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.

Bought from a scammer by mistake

Discussion in 'SteamRep General Discussion' started by xEMiiCAL, May 19, 2013.

  1. xEMiiCAL

    xEMiiCAL New User

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    I was dumb enough to buy 2 unusuals from this guy http://backpack.tf/profiles/76561198087824832 ...

    He added me and said that he added me about my trade on outpost in which I'm buying quicksells. I checked his Steamrep and it was clean. Since he didnt had a outpost account i thought he would be a scammer for sure.
    But I checked his bp.tf and saw that he had very much stuff like vintages geniues and unusuals... I checked the history of the unusuals and there was just 1 or 2 guys and none of them was marked as a scammer...so i thought he would be just some guy who enjoys to play the game, doesnt want the 2 unusuals anymore and doesnt care about money. I saw some easy profit and was kinda in a hurry so i bought it from him ...


    I really thought it was just some guy who enjoys playing the game since i trading with many guys who have a similar bp and doesnt even have a outpost account. for example this guy http://backpack.tf/id/76561197970767702 ( i traded some unusuals to him).
    It was my first time that something like this happend and I feel really bad becouse I really love trading and i dont want to get banned.
    I normally always check everything to evade trading with scammers but this time I was dumb enough to buy his stuff. Will I get banned now ?

    Thanks for your time.
  2. Hitman Sparky

    Hitman Sparky User

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    There is a thread below this asking the same question. If you really didn't know he was a scammer, I don't think you'll get tagged for that. The only way you'll really get tagged for that is if you know he's a scammer and traded with him intentionally.
  3. VenGanZa

    VenGanZa User

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    The person you list is not tagged, however he only has five friends listed currently, and appears to have several new effect unusuals, so that along with other minor things would ring some warning bells in my ear. You have three years Steam, and if you are much of a trader, I would presume you looking for tell-tale signs as well.

    You are more likely to win the lottery twice in a row than get into any trouble with SR, the person involved in not tagged and the fact you are posting here indicates you did not intentionally set out to trade with any scammer.

    You say you normally check everything, this is very good practice. Remember it is not just an SR tag that we need to worry about in this game, Valve very often will trade-lock accounts that they investigate as part of Steam Support tickets, and the last thing anyone wants it to be closed-down, even temporarily by being caught in the net when they are looking at someone else.

    It is not practical for us to check each and every trade we make. For example I do not check someone if they are buying a craft hat from me, but for high value items I strongly recommend always taking some time to check SR + closely examine profile data. Things like join date, how many paid for games someone has, number of friends, does inventory appear to be normal for someone who been on steam for XXX months etc.

    The SR policy which deals with trading with marked players is very fair minded actually. SR really only marks for repeat offenders and blatant trades, I am not SR, but I have been involved in reporting many such instances and from experience I can assure you SR only warns or tags when it is justified beyond all doubt.
  4. xEMiiCAL

    xEMiiCAL New User

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    I think I really am a experienced trader and when I look back at this trade i just feel dumb. If i had not been in a hurry I would have never accepted this trade. As I said I usually check all the ppl in the history and check if he has any banns or open steamrep reports but I traded when I was really busy(what i'll never do again) and had like 3 ppl at the same time who wanted to trade me and I needed to go soon... so i just checked the history of the unusuals and there where no scammer in the history and it said that the previous owner had it 4 months ago so i thought it would be legit. I really didnt meant to trade with a scammer...
  5. Rico Lambrini

    Rico Lambrini New User

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    what get ppl community ban, many of them are like that before the steamrep tag.

    but why is he not tagged? sometimes i think they get their friend to 'hijacked' their acc, sell and spilt, then ask steam to restore bp
  6. VenGanZa

    VenGanZa User

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    Yes it occurs, Steam Support doesn't have the manpower to completely stop it, sadly.
  7. DataStorm

    DataStorm Retired Staff

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    they don't need the manpower, just a program to undo all trades regarding hijacked items, no matter how many moved through. Reverse any items that where traded for those as well.

    that'll stop the hijacked goods, and ppl will think twice on getting goods that are hijacked. They'd avoid them like the plague.

    Also, that ends the issue of duplicated items.
  8. VenGanZa

    VenGanZa User

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    Agree DS, I suspect they do not want to occur the wrath of all those intermediaries who might have bought in good faith, wish they would however.
  9. DataStorm

    DataStorm Retired Staff

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    I'd change the TOS, tell 'm they are a POS and that they have a LOS(s).
  10. VenGanZa

    VenGanZa User

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    Yeah, well they have had the ability to reverse trades for a while now. I wish they would just use it :)
  11. Dr. Gilderoy

    Dr. Gilderoy New User

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    One of my friends got scammed by that guy, says he looked clean and "middleman", he was selling his Cloudy Moon Larrikin Robin for money, and well, the usual went first scam. He really needed that money... I told him to write a report, but he seems too sad or something. Hopefully I'll be able to get that hat back.
  12. xEMiiCAL

    xEMiiCAL New User

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    Do they ever use this programm to reverse trades ? Becouse I dont wanna get tradebanned just becouse I was dumb enough and didnt check everything this time. I have traded myself up to a backpack worth over 1k dollar and this would be a lot of money for me...
    Is there anything I can do to avoid getting tradebanned ? I mean they can just check my tradehistory and they would see that I payed buds for the unusuals... Cant they just give me back the buds if I trade the unusuals back to the hijacked guys ?
  13. ForteSP

    ForteSP New User

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    they don't care to and don't believe trade history anyway. They banned me for "trafficking and laundering" I took 22 screenshots my entire trade history for a 1-2 month span, told them to look at it, confirm it themselves, check my trade history themselves, they still refuse to help me even though it's obvious I did nothing wrong.
  14. xEMiiCAL

    xEMiiCAL New User

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    Are you getting tradebanned permanently by valve ?
  15. DataStorm

    DataStorm Retired Staff

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    they do, but only limited, but I'm not aware on exact number of hops or type of trades they will revert. What I've seen suggests that they do all empty trades up to the time one trades for items for it, or say a specific number of in between traders (say 5 or 10 or w/e). As we cannot find out exactly, and they are not telling, all we can say is that they do so up to a unknown defined point.

    Trade bans from valve vary from Permanent to some minimal of ~2 months. I don't know how long the trade probation stays after that (if not permanent trade ban that is), I'd guess 6 weeks or 2 months or about that.
  16. Rico Lambrini

    Rico Lambrini New User

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    well, they should put the warning message up even if they rarely do it. i.e. hijacked items can be trade reverted or deleted.

    it will be sufficient.