May 2026 Dispute Resolution Rules Clarifications

[Webmasterzzz]

@SettingSun77

That makes no sense. It just creates inconvenience for everyone with zero real benefit.

The seller is already advertising his website in the sales thread. So I am supposed to waste time chitchatting with him in PM, just to create some fake “back and forth” interaction before visiting his website and buying the service?

 

[SettingSun77]

@SettingSun77

That makes no sense. It just creates inconvenience for everyone with zero real benefit.

The seller is already advertising his website in the sales thread. So I am supposed to waste time chitchatting with him in PM, just to create some fake “back and forth” interaction before visiting his website and buying the service?

You could have seen that website advertised elsewhere. We're not going to approve and mediate disputes that originated on another platform. Confirming a transaction via DM is protection for both parties.

 

[megaplex]

Before we start today's thread, I just want to make it clear that nothing has changed in the Dispute Resolution Rules. Everything mentioned in the https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/april-2026-update-to-the-dispute-resolution-rules.1808500/ remains as it was.

So what are we talking about today? Dispute Resolution Rules CLARIFICATIONS!

There are a few areas of the rules that might have been a bit ambiguous (i.e. unclear or confusing). So, we're going to talk about them and clear everything up so we're all on the same page in the event you need to make use of the Dispute Resolution process.

Buyer	Any registered user on BHW that makes a purchase from an upgraded member in a location they're allowed to sell in.
Seller	Any upgraded member who makes a sale in the location their membership allows.
Interaction	Any meaningful back and forth between the buyer and seller about the purchase somewhere on BHW. This could be in their sales thread, their WTB/HAF threads or via DM.
Proof of Payment	A date stamped proof of money leaving your account and going to the accused.

Buyers on BHW
For the purpose of the Dispute Resolution process, a buyer is someone who has a registered account on BlackHat World. When they're getting ready to make a purchase, they do their due diligence and attempt to talk to the seller about the product or service that they're about to buy. This could be done on the seller's Marketplace sales thread, in a Want to Buy or Hire a Freelancer thread, or via DM (direct message).

Sellers on BHW
Once again, for the purpose of Disputes, a seller is a BHW user who has an upgraded account that allows them to trade (i.e. sell) on the forum in permitted locations. This means that the engagement between buyer and seller took place in a sales thread, via a DM or in a WTB/HAF thread. In order for a buyer to lodge a dispute against a seller, the person they made the purchase from needed to be a Jr. VIP, Marketplace Seller, or a Premium Member at the time money exchanged hands.

Interactions Between Buyers and Sellers
We would like to iterate the point that we have always required the transaction (i.e. business, deal, exchange, purchase, trade, interaction, engagement, etc and so on) to have taken place on Blackhat World. This means, and has always meant, that in order to submit a Dispute against a seller (or buyer) there has to be some sort of INTERACTION.

The interaction could be a back and forth on the seller's sales thread. It could be a back and forth on a WTB or HAF thread. And of course it can be a conversation via DM. There could be other engagement around the forum that could count as well, but the first 3 are very solid proofs that the transaction, i.e. interaction, started on BHW.

Since there's been confusion with the word transaction, it has been updated in the rules to INTERACTION to be more clear that it all has to start right here, on this forum, in order to take advantage of our Dispute Resolution process.

Proof of Payment
While this is also considered a transaction, to make it clearer to everyone, we've updated the language to be "proof of payment." Every Dispute form should have some sort of date & time stamped proof that money left the buyers wallet/account and was sent over to the seller.

What really makes this a solid piece of proof is if in the supporting evidence, we see the seller give their payment info and it matches the time stamped proof money was sent.

Dispute Resolution Clarification TL;dr

• A seller is an upgraded BHW member (Jr. VIP, Premium Member or Marketplace Seller) who sold in the correct part of the forum.
• A buyer is a registered user of the forum who has engaged with the seller ON BHW.
• An interaction is a meaningful back and forth between buyer and seller to prove that the purchase originated from BHW.
• The Proof of Payment is a date stamped proof that money left the buyers account/wallet and went to the seller.

Once again, these are just rule clarifications. Non-upgraded users have never been allowed to sell products or services on this forum. We've always required that there be some sort of interaction or engagement between buyer and seller, right here on this forum, in order to utilize the Dispute Resolution Process. And, of course, we've always asked for a proof of money exchange to be included in the evidence in order to proceed with the Dispute.

In order to make sure that we can give the time and attention needed to each Dispute, we want to make certain we're all on the same page as far as the wording of the rules goes!

As always, feel free to leave your questions, comments or concerns in the thread.

Previous Dispute Updates:

https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/april-2026-update-to-the-dispute-resolution-rules.1808500/
https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/dispute-resolution-tweaks-and-updates-from-september-3rd.1752050/

Given how large and successful the BHW forum is, why not mention margin trading services to protect users and help the forum grow even stronger? I think that's something many users would want

 

[AkritiExno]

Very helpful to talk sellers

 

[Campaigns By Mike]

I get @Webmasterzzz point about it feeling like extra hoops, but one quick DM saying “ordering X package for $Y from your site, confirm this is yours” is not really fake chitchat imo. I started doing that after a messy TG deal last year and it saved me once, because payment address matched the DM and there was no room for the buyer to twist it later. If someone refuses to even send one message on BHW while buying from a BHW thread, that’s already a small red flag for me... not always scammy, but not worth the headache on bigger orders.

 

[SMM Junction]

both sides of this make a lot of sense tbh. if you are running a high volume service, forcing every client to register and send a PM before buying off your landing page is a massive conversion killer. people are lazy and you will lose sales, no doubt about it.

but at the same time, staff can't be expected to mediate deals that happened entirely on telegram or external sites. those chats are way too easy to fake anyway.

i usually just put the responsibility on the buyer. if they want the safety of the forum's dispute system, they can take ten seconds to send a quick PM first. if they can't be bothered, then they accept the risk of buying off-site. seems like the only realistic compromise.

 

[Rankings Daily]

the quick PM thing is just basic opsec at this point. there are so many fake telegram handles and impersonators out there that if you dont get a quick confirmation on the forum, you are basically asking to get scammed anyway. yeah it sucks for conversion rates if some lazy buyers drop off, but dealing with even one fake dispute or chargeback takes way more time than sending a 5 second DM. i just tell my buyers to drop their username in the order notes or send a quick "hi" here before paying. saves a lot of headaches in the long run.

 

[PetraAnn]

Stop focusing just on the DM part of the equation. There's other ways to engage with a user on the forum. If they have a sales thread, post in it before you buy. You can post a question on their profile. Unfortunately, unless you're an upgraded member, there's no real way of doing a back and forth on a WTB/HAF thread as a buyer so you have to actually DM whomever you want to work with beforehand. However, we are looking at a few potential things that might make this a little smoother.

End of the day though, DMs aren't the ONLY way to prove meaningful interaction with the seller. It's the easiest though.

 

[AkritiExno]

Very good and well explain about rule

 

[Vynith]

So if you buy from a sellers website you won't be protected even if you came from his bst?

How many people are going to actually start a private message with the seller here rather than use their website though.

I understand why you've set it up this way but it seems a bit skewed.

 

[BrodyGregory]

Had my share of back-and-forth in the mods' inbox before, and clarity like this saves a lot of chasing your own tail. Love how you cleared the air about proof of payment and made it clear what counts. Takes the wild goose chase out of figuring out where guys stand in a dispute, especially with all the off-platform noise nowadays.

 

[xcarrato]

Hello,

I believe that OptiVista may be operating a scam. I paid for a service, but after receiving the payment, he stopped responding and did not provide the agreed service.

He advertises his services on this platform, which gave me confidence that it was safe to make the payment. Please investigate this account and take appropriate action. I am concerned that other customers may already have experienced the same issue and that more people could be affected.

Please let me know how I can formally report this matter and provide evidence of the payment and our correspondence.

 

[PetraAnn]

Hello,

I believe that OptiVista may be operating a scam. I paid for a service, but after receiving the payment, he stopped responding and did not provide the agreed service.

He advertises his services on this platform, which gave me confidence that it was safe to make the payment. Please investigate this account and take appropriate action. I am concerned that other customers may already have experienced the same issue and that more people could be affected.

Please let me know how I can formally report this matter and provide evidence of the payment and our correspondence.

1. Not the thread for this. Either put in a dispute if all of the tick boxes for Dispute Resolution can be ticked or..

2. Put in a ticket to support.