Feedback Rating - Potentially misleading others?

I've noticed that some people appear to be use the feedback ratings to mislead others. Take the following user for example:



It looks quite clear that idealistic and digitalvisions are the same person and the rating system is being misused there (amongst other things).

But then trademarks has also left feedback for digitalvisions, however it's not quite clear if they are also the same person. The strange thing is that digitalvisions has one post and has never posted on of trademarks' threads and he shouldn't be able to PM because of his post count. So how can you leave feedback for such a new person with zero post count?

I would also ask @BassTrackerBoats whether there was really some trade between him and trademarks.

Sorry if this is a bit convoluted. It's just that it seems like people are able to abuse the feedback system, to create a misconception that they are genuinely positively rated without any verification.

Do people actually even look at this?

I haven't left any feedback as a buyer for years, nor received any as a buyer from a seller. What I have seen it people asking for feedback in exchange for the same, also people giving thanks and feedback for trades / freebies and other crap.

MisterF said:

Do people actually even look at this?

Click to expand...

Reading some of the SL threads, it seems like some people do look at it and take it as a credible measure of someone's reliability.

The lack of due diligence is obviously the overwhelming factor in many of the SL threads, but this does seem to be a factor in some people's decision making.

@digitalvisions, @trademarks, @idealistic, and @NetBreak were all members who were connected via IP. They claimed to "live in the same building" as each other over Skype and it's possible that all of those account were controlled by 1 person, but I think they were really just a small network of scammers in the Philippines.

https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/dude-trying-to-scam.942426/page-2#post-10072826

The feedback rating is not something that I'd take in to account when choosing to do business with a member.

First of all, if I'm making a purchase from someone, it's going to be because they have an "approved" marketplace thread so I'd read the reviews on their thread to determine what their rating is (the rating I choose to give them based on feedback from other members). As you've pointed out, the feedback rating can be taken advantage of by members leaving each other ratings so this isn't something that I'd ever take in to account to determine if the member is trustworthy or not.

However, naive buyers could be susceptible to this and I do believe that something should be done about it (just to protect inexperienced buyers).