List reports in warnings section

[hookbox]

That is the purpose of the Warnings & Alerts section that this thread is posted in. However, it is for members to report their experiences/alerts. We may report in it on a rare occasion, but ultimately, it's left up to those involved or who have been interacted with to do so.

Thanks for the reply. I would think that if something is reported to you, mods, staff etc.......that it would also make sense for it to be listed by the staff in the warnings section even if a member decides not to post it on their own. Some members may be hesitant to post any warnings against any member for fear of retaliation. There are some members here that you would never post any negative thing about because it is drop dead certain that they well retaliate in some way. This is why I think it should be reported by staff if staff already knows something isn't right so a member isn't singled out on their own.

 

[Eric Lyon]

This is a great idea in theory, and we'd like to do even more than we already do to help keep the community safe from fraud/scams.

This particular idea has problems that we can't overlook:

1. We spend countless hours researching and investigating scams/fraud to keep our members safe. We indicate this by closing/restricting accounts. This is a signal to all members to use caution when dealing with those restricted/banned members. We don't have the spare time to turn every investigation into a public customer support/research thread that is scrutinized, or in the worst case scenario, turned into a witch hunt that would take up more of our time. That time could be better spent investigating new reports as thoroughly as we currently do.
2. We make mistakes. We do everything we can to make less mistakes, but we're human and they happen. If we make a mistake and restricted/ban someone, then they can plead their case privately and we can correct our mistake. However, under no circumstances should we post something about someone that is a mistake, force them to respond publicly, etc. That would be irresponsible and in some cases illegal. That is not a risk we can take.
3. Most of our investigations are ongoing. As we gather more information about criminals, we are able to better track them, gain new information about them, and protect the community by stopping them from scamming/defrauding anyone on our platform. As soon as we tell them that we're on to them, or share how much we know about them, it makes it much more difficult for us to stop them in the future. At that point, we've shown our hand and they can easily change/hide the information that we know about, which makes stopping them in the future more difficult or impossible. None of us want that.

While there could be some good that would come from us reporting all of these things publicly, it would cause a lot more harm. The benefits are too small compared to the existing benefits of simply closing/banning accounts, which has less disadvantages. Fortunately, members can do their own research with every deal and find out a lot on their own, as well as find out when members have closed account(s), which is a signal that they should use caution/escrow.

We're open to considering additional steps we can take to keep everyone safe, and we will continue to take the steps we currently do, which is already more transparent than any other marketplace I've seen. If you have anymore ideas, please share them with us.

Thanks for your help,