ScenarioSomeone has a problem with a wallet, comes to Bitcointalk, creates an account, asks a question, and gets a solution. Great! A happy new user for the forum, and another happy Bitcoin user, which adds to Bitcoin's popularity.
Reality (2 days ago)
Someone has a problem with a wallet, comes to Bitcointalk, creates an account, asks a question, gets "help" by PM from someone who asks him to enter some code into Electrum, enter his password (and I
quote: "(NEVER share this password with anybody)"), and gets scammed out of $30,000.
Another clueless naive new user bites the dust, the forum loses a new user, and Bitcoin loses a potential user forever.
How can we prevent this? Wallets aren't always easy, not all Bitcoin users are tech savvy, scammers are smart and creative, and if we want Bitcoin(talk) to grow in the right direction, these things kinda just shouldn't happen at all. I know that's utopia, and we can't prevent all scams from happening, but we could do more than this, right?
What would work? Disable receiving PMs? If they can't PM, they'll post their email address so that doesn't help.
More warnings for new users? A warning PM for every few first posts they make?
I'm not sure if this topic is going to help, but I had to get it off my chest.
I think disabling Pm will be a great start and also the forum can disable the ability to post email or any contact address. If a user asks a question, the user should be able to get the answer on the thread the question was asked there should be no private response. 1% out of every newbie count gets scammed due to this private assistance. I would also suggest if it's doable the forum bans anyone asking people to pm them for a solution to their worries.
Truth be told someone will always get scammed not everyone is patient enough to read or use Google to get solutions to their crypto related problems especially wallet and exchange related.