Rejected Appeal: 76561198046813091 - (Hot Potato / BANNED BY SOP)

Appeal for BANNED BY SOP

Steam profile: 76561198046813091 (Hot Potato)

Appeal Plea: I committed the offense(s), I admit it
Appeal Reason: [Change of Heart] I will never scam again.

Victim Repayment: No, I committed no fraud or had no direct victims
Previous Appeals: No, this is my first appeal here​

Alternate Accounts:

I do have an alternate account currently which I use as a secondary dota and rust account. I have never traded on this account, and nor do I intend to.​

Appeal description:

I'm very aware of the case I committed and what it was that I did wrong. The ban was given roughly around 3 years ago, after I met someone who was selling an unusual hat on tf2, and I tried to scam them of it, fortunately nothing further occurred and no items were lost.

I have only started to appeal now, because I clearly understood the reasoning for my punishment, and looking back now, I know I deserved it, but now I wish to clear my name as I have become more active with PC Gaming and trading.

Since then, I have traded steam items successfully and have opened a rather successful gaming server, with no other cases occurring on my name, over the 3 years since I was banned. None the less, I have still felt the brunt of this ban whilst I have been trading with people. Simply all I could say in reply was, "I did commit that offence, and it was wrong, and I'd understand if you do not wish to trade with me."

Not only did the ban make trading hard for me, but it also had ruined my gaming experience, as I was unable to play on most TF2 servers, and more recently being banned from Dota2lounge which is a site I use more than any other site, due to their good trading and e-sports systems.

The main reason I wish to appeal now for my reputation to be rebuked, is because I feel I have proven my justice with gaining a positive trading reputation , as well as having no strikes on my name over the last 3 years. At the time I committed that scam I was wrong in thinking I could get away with what I did. I myself had been scammed in the past, and I guess I did what I did for 'revenge' for my own stupidity. But this all backfired, and here I am now 3 years later on my knees, simply over an in game virtual item.

So that's that. I do not have any evidence to prove I did not do what I did, but I pray you can forgive me for what I have done, and can give me a second chance, for I haven't even attempted to commit an offence over a LONG time, and nor do I wish to in the future.

My Regards
Ben (Hot Potato)

p.s I am afraid at the time of writing this appeal I am unable to access the sites forums which I was banned on, as they are currently down for maintenance, and nor can I show you the image of the scam submitted by the victim, as it has since been removed.
http://imageshack.us/f/10/paymenttosnow1.png/
The forum post which I was reported on is here I believe
forums.sourceop.com/archive/index.php/t-91323.html‎
I shan't hide it from you because facts are facts, and this is what I have had against my name for a long time now.​

In the victim repayment section. I would like to highlight, that I had committed what happened, but the victim wasn't harmed by e.g loosing items/money etc. I'm sorry that I misunderstood the question there. It should be that I did commit the fraud, my apologies.

Also, my apologies again. Here is my alternate steam account as proof of evidence http://steamcommunity.com/id/Zppz.

I would also like to say, that anyone who wishes to comment upon this can do so, for it was me who did this, and I am fully responsible for it. I will also do my best to show any information anyone also asks of me.

For it is the trading/gaming communities reputation of me I damaged, and I wish to at least 'try' make things up to everyone by doing what I can.

On a side note i feel it is worth mentioning, that it is very likely items of mine are currently in possession of the Dota2lounge bots. I don't mean to be disrespectful in saying this, but after using Dota2lounge for around 3 months, and now suddenly being banned without warning, has almost resulted in me being 'scammed' of my items, as I can no longer claim them back.

So today finally i got to see the sourceop thread which i was initially reported on and it was submitted on December 18th 2011. I would like to say in my defence, that yes I was on the servers he played on alot of the time as he stated, because I was TRADING, (i logged around 180 hours of tf2 in half a year or so, trading several buds, bills hats, and even an unusual for a copy of a skyrim key). I may be marked as a highest level scammer for the stupid thing I did and thats fair enough i admit i attempted a single scam, but I have never actually SCAMMED anyone of their items, or taken anything without their permission. He also stated that i deleted him right away, this isn't true as I remember him saying to me about the tread which he posted up on sourceop and why he was doing it. I even had the person on skype, and believe i still do if he hasn't deleted me now from all that time ago. I also know that it is not relevant to the case, but the user them self is also banned on that forum in the first place not everyone is perfect, even though he was a good man by doing what he did to me as he wished to 'protect the community'. In a funny sort of way im glad he did what he did, because I was in a dark place in terms of mental condition at the time, so what i thought was right was really far from right. By doing what he did, it refrained me from attempting to scam anyone else during that time. Furthermore to protest that i am now a changed man and that you can hopefully see that, i'm aiming to add the person who I scammed so if nothing further comes from this appeal, hopefully they can forgive me at least. Im also going to include a paypal screenshot for payment of services sent to me to prove i am not a SCAMMER (http://i.imgur.com/sIpHZFs.jpg)(sorry couldn't upload here, gave me an error after re uploading). I have obviously blanked out their name for their own privacy.
Here is also my steam group http://steamcommunity.com/groups/HPGSUK incase you dont believe me that i have payed out for the services the 8 people have paid for. I have seen people who have had their name cleared from being an honest person, and im trying my hardest to do this, but I dont know what else I can do any more . What i did was wrong, but i really want to get rid of my background, even if i was to just be listed as a caution i wouldn't mind, i just want a second chance. This will be my final post until it as looked at, sorry i have bumped it by doing so.
Regards Ben

Lol that's a simple way to go about things. Just sent the guy a friend request on steam and i see that he is already friends with some of you admins in particular Matti which i know because ive seen your how to appeal section ofc, and seen you posting on other peoples appeals . Please can you talk to him and ask him to add me if he wishes, or ask him about anything i have said, fair enough if he doesn't remember because even I am having a hard time remembering because it was obviously a long time ago, http://steamcommunity.com/id/Badrule/.

*correction, steam is giving me an error when trying to add him. I'm going to need to try again so that it fixes itself hopefully.