To the original question of a new rule about the 'gift' option, personally speaking no I don't think there should be one and I don't think there will be one.
Although we have the commerce section and transactions are advertised here, the deal itself be it a trade/buy or sell is made off the board so the board has no responsibility for payments etc.
I would NEVER recommend people to use the 'Gift' option as their form of payment cos if you use the gift option you have no protection/safety at all.
As for the other points raised. Ultimately it is up to the people involved to do thorough research on the person they may be dealing with. Check the FB thread, the iTrader and then do a search for the persons feedback (if they have any) as you may find that someone has many + transactions in their FB but when you search they are all for buying. So they may be a new seller. Back up your purchase with a CC wherever possible. Basically cover yourself as much as you can with every transaction!.
We have a membership of over 10K so unfortunately no matter what obstacles we put in their way some bad apples may get through, but if you cover yourself as much as you can, then you can get good use from the Commerce section as there are hundreds, maybe thousands of transactions that do go through here very successfully
I think peeps should re-acquaint themselves with the rules of the Forum every now and then just to make sure you know them:
RULES
1) The sale/trade section is only for active members of Sideshow Freaks. You must have at least 50 posts and be a board member in good standing for 3 months in order to create a For Sale thread. If you spam the boards trying to get to that 50 post count you will be permanently banned. After you have filled both these criteria please PM the admin to request access. If you receive an infraction at any time your sales privileges may be revoked or denied. If you have any questionable transactions your sales privileges my be revoked. If you're banned it will be at the discretion of the admin (Darklord Dave) as to whether your sales privileges are restored upon your return. But if you got banned, you pissed him off and he's not likely to want to do you any favors.
8) Attempting to bypass any of these rules will result in the revocation of "for sale" commerce area access.
This is right at the bottom of ther first quote (opening post) in the Commerce rules thread
Any scammers will be immediately banned permanently.
https://sideshowcollectors.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31116
So these Rules of revoking Sales access and banning scammers are already in play.
Once we know there is a problem, then action will be taken if a user is proven to have a problem or be a scammer.
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