Charles - I think you are making a good decision. If someone is dishonest, at least they won't be able to use your site to lure additional victims.

As others have mentioned, keeping a public list of bad traders can be problematic. However, while defendaning against a libel action can be costly, filing one is nearly impossible because lawyers know those cases are expensive losers, so they require the fees to be paid - no contingent fees (no "I get paid only if you win" arrangements).

I don't know why the holidays bring out so many bad debts, but even my eBay sales - which went a couple thousand transactions this year without a problem, got hit with 4 no-pays in the past month, and I have a couple more that are on the cusp.

Even if we can't send them to debtors' prison, we can at least take steps to protect our fellow traders