Hey guys! I wrote an article and it was posted on Dr. Jeebus' site. Unfortunately, I really can't link to the site on here because of the content of his other articles and such. I want to see if other sites will post it, but I don't know how to go about asking, heh heh.
Criticism is welcome! 
Here it is!
Trading Safely in the Digital Age
Hello fellow Magic addicts! My name is Jaime DiMuccio, but among my small niche in the intrawebs I’m better known as Jazaray. Let me tell you a bit about myself, before I get to the nitty gritty of this piece.
I’m 37 years old and female (OMG a chick?!). I’ve been playing Magic since late 1993 and loving every minute of it! I’m a Moderator on www.magictraders.com, more commonly known as MOTL (Magic Online Trading League). I’ve been a Mod there since January of 2004 and one of my main jobs is working the Bad Trader Alerts Forum, or BTA. This is the forum you go to when you have an issue with a trade that was made using our site. Helping to run the BTA is one of the most challenging jobs I’ve ever had (and I’ve had a lot, believe me!). It takes patience, knowledge of MOTL’s sending rules, patience, impartiality, patience, the ability to mediate and come up with ideas on compromises and, above all, patience.
A part of running the BTA is updating our Confirmed Bad Traders List (CBTL). This is where we post information on people we’ve banned from MOTL for ripping other people off. We post their MOTL alias, any names and addresses we’ve found associated with them as well as any email addresses found. When we find out new information about an individual on the CBTL, we add that in.
What is online trading? Why should I bother with that, when I can just trade in person with someone? The world of online trading can be a wonderful thing! You get to meet and talk to people from all walks of life, from all over the world! Through online trading and MOTL I’ve met people that I now consider great friends, not just acquaintances, but true friends. Not only that but, through online trading, you can get a hold of cards that just aren’t available in your own town or even at big events. If done safely, online trading is the best way to get the cards you need by getting rid of cards that you can’t or don’t want to use. You have some Russian foils you don’t want? I know who to go for that. You want dual lands? Yeah, I know members that have those too. You have some misprints that you need values for? I know who to ask.
The online Magic community is so diverse and, most of them anyways, are always ready and willing to help out. When I’m having trouble assigning a value due to condition, there are members that I count on for their expertise. It’s not only on MOTL that I know people whom I can count on either. Myself and the staff at mtgsalvation work closely together to try and stop rippers from succeeding on both sites.
Ok so, onto the point of this article (about time, right?), rippers. I hate them, don’t you? They bring the whole community down with their thieving ways. Over the years on MOTL, as on many trading sites I’m sure, we’ve had our fair share of rippers. Most of them are the one and done type of ripper. They ripped someone off and we never see them again. Sometimes they don’t even see it as ripping; they talk themselves into seeing it as justified, for whatever reason they can come up with. They’re not really the point of my writing here, although they are just as problematic. I’m here to talk to you about repeat offenders, the rippers that just keep coming back again and again and taking from us all.
“How is that possible?” you might ask. I mean, if they’ve ripped someone off before, it would be noticed, wouldn’t it? They would be removed from the site and information about them would be posted, right? Unfortunately, some of the guys (and gals) are persistent. They change one minor detail. They use a different name, or someone else’s address, however they think they can get by our CBTL. Or sometimes they hack accounts.
One such ripper is a gentleman (ok, he’s really no gentleman…) named John Strickland (well, that’s ONE of his names anyways). He’s from Ottawa, Canada and he’s managed to steal thousands upon thousands of dollars in cards and cash from our members over the years. I started a thread in our Magic Discussion Forum asking for our members help in stopping this person, it can be found here: http://classic.magictraders.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/025688.html. Recently, due to our wonderful new admin, we’ve managed to splash his name across MOTL in hopes of stopping him. It seems to have worked so far. Since the night our admin did that, however, John has emailed me and informed me that he’s moving on to new venues, new sites to rip from because MOTL is not worth the hassle anymore.
He is why I’m here, why I’m writing this. To warn you, my fellow gamers, because he HAS moved on, as of this posting, he’s now scamming on Ebay. In my last email to this piece of…work, I told him this; “You need to learn that stealing is wrong and it causes so much more than a feeling of loss from the money/cards. It’s a violation of our person, and sometimes you can never get back the feeling of trust, of safety, ever again.”
But how can you trade safely? What does that entail? There are many ways to trade safely online. The most important thing is something you've probably heard throughout most of your life, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Really, no one is going to trade you their Mox for your 20 shocklands, it’s just not going to happen, no matter how much we wish it. Use your common sense for things like that. Another thing to do is use tracking, always. Insure your packages. Keep ALL information regarding your trades in your email and keep all the paperwork from shipping your cards out.
Check their names and their addresses online. If they've ripped on a site before, it’s most likely documented in some way. Check first and last names, misspell the names somewhat to see if they’re trying to get around detection that way. Do the same with the street, city and zip codes. They may intentionally swap a number or two and count on the post office to catch the mistake. Check email addresses; switch the service name as well. If the email is joeshmoe@hotmail, check joeshmoe@yahoo and gmail as well. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but the CBTL on MOTL is a great place to start your search!
One of the most reliable ways in my opinion, to trade online safely, is by using an escrow type of service. On MOTL there are members that offer these types of services. I’m one of those people. I offer this service to my MOTLers free of charge. How it works is both parties send me their cards (or cash), I verify the contents, the conditions and authenticity if I’m asked, and then I ship them out to each party. When you decide to use a third party mediator, you should also check the reputation of the third party person the same way you would check on the other trader themselves.
Most importantly, if you DO get ripped off, don’t just let the person go. Fight for yourself! File mail fraud charges against the individual. Mail fraud is a felony charge and can result in a large fine and/or jail time, depending on the amount in question. If you find out they’ve ripped off others, band together and go after them, legally. Do not go to their house, or harass them, do everything by the book. You never know who is on the other end of the internet connection and your safety is more important than ANY piece of cardboard.
We in the Magic community need to stand together, to stop people like John Strickland, to stop John himself. To let them know that we will not be taken advantage of; that we will not be stolen from. We need to do everything possible to stop these rippers, these stealers of our safety and trust.
Thanks,
Jazaray
Magic Online Trading League Bulletin Board
UBBFriend: Email This Page to Someone! 
posted January 22, 2013 10:02 AM
