unpopular opinion: most of what gets said here about group buy is guesswork
unpopular opinion: most of what gets said here about group buy is guesswork — a position I have arrived at slowly and would like tested. The directory deliberately separates "we have nothing on this name" from "this went badly". Collapsing the two is how boards like this generate false certainty. Nearly paid a cloned…
Group buys concentrate custody, payment and communication in one person with no structure behind it. That is not an accusation about anyone — it is a description of the risk shape.
The site had a decade of testimonials and a domain registered in March. That was the entire investigation.
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Do you have anything in writing from before the payment?
screenshots are not evidence, dates and documents are
Is this a shop, a group buy, or an individual reseller? They fail in different ways.
I would separate the two claims. The site being newly registered is checkable. The motive you are inferring is not.
Right, and the group-buy structure is the underrated risk here. One person holds everything and there is no recourse designed in.
Cosigning the domain check. Character by character, every time, and paste it rather than typing it.
a domain registered last month with a decade of testimonials is the whole tell
That is a report count, not a test count, and it changes how thin the evidence base actually is.