on forum group would be cool aswell like 3-5-10 for user-tprime-vip per month just to make the vip guys who support this game so much feel even safer doing their bussiness, this would also prevent people from abusing it even more making it a safe feature that will make most scammer's life much harder.

I made some images to explain how it would look like:



Thats where you find your transaction log that you suspect to be a scam and when you click it there will be a pop-up to confirm and explain what to do next in order to recover your items or TC.





When the transaction is locked the user has enough time to investigate what happened and write a proper scam report without rush and worrying about his items or TC being spend in any way.

Then all the market squad has to do is extend the 24hr time and investigate the scam report and other stuff, take actions and done!

Sorry if there are any English or theory goofs i made, i've got high temperature fever right now and it's just hard not to goof up. :/
Constructive feedback is mostly welcome in order to improve the idea.
Yea it's a nice concept but 2 big issues immediately pop out.

1. Abuse
You can warn people not to abuse it and punish them when they do but you can't get around the fact that people will abuse it. Will the discomfort of the victim outweigh the benefit of having such a tool/system? What if the user was bidding in some expensive high level auctions or had a shop going on. Now they can't interact in the market and you'll get a domino knock on effect of upset trading.

2. Tool access
What about alts? Can I make alts and keep abusing the system? Do all accounts get access to this feature when they sign up? Or do you get stocks of use of the tool over time? Why should someone who's been here longer get better scam prevention than someone new?

A better solution would be if you all just didn't get scammed in the first place. We have loads of information about scam prevention and it's common knowledge that trades outside the official system (things like steam cards and USD trades) are done at your own risk.
Originally Posted by Solax View Post
1. Abuse
You can warn people not to abuse it and punish them when they do but you can't get around the fact that people will abuse it. Will the discomfort of the victim outweigh the benefit of having such a tool/system? What if the user was bidding in some expensive high level auctions or had a shop going on. Now they can't interact in the market and you'll get a domino knock on effect of upset trading.

1. Well, to minimalize the abuse i suggested to add a few limits like 3-5-10 lockers for user-tprime-vip per month so alts and most of the guys who would actually abuse it would only be able to freeze three transactions per month for just a day which isn't a pain i think (i wouldn't mind myself i mean because it's yours anyway) and since there is no reason of using the tool the guy will get punished with bans or long term tool suspensions so they are just not able to use the tool anymore if the abuser is a toribash veteran or the ban would be too much.
I know there is still a way to abuse it even though it doesn't really affect the user that much but i'd like to remind you on the in-game broadcast, the way it's designed it can be abused aswell but no one does that because the fact it costs a bit of their TC and a ban warning is enough.



5-10k is dirt cheap actually, lol.

So the conclusion is a ban warning which i already included and a small fee is enough to make it safe, maybe there should be a small fee for this protection aswell? A fee would make people who do trades much safer and cause some TC sink aswell, maybe a monthly subscribtion system?
Originally Posted by Solax View Post
2. Tool access
What about alts? Can I make alts and keep abusing the system? Do all accounts get access to this feature when they sign up? Or do you get stocks of use of the tool over time? Why should someone who's been here longer get better scam prevention than someone new?

2. Because someone who is longer with our community deserves more trust i'd say and there is no way new players will do many trades instantly right after the joined us. There are limits for new players already aswell, for example you are not able to send your TC to a new-made account i figured last time when i was curious and tried to send 1 TC to the guy called Nikos, turned out he didn't play X games and that's why i can't send TC to him.
If restrictions like that already exist i'm pretty sure there is no problem with any restrictions for new players if this tool would be actually implemented.
Originally Posted by Solax View Post
A better solution would be if you all just didn't get scammed in the first place. We have loads of information about scam prevention and it's common knowledge that trades outside the official system (things like steam cards and USD trades) are done at your own risk.

Of course, no scam at all is always the best way out of this problem but the scammers don't feel like they got something to lose if their account is worth less than the amount of money they scammed right?
Unless someone invents something so i can punch people trough the internet nothing will change and the only way to actually reduce the scams is to implement various tools and security procedures.
Originally Posted by NikosDEAD View Post
Of course, no scam at all is always the best way out of this problem but the scammers don't feel like they got something to lose if their account is worth less than the amount of money they scammed right?
Unless someone invents something so i can punch people trough the internet nothing will change and the only way to actually reduce the scams is to implement various tools and security procedures.

If you are making trades with people and sending them more in value then their account is worth than that in itself is a big red flag that you are doing something wrong.

If you get scammed by a user who appears to be trustworthy and you can show us you took precautions to protect yourself then we have a system in place to help you. Give this a read for info on that and general market safety: http://forum.toribash.com/showthread.php?t=537958
Happy you are not asking about the tool itself anymore, i hope it's a sign of making things clear enough how it would work.
Originally Posted by Solax View Post
If you are making trades with people and sending them more in value then their account is worth than that in itself is a big red flag that you are doing something wrong.

It was just an example but if we want to base on my own experience/case i really needed the steam card as soon as possible and only he came up, a guy who had a long transaction history and never seemed to have scammed someone, a big post count with a decent Qi score a popular clan and all my friends telling me that i can trust him because he never messed up, turned out he chose me as his first and last scam target. And i'm not complaining "why me!?" but suggest the solution tool for that and i kinda wish it would be there for me back then to prevent all the mess i had to go trough, i mean 200k may be not much for me now but it was alot for me back days. I could have just paid the fee and used the tool saving 95% of the scammed TC and much less work for the Market Squad itself.
Originally Posted by Solax View Post
If you get scammed by a user who appears to be trustworthy and you can show us you took precautions to protect yourself then we have a system in place to help you. Give this a read for info on that and general market safety: http://forum.toribash.com/showthread.php?t=537958

I already used the system back then when it happened and it was helping a bit like 40%. But instead of healing the effects partially it would be better to reduce the causes itself and thats why i came up with my idea. What comes up is that either way i could keep 95% of the TC with less stress and work for not just me but also the Staff or get 40% after a long talk with the staff and investigation process, if we both want to be honest which one sounds better?

Thanks for the guide, it answered a couple of questions i had since back then. ^^
Last edited by Nikos; Nov 18, 2016 at 03:42 AM.
Originally Posted by NikosDEAD View Post
Happy you are not asking about the tool itself anymore, i hope it's a sign of making things clear enough how it would work.

Yea more or less. I'm still not entirely sure how you could get fair access for everyone though. Makes sense in a way to only give access of the tool to longstanding members or on tc transactions greater than a certain amount but we have to remember that everyone's wealth is relative.
Is it fair that a user who's been here for a year and sending 100k is protected and a user who's been here 2 weeks and sending 3k isn't protected? Just food for thought.
Originally Posted by Solax View Post
Is it fair that a user who's been here for a year and sending 100k is protected and a user who's been here 2 weeks and sending 3k isn't protected? Just food for thought.

It really depends on which factors you use for judging, but in overall i'd say yes because loyality should be rewarded. ^^
Last edited by Nikos; Nov 18, 2016 at 11:35 PM.
I am confused by all this, you making Detacher worried now.
Roses are Red, Violets are Blue, and when I play I will kill you. :) See you then <3