Archived Report: 76561198116325375 - ([None] No items)

Scam Report

Report Type: [Rep Fraud] Impersonation with intent to defraud
Virtual item type involved: [None] No items

Accused profile: 76561198116325375

Victim profile: 76561198025896078

What happened? Description:

Someone I knew from a very long time ago tried to pull off an admin impersonation scam. To what end, I'm not sure, since I never actually proceeded with the scam. However I do have evidence of the attempt. They claimed that they accidentally reported me instead of another person, and that they got in contact with a "Steam admin" who confirmed my account would be suspended, and that they'd need me to contact this admin "so that he can help you to avoid getting banned for mistakenly reported." (direct quote). I was supposed to add this "admin", but I never did, and ended up revealing my suspicions prematurely. In the end I tried swaying him over to my side in the hopes that he'd drop the act and reveal more information, but he didn't believe me, and ended up declining my friend request.. and blocked me on top, so here we are.​

Provide Evidence:

View attachment 756687 View attachment 756688

GIF Recording - proof that the logs weren't forged, and that this is indeed his profile. (Couldn't upload directly, since MP4 isn't supported, and the GIF was too large)
https://imgur.com/bNNoRfz​

[19:31]
B17zack:
Sorry to disturb you here kindly please give me time to talk I have something to tell you

[19:40]
B17zack:
If you noticed my message please reply this is so important

[20:55]
Shayna:
Oh hello. I was asleep, sorry. If I recall correctly, we used to play on Small Horse together, right?

[20:55]
B17zack:
yeah
I am here because I accidentally report you for doing illegal purchased instead of someone else the admin said your account will be suspended

[20:57]
Shayna:
It's been such long time, I wonder what's so important?
Huh?
What, on Steam?

[20:58]
B17zack:
I supposed to report a guy that was buying my items because i didn't get anything from him on the steam market and I thought it was you since you have the same profile I think he is impersonating you

[20:59]
Shayna:
Huh? Do you know his name or a link to his profile? That's kind of weird that someone would impersonate me, I sold all of my expensive CS:GO skins.

[20:59]
B17zack:
Can you help me fix this right now before you might get banned on steam

[21:02]
Shayna:
Uh, sure, do you have a name or link to the impersonators profile?

[21:02]
B17zack:
I didn't mean to report you bro can you please help me to explain to him?
he blocked me hours ago.

[21:03]
Shayna:
The impersonator? Send me a link to his profile, if you have it

[21:03]
B17zack:
i cant search the impersonator already i guess he might be change his name.
Im sorry for this trouble i accidentally report you for mistakenly

[21:05]
Shayna:
You mentioned an admin. The only line of communication to an admin would be through a Steam support ticket, not a profile report. I assume you made such a ticket? If so, could you send me the link to it?
I doubt an admin would ban me when I haven't traded with you once in my life, and haven't traded for a long time. There isn't anything in my trade history that supports the report you made.

[21:06]
B17zack:
Yes so that he can help you to avoid getting banned for mistakenly reported.
Thats why i am asked for your help so that you avoid to getting banned since it was a mistake to reported you

[21:09]
Shayna:
How long ago was this? When did he block you?

[21:10]
B17zack:
i didn't realize and just saw blocked me already
Can you contact this admin
Steam Community :: Mr.ShinGara(Official
⠀⠀ Valve ⠀%7C⠀ Steamworks ⠀%7C⠀ Security ⠀%7C⠀ Services
https://steamcommunity.com/id/ShinOfficial003/

Once he accepted you explain it to him that i accidentally reported you
just let me know if you contact the Admin and wait for his response

[21:19]
Shayna:
Alright come on, there are holes everywhere in this little scam. How about you let me in on this, and I promise not to tell anyone

[21:20]
B17zack:
what are you talking all about

[21:20]
Shayna:
How were you planning on ending this? I don't see how it's profitable, maybe a Steam account hijack? I'm not sure.
Oh? Either you're playing dumb, or you got tricked. If you're playing dumb, don't worry, I really don't care that you're doing this, if anything I'm interested.

[21:21]
B17zack:
I just want to help you to avoid getting banned for accident report

[21:21]
Shayna:
Okay, let me show you the holes
Firstly, community admins don't operate through Steam profiles. They operate through Steam support. There is no real admin alive that would ever provide support through a Steam chat. Plus, if they were an admin they should at the very least have a Valve employee badge on their profile. Besides, it makes no sense that an admin would confirm that my account would be suspended when there are no trade records to support the evidence. Also, how do you accidentally open a Steam ticket, go to my profile, copy the URL, paste it in the ticket, and write a description of how I supposedly scammed you?
If you're the one behind this, you have to get better at your game, this story has too many holes.
But I wonder what you gain out of this, since I never actually added the account and proceeded. Would your admin account try to fish for Steam credentials, or some kind of financial gain?
I don't see where this would go from here. But like I said, I don't care that you're doing this, if anything I'm interested. I promise not to report you, chill
I mean, there also wouldn't be any reason for anyone to impersonate me, since I haven't had anything of value for at least two years now, and my account is private, so there's no way to know whether I have something worth impersonating, or even how to impersonate it. Plus, someone with my profile picture? That profile picture is the most obscure profile picture you could find. It's not even listed on Google images, it's from a website dedicated to Serial Experiments Lain - an anime that practically nobody has heard about. I doubt anyone just happen to have this exact profile picture, especially since I'm the one who created it based on a still frame of a gif.
So, you can drop the act now, I won't tell anyone
Unless you're the one who actually got tricked here by someone else, and you're falling into their scam?

[21:36]
Shayna:
Oh come on, did you remove me?
I said I don't have a problem with it.
Could have even helped you.
You're not the only one who does this kind of s✿✿✿
Here, I'll send you a request, in case you change your mind. I could help you fabricate a much better story.

Sorry, accused is both plural and singular, so I misunderstood and just placed both accounts. I suppose it is kind of suspicious, but I never really considered the possibility of the account being hijacked. It's not out of the ordinary for people I've met a long time ago to come back completely different years later. In fact I assume that's why he picked me, since we don't have a strong relationship or anything that would make him care about me, but we do however have a brief history which makes us somewhat friends, and that would increase the probability that I'd believe his story about trying to help me prevent my account being suspended, not just because we were friends, but because he actually has a motive as a friend to care about my account, compared to just a random account.

Though, in the time that I could see his friends-only profile, I did notice 12 hours on record playing CS:GO, and while I don't know him very well, he was primarily a Garry's Mod player. It's strange that he suddenly started playing CS:GO in the same timeframe that this scam was attempted. I was going to open a ticket anyway, but now I'm not sure if he's the victim of a hijack, or if he genuinely attempted to impersonate an admin. If I give evidence of admin impersonation to Valve, but don't give evidence of a hijacking, they'll probably end up (wrongfully, or maybe rightfully?) banning him. This is kind of tricky, since I'd rather not see him punished for a crime he didn't commit, but there isn't a direct way of knowing if his account was hijacked.

I just opened a Steam support ticket just now, which you can view below.
I'll update the thread as soon as I get a response from Valve about this, thank you for your time and effort

Hi again, he messaged me after adding me back, and confirmed that his account was indeed hijacked. Seems like you were right about this. He should be replying to the thread pretty soon confirming it himself, and answering any questions you may have, if any. Thanks for the continued effort. From what he told me so far, it seems like another account under the name "Freedom" actually initiated all of this when my friend was told to add the "ShinGara" account (that recently got community banned btw), by Freedom. Though, when I checked SteamID, I found that "ShinGara" actually used to have the alias "Freedom" a long time ago so I suspect it's just an alternate account of the hijacker. Since B17Zack's account was set to friends-only during the whole hijacking, there is no recorded historical friendship for ShinGara or this Freedom guy, on SteamID, so I don't have a link to the second profile, just ShinGara, which Valve seems to have already banned. If I can get a link to the second profile, I'll post it. You should be hearing from B17Zack pretty soon though, so he should be able to provide additional details. Thanks again

so fedora here impersonated my account and also hijacked it and tried to scam my friends as well

im not accusing fedora im accusing freedom/shin

well okay https://steamcommunity.com/id/USMCzack/ here

that's my account i recovered i had to recover it myself i found a way from a helpful video also my friend darkmoonz was wrongfully banned and her sister blames me for banning her even though i never did it

well i hit the button i can't sign in and then i hit my account has been stolen/hijacked i put in my email and yeah i wish i recorded on how i recovered it but i don't have video proof how i got it back i just figured it out from a youtube video

im afraid i forgot the name of the video i saw also can you unban my friends that have been wrongfully banned https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198274762945 this account got wrongfully banned

i am the true owner of this account and why did valve ban her? she did nothing wrong i think valve must be corrupted cuz my friend didn't deserve to be banned

idk how to submit a ticket and shin/freedon has been banned and the support tickets don't really help so i got my account back on my own okay idk what option i should pick to submit a ticket