My message to LEMSwap wrote:
Opening a message to all members with an insult. Thanks.

Alright, the rule: Members must include City/State/Zip in their postings, is just pointless. There's no way to properly verify that anyone is even posting the correct information. Beyond that, many people have only posted their zip code. A quick google maps search for that will give anyone the City and State for that code. Requiring a City and state are thus redundant. If you wanted your users to actually verify where someone lived prior to making a deal, that would require their street address. This could be verified via a reverse phone lookup, if their number were listed. (Most people are moving to mobile phones only, unlisted). Or, if the directory doesn't match: "Oh, I just moved last week" "I just moved in with my girlfriend, so I have to sell off a few items to make room" and so forth.

If someone breaks the rules, you expect them to PAY you via Paypal for any sales/purchases they've made? How in the world do you expect to enforce that? First off, any person could deny they made any sales/purchases stating that there was either no interest or that the deal(s) fell through. (It's against the rules to post "sold" updates) After you get past dishonesty, what about people who don't have paypal? I've done a few dealings with people who paid via money order.

Life and death? Oh my. I guess this means that every person is limited to a single e-mail address throughout their entire lifespan. Oh, and I suppose it also wouldn't be possible to set up an e-mail address with a fake name or nickname. That alone could get any person back into all the other lists. To get back into the LEMSwaplist, all they'd have to do is post fake City/States/Zip codes. Amazing, isn't it?

Now we're hearing how elite you are compared to us lowlifes... But all of your magical rules and powers have loopholes. Sure, a new user has to be moderated for a while, so you may catch a few people that way, but it's certainly not possible for you to catch everyone that starts over with a new e-mail unless you were to close the lists entirely.

If you want to avoid people selling an item multiple times, start requiring "Item Sold" updates be posted to the list and include who the buyer is for each item that has sold. If someone else is looking to buy that item, they can see it has already sold to someone else. Allow either buyers or sellers to make the sold notices as soon as a payment is agreed upon or a paypal payment is made. If someone gets taken within that short timespan, at least they'll have ample notice to make paypal claims, ect. Obviously this isn't a perfect solution either. There's no foolproof way to prevent scammers, which is why they still exist on ebay even with all the info ebay/paypal have in their system.

Please, think about these rules before they're implemented. Rules that can be easily circumvented are pointless. Enforcing them with an iron fist only insults your members who realize how trivial they are. Actually insulting your members... Personally, I think that's grounds for a nanny banning.

I'm sure that, if you asked, members would be happy to brainstorm more ideas that could help avoid further scamming incidents and discuss why other ideas won't work.

With anticipation on your next move,
-Donald Hall