Why can't we just do some honest buying selling and trading of virtual goods? I have a [censored] about all of the fraud, the quick buck and outright theft. I mention a video that is very inspirational that is the last lecture. I have included the video below.

Randy Pausch Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

I understand you recently put up a video and I know this is towards Exenztrix and I. First off, id like you to speak with me before you would release such info as of that making my product seem any less great as his. Now here is the issue im at, you are saying that I should not steal others work. Well i Did not but i have proof that exenztrix has:

http://vforums.mmoglider.com/showthread.php?t=139388&highlight=anthrax
http://vforums.mmoglider.com/showthread.php?t=140525

You tell me to be honest, tell him to be honest. I am honest. I told him to give me a refund then he wouldnt have to worry about updates him thinking im taking his [censored]. The svn came out for everyone at same time plus ppather to do 1-70. This means we had same time to get our tasks out for sale. Going for sale right after his is because i saw him selling his. So if hes going to make a buck, i want to make some money as well. How is that a hard concept?

Now if you would like to pull up glider forums again and do some searching, that link above will have an accusation that he stole the 1-70 from Eemz, well he did. Eemz was the first persont to sell a 1-70 glider ppather task file. He purchased it, im sure i can talk to him and get a paypal link, then went on top of that coding to make his own.

If you have any more questions with me, my email is iburnzy@gmail.com as well as my msn. Also AIM: iburnzy

These are 2 totally different files yet blown out of proportion at its finest. Come on glider ventrilo, and talk to The Admin Krankie. He knows the whole story behind it.
PS: u can private message me for that vent info

Burnzy, Drama like yours is what this video is about. But it is not targeted at you. Your issues are not the first we have had here nor will they be the last. There are more than 50 or 60 active threads going on right now that have to do with honesty issues. My topic is in general. All of the stolen, hacked accounts that are traded. The issue with Glider stuff is that most of it is not copywritable in the first place because it's too generic.

Also on that point. Another irritation of mine is when people try to sell stuff to customers who do not mind breaking the rules. ie. Glider users. Then they complain with they attempt to break the rules of buying it and people complain about how dishonest they are. As John Stossel says "Give me a break".

I find the video to be pretty accurate. I have had some instances in life that have resulted in unexplainable results, which I truely believe was the result of positive karma. There's really no other way to explain how they could have happened in my opinion.

Ironically, the name Kendrah1 is becoming quite a popular name around the forums. Simply by accident of aquiring the name, it's becoming quite profitable, while almost serving as a trademark feature which can't be changed at this point.

I can't really complain. I'm finding people will pay premium prices to go to a trusted source, and as sad as it is to say, scammers actually help my business because of it. However, I will always take a stance against scammers, and continue to provide 100% ethical and honest business.

I find people will repeat business with you because of that reputation as well. It's a nice feeling that people come to inquire about services. Sometimes it doesn't work out, sometimes it does, just the nature of the beast.

There's a book by Robert Kyosaki titled "Rich dad, poor dad". It's a wonderful read about financial education, but there's one very specific point which I think applies here. At one point Roberts rich dad mentions about financial opportunity in the world, and that if given the choice to provide ethical business, or shady business, he would choose ethical business time and time again. His logic was simply that he finds it more profitable making money in the free world, than behind prison bars. While scamming an account may not land you in jail at this point in time, it may in the future someday, but most importantly the principle of the situation still apply. Sadly justifying one wrong only leads to the elevation of another wrong, and then justifying that one as well. The scenerio could be anything from stealing radios at one point, to stealing cars at another point in your life. This could be looked at as stealing accounts now, and stealing someone's identity to go on a $5000 shopping spree tomorrow.

Like Marcus mentions, it truely amazes me that people will jump through hoops in attempt to scam another person. You never build a reputation, you always have to hide and change IP addresses, and you never have anything dependable to count on. To add to the situation, you know your nervous knowing your going to scam someone out of their account, item, currency, or whatever else it may be.

A great person whom I admire very much mentioned a great line I believe in very much. His philosophy is that "I'm too busy trying to earn a buck, that I have no time to be distracted by obsticles that deter from that momentum." I would think trying to plan your next scam takes time right? Hell, if you developed a well known name, perhaps you would have conducted a half dozen honest trades in a few hours to the profit of much more money. I know, I do it all the time and there's no reason others can't as well.

The bottom line is that I find it much more profitable and pain free to conduct honest and ethical business. In addition to this, I can honestly say to myself that my trade partner is happy about what they got, and I feel good about that. Perhaps a few scammers should give this some thought.

Ok, i just wanted to state that and get a response, thank you.

I love how every post of burnzy is to bash on trix and I...

2 Quick things then im going to eat...

Phelon bashes on EVERY Competitor cause he's marketing his own task file... Of course hes going to say negative stuff about my task, ive also got him apologizing in a PM on the forums... Ill screenie it later and throw it up, and also burnzy, the only thing stolen from EEMZ is his idea... Or do i have to break out the old VTF's that Olaf/Pregame both still have of Eemz and Krankie(vent admin) both openly admitting i had every right to make and market my own task, which i did, but did you? Nope...

On a second note...

Markee, excellent video... Its so hard to come by honesty these days. So many people in things for the quick buck rather than the long run. I just wish honesty was a bit more of a moral thing everyone had these days =/

This video is amazing. thanks Mark

BTW: Anyone who is watching the last lecture. Be sure to check out about half way where they show hello.world. It's a virtual reality project that is amazing and fun. Randy's students can go directly to work for EA and some other game companies because his classes are so good and apply very well to video game entertainment.

HAHAHA Hello World = So Old School... Amazed It's Still Used Like Crazy Today

There's actually small businesses that workrooms of employees to do nothing but troll your forums for people to scam. You can have amazing conversations if you speak a little Chinese.

I'll make you a special offer right now to clean up your community. Make some web design changes that I suggest and your fraud rate will be cut in half within one week. Afterward, I will catch scammers for you and report their stolen paypal accounts to paypal so they're at least inconvenienced if not out of the system. You pay me $10 per scammer caught (I can document each one using a paypal account with multi user access so you can verify each case.) and I guarantee you will be paying me more than $1000 per week. Within two months, the workrooms of scammers operating at MD will be cut in half. After that, I will continue to make no less than $1000 per month.

Part of the problem with scammers at MD is that you haven't done anything effective about them. You and your staff don't know what to do about the problem. Other trade communities don't have this problem because they did something effective about it. On the site's shoutbox, I see an argument with Hostile1... you do know he mods for realpoor, right? (A safer community) He's an expert in this field and you should listen to him instead of challenging him or allowing staff to fly off with wild statements like, "Our largely sized and intelligent staff has though of all possible solutions already.. I challenge you to come up with something that isn't already done or suggested and declined."

I'm going to win that challenge right now, in this post. I'm going to tell you two highly effective things that you aren't doing that you should be doing, that will reduce your current fraud rate by no less than half within one week of implementation. But first, a short story..

Scammers are like pigeons. I knew someone that was a professional at pigeon removal, he made a lot of money on it. Of course, pigeons always come back, I repeat myself.. he made a lot of money on it.

Pigeons go where there is a hospitable environment. If there are comfortable nooks at the top of a building, that's where they'll be making new nests, again and again. The ONLY way to get rid of them is not catch and release, but to seal off those areas with some chicken wire.

The forums here get a lot of visitors, but the trade guides could be more prevalently placed and more professionally written. (The chicken wire is in the wrong places and the holes are too big.) Taking a serious stance against scammers as Hostile1 seems to be advocating on the shoutbox requires a more effective approach.

What you've done and what you're doing is ineffective because the problem is getting worse. Other communities that were once faced with the same problem got better. That makes a powerful point that you and your staff ought to be more receptive to learning from others and accepting their assistance.

I submit that if a trade community really wanted to be serious, they'd send people emails right during registration and at that time, users would learn the basics of anti-scam.

1. Ask for a number.
2. Use 411.com and reverse search it.
3. Use maps.google.com and give a geographical quiz.
4. Watch for poor English.
5. When the payment comes, check the name and address. If the address is different than the telephone number, go back to 411.com and see if there's a number for that address.
6. etc. All very simple stuff. 99% effective. There really shouldn't be any scam problems here.

That is my first suggestion that you never thought of, you never implemented, but exists at other communities and makes them safer than yours. Right there, I've proven your staff dead wrong that MD is aware of and has considered all potential solutions. That's quite a hotshot remark, especially coming from MD which supports businesses that do nothing but scam right here, just at MD.

The safety guides need to be more prevalently located.
A '2008 ultimate trading faq' post that starts with three pages of fluff about how great a website is or gives instructions like, "no foul language, no pornography....." .. wait a minute, who's going to read past all that and get to the anti scam information? Nobody. You need to learn how people behave and think, then cater an effective solution around that.

The safety guides on safer sites are prevalently located, and better written. This makes the sites safer than MD.

Post something for sale, wait five minutes, I got a scammer on chat. They are here and they are incredibly successful for a reason. This problem has been brought up before and it's met with denial every time. Now you're complaining about it yourself, so I will expect to see no denial in this thread that MD needs improvement.

You need to consult an expert and stop dinging around with this. I agree with the conclusions that MD really doesn't take scamming seriously enough and I disagree with the statements about how the staff has done great work in stopping scammers because the best solutions still come from the userbase, not the staff. And scam is going up instead of down. With that said, there's a pretty powerful argument to rethink the level of expertise at MD.

If you really do want a solution, you or your staff will contact hostile1 instead of arguing with him and assuming you know something he doesn't. It's actually the other way around. He knows more than the staff here and it's generous of him to offer his time and offer to help a community that competes with his own, safer community.

I would have kept this wall of text to myself, but when I see someone complaining about a glaring problem instead of doing something effective about it when their peers are outperforming them, that opens the flood gates for a major outpouring.

You could have effectively addressed this years ago and it's shameful that you have failed to be at least as successful as similar websites. Stop living in denial, the other communities outperformed you long ago and have both higher safety standards and safety ratings.

What you need isn't a cute youtube video. Take a lesson from the other communities and the staff from those communities. They are outperforming you and your staff. You're richer, you should be better. Hire an expert or two instead of pretending to be one. Your userbase is paying the cost in thousands of dollars every week. You may be a millionaire, but you are also an anti-millionaire. You can't call yourself a real pigeon removal expert if don't have (and use) good chicken wire.

I hope you can one day claim to be the safest community for virtual goods trade. If you want that, you need to change your attitude though.

If you want to take me up on my $10 per scammer challenge, what I'll do is report back to you in a few weeks and I'll grant you partial user access to just view the records of my paypal account. I am already busting scammers here on a daily basis. Ten bucks a piece would allow me to do it full time and make an excellent living.

The number one tip for busting scammers (Here's another thing from an expert that you missed and your staff missed, and it's actually not even on any of the other communities yet *deep breath*...)
is to let them send payment -before- you verify them. If you verify them first and say, "Ah-ha! You're a scammer!" Then they will never identify their stolen paypal accounts so that you can report them to Paypal. Because I know what I'm doing, I save people thousands every week, and all the scammers are coming from your community.

I am openly sharing things that will allow you to better compete with my own community. Yes, I have a site, people buy and sell there in my forums. And I have a near zero fraud rate.

When people say they have the solutions, MD staff needs to stop taking them for granted and acting like hotshots that have through of everything thoroughly, have ever implemented a successful solution, or are even experts in this field. With the solutions I've posted here, I've made a powerful case to the contrary that will be difficult to ignore or refute.

The only question remaining is if you will follow the simple suggestions of an expert and chose to reduce your fraud rate by no less than half within the first week. Will you make a commitment to nolonger be an anti-millionaire?

Make a commitment that less than one million US dollars worth of fraud will occur through markeedragon.com this year. The work room of scammers I had a chat with said they get 50+ accounts off you per week! (That was just one work room.) If you can at least keep it under a million dollars a year, I will tip my hat to you.

If you want to hire me on, I will make scam a thing of the past at markeedragon and put every single scam workroom here out of business. I will drive the foreign professionals out, and make it very difficult for the young first timers that live within the states.

Markee knows how to verify individuals accurately to protect it's investment, and the script you give is a lighter version of their own Trustwho verification system. The problem isn't what type of verification, it's that it's difficult to educate the millions of users that use this board.

Over on eGamingsupply.com, I've writting a very intense verification checklist, explaination and all, as to why you ask each question. While it's available to the community, I would guess only a small percentage use it. However the potential to go nearly scam free lives right there in the open available for all. There's "always" going to be people that just don't read, or don't do what's best to protect themself.

Another issue I'm having is that their are Kendrah1 instant messenger imposters going around scamming people out of their accounts right now. On eGaming forums, it's plastered everywhere that I don't use instant messenger programs at all. Yet somehow there are people still going out using instant messenger programs, and somehow think they are dealing with me dispite the warnings, directly from me. As a staff member of a community, you can only do so much. Even if you give people the keys to the city, there's still going to be some people that still won't use them.

I've said this once, and I'll say it again. The best remedy to prevent scammers in my opinion, is to force link "all" new registered users to a verification checklist page once they create a new user ID. Next, create a forum specifically, and for the only purpose of listing out that verification checklist, which is visible to all. Lastly, within each individuals profile, create a menu which auto links to the list again for their convenience.

I would say if you missed the verification list three times, and still managed to somehow get scammed regularly, then perhaps account trading isn't for you.

I did read the whole thing. I would be a lot more receptive to your help if you were not insulting me / us at the same time. Kendrah1 is correct that what you describe is very much like TW verification. One thing that is missed though is that we don't charge for use of the site. Not charging equals no funds for something like what you suggest. It also is against being a free community when you force a paypal payment or some sort of verification to use it. Hell. TW verification costs us an average of $7.50 per person to do it. We do a lot of them every day. I run a full call center here and just think about trying to do this for the 100+ new accounts that come in per day. That would be $750+ a day spent on verifications.

As it stands right now we do have a TW only forum and there are successful people in there that are not getting scammed. If they choose to deal only with verified people they can do it in there. It does not 100% remove scammers but it greatly reduces them.


There is a lot of other stuff here that is being worked on that has never been announced to the public. It won't be until it's ready to be public. Most all of it will be free to all members. It may have some small extra premium features if the members want it. But it will be free.

One other thing. A shout out to Kendrah1 of "Amen!" No matter what guides we put up. People choose not to read them. At least not until they get scammed for the first time. Then they read them. We can lead the horses to water. But we can not force them to drink.

I think what you say has some value. I do know there are scammers here in the forums. There is room for improvement and improvements will be made. They all have a cost though. so this site needs to earn it's keep and right now it's earning what it's getting. I would guess if someone wanted to make donations they could. We already spend around 40 to 50k a year on this site. If we upped it's earnings by another 20 to 30k a year we could produce some wonderful stuff. But I don't think we could make that per year in donations. So I would be open to suggestions on how the site could earn it as long as it was useful to the community here and not a hindrance.

I wish there was not so many scammers, but It's easy to see that these kids are making tons of money off markee. They talk about how to scam people on here everyday in other forums and what not. Most of them are big pricks and thrive on it. I know this because when you become an avid seller its impossible to not get them messaging you on a daily basis.

Many simple things take care of them tho. Just asking them to post on markee takes care of about 50%. Now that we have the TW loc back up, I can imagine it will be that much easier to do my work. I do not work for markee and I know you guys take on cases of scammers on a personal basis. I'd imagine you catch and report/take care of them occasionally. I'd suggest posting up some of these, even if its only one or two a week . I bet 30% of the scammers would not do it, if they felt any sort of pressure on them.

The scam buster forum is nice, but most of the scammers just laugh at the people here. The ones that make the most money never end up in there and if they do, its just a aim name. I love markee and its been a lot of fun since i started doing it. I don't mind spending time finding scammers and reporting them, because I have talked to these people many times and you can tell that they have absolutely no respect for anyone on here. They are here to clean out anyone and everyone. Then walk away and buy what they want.

Another idea, I'd like to see put into place would be, everyone has to read the trading guides before they post. I understand people just just skip right through it, but then they would know why they got scammed. The guides contain many of the simple tactics to protecting yourself.

Personally, I'd love to see all these kids reported to their local police department, and be able to watch what their parents do to them on video.

It seems you've put a lot of time and effort into this so I'd like to take a second to applaud you and agree with the facts you've stated. Honestly, i'm sick of scammers and have lost so much on the net it's not funny.

RIP Randy Pausch (1960-2008)