Totally agree with you on that one john the paid areas does need closing. It's not like the good ole days when you could leave your door open without "mr sticky fingers" going for the grab and run aka run & grab by mr tickle from the mr men book series. Paid areas should be left for the professionals to run, simply not amateurs that lack both the experience and the motivation in dealing with issues when they arise.
Whenever there has been an instance of someone being scammed this needs to be delt with esp by the people who run and maintain the forum. But when there is a vast amount of scamming happening and it's not being delt with by introducing and implementing the right system then something has to give.
It's alright people jumping in saying "you should have done this" or "you deserve it for not reading or doing your homework" but untill it happens to them they can't really pass judgement.
Anyway, just my 2 pence worth.