there kinda already is... it's called 'google'.
before entering into an agreement with people like this, a LOT can be gleaned by googling the:
- brokers name
- brokers company
- manufacturer and model of the equipment
- who's selling it
- if you can find pics/youtube of their shop (sometimes you can determine how well they care for their gear)
This!!!!
I have no clue sometimes why people are so stupid(remember I'm a TOTAL genieus). If there is a semi large customer that contacts us for a nice size order, someone at the shop googles them to check them out. That is mainly to see if there are other things we can offer them, but still, it takes 4min!
THIS! SO HARD THIS!
crap, after getting "burned" by one scammy customer early last year and having to deal with an angry guy he sent my way to divert attention from himself I have started googling pretty much every person who contacts who isn't a direct referral. Saved me a few headaches already this year. 95% of my business is word of mouth, and I always ask who referred someone or how they found me. If they say something like "I found you on google when searching for "xyz", I will run the same search and if I don't actually show up for that search I tread carefully. Too many fuckheads out there...
When buying equipment and other stuff on craigslist, I will google names/numbers/business names/addresses/etc until I am confident it is a real ad and to make sure the person doesnt have any red flags. I don't get why you would give money to someone up front without getting some sense of who they are first. Most people read reviews on Amazon when buying $20 crap, and most people do lots of research on a brand before buying equipment even when buying new from reputable companies (read yelp, contact shops that run that equipment, etc), why would someone not also do that on used stuff...
