Beware The PH Classifieds!!!!
Discussion
http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1619272.htm
http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1601675.htm
Ummmm,
same car different price, different age, different mileage etc etc.....
http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1601675.htm
Ummmm,
same car different price, different age, different mileage etc etc.....Lordbenny said:
missdiane said:
Moved to website feedback so the correct people see it,
I really don't agree, I think the majority of PH users never go to website feedback!
Lordbenny said:
I'm not looking for praise but, how about a little thanks from the mods when a PH'er reports a dodgy ad? I seem to be doing it ALOT. There's no comeback or thanks for policing the site for the mods! I will, however, continue to do it to prtect my fellow PH'ers. 
Sorry you feel that way but mods do not see any reports to adverts, HM have a classifieds administratorThank you for doing it,
but we really have no idea who is reporting or what has been reported
Lordbenny said:
how about a little thanks from the mods when a PH'er reports a dodgy ad?
We don't see the reports - so really don't have any idea who reports what, or how many, or how regularly. As Di says, it goes direct to the admins.But I know that every report is genuinely appreciated - so thank you very much for that (tongue firmly NOT in cheek)
There is a MASSIVE piece of work that goes on in the background, to prevent these ads. This is done in conjunction with other sites. I'm not sure what we can and cannot say, but I'm sure the Admins/management can explain
But seriously - thank you
Hi All,
Thanks for reporting the classified ads. As Kinky and Di have said, we have a classified administrator who's job it is to chase the scammers but it is, as you might expect, a never ending task. The assumption that there's really nothing being done about this isn't quite correct (if perhaps forgivable if you keep finding them!) so I thought it would be worth sharing some of the processes which go on to keep this at bay. There is a limit to what I can tell you publicly, since we're trying to stay one step ahead of the scammers, but:
1) We have a full time classified administrator to moderate ads which get picked up and removed from the site by some of our many automatic screening systems. These will look at a variety of things within an ad, but I can't tell you exactly what, simply because the scammers are reading this too.
2) We work very closely with the people you'd expect us to be in competition with; AutoTrader, eBay, Exchange & Mart & Desperate Seller all work together to share information and intelligence on scammer activity and also to keep consumers educated about what to look out for. We've jointly developed a number of sophisticated systems to quickly stop scammers from all sites in the network once discovered and this is a very effective tool alongside some of the pre-emptive stuff that I've outlined above. We're joined on this group by Met Police, OFT, Trading Standards and the RMIF. For more information, have a look at www.vstag.co.uk.
There is a limit to what we can do though and PistonHeads has seen huge growth in classified advertising over the past 12 months. This will bring greater attention from the scammers, and we will continue to increase the resource we throw at this in return. It is a non-stop battle to be honest, but one which is common to all websites offering people the chance to sell things, whatever the market. That doesn't mean that we're complacent, but please don't assume that we're not doing anything to try and curb the problem.
Sadly Caveat Emptor (Buyer Beware) has really never applied more than it does today anyone trying to buy a used car, here or anywhere else online.
Best,
Stuart
Thanks for reporting the classified ads. As Kinky and Di have said, we have a classified administrator who's job it is to chase the scammers but it is, as you might expect, a never ending task. The assumption that there's really nothing being done about this isn't quite correct (if perhaps forgivable if you keep finding them!) so I thought it would be worth sharing some of the processes which go on to keep this at bay. There is a limit to what I can tell you publicly, since we're trying to stay one step ahead of the scammers, but:
1) We have a full time classified administrator to moderate ads which get picked up and removed from the site by some of our many automatic screening systems. These will look at a variety of things within an ad, but I can't tell you exactly what, simply because the scammers are reading this too.
2) We work very closely with the people you'd expect us to be in competition with; AutoTrader, eBay, Exchange & Mart & Desperate Seller all work together to share information and intelligence on scammer activity and also to keep consumers educated about what to look out for. We've jointly developed a number of sophisticated systems to quickly stop scammers from all sites in the network once discovered and this is a very effective tool alongside some of the pre-emptive stuff that I've outlined above. We're joined on this group by Met Police, OFT, Trading Standards and the RMIF. For more information, have a look at www.vstag.co.uk.
There is a limit to what we can do though and PistonHeads has seen huge growth in classified advertising over the past 12 months. This will bring greater attention from the scammers, and we will continue to increase the resource we throw at this in return. It is a non-stop battle to be honest, but one which is common to all websites offering people the chance to sell things, whatever the market. That doesn't mean that we're complacent, but please don't assume that we're not doing anything to try and curb the problem.
Sadly Caveat Emptor (Buyer Beware) has really never applied more than it does today anyone trying to buy a used car, here or anywhere else online.
Best,
Stuart
Definitely worth reporting dodgy ads because multiple reports means automatic deletion.
Full time staff are now employed to look after the classifieds, and they manually approve around 500 ads per day. 55,000 ads are now live, so the occasional rogue slips through, but the back office operation is bigger than ever, so it's far from going down the pan, believe me.
Full time staff are now employed to look after the classifieds, and they manually approve around 500 ads per day. 55,000 ads are now live, so the occasional rogue slips through, but the back office operation is bigger than ever, so it's far from going down the pan, believe me.
Gassing Station | Website Feedback | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff