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Why is trading with marked scammers reportable?

Discussion in 'SteamRep General Discussion' started by JNeb900, Apr 26, 2015.

  1. JNeb900

    JNeb900 New User

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    My friend got marked for trading with a marked scammer. This made me think: If you can't trade with scammers, then anything in the scammer's backpack is now dangerous, cancerous you could call it. That means theres a bunch of items (and very possibly high-valued items) that will not be traded anymore.

    I can't see any reason why this is in place.




    Somewhat related, lets say a scammer had a key. He sells the key to someone, who sells it to someone else, etc.
    Eventually, I buy the key after 10 other people have had a history with it.

    Technically, someone could go report the first guy who bought it originally from the scammer. If that gets approved, then the next guy who bought it would have traded with a scammer.
    Someone could go down the whole history, and eventually report me for trading with a scammer, even though I had nothing to do with the scammer who had the same key 10 people before me.


    Thoughts?
  2. Roudydogg1

    Roudydogg1 SteamRep Admin Friend Community

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    @Xenophobia says it pretty nicely:

    Eoj Nawoh likes this.
  3. SilentReaper(SR)

    SilentReaper(SR) Retired Staff

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    also, there are minimum values and conditions on it.
  4. Lava

    Lava Public Relations SteamRep Admin

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    1. If he wasn't marked at the time you traded, and wasn't an obvious alt/mule/broker, then you're unlikely to get marked for it. We don't go through and retroactively expect people to recognize a scammer who wasn't marked yet. Just make sure you aren't trading with someone who's obviously an alt (brand new account, low hours, etc) or anything like that.
    2. First offense for trading with scammers is a warning if you didn't know (community admins or experienced traders may be held to a higher standard). So even if we did run through the item history like you described, the first person would get a warning with no tag, and the next one wouldn't get marked because they didn't trade with a scammer. If the first one (or later) is a mule who routinely works and supports scammers, he might get marked, then the next person may get a warning depending of when the mule got marked and how obvious it was.
    3. A key is below the minimum value to get marked for anyway. Even if you unknowingly traded for a single key, you won't get marked. Trade a bunch of keys with a marked scammer, either all at once or repeatedly over time, and that's another story. If in your scenario it's one key buried in about 20, nobody is going to hold that against you.
    Bottom line, don't trade or work with scammers. If it has a scammer in its history, that's not going to earn you a tag. You should be looking for signs of a scammer alt (including recent item history), but just because there's a scammer somewhere in the history doesn't mean you'll get marked for accepting it.
  5. Rag1hit

    Rag1hit New User

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    One of the problems with this is awareness. Not a lot of traders know how to check for item history like asking for a screenshot of a trade history or checking a persons account in SteamRep for pending cases or bad reputations. A lot of people even buy accounts or items unknowingly from accounts that are flagged for scamming or hijacking. And sad to say steam support isn't fast enough to check on all the reports regarding hijacked accounts.
  6. Penguin The Fluffy

    Penguin The Fluffy Articus Birdicus Defenderus Retired Staff

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    They should not be trading accounts to begin with as it violates Valve's TOS.