Anhrak
Somewhat Threatening Sniper
Note: I do realise this subject has come to the light earlier already, but recent incidents on the trade server and a conversation between some traders and trade mods have brought it to the decision to bring a new subject about this.
Hey everyone,
As you can already read from the title, this thread is about a proposal of a better moderation against deceptive trading, a.k.a; Sharking (or in some cases Rigging, where one deliberately manipulates a pricecheck source to buy/sell an item for a forged value). Of course, sharking can not be considered as ill as scamming because:
- It's the target's ignorance that's to blame. HOWEVER, this does not mean any case of sharking/rigging should be tollerated to do. It still is a disrespectfull act by manipulating someone else over your own gain.
- Mostly it's hard to prove. BUT, 'hard' does not mean imposible. There are still lots of traders that do gather as much evidence as possible, where the admins can safely determine this was in fact a committed shark attempt.
You named rigging... what is rigging?
Most Price-check sources are regulated by player voting. However, nothing is fail-safe and anyone who knows this, will sometime abuse this for some extra gain. Think of somebody putting an unusual on the market for 75% off, for a very tiny time. The chance is nihil that anybody spots that very unusual, but while you are trading, your partner will see a forged pricecheck of something that is only displayed 25% of what it's actually worth. Another is with fake listings on backpack.tf, to name a few. The scammer rigs price-checking sources in order to deceive their trading partner into giving incorrect item values.
What has happened?
Within the past two weeks, the trade server(s) are being roamed by quite a numberable amount of deliberate Sharkers. Some are first-timers, but others are notorious people that have negative ratings on both steamrep and backpack.tf. Though to uphold the policy of no-name-and-shaming, names will not be mentionned, only examples. Yesterday one of the traders had been targeting somebody that sold an item valued at 15.5-16 keys. In return he offered two items worth 14, but manipulated their partner into claiming:
- One of his items was 2 keys more than its actual value
- Refuted backpack.tf pricechecking by abusing a known 'lack' or backpack.tf's pricechecking.
The trading partner ignorantly bit, and shortly after the trader blocked him from steam contact and used the text chat to rub it into his face he just got ripped off for two keys. All of this got snapped on screenshots.
At this moment, I went towards an admin. The sharker was a known problem-seeker and has a very bad standing on backpack.tf and steamrep, and often causes a communal disturbance when he gets online (as people know him and his acts). The committed act turned out to be proven enough to confirm he had ripped him off... but could not ban him, since it's not the "traditional scam" (where one end simply refuses to commit to a deal, rather than deceiving them into committing into a deal.).
The proposed suggestion
Now we all know we got two forms of sharking. A lesser form, and a graver one. The lesser is just a simple opportunity grab; you see someone having or obtaining an item, oblivious of what its value is. Most people can't resist the opportunity of buying that item for a couple of refs, keys or buds cheaper. And in my opinion, this should be all fine, the opportunity-grabbing. However, its greater form is the clear deception. Your target is rather aware of trading and item valuing, but you deceive him into giving false information, either by overvaluing your own items or devaluing theirs, or using other sources to rig or manipulate the trade into your profit. Not only once, but repeated encounter after encounter.
Surprisingly, Skial is one of the few trading servers that has no rules (yet) concerning Sharking/Rigging. This is why I would like to suggest to start the moderation on the rules about Sharking/Rigging, under the following circumstances:
- The trader has a known history about scamming/deceiving (using sources such as steamrep/backpack.tf, or youtube/other media where is proven that the person has malicious trading intentions.)
- The trader can only be tagged/banned if he has reached a certain threshold of reports, or has been less than a year on his last trading offense on Steamrep
- The evidence is clear that there is a case of sharking/deception, and not simple lowballing/merchanting (as there is a BIG difference between saying "I offer 2 ref for that" and "That item is 2 ref") and all evidence is in self-speaking state, meaning the admins do not have to apply any links or logic to fill in some gaps.
Skial is in my opinion a great community, and even though I am only present on its trading servers, I wish to strife into having that place free of any malicious or disrespectfull acts, and I hope that any of you will understand that as well. This is why I have made this suggestion, to find a constructive and strategic way to battle an undesired and unwelcomed trend that has been notably going on for the past two weeks.
If you have made it all to the bottom of this thread, I would like to thank you for reading and would love to hear your opinion about this matter, because in the end I am a simple trader, where my voice is just as big as any of yours.
Roawr,
Knuffeldraak / ᴅʀᴀɢᴏɴ ʀᴏᴀʀ
Hey everyone,
As you can already read from the title, this thread is about a proposal of a better moderation against deceptive trading, a.k.a; Sharking (or in some cases Rigging, where one deliberately manipulates a pricecheck source to buy/sell an item for a forged value). Of course, sharking can not be considered as ill as scamming because:
- It's the target's ignorance that's to blame. HOWEVER, this does not mean any case of sharking/rigging should be tollerated to do. It still is a disrespectfull act by manipulating someone else over your own gain.
- Mostly it's hard to prove. BUT, 'hard' does not mean imposible. There are still lots of traders that do gather as much evidence as possible, where the admins can safely determine this was in fact a committed shark attempt.
You named rigging... what is rigging?
Most Price-check sources are regulated by player voting. However, nothing is fail-safe and anyone who knows this, will sometime abuse this for some extra gain. Think of somebody putting an unusual on the market for 75% off, for a very tiny time. The chance is nihil that anybody spots that very unusual, but while you are trading, your partner will see a forged pricecheck of something that is only displayed 25% of what it's actually worth. Another is with fake listings on backpack.tf, to name a few. The scammer rigs price-checking sources in order to deceive their trading partner into giving incorrect item values.
What has happened?
Within the past two weeks, the trade server(s) are being roamed by quite a numberable amount of deliberate Sharkers. Some are first-timers, but others are notorious people that have negative ratings on both steamrep and backpack.tf. Though to uphold the policy of no-name-and-shaming, names will not be mentionned, only examples. Yesterday one of the traders had been targeting somebody that sold an item valued at 15.5-16 keys. In return he offered two items worth 14, but manipulated their partner into claiming:
- One of his items was 2 keys more than its actual value
- Refuted backpack.tf pricechecking by abusing a known 'lack' or backpack.tf's pricechecking.
The trading partner ignorantly bit, and shortly after the trader blocked him from steam contact and used the text chat to rub it into his face he just got ripped off for two keys. All of this got snapped on screenshots.
At this moment, I went towards an admin. The sharker was a known problem-seeker and has a very bad standing on backpack.tf and steamrep, and often causes a communal disturbance when he gets online (as people know him and his acts). The committed act turned out to be proven enough to confirm he had ripped him off... but could not ban him, since it's not the "traditional scam" (where one end simply refuses to commit to a deal, rather than deceiving them into committing into a deal.).
The proposed suggestion
Now we all know we got two forms of sharking. A lesser form, and a graver one. The lesser is just a simple opportunity grab; you see someone having or obtaining an item, oblivious of what its value is. Most people can't resist the opportunity of buying that item for a couple of refs, keys or buds cheaper. And in my opinion, this should be all fine, the opportunity-grabbing. However, its greater form is the clear deception. Your target is rather aware of trading and item valuing, but you deceive him into giving false information, either by overvaluing your own items or devaluing theirs, or using other sources to rig or manipulate the trade into your profit. Not only once, but repeated encounter after encounter.
Surprisingly, Skial is one of the few trading servers that has no rules (yet) concerning Sharking/Rigging. This is why I would like to suggest to start the moderation on the rules about Sharking/Rigging, under the following circumstances:
- The trader has a known history about scamming/deceiving (using sources such as steamrep/backpack.tf, or youtube/other media where is proven that the person has malicious trading intentions.)
- The trader can only be tagged/banned if he has reached a certain threshold of reports, or has been less than a year on his last trading offense on Steamrep
- The evidence is clear that there is a case of sharking/deception, and not simple lowballing/merchanting (as there is a BIG difference between saying "I offer 2 ref for that" and "That item is 2 ref") and all evidence is in self-speaking state, meaning the admins do not have to apply any links or logic to fill in some gaps.
Skial is in my opinion a great community, and even though I am only present on its trading servers, I wish to strife into having that place free of any malicious or disrespectfull acts, and I hope that any of you will understand that as well. This is why I have made this suggestion, to find a constructive and strategic way to battle an undesired and unwelcomed trend that has been notably going on for the past two weeks.
If you have made it all to the bottom of this thread, I would like to thank you for reading and would love to hear your opinion about this matter, because in the end I am a simple trader, where my voice is just as big as any of yours.
Roawr,
Knuffeldraak / ᴅʀᴀɢᴏɴ ʀᴏᴀʀ
