I've been watching this car crash develop with morbid interest (and popcorn).
I know
Caveat Emptor and blahblah is the watchword of this forum, but it would be nice if Theymos and his inner circle would realize the threat to the basic credibility of the system by which BCT trading operates and swing into action in any way that they can, and share with us all some basic facts about the various master-p accounts from their analysis and data.
Like it or not, the ad hoc escrow system here is broken, despite the protestations of OgNasty and others who, although well intentioned, are defending the indefensible. There is no way, with account and key sales common and 'acceptable', that a long con escrow scam can ever be discounted.
What to replace it with?
Something along these lines deserves further thought
Is there any kind of service offering automated 2-of-3 multisig? That seems like the obvious way forward here. The company wanting to pay for forum signatures creates a campaign on the site, the forum users each sign up for that campaign. Everyone provides an address. The site makes a 2-of-3 address for each campaign participant, holds funds in escrow, but can't steal them.