The USL

Getting Started with The Universal Scammer List

If you represent a community on Reddit that primarily deals with Buy/Sell/Trade transactions and are interested in increasing security and removing scammers, read on!

The Universal Scammer List (USL) is the system supporting a collection of subreddits who agree to work together to limit the impact that those who have scammed or have shown the intention to scam can have on community members. By participating in the USL, you can both benefit from and contribute back to the system.

Getting Bans from the USL

The most important type of access for all communities is "Read" access. This will enable your community to read bans from the system and have them be automatically applied to your community. For example, if someone is banned from r/FunkoSwap for being a scammer, that user will also be banned on your community as well. This prevents them from jumping ship and scamming in your community, protecting your community members along the way.

Getting read permissions is simple. Because your community does not contribute back to the USL in Read mode, there are no qualifications to join. The sections below will describe the steps you must take to join.

Writing Bans to the USL

In order to contribute back to the USL, you'll need to have "write" permissions within the system. Because labeling users as scammers is serious business, there are tighter requirements to join the USL with write permissions. The sections below will cover how to get write access.

If you are accepted to the USL with write permissions, please review the About page for more information on how to use the USL.

Getting Access to the USL

If you wish to have read only access to the USL, please verify your sub meets the minimum requirements:

• Your sub has existed for at least 3 months.
• Your sub has had an average of one post per day for the last 3 months.

Then click this link to send a message to the USL admins indicating as such.

If you would like to be considered for read AND write access, please verify your sub meets the minimum requirements:

• Your sub has over 5,000 subscribers.
• Your sub has existed for at least 6 months.
• Your sub has had an average of one post per day for the last 3 months.

Then click this link to send a message to the USL admins and answer the following questions:

• Joining the universal scammer list means you agree to use the **ban note** in a *consistent* way. The ban note is the moderator-only viewable message that is visible on the ban page. Has your subreddit previously used a pound symbol / hashtag (#) in the ban note as an indicator of why the ban occured? If so, give some examples:
• What benefits will your sub gain from being a part of the Universal Scammer List?
• Does your subreddit want to be in read-only mode, write-only mode, or read/write mode. Read/write is the standard option.
• What tags do you want to follow (see usage guide)? These refer to types on users which you do not want to allow to participate on your subreddit. This must include at least 1 tag. Examples include scammer and sketchy.
• Does your subreddit already follow, or plan on following, any type of tag system that does not fit with the existing tags? If so, list all of the tags, how they are being used, and if you would like to submit them as official tags for other members of the universal scammer list to use.
• Do you represent any other subreddits which could benefit from being included in the USL? If so, please list them here but also file a separate application for each subreddit.
• We invite at least one moderator of each participating subreddit to become a moderator of r/UniversalScammerList. Please discuss among yourselves who you'd like this to be and include their name here.

After we process your response, a reply will be sent indicating your status with the USL.

After You Get USL Access

If you are granted read and/or write access to the USL, a new USL bot account will be created specifically for your subreddit. Please add that account as a moderator to your subreddit with the following permissions:

• Manage Users
• Manage Mod Mail
• Manage Wiki Pages

Of course, you're welcome to give more permissions to the bot, but these are the minimum it needs to operate correctly. Once you've added the bot with the proper permissions, it will start working on your sub, applying bans as they come in.

Subscribing to Tags

The default setting is for any community to be subscribed to the #scammer tag. If you wish to subscribe to more tags, please read the "Subscribing to New Tags" section of the About page for more information.