[quote name='Damian']As I mentioned in a thread in Deals, I sent a PM to Cheapy about the Google Checkout issue. He asked me to post here to get everyone's thoughts before he makes a decision on it. Here's where we stand.
As a little background, although I'm sure most people are aware, Buy.com offers $10 off with a new Google Checkout account. This deal is offered to new users of GCO only, it's not for existing members.
Now for what's currently happening. The first part is that members are constantly posting GCO "deals" of $10 off some random item. That's fine, if a bit annoying and should probably be confined to its own thread. After all, most people are no longer eligible for the GCO deal. But that's minor compared to part two.
The second part is the "just create a new account" part of posting GCO deals. Constantly creating new accounts is fraud, you know you're not eligible for the deal but you get around it anyhow. We know that Google, at least, cares about this to some degree since members have reported receiving emails telling them if they continued doing it Google would close all of their accounts.
Even if we want to continue allowing GCO deals, we cannot continue to allow people to encourage fraud as a form of "deal". We don't allow people to post about contest cheating (like the Club Live thread) and we don't tolerate people who post about their Wal-Mart return fraud. Why should we tolerate posts advocating defrauding a company offering a deal? Don't forget, these deals often escape from here and this could become a reflection of CAG.
In my PM to Cheapy I asked him to take a position one way or another on this, since it causes contention every time it comes up. He needs more information to make his decision, so now it's your turn. Should CAG ban GCO fraud posts, or is this something I shouldn't care about?[/QUOTE]
I'm all for getting rid of the GCO threads and I am all for all fraudulent speak to be banned. I am talking about the GCO threads, Family Video $5 new customer coupon and how to fraud contests.
Flipping is a moral issue but fraud is a legal issue.
My reasons to get rid of the these sort of threads are; That fraud is illegal and it feeds the reputation that CAG is not a place to find deals but a place to scam for deals. On top of that having these type of threads are just asking for more trouble with subpoenas (and who wants that).
But forget all the other reasons. I would like them gone because it clogs up the forums with deals only con-artists* can take advantage of.
*
