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Accepted Appeal: 76561198007026323 - (thevil1 / SR CAUTION)

Discussion in 'Archived Appeals' started by thevil1, Feb 1, 2016.

  1. thevil1

    thevil1 Caution on SteamRep

    Messages:
    24
    Steam:
    STEAM_0:1:23380297
    Appeal for SR CAUTION

    Steam profile: 76561198007026323 (thevil1)

    Appeal Plea: I committed the offense(s), I admit it
    Appeal Reason: [Policy Change] The offense is no longer applicable under current policies. [POLCH1]
    Victim Repayment: No, I committed no fraud or had no direct victims
    Previous Appeals: No, this is my first appeal here

    Alternate Accounts:
    76561198046088733​

    Appeal description:
    I received the SR caution tag at least 2 years, 910 days ago. It was from purchasing tf2 keys from one signal person over time and someone from SteamRep found that person to be doing credit card fraud. I was doing a lot of key buying/selling back then and I 100% did not suspect anything because I was buying from that guy constantly over months of time and the price was not suspicious to me. Basically, although I realize afterwards from the SteamRep personnel that I had been buying from a fraud person, I had zero intention of scamming or helping a scammer. Soon after I was marked as SR caution, I have not cash traded much because of that and because of college. The only reason I'm trying to get this wiped off is because my brother wants me to help him sell his stuff and I have not even tried to find new buyers (for months now) because of this mark and because I do not want to have to sell to low-rep people. Although it is only a caution tag, it affects my personal standards and possibly others and so it would be great if you guys can graciously remove it for me. People make mistakes and unintentional ones at that, I believe 910 days is a long enough length for 1 incident and mostly because I saw that you guys had the new policy changes.

    As for evidence, I do not have anything because it has been so long. Thanks again.​
  2. thevil1

    thevil1 Caution on SteamRep

    Messages:
    24
    Steam:
    STEAM_0:1:23380297
    Hi again, it's been another 3.5 years so trying to follow up on this appeal again. I admit that I committed the offense (though unintentionally) and promise to take more caution in the future so that I don't accidentally aid credit card fraud practices. It was unintentional because I just assumed that because of the currency conversion differences that it may have been cheaper for him to buy keys on his end and then sell them to me to make a profit. I was buying a lot of keys and reselling at the time and I bought from that one guy over months so it did not set off any alarms. And it was not like it was dirt cheap as to set off any fraudulent alerts in my mind. It was reasonable selling price in my mind. I feel like being marked as SR caution for 6 years is enough for an unintentional offense. I am a USA registered nurse and I can also say that I am an honest trader even since my younger days in other avenues such as card trading. My SourceOP and steamtrades https://www.steamtrades.com/user/76561198007026323 rep can also testify to that. I believe that I am of more help to the trading community if I am not marked as SR caution and can trade more freely and because I may want to use SourceOP again. Lastly, I think sometimes it takes a scammer to know a scammer's mind. I truly believed the guy I was trading with was just purchasing keys for cheaper than USA rate and so he was selling them to me. I had a trading buddy https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198075761692 who sells games for profit because he was able to purchase them for cheaper on his end. Therefore, I assumed it is a similar situation in other countries when it comes to steam in-game keys. I have a clear conscious still for this, because I did not commit the offense with indirect participation of fraud in mind.

    Thanks for your time and work.
  3. You Are The One

    You Are The One SteamRep Admin

    Messages:
    83
    Steam:
    STEAM_0:1:41038663
    The policy change does not apply if you are working with the scammers to sell stolen items, based on your numerous warnings by many different community admins and at least one posting in a report here on SR show you are not as clueless as you claimed to be when dealing with such users it is definitely not worth dismissing outright due to the revised TWS policy.
  4. thevil1

    thevil1 Caution on SteamRep

    Messages:
    24
    Steam:
    STEAM_0:1:23380297
    Okay, I respect your decision.
  5. You Are The One

    You Are The One SteamRep Admin

    Messages:
    83
    Steam:
    STEAM_0:1:41038663
    Can you explain your relationship at the time with the users you bought the items from to resell? How you met, how you communicated, how you were paid, how often you dealt with them and why after no less then five warnings and a post here on SR by you, proving you knew better, you still decided to work with said users?
  6. thevil1

    thevil1 Caution on SteamRep

    Messages:
    24
    Steam:
    STEAM_0:1:23380297
    It’s been quite a few years so I can answer to the best of my memory. I was a small marginal trader/ merchant in TF2 items at the time. It’s what I do in many games such as maple story (although not for cash) and selling yugioh cards on eBay. I do not know the sellers personally. I just used sourceop and the other threads to find buyers and sellers and so people just add me to trade via PayPal. I check their SteamRep and rep threads if any before I trade with them and the said scammer was not marked nor was the price suspicious as I will still attest to the best of my memory. I assumed, though now I know it was a wrong assumption in terms of key prices (possibly), that certain countries are allowed to buy games and keys for cheaper. Never in my mind did credit card fraud come across even as a slight idea because I was not aware of such methods since I was probably a freshman in college or something. I confess that I was ignorant of credit card fraud (to the best of my memory recollection) and you have your own opinion and I respect your judgment but I know my conscious that I did not work with these users on purpose for aiding them in fraud. You mentioned warnings up there but tbh it’s been so long that I can only recall the incident that got me marked as caution. I stopped trading after the mark. In addition, I just want to make it clear that it is not as if I go out and seek out these scammers to trade with. I try to be careful to make sure they did not scam from other people through checking SteamRep. But obviously as it stands, I ended up trading with said people unintentionally. I have done a lot of trading in my teenage life as I said and credit card fraud is not something that I see in eBay and games like maple story directly so again I will attest to my statement here. You can not believe it and that’s why I just said I respect your judgment, I think it’s a fair decision.
  7. You Are The One

    You Are The One SteamRep Admin

    Messages:
    83
    Steam:
    STEAM_0:1:41038663
    In the spirit of our revised policy on trading with scammers, and not because you are innocent or I believe you, I am going to grant this appeal. The circumstances under which you were tagged, numerous interventions by community admins to your shady dealings and your above statements to the same effect suggest you knew exactly what you were doing, and did so willfully, which would normally earn you a tag. Because the evidence standards at the time were not as stringent as they are now, I cannot prove this conclusively to justify the tag or upgrade it to a banned tag as I think it should be, so I am granting you a one-time downgrade/removal. If you are caught brokering or knowingly working with scammers in any capacity in the future, or if we find out you lied at all, you will not be given the same revised TWS leniency and be slapped with a fresh tag. You have wholly run out of excuses.

    Despite your appeal being granted, communities are free to exclude anyone and for any reason they see fit, I hope they have a hard look at your past before considering you.

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