Escrow?

[supa22]

Just wondering if anyone's ever tried this in game before. For those of you who know what an escrow is, I'm sure you'd be a little worried about scamming. Let me explain a little:

An escrow (in real life) is a company someone would use to buy something that is expensive and when they don't fully trust the other person. For example, I had to use an escrow to buy a car recently. The guy selling the car was selling it kind of cheap (so it seemed like it might be a scam), so we agreed to use an escrow for a small fee. I provided the money (full purchasing price) to the escrow, they held it until I got the vehicle, once I got the vehicle and approved it, the escrow gave the money to the seller. If I didn't like the vehicle, the seller would take it back and I would get my money back.

The reason I'm intersted is that there are a LOT of annoying scammers out there. I've been scammed (or at least someone attempted to scam me) multiple times. I've only been fooled once, but that was out of a SOS blade. So since then, I've been warning people of scammers and even hunting scammers down. I've finally decided that I wanted to start something that might actually work to help out people in general. Especially if something is really expensive.

I would like to be the "escrow" guy (and maybe even my guild) on greece, but I know that a lot of people wouldn't trust me simply because I haven't been around long enough. How it would work in game is like this:

The buyer and seller would agree to use the escrow guy to handle the trade on a very expensive item where either the buyer or the seller doesn't trust the other. The seller would give the item to the escrow, the buyer would give the money to the escrow. Then the escrow would give the item to the buyer, the buyer would OK the item and the escrow would give the money to the seller. Of course there would be a very small service fee (never over 10% of the purchasing price) so that the escrow could get something worth his time and services.

I'm not here saying that this is what I'm doing simply because I know I'd get flamed and everyone here would probably call me a scammer (which by the way, ticks me off). I'm just writing to see what people think of it. If I were to build up my name and people actually trusted me for the player that I am on Greece, would it be a good idea? I'm really hoping to build myself and my guild a good name on our server and eventually I hope that people would trust us and could even use us for situations where they don't trust the seller/buyer.


So tell me what you think. If there were a person/group on your server that was very well trusted by almost everyone and they started an escrow-type thing on your server, would you trust them and use them when purchasing something?

Again, this is just an idea and I know that it would take a lot of positive feedback to be successful, but I want to know what you all think before I go any further with it. Thanks in advance.


Just to reiterate one thing, I want to help people avoid scammers. That's the whole purpose of this post. To see what people think and to see if it's worth it to help people in this way. If it's not worth it, I'll probably find another way to help people.

[maxietheboss]

its a good idea, but i think it should be an npc then because the escrow could be a scammer so i never trust anyone accept then npc's

[Vandango]

its a good idea, but i think it should be an npc then because the escrow could be a scammer so i never trust anyone accept then npc's

+1

[supa22]

That's the point of building a good name. If enough people trust the guy and you trust the guy, would you use it? I agree that NPC would be great for that (especially the items that go for over 1bil) but I doubt they'd ever incorporate that into the game. Which is why I'd like to be that guy that helps people avoid scammers. It's really all about the name. Thanks for the response.

[Sharp324]

but theres also some scammers that build a lot of trust up and then greed hits in

[Draquish]

Heh, 9D sox...999mil...the trade is going fine...the escrow has the money AND the item...OOPS! D/c.

[supa22]

Thanks for all the replies, I appreciate it. I guess something like this couldn't work since people naturally wouldn't believe it possible to resist that greed. I, personally, think it would work with the right person. Thanks again.

[sosunseller]

lol give supa items and the other player give him items and both gets scammed. Why dont ppl just trade in exchange? using an escrow is much more riskier because the escrow mite be the scammer. The only reason that u want an escrow if ur trading illegally like acc and bot cards. Which mean you deserve to get scam. So u shouldnt use an escrow, just use exchange.....

but theres also some scammers that build a lot of trust up and then greed hits in

I think this is the description of supa

Btw is escrow one of those stupid confusing word that is just a meaning for a simple word for middleman?

[sosunseller]

I'm not here saying that this is what I'm doing simply because I know I'd get flamed

Well ur gettin flamed anyways

I want to know what you all think before I go any further with it.

what i think this is is a scam

[supa22]

sosunseller, please check your PM inbox.

@everyone else who reads this: I am in no way offering escrow services here. I was simply asking a question to see if anyone would ever be able to trust one. The answer is clearly no, so I would now, not even consider starting one. I appreciate the responses (even yours sosunseller) because it shows me that you all really could never trust one.

I hope that you all can see that I simply wanted an opinion on if this could work or not as a legitimate business-type approach to playing in Silkroad. I see now that it isn't so I will say this: If you ever see anyone offering escrow services, don't trust it! I was hoping to find a way to help people beat scammers and this is clearly not going to work this way. I will try to find other ways to beat scammers and if I find one, I'll share it here. Again, thanks for all the responses.

[StealMySoda]

I wouldn't mind doing such services in my free time, they would just need to tell me when to log on (as I'm on hardly if ever), I would probably even do it for free if it stopped people from being scammed.

[sama98b]

Never trust anyone online without being able to sue them at will
It have to have legally established company and list it.

[supa22]

lol sam good point.

What if it were set up on a forum like this? What if there were a section for each server that allowed you to post a time, location, and the buyer/seller names so that an "escrow agent" could come help out. Of course, this site is a great example for that since this site only promotes legits. It's against scammers, botters, and anything that goes against the ToS of the game. I think it could work if it were supported by a group like SRF (although I'm certainly not suggesting it at this point.... it would have to be proven by SRF to be legit and that would take a while. Theres's clearly a lot of things that would have to work out in order to make this type of thing work. But if it ever did work it, it would certainly save a lot of people from being scammed.

[Ell]

Although it's a good idea, escrow will turn into another way to scam. I do like the npc idea though. But there really isn't any point as long as you always check your confirm screen during a trade.