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05-12-2012, 03:05 PM
#4
nomatch is offline nomatch
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nomatch is on a distinguished road

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I think the problem with scammers on websites like these (and flippa, ebay and Synthe) is that the majority of payments go through paypal. Now, personally, I love paypal - but it really is EASY for scammers to get away with things. Simple chargebacks, imaginary issues and the like.

The most obvious way to get around this is Escrow. But realistically, the fees are too high for the majority of the transactions that take place here. I suggest two things.

1.) All payments go through an escrow like service - perhaps you could develop your own esrow-esque system? OR

2.) Proper contracts. The majority of the transactions I've done here (service based) haven't used any form of contracts. I was willing to take those risks because the costs were so low. But look at the old "Anthony" threads, see how many people he scammed? Can anyone do anything about it? Nope. Perhaps some sort of pre-defined contract system for hiring freelancers THROUGH talkfreelance would be cool.

Does that fix everything? Hell-no. There will ALWAYS be scammers. People who live to get around the system. The only thing we can do, as honest community members (or owner) - is to lessen the risk. For all I know, I'll have a good working relationship with someone here, always using contracts etc. Finally, I want to hire that person for a HUGE project. I trust him/her, send over my $20k --> and boom, he's run away, left the country, never to be seen again. Anyone could be a scammer. Perhaps Village Idiot or Salathe will do just that ...who knows!

That's the only issue I've ever had with the whole virtual freelancing gigs. That person isn't coming into my office every day. I don't have the guys birth certificate, passport details or anything of the sort. Again, you can lessen the risk by hiring a freelancer from your country (I know, this sort of defeats the purpose) - but if things go wrong, and the freelancer lives in a different jurisdiction - there is NO plan B!

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Artashes (05-13-2012)