Reporting a message — and why we flag off-platform deals

If a listing, a message or the person behind it looks wrong — a scam, a fake, anything against the rules — report it. Every report is reviewed by a moderator.

How to report

Reports attach to a listing. From the listing where the problem appeared, choose to report it, then:

1. Pick a category.
2. Give a reason. Both are required.
3. Add a longer description if it helps — context makes a report far easier to act on.

If the problem showed up in a conversation, report the listing that conversation is attached to. Because every conversation belongs to a listing, that is the route.

What happens next

Your report is filed as pending and a moderator reviews it. You can see everything you have reported, and its current status, in your own submissions list.

When a moderator closes it you get one of two outcomes:

• Reviewed and action taken.
• Reviewed and closed without further action.

A few things to set expectations honestly:

• The person you reported is never told, and never learns who reported them.
• You will not see the moderator's notes or what was decided in detail. The outcome message is deliberately general. Those notes can name other people, quote other users or reference an ongoing investigation, so they are not shared — support cannot expand on them either.
• "Action has been taken" does not necessarily mean the listing was removed. The action may be something else entirely.
• There is no published turnaround time. If it has been a while, the report is still queued rather than lost.

Reporting is not blocking

Filing a report does not stop that person contacting you. If you want the messages to stop, block them as well — see Blocking and unblocking someone.

Reporting is not a dispute

If money is already in flight and a deal is going wrong, reporting is not the mechanism that will help — it does not move money. Open a dispute instead. See Opening a dispute and what happens next.

Use reporting for bad behaviour and bad listings. Use a dispute when a transaction has gone wrong.

Why off-platform deals get flagged

Messages that look like they are moving a deal off Silky Road — sharing an email address, a phone number, or pushing the conversation to another app — are flagged for review.

The message still sends. It is not blocked, and the other person still receives it. If you notice this happening, you have not been silently censored.

The reason for flagging is straightforward: a deal that leaves Silky Road leaves everything that protects you. Off-platform, there is no record of what was agreed, no dispute process, no report route, and nothing Silky Road can act on if it goes wrong.

This is also the single most common shape of a scam here. Watch for:

• Pressure to continue by email, phone or a messaging app, especially early on
• A request to pay to an address or account given to you in a message
• Someone claiming a payment is protected when it is happening outside the platform
• Urgency — a deadline that exists to stop you checking

If you see any of these, keep the conversation on Silky Road and report it. Wanting to swap documents is a legitimate reason people drift to email, but it is also the excuse a scammer will use, so treat the request itself with care rather than the person's explanation for it.