Banned traders reading the boards, then e-mailing re: trades

[gamefusion]

Had something weird happen recently, and I thought I'd share it, see if this has happened to anyone else.

So I get an e-mail (through my work website) the other day from a guy named Justin Wu, referencing a trade ad I have up on this site. I thought to myself; that's weird, why did this guy go to all that trouble? Why not just PM me directly? So I searched the good/bad trader forums for his name, and come to find out; he's been repeatedly banned from Bartertown. I guess he's trying to circumvent using the site, but still use the boards as a way to find trades.

Needless to say, I'm not making any kind of deals with the guy. But it made me wonder how often this might happen, and if any newer or less-experienced users may have gotten scammed by something like this in the past.

I just thought that was so odd, and i've never heard of this happening before. Has anyone else experienced anything along these lines?

[Stanislav]

I'm surprised it wasn't an email asking you to advertise on his latest website.

Not surprised really though, that's just the kind of guy he is. Banned for legitimate reasons, and still non-compliant with the rules.

[gamefusion]

Actually, he had e-mailed me, a few months back, about that exact thing. I looked at his site, and it wasn't working properly, so I left it alone.

So this dude has a history of stuff like this, huh?

[Stanislav]

Yeah, if you look at the Hall of Shame post on him, you'll see that this is his usual operating procedure.

MANY different usernames and several different web sites he has been the owner of that have crashed and burned after "things went wrong". Not a safe place to sink money or trade with (search for Wu here) with his history.

Of course, this is only opinion. Everyone can make up their own mind. However, I know you aren't the first, and probably not the last.

If I was enough of a post whore, and the mods wouldn't have a problem with it, I would put it in my sig. Not sure about the mods, but I don't post enough to get the word out thoroughly.

[JohnHwangBT]

banned scammer Justin Wu?

Again?

[MagickalMemories]

So this dude has a history of stuff like this, huh?

I would have to go back, and do some researching to give you an exact number.
To give you a SIMPLE answer, though... Yes. He has a history of it.

Numerous times, he created "sock puppet" accounts here for the sole reason of sending PM's to people to get them to join his site. Granted, he did complete a couple trades on them, as well. Mostly, though, it was sock-puppetry.

That brings up some things I don't understand:

1) He often brags about his swiftly rising membership (Two thousand? Talk to us in another 14,000! LOL). Does he think this is a valid tactic to do it with?

2) Why did he tell people about the (this is not an exact quote, but it's close) "User over there, who he thinks was named Tesla," who is looking for the stuff the guy was selling/trading? He IS Tesla.
If he was already here, conducting trades, why not just do the trades here? Was it because the user over here was "mistaken" and Tesla -as it turned out- was NOT interested in said items.
A little birdy MIGHT HAVE told me that's what happened when he approached Tesla over there with an "I head you were interested in 'X'..." PM.

3) How do you enforce anti-multi-accounting on your own site, while practicing it on others, without being an untrustable hypocrite?

If I was enough of a post whore, and the mods wouldn't have a problem with it, I would put it in my sig. Not sure about the mods, but I don't post enough to get the word out thoroughly.

Put what in there? An anti-RM message?
Nah. No reason to spam the forum with something like that. Just address the issues when they come up, and let people see for themselves. No reason to cram it down their throats.
Plus, we don't have problems with *that site,* just its' owner/lead Admin.

Eric