Guide XenForo marketplace: let members contact sellers without giving them "Start direct messages", and keep scammers out

[Gwendal]

Many boards with a marketplace switch off XenForo's Start direct messages permission for ordinary members: it is the main door for spam and unsolicited messages. The catch is that buyers then cannot reach a seller about a listing. This guide shows how to keep direct messages closed in general while letting buyers contact a seller from a listing, and how to slow down the fresh accounts that scammers create to exploit marketplaces.

The setup uses Classifieds, but the reasoning applies to any marketplace add-on: the contact permission should be scoped to the listing, not borrowed from XenForo's global one.

Step 1: keep direct messages closed​

In Admin CP > Groups & permissions > User groups > Registered, under Direct message permissions:

• Start direct messages: No. Members cannot open a conversation with anyone they like.
• Receive new direct messages: Yes. Sellers must be able to receive the buyer's message.

Step 2: open the marketplace door only​

In the same group, under the Classifieds permissions, set Contact sellers privately (works independently of Start conversations) to Yes. You can also restrict it per category, from that category's permissions in Admin CP > Classifieds > Marketplace > Categories; categories without their own rules follow the board-wide permissions.

From then on, the Contact seller button opens a direct message with that seller only, when all of these are true:

• the listing is still available, and its category allows contacting sellers for that member;
• the seller's account is neither disabled nor banned;
• the seller may receive direct messages;
• the seller's own privacy setting ("Send direct message to you") accepts a message from that member.

XenForo's Start direct messages permission is not consulted, so the member still cannot message anyone else. The conversation that Contact seller opens does not let the buyer invite other members into it either, which would otherwise be a way around the restriction. Offers made on a listing open their conversation under exactly the same rules.

Step 3: make new accounts wait​

Marketplace scams tend to come from accounts created the same day. In Admin CP > Options > Classifieds, set Wait before a new member may contact sellers (hours), for example 72. Then give Contact sellers without waiting to the groups you trust: paying members, verified sellers, long-standing members via a user group promotion. Staff who can approve listings are never held back.

A new member who would otherwise be allowed sees, in place of the form, how long is left:

New accounts have to wait before they can contact a seller. Hours left: 47.

It is a phrase, so you can reword it. Members who are not allowed to contact that seller anyway never see it, so nobody learns about a waiting period that does not concern them.

Step 4: warn buyers where it matters​

Safety notice on Contact seller, in the same options, has three choices: Off, On the contact form, or On the form and in the conversation. The notice tells members to keep the deal on your board and that your staff will never ask, through a listing message, to confirm an account, an email address, an identity or a payment. Like every text in the add-on, it is a phrase you can adapt.

Check it with a test account​

1. Register a fresh account in the Registered group.
2. Open someone else's available listing: you should see the waiting message, not the form.
3. Add the account to a group with Contact sellers without waiting: the form appears.
4. Send a message, then try to start a direct message from a member profile: it must still be refused.

Store page: Classifieds. Questions: the Classifieds forum, or a private ticket.