Originally Posted by
Jay Gatsby
It's been three weeks to the day that you posted yours - yes this is longer than we'd like but unfortunately when we're all busy IRL then it's just how it goes. Scam reports are something that I often handle myself and it just so happens that I've had an extremely busy month - going forward I will be encouraging other moderators to handle some of the scam reports if there are times where I'm a bit too busy to pay as much attention as I'd like to the reports.
Respectfully I disagree - ultimately we always try and check scam reports ASAP to make sure the user has used the proper format and given us relevant information(this is to avoid delays). Other than that - there's not a whole lot you need to know. It may be surprising but people make false scam reports to try and get other users banned that they dislike, so if we tell people every single action we've taken (e.g. 'We have now contacted the person you're reporting' , 'We've now looked into the images you've provided') it may make this process easier(especially if someone were to gloat about our findings to the accused and cause them to just disappear altogether). We do, however, always update you as soon as we have something relevant for you to know - often this is when we've had confirmation from the accused that they'll be repaying you, often it may just be a simple 'This user has now been banned and will need to refund you in order to be unbanned'.
As with most justice systems, the rule is innocent until proven guilty. Ultimately, we cannot just ban people pre-emptively as soon as a report comes in. We have systems and procedures in place to try and prevent scamming and whilst these definitely are not perfect(I don't know of any forums that have a perfect anti-scam procedure), the onus is somewhat on the user to make sure they're being as safe as they can be.
Ultimately, if you're unsure about someone and they're asking you to trade with them using currencies that absolutely cannot be recovered(crypto, OSGP) then you really should be questioning whether it's worth the risk for you. This is in no way me victim blaming as I totally disagree with the notion of 'you got scammed it's your fault' - only the scammer is at fault in these scenarios however that doesn't mean users shouldn't be doing what they can to avoid scamming occurrences(as you mostly did with a forum PM - again, it's not perfect and by all means suggest ideas for how we can improve our scamming reduction methods).