1. There is no such thing as a "pending" ban or Steam admin. Anyone threatening your account is a scammer trying to scare you. Read more.

Suggestion for stopping scammers from making more scams

Discussion in 'SteamRep General Discussion' started by Sari, Apr 21, 2013.

  1. Sari

    Sari Helpful Member

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    Usually when there's a scammer, they'll try and scam as much people as they can before they're marked as a Steamrep scammer. By the time they're marked, they've probably scammed about 5-10 people (and before you complain, I'm not saying SR admins are slow at reviewing reports: I know what it must be like to have to check over 800 reports [if that's even the number]). When the victim checks the scammer's SR [before they're marked], they'll [usually] see that nothing is wrong with the scammer, but really, there's about 4 processing reports on the SR forums saying stuff like "I was scammed by this user via paypal." The victim won't notice this, and will get scammed. So I thought of a solution.

    If someone has a report on them that's ready for review/under investigation, there should be a small tag on their SR page showing that they are under investigation for scamming. This doesn't mean they should be marked as a scammer or given a caution tag yet, it should just be a message like: "This user is under investigation for apparent paypal scamming."

    So let's just say I paypal scam some guy [I would never do that]. After being scammed, the victim creates a report on me, and that report gets marked as ready for review. Even though the report isn't accepted yet and I'm not marked as a scammer yet, there should be a small notice saying that I'm under investigation (something like this: http://i.imgur.com/cLUgeE7.png please excuse my terrible MSpaint skills). That way, if I try and scam someone else by a paypal trade, the intended victim will check my SR, see the notice, and avoide trading with me at all cost.

    I think this would be a good heads up to traders that are unaware that there's a scammer on the loose.
  2. Burnt Waflles

    Burnt Waflles New User

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    Hmm. It would be extra work to set up a database to hold the info and automatically update it, or to have admins perform the task manually (ouch). Perhaps have the user submit the steamid in a simple form, send it to the database, and when the report is deemed legitimate by and admin (under review, etc) have the profile cross check the database and provide the "report pending" tag.

    It wouldn't be the most fun or easy thing to set up, but I do like the idea.
  3. DataStorm

    DataStorm Retired Staff

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    hmm, wont really work, forum and main site are on 2 different machines, different databases, also would be quite the conditionals. It has been suggested before, and I've talked it through with Mattie back then, but its too much work, and is too heavy for the system.

    I think a more prominent "search" button for current reports would be better.

    For now, the link under "Quick Tools", most right column under "Search Engine Queries" named "SR: 76561197xxxxxx" is the way to go.

    [​IMG]
    VenGanZa likes this.
  4. Burnt Waflles

    Burnt Waflles New User

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    Yeah a "search for pending reports" would be infinitely easier.
  5. Xenophobia

    Xenophobia Retired Staff

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    There should be a more prominent button on someone's profile where it says "Search for reports on this user". I think it would be much better than the quick tool button.
  6. VenGanZa

    VenGanZa User

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    Agree on more prominent search.

    SR Staff are over-worked and under-manned and that is unlikely to change soonfor many very valid reasons. Given reports can take quite a bit of time, such an informational tag could give rise to vexatious reports and it seems to me would be unfair on innocent traders wrongly reported also.
  7. gukingofheart

    gukingofheart New User

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    ^ I'm sure a mod could make the first decision on if the report looks completely fake or possibly scammed before making the first approval.
    If they're unsure, they could pass it on to have an admin process without any mark on their steam rep.

    It's just some scammers are so obvious and they continue to scam for a long time before things even get processed sadly
  8. Nathan Cash

    Nathan Cash New User

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    If a mod looked at it to make a first decision, why wouldn't they just mark them? It seems like a good idea but it may give honest people a bad rep because someone wrongly reported them. Anyways, the steamrep staff are all great and I am sure if a measure such as the one proposed is needed, they will be on it.