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Somebody wrote me an email because he saw that my account-reputation on SU has risen much in the last month. He wants me to make an offer so he can buy it from me.

I am not sure if this is a serious request or a known scam? Where can I report this?

Can some mod please advise?

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  • I would just ignore it. Given the fact sending email is basically anonymous , its not clear what you want a moderator to do, I suggest you just delete the email.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Oct 16, 2015 at 11:06
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    @Ramhound Of course I will ignore it! But if it's a know scam I hope that others will be helped by exposing this. Also, maybe Moderators would maybe want to set the sender on a blacklist or something. I don't know, that's why I'm asking ...
    – KarmaEDV
    Commented Oct 16, 2015 at 11:13
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    Also out of curiosity, how much?
    – Journeyman Geek Mod
    Commented Oct 16, 2015 at 11:14
  • @KarmaEDV - How are they going to block the sender if they are anonymous? You were contacted outside Stackexchange website, your email, isn't public on this website ( hence the reason I say that ).
    – Ramhound
    Commented Oct 16, 2015 at 11:16
  • my handle is well know, there is a TLD with my handle. He contacted me directly on my professional e-mail on my website www.karmaedv.ch
    – KarmaEDV
    Commented Oct 16, 2015 at 11:21
  • Yes it's a known scam. There's even a mini business (if you can find it) where someone will create an account, get it to a few hundred reputation, then sell it to another person.
    – Seth
    Commented Oct 16, 2015 at 14:45

2 Answers 2

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ooh. This is a strange one.

IANAL but I suppose the terms of service would be the thing to look at here. I don't see anything explicitly talking about transferring an account but

Subscriber is solely responsible for any use of or action taken under Subscriber’s password and accepts full responsibility for all activity conducted through Subscriber’s account and agrees to and hereby releases the Network and Stack Exchange from any and all liability concerning such activity.

That said... well, it sounds fishy. No offence, but while it is a decent amount of reputation, you can make that much reputation in a few great days or a few good weeks.

There's no good reason to buy an account either. You're the real asset as far as your account goes. In theory I could start a new account tommorrow, use it, and catch up with myself in 6 years or so. So... this person is obviously not up to any good.

As for where to report it, well, unless someone is dumb enough to sell their account for a quick buck, basically any attempt to misuse it would result in the account getting suspended or deleted, and other such lovely things. I'll probably ask around, so keep that email in case a CM's interested, but at the moment, getting folk knowing that this happens is probably a good start.

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  • What is funny about this is even if somebody did sell an account, the moment the person changed, that new content submitted wouldn't be upvoted. Anyone willing to purchase a Stackexchange account for the reputation is a person who either cannot submit good quality on their own or has plans to use it for notorious purposes.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Oct 16, 2015 at 11:18
  • I know right? What does he want to do with an account with <1000 Reps? Yours would be much more interesting... muhaha I'll give you good price ;-) /jk
    – KarmaEDV
    Commented Oct 16, 2015 at 11:24
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    There have been reports of people trying to buy Stack Overflow accounts. Presumably this is so they can claim to have experience they don't actually have when applying for jobs etc. As far as I know, none have ever changed hands.
    – ChrisF
    Commented Oct 16, 2015 at 12:05
  • @KarmaEDV - As Doctor Evil once said "One million dollars".
    – Ramhound
    Commented Oct 16, 2015 at 13:13
  • Whar is this, the 80s? One Billion Dollars
    – Journeyman Geek Mod
    Commented Oct 16, 2015 at 13:31
  • @JourneymanGeek - My username was actually given to me in the 80's
    – Ramhound
    Commented Oct 16, 2015 at 14:12
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Given that:

  1. You login into Super User (and by extension the wider Stack Exchange network) via 3rd party authorisation tools
  2. Your Super User account is linked to other accounts you may have on the network.

This sounds like a really bad idea.

You have no way of disassociating your Super User account from the rest of your accounts. So if you handed over this account, you'd be handing over access to the rest of your accounts as well.

You'd have to somehow add the other persons authorisation to your account and then remove yours to complete the transfer. I've no idea how you can do this without one of you having access to the others' login on Facebook, Google or wherever - I'm sure you'll agree that this is probably a really bad idea.

Also user names on Super User are not unique. If they were after your name they could simply create a new account and use your name, so I would discount that as a reason for them wanting to get hold of your account. However, with a name like yours that's clearly not a persons name the moderators would be within their rights to remove the name as they are clearly trying to impersonate you. If someone used "my" name then I'd have no recourse. (If they used by image as well that would be a different matter of course).

So, in conclusion, I'd simply bin the e-mail and ignore any further communications from this person.

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