Silk Road forums
Discussion => Off topic => Topic started by: jase00 on April 19, 2012, 09:17 am
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Hi All
Wasn't sure where to put this.. soo...
Anyways just wondering.. What stops a new seller having multiple user accounts and adding fake feedback ??
Like if they listed there products and got there own user accts to buy them ?
Have been looking at a new seller and some of the feedback is odd.. so it just got me thinking..
I did search for this topic as I'm sure many people have thought of this, but couldnt find threads.
thanks =)
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sadly nothing except their morals, of which scammers have none
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As a new seller I have also considered this question. It seems there is very little preventing this. I guess that is the problem when everyone is anonymous. Scammers are indistinguishable from the good seeds.
Luckily there is something called "integrity" and most sellers on SR have such a quality, unlike the corrupt authorities.
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I wonder whether anyone has considered implementing a kind of a semi-anon web-of-trust, where it wouldn't be the rating per se that matters, but, rather, one's relationship _via others_ to the person in question. On bitcoin-otc, they have this gribble bot command ";;gettrust" which computes the trust level from one person to another; if the person/target in question is rated highly by a third party who happens to be also trusted by the asker/source, the trust relationship will be higher, etc.
It would maybe be possible to anonymize the 'mediating third parties', you'd just get a number/diagram/sth telling you of the seller's net trust value from your PoV. So a new seller who has many good ratings from other _new_ folks won't have a high trust rate from your PoV, because you haven't placed trust in those buyers (otherwise, if e.g. those buyers have dealt with another seller whom you already trust, the net trust value would be higher, etc.)
Probably not making a lot of sense, have been thinking about this for some days now, but need to crystallize ideas.
(This is / can indeed be an issue, true that.)
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True, but it only takes 1. Scam a few people... rinse/repeat. I understand there is a seller fee involved, but still....
Luckily there is something called "integrity" and most sellers on SR have such a quality, unlike the corrupt authorities.
Perhaps it would be useful to see how long the person giving the feedback has been on the site for ?
I am new to the site myself, so maybe I am just over thinking things =)
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Luckily there is something called "integrity" and most sellers on SR have such a quality, unlike the corrupt authorities.
Perhaps it would be useful to see how long the person giving the feedback has been on the site for ?
I recommend you post this in the suggestions section of the forum ^^^.
This is a good idea.
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Well your right it costs money for an account and as said some people just wash ,rinse & repeat I paid $150 or so for my account and if Iwas a scammer I could of made off with $1200 my first week of sales thats not bad for a $150 or so investment.But the only problem I have is Ethics and my word and that is what matters to me most here is a little saying I use all the time
( If you have money on a table and a thief in the room and the money comes up missing you know who took the money! BUT if you have someone that is a Liar and they lie to you Once you will never know if they are ever telling you the truth again)
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Nothing stops sellers from adding fake feedback, it's done all the time. That's why you can't rely too much on the seller ratings on SR. When I consider doing a transaction with a new vendor I look at the comments about that vendor on the SR Forums. I want to know what people are saying about this vendor & how many negative/positive comments there are.
The problem with the SR vendor rating is that every buyer's feedback counts the same, so a buyer who just registered with SR last week has just as much influence as a buyer who's been on SR for a year.
The "web-of-trust" concept is a good start in the right direction. It would make it that much harder (but not impossible) to create fake feedback.
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I had a idea, if you could somehow view the age of the account posting the feedback and number or successful buys while keeping the account name hidden that would help alot, it wouldnt stop it totally but would help ALOT
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I take the feedback pages of new vendors very lightly. For new vendors, you are much better off checking the forums and looking to see if anyone with a high forum post count and a history of being honest has bought from them. A scammer isn't going to be able to pull a fast one over anyone on the forums. And never go out of escrow for a new vendor. Really people, avoiding scammers isn't that hard! Be smart!
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This is just one more reason that SR needs to implement buyer feedback and more stats.
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This is just one more reason that SR needs to implement buyer feedback and more stats.
+1
I think all feedback should have a link to the buyer's feedback info. This would allow buyers to remain anonymous, but allow other prospective buyers to see if the feedback is legitimate or not. There's really no reason why this feature shouldn't already be on all feedback.
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This flaw in SR's system also works to the benefit of well-funded scam vendors. Why? It costs money to pad feedback. Fake transactions for $0 do hardly anything to a vendor's feedback score, while large fake purchases DO. The average joe weed dealer doesn't have the money to move around or waste paying big SR commissions, while gov agencies DO.
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It use to be easy to see the fake ratings.
Just click one of the items
If you can find them listed , and the vendor is new then it's possibly fake.
The items use to be in order, and not listed.
It looks like they stopped randomizing the reviews.
Maybe you can still do it.
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It use to be easy to see the fake ratings.
Just click one of the items
If you can find them listed , and the vendor is new then it's possibly fake.
The items use to be in order, and not listed.
It looks like they stopped randomizing the reviews.
Maybe you can still do it.
This is good advice. Also, if the vendor hasn't taken the time to setup some sort of forum presence, they probably aren't worth your time or money.
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It use to be easy to see the fake ratings.
Just click one of the items
If you can find them listed , and the vendor is new then it's possibly fake.
The items use to be in order, and not listed.
It looks like they stopped randomizing the reviews.
Maybe you can still do it.
Why would it be fake just because they are still selling it?
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Perhaps a bot could be programmed to look for this stuff. Any time
Feedback is left within 2 days of a transaction that 1) isn't blank and 2) doesn't contain the words "finalizing" "early" or "FE," a flag is raised
A user who 1) has more than five transactions and 2) only has one vendor places an order, a flag is raised
The seller sends coin back to the buyer without a PM being sent in the previous or ensuing 5 minutes, 2 flags are raised
A single user places several orders with the same vendor in the same day, 2 flags are raised
etc.
Too many flags raised, and someone is sent to investigate.
And of course, all the requisites and values for raising red flags would be known only to DPR, so people couldn't know the specifics and find loopholes.