Yea, I know we should be aware of the risks but that doesn't mean some effort shouldn't be taken by the admins to prevent the "hit amd run" scammers.

Why not disallow locked threads and self-moderated threads from anyone with less than maybe 75-100 posts particularly in the digital items fora?  It won't SOLVE the problem but at least it would make it just a LITTLE harder and a little bit safer.  There is nothing to lose by doing it and plenty to gain.