Silk Road forums

Market => Rumor mill => Topic started by: mr_sketchy on June 22, 2011, 02:09 pm

Title: Fake Feedback. How easy is it to make it up?
Post by: mr_sketchy on June 22, 2011, 02:09 pm
Hi to all the very cool ppl on SR


I'm a newbie and have been investigating sourcing supplies.

Now, with all the attention SR has been getting, and pretending that all that chemical use hasnt fried all my brain cells...

Im a little skeptical about some of the vendors on here. Vortexmilkman being a prime example. Sorry mate, not picking on you, but Im a bit wary.

I mean, I've not once bought from a dealer, who'se just happened to "throw in 5 grams extra for free" And I dare say, unless you're performing some freaky favours, no one else here has either.

Now, just to presume innocence till proven guilty, I did ask him if he also sells another chemical, to which he replied "no".

If I was a scammer, I would say "sure!" and promptly scam my next victim. Therefore, to me this seems at odds with someone who is out for a quick buck.

Having said that, no offence to Vortexmilkman, he has many a hallmark of a nigerian scammer !



How easy is it to make fake feedback for yourself on here, to gain ppl's confidence and scam them?

I assume you would make a few fake profiles, then buy your own supply, and give yourself feedback, thus bolstering your reputation and then scamming the hasty or feeble.

Any one have experiences other than that already posted?
Title: Re: Fake Feedback. How easy is it to make it up?
Post by: Innocuous on June 22, 2011, 02:32 pm
Its as easy as listing your fake products, Then creating another user and buying the aforementioned products.
then you can just leave your feedback in say a day or two's as to not arise suspicion. I think this needs to be known so we can talk about it here in the forums and vouch for each other and minimize the effectiveness of this.
I realized this after I had made an order and was thinking I had fell for it.

But the thing is, very few people will test a vendor with absolutely no feedback so its kind of in your best interest to give as good service as possible to get some genuine feedback (hopefully by someone known in the scene too)
Double edged sword I guess, offer too much and it will appear to be 'bait', yet it could be the real thing.

Edit:
I was pleasantly surprised today with the order I mentioned, and funnily enough it came with an extra 4 grams.

I realize what I said was of no help at all lol, but what I mean is that we need to make use of this sub forum. Communication is key with weeding out the scammers.

Also remember, escrow should make the whole fake feedback thing fairly useless, but in order for the claim to be believed anything that goes wrong I think we need to report here.

2nd Edit (blame speed): In fact, this is what I think we need a buyers rating for. not a review as such just a simple anonymous 1 out of 5 stars. I'm a newbie compared to most here and if I suddenly said I did not receive my order would you guys believe me if the vendor had apparent good feedback? Im not so sure.
But you might if I already had a good buyers rating. Perhaps only long time very trusted vendors should be able to anonymously rate a buyer.
Title: Re: Fake Feedback. How easy is it to make it up?
Post by: btcfreedom on June 27, 2011, 07:05 pm
Ego is 100% right. This is an interesting topic and should always be considered when on SR....
Title: Re: Fake Feedback. How easy is it to make it up?
Post by: Victor on June 28, 2011, 06:45 am
Trust is hard to build when everyone is anonymous.

I'm ignoring the feedback system entirely, and watching what the sellers do. I placed a number of small orders to begin with, in the hope that at least one will come through. In time, I'll order more from the people who ship me what I order, write off the scams as a learning experience, and in the meantime keep cultivating new connections as well. I have no trouble ordering from someone with no feedback, because as you all have pointed out, feedback is easy to fake.

I wish I had spent more time reading some of these discussion threads before placing my first orders, but thankfully none of the people I've ordered from have been accumulating a bad rep. I think there's no substitute for detailed documentation of what buyers and sellers do here on SR.


Title: Re: Fake Feedback. How easy is it to make it up?
Post by: phubaiblues on June 28, 2011, 08:08 am
After a while, u know who u can trust.  Start small, see if they already have feedback...word gets out...the fact that now u have to bid to become seller is all the good...it's not worth the trouble to buyers for a quick scam...it's not been happening...only thing I know of that for sure has happened, is that some products haven't been delivered...but that's part of the deal here...it's not ebay: we're a dark and dangerous corner of the internet, and mostly, people on here want this to work...both sides...and word gets out...nobody'd survive on here if the scammed...and by starting small, if u do get horribly unlucky, yer not out that much...works for me, works for many of us...comparing it to ebay isn't always accurate, but the most heavily abuse area of ebay was buyer feedback, since sellers wouldn't post feedback until buyers had first posted positive, so they were blackmailed into posting positive...the legit sellers here are doing fine, and the legit buyers are happy w/system.
Title: Re: Fake Feedback. How easy is it to make it up?
Post by: gordy_o on June 28, 2011, 03:48 pm
Whats been said here is good, you do have to build trust and stay alert. I do small transactions here and there to see how it all goes. If you get a seller that communicates quickly, and answers questions, then that is usually a good start. I personally think after time, these forums (along with feedback) a good base of comments from both buyers and sellers should weed out the scammers. (Not that it can ever be 100%). This is a dark area, and dangers can lurk in the shadows!
Title: Re: Fake Feedback. How easy is it to make it up?
Post by: btcfreedom on June 28, 2011, 04:16 pm
Two things I've been thinking we should watch out for.

1. Feedback format- do they seem in any way related? (ie. time of shipping first, product next, comment last). Seeing more than two or three of these in a row should be a clear indicator someone is giving themselves the feedback. Also to be considered - time between feedback left - does it seem systematic?
(this one's difficult as transactions are not timestamped). Please see earlier posts on how this has been considered.

2. Cart at checkout - do you see a number of items that seems like, well, it should be numbered? Also, when you click on your item after placing it, does it suddenly not exist; then a new product with similar listing spec shows up? Why would a seller do this other than selling all (for example) 1000 units of his product in 24hours - which is kind of rare but feasible? Please see earlier posts on how this has been considered as well.

Again good stuff here. All looking out for each other is how it should be.

~btcf