When doing an online Business Deal via Forums, there is always a certain amount of risk Involved. Being a member of Various Webmaster Forums, I had like to put across a few tips and guidelines that you could follow to avoid being scammed easily in Buy - Sell Threads of Various Webmaster Forums. Fortunately, most people that do business online in Forums are legitimate and friendly people, but you always get a few bad ones if you are unlucky. This guide will help newbies to be on the lookout.

Even the best of forums like Sitepoint and Digitalpoint and can have a lot of Forum Scammers and no one can do anything about it as the list grows everyday :-). Everyone wants to make a quick Buck.

1. When you decide to buy a product/service from a seller, you must do a basic research of his presence in the forum.

Some things you can look out for in his activities are;

• Reputation
• iTrader (in case of DP Forums)
• His Active Participation in the Forum (Number & Quality of Posts)

However there are exceptions to this too. You may come across totally new members who want to sell across something in Forum Marketplaces. They might not have the iTrader or reputation that you may want to look for. You may consider to start of with a small budget trade (buy or sell) with the such new members. Once the trust builds up, you can perform Bigger Transactions. If possible, check whether they have any reputation in other forums or authority websites as well.

2. Don’t pounce on the offer the day a seller has put up something for Sale. Read other user’s remarks or critics to his thread. Then make a wise decision. You can also ask the seller every detail of the product too, insisting on providing proofs for everything via private messages or on the thread itself. Wherever possible try and find out the reason for the sale.

3. Look around in the Forum for same or similar services/items being sold. Compare the pricing and Check for the best offer. Again a tip here : A cheaper price may not be the best buy.

4. Try and persuade the seller to give his personal Contact details like Real Name, Email Address, Phone No and Address. This could be useful when you are dealing with Bigger Transactions or products that would involve Shipment etc. Sometimes your shipment could be damaged and you may want to return it back to the seller to get a fresh piece. In cases of buying/selling of websites, just an email address and a messenger ID would do, until everything is in place (Like Transfer of Domain/Host, Setting up the Site Minimum etc). Some sellers may not want to give out this information due to security reasons.

5. Check for exact Payment Terms such as Price, Payment Mode, Payment Timings etc before you BID or want to buy a product/service. Unless there is clarity in this, no transaction is completed successfully. I had suggest you to use Paypal or any other Online Payment Mechanism of Payment rather the using Credit Cards or Wire Transfer. As Credit Card Scams are pretty common these days.

6. These days you will find Scammers directories or Scammer Blogs on the Internet. Some of the Online Websites that let you report scams are;

• You can use the “ripoffreport” website to check for a Scam Company/website online.
• The scammed.us has scammers listed, also allowing you create a subdomain. Lets say, Bob Scams you. You can create a subdomain bob.scammed.us, and create your report in that page.
• https://complaint.ic3.gov/Default.aspx

7. If you want to sell a product or service don’t get into a sudden Rush to get a quick sale. You must first participate in various forum threads and build up your credibility and earn reputations. Allow other people take the time to build up trust in you and then you can undertake bigger transactions. Potential Buyers having trust in you will allow you to sell services/products for their full price value.

8. Don’t leave a negative itrader to anyone, even if they scam you, because they can just leave you a baseless negative itrader in retaliation. I mean its not worth it if the amount involved is small.

Doing Business the first time with someone is always Risky. These were just some measures or guidelines to keep in mind to prevent easy forum scam rip offs. However, Just because a forum member has a lot of reps, posts, and decent Itraders doesn’t make him trustworthy. Be sure to check his past posts, and what others have to say about him