Premium members can see a posters true country anytime someone posts. As an extension of this, I opened up the True Country function to all members anytime they receive a PM. This means anytime someone sends you a PM, you can see the real country they are in just like premium members can on normal posts.
Very cool - thank you. A nice way to verify before making a deal. I just checked my most recently received PM and see the "true country" and it seems to work perfectly.
Awesome, that is one step toward improvement, hope to see it even listed on posts to minimize the risks of fraud/scam.
Excellent. That'll make em think twice before sending PMs when the profile is fabricated. Those guys can be entertaining though. My favorite was a guy that claimed to live in Dallas Texas USA... And he and all his friends were cricket fans. Obviously wasn't aware that in north Texas cricket isn't a game, it's something you bait a hook with.
Not really... but they are a large percent of spammers/useless posts. [video=youtube;jO3W3RgmdPM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jO3W3RgmdPM[/video]
I'm glad you added this feature. I'm tired of the fake profiles. AND when I request services I like to have somebody from the same country writing for me, so no more liars trying to act like their American just to get work. A+++++++++++++++++++ for this one. well at least it seems that way. Anytime I get on here I check (since the adding of nofollow) and it's always people from India and Indonesia. Especially if you go into the BST.
Fake Locations... who does 'em? If someone fakes their location it isnt always claiming they're in the US. Australia is probably the next highest beneficiary of virtual immigration. Nor is India the only source... there are several prominent players in the Philippines giving a run for the top honors (my money is on the guys in Cebu City for at least a silver medal), and you can hardly beat Dhaka Bangladesh as a source of fake profiles. Pakistan of course strives not to allow India to have the crown... with a handful of SEO crews in Karachi, Islamabad, and LaHore leading the charge. And for anyone that thinks those are racist statements... no, they are statistics. Go moderate a forum if you think otherwise. There's a difference between saying "everyone in {countryname} is a spammer" vs saying "most of the spam comes from {countryname}". The first is bigoted, the second is just the truth. The problem is the fake country gig is a favorite ruse of scammers It's used often to create shills for their other identities. It also comes in handy for serial scammers in hard to reach places who want to pretend they are a bit closer to their marks... not out of reach of the law. We have had some DP examples in Tehran and Vietnam who literally stole from members using fake locations to give a false sense of security and shill IDs with fake locations to promote their integrity. I actually had a guy in one forum voice the fact that sure, what he was doing was on shaky legal grounds, then went on to explain he didnt think the law could reach him in (his country name). That was sad. Talk about perpetuating a stereotype. Lying isnt the way to combat an impression of dishonesty. If someone simply wants to avoid the taint of a general feeling that webmasters from (insertcountryhere) are dishonest... The best answer does not include lying to improve credibility. Its a circular argument and it will cost more in the long run. BANS for fake locations If you want to convince people to quit it... ban people for missing their own location by a continent or two. Sure, there will occasionally be legitimate reasons someone is on a proxy that places them where they arent, but those instances are vastly outnumbered by the guys that are just lying SOBs. I dont care what your excuse is... is you walk into a forum while sitting thousands of miles away and tell some whale-tale about your move from Kansas to California... you're just pissing on our boot while telling us it's raining. In real life no "SEO EXPERT!" in L.A. is logged in on a proxy that places him in Ahmedabad or Kuala Lumpur. Doesn't happen. If you play that game, you deserve to be banned so you can go play fantasy identity games on Facebook with the other children. .02
True. I have been scammed by quite a few people from {country that starts with an "I"} so I just try to avoid dealing with people from there.I know not everyone from there is a scammer (scammers are in every country) but I don't want to take any risk so I try to deal with people from my own country. Makes me feel a little safer I guess.
Well Rob I have to disagree with you here . From what I'm seeing Pakistan holds the crown for most users with fake locations with India coming in as 2nd . Also IDK about if a automatic ban should be implemented . A infraction with 5 to 9 points might be in order ; I've seen a few people that keep their old location while being on vacations and they where all valid members . On the flipside those members might just pay some attention and just clear the location tag while traveling .
Not certain which is higher. India has a massive population and that plays a role in the numbers... and as a result also fields more serious professionals who get unfairly tarred with the spammer brush than some of the others. If you measured by numbers of spam profiles vs number of keyboards creating them its a tough call which country comes out ahead... but the primary contenders would be mentioned in my prior post. If you get down to individual trophies for spam, I can think of two keyboards in Dhaka armed with Xrumer that have a good possibility of taking the gold.
I totally agree with Rob on his post. I'm personally from Cebu, Philippines (which I don't deny) and have been around other local forums where SEO is a growing market here. Every once in a while, people will eventually try to scam others just to get money regardless of their nationality. It's just a bit sad that many here have been doing that T_T Then again, it would be most helpful if Shawn can provide the 'True Country' option not only to the premium members but to normal members as well. That would definitely make DP slightly a better place