Hall Of Shame: Case #1

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[The bad news is, the article that used to be here has now gone.

The good news is, it's gone because the case of the swap that never was has now been resolved. I see no point in subjecting our errant swapper to yet more public exposure so I've pulled the original article]

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While only three bad swaps have occurred since Swopster started up, it bugged me that some swaps had gone somehow gone wrong and, although folks do swap at their own risk on the site, I still felt bad for the folks who were getting messed around.

So, over the past month or so, I’ve been busy playing internet detective and tracking down the rogue swappers – those guys who refused to respond to e-mails and weren’t completing/canceling their swaps.

I’m happy to report that all 3 rogue swaps have now been resolved:

#1	Disputed game returned to original owner
#2	Both swap games sent to innocent swapper
#3	Fraudster tracked down, real name and address provided to innocent swapper (who wants to resolve this himself)

The 3 members who broke the terms and conditions of the site have had their accounts disabled and been banned. One even made it onto Reddit.com for his 15 minutes of…ummm…’fame’.

It really does baffle me how folks think they can get away with some of the unreasonable and irresponsible behaviour so aptly demonstrated in these cases.

Just remember, all members need to provide the following critical details before they can begin swapping:

• Name
• Email
• Address

With those three items of information, tracking them down is ridiculously easy. Its like fishing with dynamite. One guy even tried using a throwaway e-mail address, a fake name, his friends address, and then changed all his details to yet more fake details after the swap. And I still managed to find him.

Hopefully I won’t need to publicly shame anyone else in the future…just abide by the rules, be respectful, be honest and you’ll have absolutely nothing to worry about.