Horological Meandering

Hi all, hope this message is appropriate, otherwise mods pls feel free to delete. The scamming in the global watch market is reaching alarming levels, in terms of volume and techniques. Sadly our forum is not safe from that, I doubt any forum is. Neverthe... 

Finding the good solution to avoid the scammers and cheaters is tough... But I know some of us are thinking about that. Best, Nicolas

Vigilance is required of all of us. We can personally apply a limit "I refuse to consider any seller I haven\'t read 10 posts from, over 3 months" Or we could apply it mechanically and simply block postings. Which probably will impact our visitor counts. ... 

Not sure it will prevent the problem fully, though.

Nor do I think anyone should try to eliminate it. But I hope it can be contained better. The last month has seen a proliferation of postings from a handful of "sellers" that are practically screaming "fraud" and seemingly drawing interest from some unsusp... 

Padk. He is your cousin? Jokes aside, I personally find it wrong when people try and capitalize on others\' names and reputations. On another forum, one seller\'s name impersonates a well-known vintage Rolex dealer...

Maybe this is Antiquorum's revenge!

. . . other than the ones that are listed as 'Sold'. Art

You can delete my "cousin's" posts as well while you are at it!

. . . are either marked as 'Sold', or have an edited warning from yours truly and will be removed after my colleagues review of this incident. Thanks for caring, padj. It's folks like yourself that make moderating this site a pleasure. Gratefully, Art

And thanks for being so diligent. You may be turning the tide.

Hello Alex, Dear PuristS I even think that recently the number of scam advertisements has increased. I share the idea of Utopia for our Collectors Market as safe heaven, as not all ads are easily legitimate as from those people that contribute here. Just ... 

Scammers. Personally, I only buy from AD and for used watches, from friends\' personal collection. The only way I would buy with another member would be a face to face and having the watch verified at local AD before taking the plunge.

. . . as Padk recently demanded in over a dozen listings (that have now been deleted), it's a fair indication of fraud. Ridiculously low prices ($15.5K for a Bumblebee??) are another. Art

Thank you for deleting Padk. Question: is there a master thread listing all these hints for new or less experienced buyers? Or would that even be contradicting as it would tell the scammers what not to do? Are we all free of mistakes in the heat of a mome... 

. . . others, starting with Padk's sudden appearance with several listings in a short period of time, without even one community posting. Hijacking other users FS posts (twice!) was another, insistence on wire transfers the tipping point. And appropriatin... 

How about a system of references required to send to the mods before posting, along with pictures of the serial number/s? Additionally, like on Chrono24, setting of the watch to a time the mods choose at random.

Interesting - thanks! I think there is a dilemma and a fine balance that has to be sought between safeguards and ease of use...

The time setting on Chrono24 only applies to private sellers. I definitely think that there is a fine balance between safeguards and ease of use, however, given the dollar value on many of these, I don't see safeguards as being overly cumbersome that it w... 

I\'d take quality over quantity any day of the week.

Having purchased here and through Chrono24, dealing face to face essential. There can be a really big price difference between US and Europe so what can seem low price to one party is fair to another. But at end of the day, onus should be on seller so ...... 

I too noticed the dodgy postings and hope the team can Coke up with an answer. I can\'t help but think, as I have time and again over the years, that a third-party escrow arrangement of some sort could be the way forward. Surely there\'s a way in this day... 

Be interested to here some more detail - maybe one for a separate post.

The moderators put in a lot of effort to keep this place "clean," and it's much appreciated. However, this is a watch site, not a sales site, and I don't think it is reasonable to impose even more market supervision duties on the moderators. Like most of ... 

The new listings are coming out of the woodwork. There are dozens from the same sellers and then new sellers show up the next day with dozens of listings.

It's very annoying... Mods - I gather this issue is under discussion and I hope a solution can be found. The constant scammers do bring down the quality of this great site

. . . and will check in CM again before leaving home Tuesday afternoon. Art

Thanks Art!

. . . but can alter the text of their listings. Show me who they are, and their 'for sale' ads will be adjusted accordingly. Art

Excuse the alliteration... I am sorry to see that some other Forum members have recently been caught out. I think the age old point is that you will not fully eliminate fraud in the market. Where it exists face to face it will also exist online and contin... 

Having to set the hands to a specific time (like at Chrono24) would certainly help weed out the most obvious scammers, who use other people\'s pictures. I guess an appropriate widget could be programmed, so it is automatic and does not require moderator i... 

Buyer beware always! However it would be nice to get rid of blatant fraud efforts like many of the ads which have appeared lately!

Collectors Marketplace (CM) is an unchecked place so people have a meeting point rather than clog up the discussion forums. It is the responsibility of buyer and seller to convince themselves that they want to interact. We can switch off CM if it is too b... 

... in which a seller could list a table of references of other Forum members, and each of those Members had to mutually approve/accept being a reference before they could be included in the table. That was always helpful. That, as well as the ability to ... 

I would imagine it's very difficult to moderate every sales post, but I am sure everyone here does their utmost. I remember in each advert there used to be a panel where previous buyers could show as references for a given seller. This seem to have been l... 

I am French and I bought and sold many watches thanks to Chronomania forum (you can write Chronomania CDA in Google and you will find it). It is only for French speakers/writers but I think it is very nice for buyers and sellers. Moderators of this forum ... 

We'll have less ads, from much less scammers