we had started to do something like that, i had installed a classified system that required a little bit more effort to use than just throwing up a post in a forum, but everyone had a shit fit over it and it was canned. Part of the reason for it was to help with this stuff.

We have some changes coming to the classifieds, but nothing that will stop scammers or thieves from using it. There is no checkbox we can put on something that says "click here if you are a thief or a scammer". You have to be cautious as a shared_user. Banning scammers doesn't help, they re-register and now they get to scam again because no one knows who they are.

Outside of turning the classifieds into a pay to use service, not much will be really effective in solving this. we aren't going to do that because it will kill the classifieds. If it was as Kaluwa mentioned above, about money, we'd turn that bitch into a pay to use in a heart beat, tons and tons of stuff gets posted, if we got a cut from each sale, or a small amount per thread, we'd make a stack of cash.

as it is, we like stuff free. Long as the serves are paid for, it;s all good. Part of the downside in getting a forum running really well is needing ever more larger servers to host it. We are good for a while though now i think.