**Please Read** What is Certified and why is it required?

[daytona4me]

Brilliant! I am going to renew my supporter-ship and get certified immediately.

Quick question
As a buyer and seller I have always used PayPal F&F on here, but it seems to have fallen out of favour recently.

As a buyer I am happy(ish) to send PPFF. In theory, any online transaction carries and element of risk, perhaps when the commodity is “rep-watches” the risk increase a little. However, ahead of time I like to think I’ve done a decent amount of due diligence to limit the odds that I get burnt. And so far so good.

As a seller, my concern is that the buyer pays in a method that allows them to “charge back” I.e receive the watch and reclaim the money / retain a portion of the agreed amount.

This is a long winded way of asking if, with certification, is PPFF back on the cards?

@daytona4me

And keen to hear all thoughts.

It's a good question and one we want to seriously consider once being Certified is an absolute requirement.
We will issue some new sales rules and HVS rules. Our goal is to make things a little easier now that we have certified available to us.

 

[EDZUPER]

Done. Thank you

 

[Buythedip]

DM sent @trailboss99

 

[daytona4me]

Bump! Reminder, deadline is approaching soon.

 

[Maximillian]

Certified and become a supporter at the same time, thanks for your work!

 

[Blitza]

I just pm'd you.

Could you please PM me as well on the same matter?

 

[Halamarkrey]

Where is the link for me to go to pay and provide ID to become certified?

 

[kkarlstedt]

Hi,
Please check my documents and update me to "Certified" status

 

[daytona4me]

Only 27 days before certified is mandatory for posting a sale. Beat the rush and do it now.

 

[Serpico2022]

this is a great idea.
Very smart.

 

[OcarinaOfTime]

Hi guys,

I want to become a supporter and a certified user. I have received the link from trailboss and followed it.

Before I upload my ID and a photo of me holding it, maybe you can dispel any doubts:

The site has no imprint/legal notice or any other information on the guys behind it. However, I figured that this is due to it not being an independent website of a third party (security provider) providing verification for a number of clients, but rather a "sub-site", based on a Microsoft service, created by RWI admins solely for the verification process. Is that right?

However, as you write that (i) the information is not stored on your personal accounts but "on our vendor", (ii) you "have contracted with a world leader in identity processing", and (iii) "This company is rock solid in protecting data.", I was wondering if there is any information on that third company, as this will be the location where the (very personal) information is stored?

I am neither a data protection obsessed individual neither do I want to pour any water in the wine as I think that this process is necessary to prevent scammers from doing their business here. I just want to understand what happens to the information / where it is stored and how secure it is because - at least in Germany - you can do many things with photos of an ID (much more than with credit card data - e.g., we have lots of scams at "Kleinanzeigen" (classifieds) here with scammers sending pictures of other peoples IDs to convince buyers to pay money in advance) and while I do not suggest in any way that you guys would do this (as this forum is very well established), I am rather concerned in case of data breaches or people at that unknown third company.

Best,
B.

 

[daytona4me]

I'm not going to do any more pleading, explaining, or trying to convince people. If you don't want to do it, don't do it.

 

[g00n]

I'm not going to do any more pleading, explaining, or trying to convince people. If you don't want to do it, don't do it.

 

[Toolwatchtool]

Hi guys,

I want to become a supporter and a certified user. I have received the link from trailboss and followed it.

Before I upload my ID and a photo of me holding it, maybe you can dispel any doubts:

The site has no imprint/legal notice or any other information on the guys behind it. However, I figured that this is due to it not being an independent website of a third party (security provider) providing verification for a number of clients, but rather a "sub-site", based on a Microsoft service, created by RWI admins solely for the verification process. Is that right?

However, as you write that (i) the information is not stored on your personal accounts but "on our vendor", (ii) you "have contracted with a world leader in identity processing", and (iii) "This company is rock solid in protecting data.", I was wondering if there is any information on that third company, as this will be the location where the (very personal) information is stored?

I am neither a data protection obsessed individual neither do I want to pour any water in the wine as I think that this process is necessary to prevent scammers from doing their business here. I just want to understand what happens to the information / where it is stored and how secure it is because - at least in Germany - you can do many things with photos of an ID (much more than with credit card data - e.g., we have lots of scams at "Kleinanzeigen" (classifieds) here with scammers sending pictures of other peoples IDs to convince buyers to pay money in advance) and while I do not suggest in any way that you guys would do this (as this forum is very well established), I am rather concerned in case of data breaches or people at that unknown third company.

Best,
B.

Hey B.

The company is Stripe. Similar to Square or PayPal, Stripe is simply a financial services and payment processing company. It is used for point-of-sale transactions ranging from small, local businesses, all the way up to Amazon.

Stripe has also developed its own verification software/application. This may be used for high-value online purchases, online banking, and online alcohol purchases. Stripe matches the biometrics of the user with the info provided and the method of payment used. They quite literally match and hold millions of users' accounts.

I am in no way affiliated with Stripe. I saw that you mentioned you are from Germany and I found this which might be helpful:

https://stripe.com/docs/identity/explaining-identity#:~:text=Stripe captures photos of your,photo on the ID document.

They also make mention of Germany towards the bottom. Hopefully, this will address any trepidation that you have.

I wanted to support this great platform as well as get my certification. The entire process took less than 2 minutes. There is no reason for any members to be hesitant.

 

[OcarinaOfTime]

Thank you, @Toolwatchtool, for taking the time and the information provided.

 

[Toolwatchtool]

Thank you, @Toolwatchtool, for taking the time and the information provided.

No worries! I know that the privacy laws in Germany differ from that of the US. If you need anything else, just let me know!

I can totally understand the initial concern from members. However, the transparency provided by owners, admins, and mods has been fantastic. I think users forget that this is a privately held and managed site. In theory, they could have easily implemented a rule change and provided little to no information to its membership. They were also fielding questions and concerns in near real time. That's unheard of.

This new implementation required a ton of forethought and was taken seriously. The user experience was heavily considered as well. Signing up to support and be certified was actually easier than changing a credit card on my Netflix account!

I honestly think this will help to thwart potential scams and reduce idiots even thinking about pulling something. Reading through threads that address the changes also uncovered a lot of entitled cheapskates.

 

[var554]

Hey B.

The company is Stripe. Similar to Square or PayPal, Stripe is simply a financial services and payment processing company. It is used for point-of-sale transactions ranging from small, local businesses, all the way up to Amazon.

Stripe has also developed its own verification software/application. This may be used for high-value online purchases, online banking, and online alcohol purchases. Stripe matches the biometrics of the user with the info provided and the method of payment used. They quite literally match and hold millions of users' accounts.

I am in no way affiliated with Stripe. I saw that you mentioned you are from Germany and I found this which might be helpful:

https://stripe.com/docs/identity/explaining-identity#:~:text=Stripe captures photos of your,photo on the ID document.

They also make mention of Germany towards the bottom. Hopefully, this will address any trepidation that you have.

I wanted to support this great platform as well as get my certification. The entire process took less than 2 minutes. There is no reason for any members to be hesitant.

Thanks. I, too want to support, but as the victim of identity theft that caused havoc in my life for 3 years, and for which 7 people went to prison here, the off shore ones are almost impossible to catch, I am always hesitant to give info, I know what can happen, they think mine was taken from a mall kiosk and went insane from there. 3 credit cards, 1 bank account, my phone account.

 

[Toolwatchtool]

Thanks. I, too want to support, but as the victim of identity theft that caused havoc in my life for 3 years, and for which 7 people went to prison here, the off shore ones are almost impossible to catch, I am always hesitant to give info, I know what can happen, they think mine was taken from a mall kiosk and went insane from there. 3 credit cards, 1 bank account, my phone account.

Hey Var,

That is brutal and I can certainly understand that you are guarded with your personal details.

I remember my wife and I going to a surf/skate store in the mall so I could pick up a hat. This was maybe 2000-ish. We get home and there is a message waiting from our bank saying that our account was frozen due to high activity. I'm thinking to myself that a hat didn't seem to qualify as "high activity."

We call the bank and immediately knew something was wrong. In the span of 12-15min, there was over $3500 charged to places like Victoria's Secret and Bath and Body. An actual human being at the bank noticed this and stopped the card. This was before the banks just took your side and we had to give interviews and statements to local law enforcement, bank officials, and a litany of others. At one point, my wife was treated as a suspect since the charges were all made at female-oriented stores. The bank would not credit our account and waited until they had "sufficient information" with no timeline provided to us.

Since this was the dawning of identity theft, the process was very slow. Eventually, the girl who was working at the surf and skate shop where I purchased the $20 hat was found to be the thief. She was part of a network of mall store employees that used credit card terminals and points of sale to drain customer accounts. Specific details were not given to me and my wife. I was able to get the gist of the scam which follows:

1. A salesperson at store A rings through a customer transaction.
2. Immediately calls or texts an employee at store B who is part of their group. Provides the credit card details and name on the card.
3. The employee at store B opens a sale and manually enters the credit card details provided. Quickly rings through store merchandise.
4. Store B employee then calls or texts an employee at Store C. The process repeats until the card was drained of funds or flagged.

The employees at these stores would then sell the merchandise at rock-bottom prices on eBay and divide the profits. This was way before security chips and other measures. Even with these measures, retailers can still manually enter transactions today! We eventually received our money back from the bank. I think it was around three months. The mall scam ring was caught as well. From what we were told it was a shockingly large network that was responsible for thefts in the six figures.

Var, I'm not trying to compete with your situation, but rather sympathize with you from one mall-scammed member to another! I think that RWI members should keep in mind why these changes have been implemented in the first place...to prevent and stop scams and scammers running amock in the M2M area. I have mentioned before that I have never used the M2M sections as a buyer or a seller. Maybe I will, maybe not. I personally have used this forum as a resource since before I even registered for an account and thought it was a great time to offer my support. I'm not sure if you use Amazon, Target, Lyft, Shopify, Wayfair, etc. All of these Fortune 500 use Stripe to accept payments or verify identity. I have active accounts with almost all of these companies. The fact that RWI uses the same verification company as Google or Amazon makes me feel as secure as one can possibly feel online.

I hope this helps Var! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns.

 

[var554]

Hey Var,

That is brutal and I can certainly understand that you are guarded with your personal details.

I remember my wife and I going to a surf/skate store in the mall so I could pick up a hat. This was maybe 2000-ish. We get home and there is a message waiting from our bank saying that our account was frozen due to high activity. I'm thinking to myself that a hat didn't seem to qualify as "high activity."

We call the bank and immediately knew something was wrong. In the span of 12-15min, there was over $3500 charged to places like Victoria's Secret and Bath and Body. An actual human being at the bank noticed this and stopped the card. This was before the banks just took your side and we had to give interviews and statements to local law enforcement, bank officials, and a litany of others. At one point, my wife was treated as a suspect since the charges were all made at female-oriented stores. The bank would not credit our account and waited until they had "sufficient information" with no timeline provided to us.

Since this was the dawning of identity theft, the process was very slow. Eventually, the girl who was working at the surf and skate shop where I purchased the $20 hat was found to be the thief. She was part of a network of mall store employees that used credit card terminals and points of sale to drain customer accounts. Specific details were not given to me and my wife. I was able to get the gist of the scam which follows:

1. A salesperson at store A rings through a customer transaction.
2. Immediately calls or texts an employee at store B who is part of their group. Provides the credit card details and name on the card.
3. The employee at store B opens a sale and manually enters the credit card details provided. Quickly rings through store merchandise.
4. Store B employee then calls or texts an employee at Store C. The process repeats until the card was drained of funds or flagged.

The employees at these stores would then sell the merchandise at rock-bottom prices on eBay and divide the profits. This was way before security chips and other measures. Even with these measures, retailers can still manually enter transactions today! We eventually received our money back from the bank. I think it was around three months. The mall scam ring was caught as well. From what we were told it was a shockingly large network that was responsible for thefts in the six figures.

Var, I'm not trying to compete with your situation, but rather sympathize with you from one mall-scammed member to another! I think that RWI members should keep in mind why these changes have been implemented in the first place...to prevent and stop scams and scammers running amock in the M2M area. I have mentioned before that I have never used the M2M sections as a buyer or a seller. Maybe I will, maybe not. I personally have used this forum as a resource since before I even registered for an account and thought it was a great time to offer my support. I'm not sure if you use Amazon, Target, Lyft, Shopify, Wayfair, etc. All of these Fortune 500 use Stripe to accept payments or verify identity. I have active accounts with almost all of these companies. The fact that RWI uses the same verification company as Google or Amazon makes me feel as secure as one can possibly feel online.

I hope this helps Var! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns.

Thanks! Amex called me and asked me to help them, they are tired of just taking it. There were several of us involved, like you said, depositions, statements, fraud managers, bank fraud depts, you name it. Discover took the position that i was guilty and they were going to prosecute me. Amex and the Broward county, FL, sheriffs,where Amex has a base, convinced them that would be foolish. I do online shopping, pay bills, just like everyone else. I have all my cards back, except i told Discover to shove theirs. We left everything in place so the thiefs would not know they were being monitored. it was devastating watching my credit rating go into the sewer, I refused a video deposition, only verbal because I did not trust them to see me. I'm good now, and glad I could help in a small way, but damn it was awful. I'm sure the RWI process is fine, i just second, or third guess everything now. Tens of thousands at every Apple store for 50 miles. 50k on Amex. So much more. i didn't even get any of it lol. Thanks for your story, and yes, here i am purchasing counterfeit goods from across the world with the help of a dodgy forum hahaha. yep.And I feel okay doing so.

 

[daytona4me]

@var554 , who you calling dodgy?
That would be your football team.
#GOLIONS