Fake rep on steam profiles!

I just finished marking 28 accounts with SR Caution for fake repping this guy:

|steamID: Alon Berger
|steamID32: STEAM_0:0:58516140
|steamID64: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198077298008
|customURL:
|steamrepURL: http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198077298008


I did see a bunch of other reps on the accounts I marked, more possible fake rep there, for those are alts, or friended other scammer's alts or w/e.

There may be 1 or 2 genuine rep on there, but its impossible to discern them from the fake ones. That goes for any rep anywhere on any steam profile.

Really, why people value rep on steam profile... steam profile rep is to me a sign that you are going to be scammed.

STOP USING STEAM PROFILES FOR REP.

http://files.steamrep.com/1/2012-12/2012-12-07_00-32-16.png
http://files.steamrep.com/1/2012-12/2012-12-07_00-32-53.png

The accounts I did:
http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198018855675
http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198074987546
http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198047814495
http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198041675010
http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198064931998
http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198009828836
http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198072172423
http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198045810003
http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198007710315
http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561197969527802
http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198075815969
http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198054211248
http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198018326453
http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198059057103
http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198063813813
http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198071378169
http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198066014651
http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198075001128
http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198004262396
http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198001188795
http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198056648004
http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198005900927
http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198034251493
http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198029378531
http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198009669837
http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198059948565
http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198011436007
http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198000164729

Now, what constitutes real rep: http://forums.steamrep.com/threads/what-constitutes-reputation.12391/

Where can you put the rep?
You can create a rep thread on one of the communities, while they are maybe a bit harder to use, you wont be faked for they keep additional rules on them. The usage of alts on them is harder.

lol, on forums, we use the "like" crap. I proposed to rename it to "fake rep" but it didn't get the votes needed.

Another example: http://forums.steamrep.com/threads/subject-76561198077720005-aceofspades-dasbones-sogeking.16101/

What is this? If someone gets marked as a scammer, suddenly everyone he has traded with is a scammer too?
I did a completely legit trade with him, and I can provide screenshot of paypal + inv history.
I don't know if this is the right place for it, but here it is:
http://kepfeltoltes.hu/121208/alonberger_paypal_www.kepfeltoltes.hu_.jpg
http://kepfeltoltes.hu/121208/alonberger_inv_history_www.kepfeltoltes.hu_.jpg

http://files.steamrep.com/1/2012-12/2012-12-07_00-32-16.png

If you look at that.... and then know that he was offline for 8 hours at that time...

You can make an appeal, as I said above, there is no way to discern real trades from the fake ones.

What are you talking about? I posted the rep on his profile like a minute after we traded, what do you mean he was offline?
Check out this if you don't believe me: http://kepfeltoltes.hu/121208/dates_www.kepfeltoltes.hu_.jpg

And I didn't even know he was a scammer at the time, he just got marked recently.
What was I supposed to do? I checked him on steamrep, he was clean and he was willing to go first so I traded with him. We didn't have any problems, so I posted rep on his profile afterwards.
Later, it turns out he scammed someone and now I'm a scammer too? How is any of this my fault?

And the fault... well, as soon as I saw a couple who where repping him, to me the alarms went off, only then I went thru every "rep". As you might notice there is quite a few of 9 scammers in the list who repped him.

That doesn't really help me... There might be 9 scammers on his list, but you were quick to mark everybody else too...
So, for example, if I suddenly scammed someone, the 100+ people who commented on my profile would be flagged as scammers too? Nice logic you got there.
Are we still in medieval ages where people had to defend their innocence , rather than the court having to prove he's guilty?

I mean, just look at all the screenshots I posted, what else do you need?

A formal Appeal, not a discussion thread.

All right, thanks for nothing

Comments on a profile page are just that "Comments", and it is a great pity that anyone puts any faith in any of it for the purposes of gauging if someone is reputable or not

Funny how you guys think steam comments mean nothing, but at the same time I get flagged for one.

Not so funny, for we are aware that users see that as a form of rep, while we don't (any negative comments can be deleted by the owner of the account, so its moderated by the owner, with a single side being shown). We've always kept the policy that any fake rep is punishable, be it on steam profiles or on one of the Associate Community's forums/sites.

I decided on a Caution Tag for the above because there may be real rep between the fake. Normal is a Scammer tag for it.

You can make an appeal in the appeal sub forum, and I'll look it over. Discussion threads are not for that purpose.

i can see how the +rep on profile page is difficult to use as a liable source of reputation, but by looking at the user's trade history it makes telling true from fake apart pretty easy. Like if they have a "+REP" for no reason at all with no trade history with that person at all.. lol obvious fake, where as the user sold someone a craft hat for 1.22 ref and out of thanks the buyer posted "+rep nice guy great price" or something similar it obvious it wasn't fake rep. I never personally suggest +REP from anyone i trade with unless they gave me a good offer or were just really a nice person to trade with, such as very polite, or noticed you are going to overpay and says something instead of just taking your items/metal/keys. I also never ask for rep, only ever comply when someone asks for it and was a decent person to trade with in the first place. So you can't completely rule out rep via steam user profile, if you really wanna see if its fake or not it just takes a few minutes of research and looking in their trade history to see whats real and whats probably fake. More people use the "+REP" via steam user profile as opposed to the outpost <3 or other means of doing a +rep simply because your already right there on the persons page, the trade is over and you don't really want to go back to outpost to their page just to click the little <3 so you write a nice little +rep note on their wall instead. if anything its easier to spam the <3 on outpost because you don't get to see who +<3'd them so anyone can just pointlessly go <3 other people for no reason at all or via alts and such to make it seem they have a lot of +<3. If you look at it like that saying "+rep" on someones wall is more reputable then anything else because you can see the name of the user posting, and then see the trade history to confirm they actually did business with them making it much more reliable for bigger trades, and if there is no history then obviously something fishy is going on. Sorry for the novel of a post i just wrote, i just think that we need to look at this in different views so i figured id support the "+rep" system and show my reason as to why.

Well, i don't just look at this as a "one case", and do agree with Almier.
you guys have a huge impact on the trading community, and tagging people with "caution" because they made a legit trade with someone who (later) got tagged as scammer doesn't seem to be a fair way of work.
I am quite new to steamref forums, but this is the second one in a short amount of time i've seen being tagged because he made a perfectly valid trade with what (afterward) apears to be a scammer. Agreed, they can fill in an appeal form, and then wait, wait, wait, wait... Untill someone removes their (obvious unneeded) tag.
I always thought this system was one who only tags people when enough evidence is delivered...

What? Forgive me, but saying that "steam profile rep is to me a sign that you are going to be scammed" is waaaay out of line. You're saying that just because people like to comment on my wall means that I'm automatically questionable? You expect me to go on and delete almost 400 comments because some guy posted some comment on some other guys wall that wasn't real? It happens everywhere, even SOP! I'm not sure what you guys are trying to achieve here, but I don't like where it's going.

The target is to get ppl to stop validating profile rep... What you do with your comments is for you to decide... delete all them bad rep (as done by scammers), delete them all, or delete none of them, we're fine with that.

But the word needs out that profile rep isn't worth anything in a trade to decide who should go first. Way too easy to fake, and its been done a lot to fake it. The case above was fake repped at start by a bunch of scammers and probable alts etc.

As on the above case, the guy will probably get unmarked, once his appeal thread is reviewed. I'll even do him myself this weekend if he gets it done soon enough. if not, then he'll have to wait on his turn.

he tried to scam me showing his genuine and trutworthy rep

Let's slow down and take step back. We found this user to have a bunch of fake reps placed on his account. This led some to believe that the reps on his account were bought. It is quite a common action for a scammer to purchase +reps on his steam account in order to trick someone into believing he's legitimate and end up getting scammed by them. Unfortunately, from what you say, you traded someone legitimately, that bought a lot of their reputation. Just like paying cash for something from a felon, you got caught up in the collateral damage of his attempts. This is precisely the reason we include appeal processes. We know there are cases where innocent people may end up marked for doing innocent things. It is not their fault that they end up marked, but in the interest of protecting the general trading public, it is not our fault either. With a proper appeal, if you are innocent, you will be absolved of the tag and on your way. In fact in this case, Datastorm offered to handle your appeal expeditiously compared to the many people that are waiting in line. We do not wish to punish anyone, and especially hope and pray we don't hurt the innocent. If you are truly innocent, we apologize for any inconvenience of your tag, but we must be vigilant in our processes, and we must act quickly in the interest of protecting the John Q's.