Scammers and skids, it's time to do something.
The website and people are always up against scammer and skids. The only reason people keep getting scammed is because they really don't know any better.
Sure we can say "It's their fault for not reading", but if we don't take more active steps to prevent this, most people will just leave and the community will get known for a place where you get scammed.
We need to go back to verifications.
I think if we take these steps, we can eliminate scammers and skids.
- No Steam accounts younger than a month
- No Steam accounts that don't own Garry's mod
- No Gmodstore profiles where they can take the link to their steam profile off (saw a couple of people somehow delink their steam)
- Put in really big fucking letters before each job the following: "Do NOT trust anyone who does not apply through gmodstore. If someone added you on steam or elsewhere without applying through gmodstore, they are most likely a scammer. Check their profile by grabbing their steam profile url, head on over to steamid.uk, grab their information and take their Steam 64ID, then replace a random user link with that 64ID, such like 'https://www.gmodstore.com/users/76561198168822086', and check if they are banned. Report anyone who is adding you for gmodstore jobs who did not apply or is banned. It means they most likely have an alt." Have this popup before each job as a confirmation box, but have it big so even the dumb dumbs can see it.
We really need this.
Btw, I was talking about this skid.
-- SNIPPED BY MOD
Looks like Commander already doxed him. :D
Literally none of this would make any difference
and your last suggestion is more damaging than anything else because it damages independent freelancers.
anyway, most scamming issues will be solved whenever the job/freelancer update is out, it’s just a case of people actually keeping the convos within gmodstore so there is a log of everything
How?
The only reason the store is plagued with scammers, is because anyone can make an alt without the game, without even setting up their steam account.
It costs the scammers nothing. If you require a month age time and the game itself, then the scammers are paying for the game one way or another, and so they're risking their own money.
*Edit: Will the freelancer system replace the jobs system?
Only real way to defeat scammers for things like this is implement a middle-man whether it's gmodstore or reputable community members but then again who's to decide who's trusted and who isn't? Just use common sense really.
You're talking about a site where the majority of users who post jobs are >16
>16 means greater than 16 which is more than enough of a mature age to have common sense. Congrats, you played yourself.
Steam account checking requires the account to be public. If a user's account is private when they try to register, when they make it public, gms won't know right away due to steam cache which overall is a bad user experience on top of the fact users prefer a private profile.
It should already be mentioned that solution was already tested the site live and significantly decreased the number of users that registered.
significantly decreased the number of users that registered.
Isn't that the point?
Steam new privacy policy has severely complicated having a system to verify playtime etc. It's not an obstacle we wish to enforce due to legitimate users choosing to rather not register because of the amount of time it takes to 1) enable public access to their games list/make their account public and 2) wait for Steam's cache to expire in order to log in.
This is one of the jobs that he could do in "1 day" although it took me and another guy a whole day to come to a conclusion that it would be almost impossible :)
So yeah he is kinda sketch.
https://gyazo.com/09988a0e11ad2267d5a49eea2a0df081
https://gyazo.com/65e9f6a2e538f8847b8f0129d934e670
https://gyazo.com/5eb704942d60d74366f14c211b6a4192
https://gyazo.com/831d96b2f632c5b5379dea372ba86e36
And now he messages me for my new job:
https://gyazo.com/495a7fab74203bbe1ea2fb80734c4a33
And if you say that its not the same guy as in the pic then why does his profile pic have the same name but a different steam name?
https://gyazo.com/9a9e26cbb45a7f002e7bf89188a73759
I might be off or something but I just dont have a good gut feeling about this and the evidence kinda. And also he never applies through gmod store.
And all of this that send me the money so I can trust you is so bs, like this is a normal csgo type of scam... And who wouldn't want to participate in a middle man if both parties cant trust each other? agh...
Then I guess we should do another type of system where gmodstore is the middleman, and they charge (if they must) a 1% transaction fee, where people have to use a paypal account with a subscriber agreement (I'm assuming credit cards and such will be too easily chargebackable with their banks in a way where you can't contend it) and if they break the subscriber agreement, they get permanently banned. Dunno if this would work, but we (and by that I mean gmodstore) really needs to do something to combat these retarded barely English speaking 15 year old scammers.
Had another idea. These skids are always adding them through Steam. Why don't you just remove the Steam button by default for profiles. Put up a warning of anyone who tries to enable their Steam profile being linked on their gmodprofile to always see an application first and never pay upfront.
Or at least just make a warning window pop up everytime someone makes a job saying "Do not pay anyone upfront and always make sure they apply through gmodstore to prevent being scammed!"
At least people will be somewhat informed.
I can do someting similar to this. In the future you will be able to pay to unlock a job download automatically as well
I might just add onto this and say there is a user named "Marou" and/or "Narkoz" (they are the same people) the guy tried scamming me right off of the start when he added me on steam. ( i lead him on for about a day to see if this guy was legit or not ). So the day after everything he says gmodstore is his only job and he wanted me to give him 60$ usd for his "sons birthday party" and he will pay me back the day after his sons birthday. He non stop messaged me about it and when i told him "No sorry." he said i dont have a heart and all this other shit. But just be aware. I hate scammers and skids who are banned from gmodstore and still depend on it. The guy has an old banned account as well : https://www.gmodstore.com/users/76561198103280561
( EDIT: The link above is his actual new account. He did have an *old* account but i couldnt find it anywhere. )
( But its quite annoying when people are perm banned from gmodstore and still get on here to "work" )
Really would love for those options to be added to gmodstore lemon.
Its a complete scam, hes been trying to get me to hire him for months. Have him blocked on several platforms
Demands half first without showing any work nor proof that he can do anything. He's the biggest red flag I've ever seen.