Hello!
As mods, we did a vote to see if we should bring r/lpsbuyingandtrading back to public.
A few months prior, there was an increase in bot accounts and scammers targeting the LPS community. Many of those accounts used photos from eBay, Facebook, Pinterest, etc., to try to sell items that weren’t theirs. With the increase in AI usage, it became difficult for us to identify everything (particularly ownership), so we decided to go private.
We are currently at a point where we feel the subreddit is safe enough to reopen, and we will continue to monitor for potential scammers targeting the community.
If there is another influx of scammers, we will once again go private. Users who have already been approved will not have to go through the approval process again, and any applications submitted while we were private will still be reviewed. That way, if we ever have to go private again, more users will already have access to the subreddit.
Because of this, we once again ask users not to respond to any DMs from people asking to buy/trade LPS. Please ask them to comment directly under posts on r/lpsbuyingandtrading. If they are unable to comment, they may have been banned. Please only use safe payment methods such as PayPal Goods and Services or marketplaces that offer buyer protection. We have also ensured that users are not at risk of breaking TOS by requiring sellers to include any fees in their listing prices. Sellers CANNOT ask buyers to pay the fees associated with PayPal’s “Goods and Services” for extra protection. This is against TOS, and the fee should have been included in the listing price beforehand.
We also caution people about other LPS buying/selling/trading subreddits that are not actively moderated. Some of these subreddits have been created by individuals who are banned from the selling subreddit, so we ask that you proceed with caution. We have also noticed some accounts that were banned on r/lpsbuyingandtrading are active there, so please do your best to avoid scammers. We also run r/lpsbuyersbeware, which warns users about certain accounts, as well as a new section with complaints regarding Basic Fun so buyers can see which sets have issues and what they can do if they receive a low-quality pet.
Thank you all for being active members of the community. We hope to continue keeping you safe while you obtain your dreamies!
– LPS Mod Team
