D2Jsp Trading Guide

Let’s face facts, in a trading forum where you’re not exchanging items for items without a mediator you have to be very careful when trading. In fact, unless you’re using a mediator and you’ve confirmed via pm that the mediator is in place there is really no guaranteed way to avoid being scammed. There are however tell tale signs to look out for and certain things you can do for your protection.

Also please take note, getting a scammer locked will only help people in the future; you will not be refunded what you lost, unless the scammer decides to pay it back in order to get unlocked. As the case with most scammers is they multi and aim to scam as many people as they can before they get locked I don’t see you getting your items/fg back once you’ve been scammed, so here are things you need to do in order to keep yourself safe.

As a preamble I am well aware that this process is a bit tedious and annoying at times, but I stick to it as my trading bible and have never been scammed for even as much as 1 game gold.

First and foremost, pay attention to the persons join date, forum gold, and posts. This is valuable in several accounts, for a small ticket item someone who has a good amount of fg (over 2,000) will not risk getting locked over something in the ball park of 25 fg. This does have a flip side to it though as some veteran members prey on new members that don’t know how to post proper scammer accusations.

Also along these lines please note that anyone who joined on the same date as the trade that they’re trying to make who have an amount of fg exceeding 100 is nearly guaranteed to be a multi as you have to wait 24 hours for a fg purchase to process once you’ve joined jsp and people don’t trade big ticket items with random new members, I’m sure there might be an exception or two to this rule, however I wouldn’t take the risk if I were you.

That in turn brings me to, what should you screen shot and what you should look out for.

As soon as you get into the game, type /time. This will give you a screen shot of the time the game started. Proceed to state your jsp username and make sure they state theirs. Agree to the terms of the trade and try to be as specific as possible, making sure that both parties are in agreement. Screenshot this information once again for your records; the more screenshots the merrier is pretty much the name of the game. From here you can proceed to the trade screen where you need to make sure to take a screen shot of your inventory with yet another time stamp. Once again you will screen shot this including scrolling over the item in question to verify that it is in fact the item for trade. If after the item is sent/received you haven’t received your end hit /time again to show the time at which your inventory is now empty along with a screenshot of them leaving the game.

- This aspect can snag as some scammers have started to pick up on crashing the game, for this sake, make sure only you and the person you are trading with are in the game, it takes far to long to crash a game solo so you will have ample time to get the screen shots need.

In addition to this you will need a link of the trade topic. Also I stress, never agree to any trades via pm without it being posted in the trade topic. It needs to be clearly stated what each party said. At this point please attach screenshots of the agreed upon game name and anything else discussed via pm. You should be averaging upwards of 8 screenshots per trade. For this reason make sure to clean out your Diablo 2 folder as it holds a maximum of 50 screenshots and you don’t want to be taking screenshots only to figure out none of them processed.

- Screenshots can be uploaded at imageshack, tinypic, photobucket, or wherever you prefer.

This pretty much covers you on how to get the person locked and how to keep yourself pretty safe, however it’s really only the half of it. When trading with someone you want to keep a close eye on any scammer accusations posted within the last day. Usually scammers go on a spree and don’t just go after one item. Also scammers will have a tendency to contact you via pm rather than posting in a topic. In light of this stick firmly to the fact that you only receiver first or you get a mediator.

Since you’re not scamming you have nothing to worry about with getting a mediator. It is a service that costs nothing and is rather fast. The only time I’ve waited more than a minute to get a mediator was at 4 in the morning on a Monday night because not many of them were on. None the less, no matter how good a deal is, you can never be too safe. And well if a deal seems too good to be true, odds are it is. The biggest thing to trading is using common sense.

Anyone who tells you their in a hurry and they don’t have the time to wait for a med you should simply tell that they can go first since their in such a rush and that there will then be no delay in the trade. I realize that many of you may be fairly new to jsp and because of this people will try to pressure you to go first, however not a single legitimate trader that I have ever come across ever had a problem with getting a mediator, it’s part of the courtesy you extend to another jsper as a good mannered trader.

At the end of the day though your best weapon towards preventing being scammed is being an active member on jsp as you will see every time someone throws up a “this person scammed me thread”. Even though these threads are flocked by bm idiots who will say “proof or gtfo” take it for what it’s worth. Take note of that persons name and avoid trading with them until their name is cleared or make sure to use a med with them.

Lastly remember, patience is the name of the game. Rushing through things is how you will expose yourself and cause problems. I have been very meticulous in every trade of mine on jsp with the exception of when I’m trading with someone I know and trust. I stress however that just because someone is in your guild or clan, does not mean you can immediately trust them. Certain people jump ship like it’s the trendy thing to do. Trust your gut instinct, if you have even the slightest sneaking suspicion, request a mediator.

I think this pretty much covers it, but if there’s something I’ve missed please let me know and I’ll address it.

Peace and safe trading,
Boxa

I personally asked boxa to join this forum and to write this guide for the benefit of everyone. He is a GG trader as well as being a great guy and has been kind enough to take his time to share his knowledge so I think he deserves major props for doing this. For him to do this and not even belong to the clan is a big deal. I hope his guide keeps everyone from getting scammed.