New users are repeatedly scammed on Barter. They are found via the user page or via #tradables on Discord, and you will often see them trade a super high value HB game for a game that is (at least in terms of the grey market) worth a lot less. Now is this really an issue, as long as the trader is happy with the game they got? YES! It is the same traders who get these valuable HB games from new users over and over, and they are selling these games on grey market sites. In addition, new users are not aware of the recent banning of gift link users, and will often provide a gift link as well.
This might get the new user banned from HB and in the worst case, have all their keys revoked. We need to take re-selling and scamming more seriously. I have a couple of ideas, and hopefully the community has even more ideas.
Describe a solution
Some alternatives:
a) Add a new global trading notice on the most common scamming games, so that new users will see the red warning underneath their tradable in an offer. Something like "High value!" (mouse over to read details and make sure the new user understands that this game should not be traded for a common game). There's a list of about 25 regulars that could easily get this trading tag.
b) A "council" of trusted users/traders who will have to approve certain trades before they are sent to the new user. The idea is that if a high-value trade (likely "scam") is sent to a new user (including a game that we have pre-determined to be of high-value, like Spyro), the community will have to approve the trade. This might be done via a Discord vote in a special channel, or via a vote/button on the offer page that only certain experienced and trusted users can see. These users might have a "mediator" type role, where they can also challenge the "scammer" and ask questions like "Where did you get this key?" (they will often trade with equally risky keys from the grey market bought on-demand, but not tagged with store, or even sometimes fake-tag tradables with "Humble Store", when ITAD will show you for a fact that this game has never been sold at HB), or similar. New users would be subject to these limitations up until 10 completed trades. (wild idea, sorry)
c) Mark known re-sellers. This can be a very efficient tool to help new users (or any user) make sure that they valuable HB keys do not end up in the grey market. It has been theorized that HB sometimes buys random keys from the grey market and match the key to their database to find out where the key comes from. This is only speculation. The bigger risk is giving out gift links. Anyway, if we can mark known re-sellers, new users can avoid trading HB games with these. A re-seller is not the same as a re-trader, by the way.
d) Make a warning and help page for gift link issues. Just like the curator tag has a red URL with an explanation about the curator system, a similar page needs to be added for HB gift links and the dangers that these links can pose to your HB account.
e) Community vote on trades / public report option for scam trades. The community should be able to report or vote on the quality of the trades that new users (less than 10 trades) have received or even completed. Any trade that was done before a new user reached 10 trades, should be reportable by the user themselves indefinitely, so that new users who become more experienced, can take action against people who took advantage of them in their early days by checking their earliest trades. For this function, we need historical trade data (like H:W ratios when the trade actually happened). Heavily downvoted trades should give a -rep or a warning/notification on the scammer's profile.
These are just some ideas. We need to take action against the repeat scammers.
What problem does this feature address?
New users are repeatedly scammed on Barter. They are found via the user page or via #tradables on Discord, and you will often see them trade a super high value HB game for a game that is (at least in terms of the grey market) worth a lot less. Now is this really an issue, as long as the trader is happy with the game they got? YES! It is the same traders who get these valuable HB games from new users over and over, and they are selling these games on grey market sites. In addition, new users are not aware of the recent banning of gift link users, and will often provide a gift link as well.
This might get the new user banned from HB and in the worst case, have all their keys revoked. We need to take re-selling and scamming more seriously. I have a couple of ideas, and hopefully the community has even more ideas.
Describe a solution
Some alternatives:
a) Add a new global trading notice on the most common scamming games, so that new users will see the red warning underneath their tradable in an offer. Something like "High value!" (mouse over to read details and make sure the new user understands that this game should not be traded for a common game). There's a list of about 25 regulars that could easily get this trading tag.
b) A "council" of trusted users/traders who will have to approve certain trades before they are sent to the new user. The idea is that if a high-value trade (likely "scam") is sent to a new user (including a game that we have pre-determined to be of high-value, like Spyro), the community will have to approve the trade. This might be done via a Discord vote in a special channel, or via a vote/button on the offer page that only certain experienced and trusted users can see. These users might have a "mediator" type role, where they can also challenge the "scammer" and ask questions like "Where did you get this key?" (they will often trade with equally risky keys from the grey market bought on-demand, but not tagged with store, or even sometimes fake-tag tradables with "Humble Store", when ITAD will show you for a fact that this game has never been sold at HB), or similar. New users would be subject to these limitations up until 10 completed trades. (wild idea, sorry)
c) Mark known re-sellers. This can be a very efficient tool to help new users (or any user) make sure that they valuable HB keys do not end up in the grey market. It has been theorized that HB sometimes buys random keys from the grey market and match the key to their database to find out where the key comes from. This is only speculation. The bigger risk is giving out gift links. Anyway, if we can mark known re-sellers, new users can avoid trading HB games with these. A re-seller is not the same as a re-trader, by the way.
d) Make a warning and help page for gift link issues. Just like the curator tag has a red URL with an explanation about the curator system, a similar page needs to be added for HB gift links and the dangers that these links can pose to your HB account.
e) Community vote on trades / public report option for scam trades. The community should be able to report or vote on the quality of the trades that new users (less than 10 trades) have received or even completed. Any trade that was done before a new user reached 10 trades, should be reportable by the user themselves indefinitely, so that new users who become more experienced, can take action against people who took advantage of them in their early days by checking their earliest trades. For this function, we need historical trade data (like H:W ratios when the trade actually happened). Heavily downvoted trades should give a -rep or a warning/notification on the scammer's profile.
These are just some ideas. We need to take action against the repeat scammers.
Examples of similar features
Voting on reviews on SG/ST