Haha cross verified. Thanks. Yeah reported ans hubs say they ha e banned this user. They likely saw all the same outbound messages to several hubs and made this same conclusion. Good work all! Keep making. J Should be noted i got both the spammer and scammer enquires 20min apart. Likely same person with different communication fishing techniques.
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Youll note i was recommending a warning to customers then a ban. They went straight to ban…likely saw more than we did from their end. These people are not worth dealing with…on or off the network.
Since the messages are almost word for word, you are most definitely right, this guy might have intentions other than just your 3D-printing expertise or want to save a few bucks of fees by dealing under the table (here is the scamming part I understood). These people will always be there. They are the 1%-3% of the internet (no source here but bare with me). And if you want to have system wide surveillance for that 1%-3%, it’s exactly like the NSA. Don’t get used to that and think we have all lost our privacy since then.
So the question here is really what is the long term solution? Similar to the spam advertising incident last week, it may be time to offer users to report other users and will be subjected to review. To me, seeing all these report icons for post and users might make 3DHubs seem less cozy. So the last option is of course to treat this as a single case scenario and move on. 3DHubs cannot be upping their defences every time someone posts something foolish or annoying. Soon all users will require Captchas to log in. So I am for making it clear to hubs about such rules when they sign up and move on.
3dhubs used to HEAVILY monitor communications. As usage went up their ani ity to do so went down. So its on us makers to report. The problem is an eady method to report. They recommended adding a button to do so. Thats a great thing. Easy, leeps tje power in tje jands of 3duubs and makes it so i dont have to publically blast people like this. I also emailed their customer service along side this public post. The reason for posting publically at all is really to remind makers what this about and what is the right course of action for this kind of behavior. Agreed its a small percentage which means they wont need to review that many report button pressesl to review. The bad news for shady hubs… Will be that it wont be public. And when reviewed hubs are found to be indulging with off metwork requests they are subject to ban. Friendly reminder… 
Theyve always monitored…
I think you are really on to something here in terms of the “bad look” aspect. I also really like concept of being able to say to the rest of the hubs “hey I got this shady message, anyone else seen anything like it/have an opinion/etc” so stuff like the ^above^ can be outed.
Maybe this kind of “inside baseball” stuff should be segregated from the general chat and be in it’s own section. I think it’s very beneficial for the hubs and should help mitigate the need for the kind of overreach you are worried about. I also think there is no reason why potential customers or people just coming here interested in 3d printing in general should have to scroll past this crap that doesn’t interest them.
No doubt if someone is using multiple accounts asking for off-hub services internationally, then it is somewhat shady. Currently I do not see anyone posting any more info than just someone inquiring for off-hub services. Nobody even tried to go further to investigate what are the intentions of these users because they can’t wait to hop on the Vigilante Wagon. I hope someone can provide us with more information here rather than just assuming a scam. What do they want from us? As long as we do not carry out any transactions or give out personal information we are in control.
I know in the automotive industry for example, you do not want to sign an NDA with someone you just met over the internet and pass over your IP. This means that 3DHubs is currently not fully set up for serious B2B operations, and that’s fine. In the case of someone from the industry thinking of trying out 3DHubs for their company, they will shunned off and mostly likely never return if we continue to follow this approach.
We as a hubs operator shouldn’t behave in such a “us vs. them”/“we are right they are definitely wrong” mentality, it is getting pretty radical pretty quickly as you can see. We as operators need to learn more about treating a potential customer professionally and be in the position to deny any illegitimate service we do not wish to offer. Yes, even if they are behaving completely irrational or are asking for services that are clearly illegitimate we have to politely decline. After which you may be free to report the user to an admin.
For this particular guy, many of you will use him as a counter argument, that it is “obvious” he is trying to scam you. I would like to see some proof of when he actually committed the crime of trying to scam you other than violating the terms and conditions of 3DHubs? To me that is not the full story and we are all playing Judge Dredd.
I agree. People are going way overboard here and need to put down the pitchforks.
You state the exact point. Its not for serious b2b. Those that need that level of service will not find it here unless you go off network and violate the terms you signed as a vendor. Again there isnt a judge dredd. A report to 3dhubs isnt a final say. If they feel the user is violating they make that call. Again…tell 3dhubs if you dont like the TOS you signed. Its not up to me to prove they are scammers…its up to them to follow the rules of the TOS and not even ask to go off network in the first place. Read the tos… Follow or leave or be banned for violating. Its like every site. The scammer defending is hilarious… Guilty much fellas? Stay on network.
The witch hunt continues… keep your head down or you might be accused next! LoL
I’m sure nobody here is defending anybody who wants to violate the TOC. Just saying the approach is as @MindFuLL puts it, becoming a witch hunt.
There are plenty of dotcoms on 3D hubs. But do they offer a better or quicker service or are they cheaper ?
If i check in my own city, the dotcoms are ranked on the 3 - 4 page.
I can understand that customers are more preferred to work outside 3dhubs.
- Email is right in their work environment.
- They don’t need to login on another platform.
- They have to pay less. (i think 12.5 percent fee is a lot)
So in my opinion. 3Dhubs should improve in a direction that people would love to work through the website.
On the other hand, i also can understand hubs would love to work outside 3dhubs for the same reasons plus.
When you are in personal contact with a satisfied customer. He probably will contact you again for the next order.
every story has a different side.
I am using the powertools atm. I did not receive 1 order trough that gate.