Full ID Verification Process for Marketplace Sellers

Raj Kesu said:

I do not know if full KYC for Marketplace sellers is practical or not (I am aware there are some testings going on, as mentioned in this thread). That is for the BHW management to know & decide based on their knowledge and experience.
However, incase full KYC is made the norm for all Marketplace sellers, then why only for Marketplace sellers ? Why not for all levels who are eligible to sell in BHW ? I mean, in that case for example have it for all Jr.VIPs, irrespective of whether any Jr.VIP has a Marketplace thread or not (what I'm mentioning applies as a suggestion towards all levels who are eligible to sell in BHW).
Why not even have a short 1 minute video (live) recorded ID confirmation too (and BHW saves that for their records) ?

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IGKing said:

Hey,

For the upgraded marketplace that is getting rolled out soon, I think it should be standard procedure for all marketplace sellers to be fully ID verified before listing products for sale.

While payment and invoice billing can give some level of verification to the BHW staff, I think there should be a full-on ID process that can't be bypassed. I'm not saying that this information should be made public, but having this extra measure will definitely increase the legitimacy of the marketplace. I think this will remove a lot of the low-level, scammy BSTs that get opened. This improves the marketplace for buyers & sellers alike.

Some apps already have features like this. "Upload a 30 second video of you stating your name, your service, and country of origin" along with an upload of a government issued ID.

Complete anonymity shouldn't be a feature for marketplace sellers. BHW staff should know exactly who the seller is in case things get out of hand. In the past 24 hours, a marketplace seller on BHW (who has now been suspended) has threatened to dox me, "ruin" my business, send me fake reviews, burn my house down, destroy my reputation, and so on (all because I called them out for ripping off my brand's logo).

Just a thought. I think it would improve things.

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Diamond Damien said:

Interesting thread and some great and thoughtful comments. Let’s not forget we’re NOT dealing in absolutes here. To clarify some points:
If you don’t care about credentials then we’ll have an option for you. Conversely if you only want to buy from someone who’s ID has been verified by a thirdparty source (we’re not in the personal data business we’ll be using secure verified third-party data) then you’ll be able to filter to find such a seller.

We’d not expect buyers to be verified - however if a seller made that a requirement and didn’t want to sell to anyone that wasn’t verified then we could consider options here, providing both parties agreed to their personal credentials being verified. However we’d definitely not make it mandatory to BUY on the platform. The seller can, as in any case chose who they want to do business with. We’re providing verified data and choice for buyers and sellers alike.

The new marketplace will be about making choices available to buyers and sellers alike. It will grow and develop over time based on feedback like this we receive.

In short our direction = choice.

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Diamond Damien said:

Reading the rest of the post you can see we’re about letting people make choices. It’s down to personal choice there is no “weeding out”. It’s about letting people make decisions based on more data points along with the existing ones such as the information currently available under a members profile. If a seller or buyer decides not to provide those data points that’s fine. But if that’s important to a potential buyer, that buyer will be able to filter out buying from that seller.

Your concern about the use of personal data is absolutely valid. We’ll be using the same services used by some of the worlds top financial concerns. It’s something I personally and we as a company take very seriously and not a place to cut costs.

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Diamond Damien said:

I think we need to be clear on the difference between bank verified personal data and a username scrape and what sits in between. As per my previous post we have no interest in getting into the personal data space. It’ll come back verified or not based on criteria we set. Definitely not providing my passport data to linked-in , Facebook etc. Why would you? I think we’re talking at cross purposes here.

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Diamond Damien said:

Clarity for all. Escrow will be baked into the new marketplace.

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Diamond Damien said:

To catch the mouse you need to think like the cat. Instead of just running one aspect of the trade we’re looking at the entire process based on a lot of data. It’s undoubtedly a challenge but one we’re up for. Let’s not forget the target is to provide the buyer / seller with more choice. Not to become a personal data / finance company.
Thanks for your concerns, we look forward to delivering a product that will help in the decision making and buying process for all forum members on both sides of the transaction.

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MisterF said:

The thing is sellers can have staff manage their BSTs through the sellers accounts, so in this case, are the VAs also going to be vetted?

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