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.

Archived 76561197986567122 (smokedgouda001) and 76561198037908684 (STF2) (Updated)

Discussion in 'Archived Reports' started by PotatoPotato, Aug 26, 2012.

  1. PotatoPotato

    PotatoPotato New User

    Messages:
    44
    Steam:
    STEAM_0:1:5381368
    Introduction

    This is an updated report on the suspicious activities of the owner and administration of the widely-used TF2 Pricing Spreadsheet at TF2Spreadsheet.blogspot.com (his site may appear with a country code in your region, such as Tf2Spreadsheet.blogspot.ca, Tf2Spreadsheet.blogspot.au, TF2Spreadsheet.blogspot.co.uk, etc)

    The first version of this report on the TF2 Spreadsheet's owner was locked by a SteamRep admin because people were using it as a forum to criticize the Spreadsheet, without offering new evidence. These scam report threads are not intended for that. So if you want to discuss the issue, please make a new thread in SteamRep's general discussion forum. However, if you do have new evidence to offer, (including any data which disproves the evidence which I've already presented), then please post it here.

    Anyway, I have further information to add, and the Spreadsheet Admin has since admitted to many of the offenses that he was still denying when I made the first report here. So, I'll take this opportunity to update that first report with this new information, and then I'll continue on to evidence which was not included in the first report or its comments.

    Here's a link to the original report, the comments contain information which is not included in this updated report.

    http://forums.steamrep.com/threads/...198037908684-stf2-tf2-spreadsheet-admin.9564/

    Victims: Too numerous to list. Potentially this affects everybody who trades

    Scammer:

    steamID: STF2
    steamID32: STEAM_0:0:38821478
    steamID64: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198037908684
    customURL: http://steamcommunity.com/id/madking5150
    steamrepURL: http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198037908684
    (He has just changed the name of this account to "TF2 Spreadsheet Admin", for the first time.)

    steamID: smokedgouda001
    steamID32: STEAM_0:0:13150697
    steamID64: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197986567122
    customURL:
    steamrepURL: http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561197986567122

    Description:

    Summary

    Sharking and scamming

    Acting as a trader, the TF2 Spreadsheet Admin used his numerous anonymous forum accounts for the following purposes:

    • He lied to his fellow TF2 players about the value of items that he was selling or buying (causing them to lose money).

    • He inflated prices of items that he was trading (enabling him to profit at the expense of other Steam users).

    • To gain exposure for his own trades on the Steam Trading Forums, again at the expense of other traders.

    • He lied to inexperienced users about the value of items he was trading with them (also known as sharking)

    This activity continued undiscovered for more than one year, and involved hundreds of forums posts and dozens of trades.

    Usually, he would stage a fake 'discussion' between his accounts,. One of them would bid up the price of items being traded by the other, without reaching a deal. Then he would wait for genuine buyers to buy them at the higher price.

    He refused to admit that he was the owner of these accounts until Drunken_F00l from Valve banned the accounts, confirmed that they were all operated by a single individual, and confirmed that they had been used to deceive other Steam users.

    http://www.reddit.com/r/tf2trade/comments/yk9ji/psa_i_believe_the_tf2_pricing_spreadsheet_at/c5we6p6

    Despite the overwhelming evidence proving that he repeatedly used his secret accounts to scam other Steam users and try to raise the prices of items that he was selling, he still denies this. He continues to claim, to readers of his blog, on SteamRep, and on other forums, that he used them only to 'bump' his trading threads.

    http://forums.steamrep.com/threads/...4-stf2-tf2-spreadsheet-admin.9564/#post-31511
    .
    Unfair competition and anonymous attacks on competitors

    To prevent competition for his spreadsheet business, he also used the same four shill accounts to attack competing spreadsheets and pricing sites, and to promote his own spreadsheet. He also did this with accounts on many other forums. He deceived his fellow Steam users by pretending to be one of them and not revealing his obvious conflict of interest.

    Once again, his standard trick was to stage a fake conversation involving several of the accounts he controlled, to smear his competitors, to drown out dissenting opinions, or to praise his own website. After trying to conceal the truth for more than a year, has finally admitted using the accounts in this way.

    He has also used his blog and his public statements to smear the reputation of Valve staff-member Drunken_F00l, and me, by questioning our motives and insinuating that we are secret representatives of his competitors. This is untrue, but it is understandable that he would suspect this kind of behavior, because it is exactly the same tactic he himself has used repeatedly for over a year, as he has finally been forced to admit.
    .
    Market manipulation

    The TF2 Spreadsheet admin has often been accused of altering market prices for his own benefit and he has denied these claims. The claims were impossible to check, for several reasons: Firstly, because he kept his identity secret.

    He did not make a historical record of his prices available for public examination, (even though this would be trivially easy, as the screenshots on this page show). He even used his secret alt accounts to attack people who questioned the Spreadsheet's prices, therefore frustrating and diverting their efforts to discuss suspicious price changes. The accounts pretended to be ordinary Steam users with no connection to the Spreadsheet.

    However, by discovering his identity, I was able to observe a little of his trading activity.
    The TF2 Spreadsheet admin bought a Strange Botkiller Medi Gun for 8 keys at a time when they were trading for less than 10 keys, and a few minutes later edited his Spreadsheet to give this item a price of 10-14 Keys*. This unjustified new Spreadsheet price caused the market price to rise. He then sold the Medi Gun for a quick profit, and within minutes adjusted the Spreadsheet price down.

    Below you can see a precise accurate of this series of events, which shows it is vanishingly unlikely that there is any innocent explanation for them.

    *10-14 keys, not 10-16 keys as I said in the original report.
    .

    Details

    The two Steam accounts listed above, Smokedgouda001 and STF2, are controlled by the administrator of the TF2 Spreadsheet at TF2spreadsheet.blogspot.com. He initially denied this and claimed that SmokedGouda001 was the account of a friend. When confronted with further evidence, he eventually admitted the truth.

    The Spreadsheet admin also controls at least four Steam Forum accounts:

    Madking (STF2) - http://forums.steamgames.com/forums/member.php?u=1069704
    SmokedGouda - http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/member.php?u=933713
    PrellisV_2.0 - http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/member.php?u=979535
    Mothergoose - http://forums.steamgames.com/forums/member.php?u=1116912

    If you want to see those Steam Forum pages and the others in this report, then you MUST be logged into a Steam Forum account, or you will probably just get an error message.

    You can read a more detailed description of the initial allegations against him at Reddit.

    http://www.reddit.com/r/tf2trade/comments/yk9ji/psa_i_believe_the_tf2_pricing_spreadsheet_at/

    Please be aware that I have not updated that original Reddit post, because editing could lead to doubts about its reliability. So all new information and updates are in the comments on Reddit and here on SteamRep.

    The Reddit comments include responses from the TF2 Spreadsheet admin, using one his Reddit accounts, PiousPorpoise. He has since admitted that several of his statements there were lies.

    There's no way I can link to every single example of the Spreadsheet Admin's unpleasant activities, because there are just too many of them, and this report is already very long. If you want to see more, please check out the links in the original posts on Reddit and Steamrep, and in the history of the forum postings he made with his many alt accounts (the profiles are linked above). There are also many accounts that he used on other sites, if anyone wants details of these, please post here to let me know.

    Screenshots:

    http://imgur.com/a/1cb2a#0

    These are screenshots of the evidence from that original Reddit post. Many thanks to r_dageek on Reddit for gathering these! Other screenshots are linked throughout this report.

    One additional point: One Steamrep admin has been on SmokedGouda's friend list for a long time. I'm certainly not attempting to imply any wrongdoing or involvement in this case, just that it's probably best that anybody on the accused scammer's friendlist is not involved in the investigation.

    New and updated evidence:

    This is evidence which was not included at the Reddit link above, or in the previous report to SteamRep.

    Sharking/Scamming

    The Spreadsheet Admin, using his 'SmokedGouda' account, attempted to convince traders on SourceOP.com to pay him $1 each for crates. He justified this by claiming that Series 1 crates had 2x the normal chance of producing an unusual hat when opened. He tried to auction 50 at $1 each. Several experienced traders politely explained to him that he was mistaken: Series 1 crates have no more chance of yielding an unusual than any other crate. His reaction was to argue with them, and then insult them.

    http://sourceop.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=22273

    Eight months later, (by which time he is describing himself as a highly experienced trader and is running his spreadsheet), the Steam trading forum happens to record him trying the same tactic again, but with a malicious twist.

    He auctions his Series 1 crates to his fellow TF2 players, using his SmokedGouda account, and he again claims these crates have more chance of producing an unusual. However, this time he cleverly uses one of his many alt accounts, PrellisV_2.0, to make the false claim on his behalf. This protects his main trading account from blame or accusations of sharking. His main account SmokedGouda, then simply says: “some believe they have a greater chance of unusuals”.

    I want to emphasize how totally incriminating that last statement is. If he truly believed there was a greater chance of an unusual from Crate 1, then he would simply have confirmed it with his main account. He clearly does not believe it – that is the only explanation for his action. He is deliberately deceiving the other users about the value of the items in order to increase his own profit.

    http://i.imgur.com/1e5AR.png

    http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2145595

    By the way, he is a capable writer, but notice how he disguises his alt accounts' writing style with tricks like poor punctuation and deliberate misspelling.


    Additional cases of trading price manipulation

    Here are a few more examples of the TF2 Spreadsheet owner posting fake bids and c/o prices to inflate the value of his own trades, potentially causing others to pay higher prices for those items. In these examples, SmokedGouda is the account he uses to sell, while he uses PrellisV_2.0 to post numerous fake offers. I don't think it's necessary for me to show more, but there are other examples of this behavior if you wish to look through the history of his Steam trading forum accounts, and the previous posts in this case.

    http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2071676
    http://i.imgur.com/bGxd7.png

    http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2067329&page=3
    http://i.imgur.com/5g4TB.png

    Fake bids to drive up the price of a cash sale:

    http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1887296
    http://i.imgur.com/lta6f.png

    Remember, all four of the alt accounts you see talking to each other in the forum posts above, are controlled by the same person, the TF2 Spreadsheet Admin. Those accounts are SmokedGouda, MadKing, PrellisV_2.0, and MotherGoose

    Manipulation of spreadsheet price for personal profit

    This is the same trade as described in the original report, but with an accurate timeline showing precisely when each step took place. Please notice how quickly he updates the spreadsheet price each time he buys or sells the item he wants – in a matter of minutes each time.

    He is online for hours and has all that time to research and update his Spreadsheet, but he just happens to keep doing it at precisely the time that is profitable for him, but not for the people he is trading with. Are we really supposed to believe that he is unaware of the new spreadsheet price when he trades? Or that he will suddenly 'discover' that new price range and update the spreadsheet in just a few minutes?

    Timeline

    The time zone is US Eastern Time, UTC-4 hours. (I've used Eastern because it's the timezone used by the spreadsheet).

    August 16

    On or before August 16 at 4.55pm, the new Botkiller items have been added to the Spreadsheet, without prices

    August 18

    August 18 at 1:21pm - The Spreadsheet is updated, but the Botkiller items still have no prices
    http://i.imgur.com/XEKnl.png

    August 19

    The Spreadsheet admin comes online to trade using one of his Steam accounts, STF2. He uses another account, SmokedGouda, for trading openly. I had noticed before that he seemed to be using STF2 for trading, but these trades were almost impossible for me to observe, because he would buy items on TF2Outpost by adding other traders directly without posting any comments, and then remove them from his friends list. This is very strange, because his other account, SmokedGouda, was trading openly on TF2Outpost. SmokedGouda would post trade offers, post comments on other trades, and keep his trading partners on his friends list. Why would two accounts controlled by the same person trade so differently? One very secretive, and one quite open...

    Remember that at this time, nobody knew that SmokedGouda and STF2 were controlled by the same person or that they were connected to the Spreadsheet – and the Spreadsheet Admin deliberately created the impression that they were unconnected. For example, SteamRep's history over many months never catches these two accounts on each others friends lists, even though items were traded between them regularly. He claims that this allowed him to anonymously gather information for the Spreadsheet, but it also allowed him to secretly buy with one account and sell with the other, as this record has finally shown.

    9am-3pm - Trade records and screenshots (00:18am/20) of TF2Outpost suggest that the main trading price range for the Strange Botkiller Medi Gun had fallen to below 10 keys during this period when the TF2 Spreadsheet Admin was active and presumably researching prices.

    • 2.32pm - The spreadsheet admin buys a Strange Botkiller Medi Gun from Quintosh (Quintosj) for 8 keys, using his STF2 account.
    http://puu.sh/XsSj (the timezone in the screenshot is Central European Time)


    • 2.43pm - As soon as he has bought one for 8 keys from Quintosh, he immediately changes the Strange Botkiller Medi Gun price to 10-14 keys on his spreadsheet. He makes the spreadsheet update only 12 minutes after buying the item for 8 keys. (The seller, Quintosh, would therefore have had no opportunity to see the Spreadsheet and adjust his selling price).
    http://i.imgur.com/5KAaK.png
    http://i.imgur.com/ozgzF.jpg


    • 3.00 pm+ - After the Spreadsheet is updated, the effect gradually becomes noticeable on TF2Outpost. Almost all trade offers that are newly posted, or newly edited, have prices inside the 10-14 range suggested by the Spreadsheet, or higher. In proportion to the number of trades, there are far fewer prices below 10 keys.

    • 8.00pm-00.20am - During this period, TF2Outpost still had some active trade offers for the Strange Botkiller Medigun which had not been bumped for about 9 hours or more. This means the prices in these trades had been set before the Spreadsheet was updated at 2.43pm. During this period, I recorded details of most of those trades and offers. Fortunately they can give us a good idea of prices before the Spreadsheet intervened in the market. These suggest a reasonable price range was below 10 keys.

    August 20

    At some time on this day (possibly before 1pm), the Spreadsheet Admin posts a trade on TF2Outpost, asking for 10 Keys for his new Botkiller Medi Gun. Before this, he has moved it out of the STF2 account to his alt account, SmokedGouda001. The trade remains open for at least 3 hours, and is closed at around 5pm. Meanwhile, he keeps the price on the Spreadsheet at 10-14 Keys.

    SmokedGouda's Inventory at 1pm: http://i.imgur.com/HELQn.jpg

    The buying and selling are separated by using two different accounts. This hides the link between them if you don't know the two accounts are controlled by the same person. This seems to be deliberate – when he was first challenged about this trade, he lied and said that he bought the item and then 'gave it to a friend', creating the impression that he made no profit.
    http://i.imgur.com/4RkTx.png
    'to a friend' http://i.imgur.com/pxart.png
    http://www.reddit.com/r/tf2trade/comments/yk9ji/psa_i_believe_the_tf2_pricing_spreadsheet_at/c5wd6p6

    4.45pm - The spreadsheet is unchanged, showing a Strange Botkiller Med Gun price of 10-14 keys
    http://i.imgur.com/I48Dq.png

    4.47pm - It's still in The Spreadsheet Admin's inventory, but he sells it for 10 keys during the next 29 minutes to an unfortunate victim named Untamed Staamina.
    http://imgur.com/4khUW
    http://www.tf2outpost.com/item/1045336471

    5.12pm - He reduces the price down from 10-14 keys to 9-10 keys on his spreadsheet
    http://i.imgur.com/jWAr8.png

    5.16pm - Screenshots confirm that the Medi Gun has gone from SmokedGouda's inventory before 5.16pm. He has sold it for 10 keys only a few minutes before cutting his Spreadsheet's price range down to 9-10 keys from 10-14 keys.

    Once again, the change in the Spreadsheet prices occurs just minutes later - so fast that it looks certain that it was prepared before he traded. If the buyer had been given a chance to see the new, much lower, spreadsheet price, a few minutes later, would he still have accepted this much less attractive deal?
    http://i.imgur.com/eEdq2.jpg

    20 August 2012, 11:40pm - The Reddit post accusing the Spreadsheet Admin of these activities was published.
  2. AcesGamer

    AcesGamer User

    Messages:
    1,141
    Steam:
    STEAM_0:0:19877328
    As a reminder stated in the OP: do not use this report as a discussion.
  3. HelenAngel

    HelenAngel Retired Staff

    Messages:
    4,577
    Steam:
    STEAM_0:1:8627755
    I put this under investigation as some of our admins have been following this report closely. I am also moving it to the "Fake Rep & Scammer Alts" section due to the nature of this case. The admins who have been researching this case will make the final determination, but please feel free to continue to post any and all evidence in this thread. Thank you. :)
  4. Chride2k8

    Chride2k8 Retired Staff

    Messages:
    575
    Steam:
    STEAM_0:1:3551729
    I hate to say it but I told you so...I have been telling that to others for almost a year now but no, no one believes in it. I have noticed on several occasions price fluctuations like for example within a short time span like for ex. when the Salvage Crate #30 stopped dropping the prices on its content started to jump and by that I mean up -> down -> up -> down and so on...
  5. PotatoPotato

    PotatoPotato New User

    Messages:
    44
    Steam:
    STEAM_0:1:5381368
    Thanks for your comment, but please don't post comments in this report thread unless you have some independent evidence, such as a screenshot or links. There's a thread in the discussion forum where I think people would be very interested to hear what you have to say: http://forums.steamrep.com/threads/tf2-spreadsheet-scandal.9913/
  6. TF2Spreadsheet

    TF2Spreadsheet New User

    Messages:
    10
    Steam:
    STEAM_0:0:38821478
    "
    Except for times that I posted on my site, you have no time-stamped information. Please post your timestamped, non-photoshopped evidence from official sources to these statements quoted above.
  7. TF2Spreadsheet

    TF2Spreadsheet New User

    Messages:
    10
    Steam:
    STEAM_0:0:38821478
    This long-form response is coming late for a few reasons. One is because I had incorrectly assumed that logic and an honest examination at this accuser's statements and "evidence" would prove that, while I've made mistakes, willfully manipulating prices on the TF2 Spreadsheet is not one of them. Secondly, the accuser's flawed and ever-growing explanation has become even more exaggerated and distorted over time and needs to be set straight. Third, tf2items.com has deleted backpack information that could have validated my version of the timeline below. Inflammatory Steam User Forums comments posted by "TF2 ItemsEditor" were also deleted. Even if you've already come to your conclusion on this issue, take another look.

    Here is what has occurred. An accuser took some posts I've made in the past from Steam User Forums and paired them with his distortions, exaggerations and lies regarding a single recent trade. This was all in an underlying effort to smear my site: the TF2 Spreadsheet. Let me be clear about the Steam User Forums posts: using multiple accounts was not right, anonymously pointing out that a competitor had a lack of experience was not right, bumping my own posts was not right, nor was the apparent 2 times back in early 2011 I opened with 'valid' bids on my own items (all around a key in value each). All of which I apologize for and have not done since (I don't trade items for profit anymore).

    However, the accuser has reached for literally anything from the past to attack my credibility. The majority of his examples, including the SPUF posts, come from before the popular and current version of the TF2 Spreadsheet. My talking about common perceptions of series 1 crates by citing often-quoted sources is a really good example. He has examined my word use to a bizarre level, while nothing I said was untrue. Keeping a wall between my trading account and the TF2 Spreadsheet Admin account were also legitimate and necessary. This was to keep outside influence on sheet prices. I still require anonymity from my contributors and believe it keeps outside influence outside. My lengthy and clean trading rep, all from real users, was earned and represented thousands of fair trades between a willing buyer and seller - there was no scamming.

    Back to the main issue: his claim that I willfully manipulated a price on the sheet to profit. Examine carefully his "evidence" on the Silver Botkiller Medi Gun trade and in particular: the timing. His only real evidence of time on any of his screenshots are from my site, which are accurate. What he lies about and distorts are nearly everything else but primarily: the timing on the tf2outpost selling threads for the Silver Botkiller Medi Gun, and the timing of my sale of the item in relation to when I updated the TF2 Spreadsheet.

    A quick re-cap. On the morning of August 19th the Spreadsheet had no prices for the new Gold/Silver Botkiller items. I was compiling prices for them and saw a Silver Medi Gun for sale at the lowest "quicksell" price of 9 keys on tf2outpost, I offered the seller 8, he agreed and we traded. Purchasing this item while the sheet had no price for the item was a mistake. It hadn't happened previously and I should have waited the 30 minutes until after I updated the price. Not malicious but my thinking was that I saw what was a very low price and wanted to buy the medi gun quickly. Overall a dumb thing to do. (to remove any possibility of accusations again, I no longer trade actively).

    Now take a look at the accuser's list of tf2outpost selling threads below he claims are his pricing evidence for the Silver Medi Gun. It is impossible to determine the timing and original prices listed which some were clearly changed and written over. It is also impossible to determine if this is even a complete 'for sale' list, there is no timestamped screenshot of his "search" for this item. Screenshots he has pasted into an archive file also show no evidence of any timing and don't even include the full detail of each thread. The accuser's list is stacked to support his thesis, is incomplete (not complete and only sellers) and only from tf2outpost. While he screenshots and notes the time on the spreadsheet, he only provides links to these long-closed tf2outpost threads that were written-over and altered many times.

    Buyout prices of Strange Botkiller Medigun before Spreadsheet intervention
    5 Keys - Sold @ Unknown price
    9 Keys - Sold @ 8 Keys
    12 keys - Sold @ Unknown price
    'Some Keys' - Sold @ Unknown price
    10 Keys - Not sold
    Buds (26 Keys) - Not sold
    TS Bills (10 Keys) - Not sold
    Offer 7-10 Keys - Not sold

    These threads above were compiled by the accuser after I had bought the Medi Gun and updated the TF2 Spreadsheet price, not before as he claims. His claim that the market price was far under the price I updated on the TF2 Spreadsheet is backed up by distorted 'evidence' and based on his false timeline. He provides no timestamps for his evidence, only vague talk of falling prices that proves nothing. He says the sellers cut their prices: maybe but when did they cut their prices in relation to when I updated the spreadsheet is what is key. His 'proof' shows nothing about the time in question, rather what has happened over the subsequent days, weeks and months. Only what I posted on the spreadsheet is timestamped and documented. Prices on all the botkiller items have dropped dramatically and quickly off their initial high prices (Gold, Silver, Diamond, Carbonado, Blood and Rust). Merely stating that prices dropped isn't enough, he has to prove timing.

    These prices the accuser has posted above are not what I witnessed when examining sources for prices. When I am determining prices, I check many sources and get feedback from my contributors, tf2outpost being only one. There are many others such as Tf2tp, SourceOp, Steam, reddit tf2trade and many other tf2-specific forums, as well as the many online trade servers. I gather my own information and feedback from my contributors and put together a snapshot of where prices are at the time. (We had just started phasing in a proprietary trade-scanning software that uses the Steam API to give us actual prices of trades. However, at the time the items were new and these actual trades were only trickling through.)

    That day of the 19th the prices I posted for the Silver Botkiller Scattergun (10-14 keys), Rocket Launcher (10-14 keys), Medi-gun (10-14 keys) and Sniper Rifle (12-16 keys) all had asking prices at premiums over the other classes items. This followed logically to the previous most-comparable set, the Strange Festive items. On multiple sites, forums and trade servers I observed asking prices that appeared to have an average of 10-14 keys. The lowest available at that moment was the one in question at 9 keys, most in the middle range from 10-14 keys and as high as 26 keys (earbuds' price at the time). I have been trading since it was launched by Valve and know when I see a "quicksell" item. Otherwise I wouldn't have bought the Silver Medi Gun for a cheap price at that moment in time of 9 (8 in the end) keys.

    Then the accuser falsely claims that I sold the Medi Gun before updating the sheet to a lower price of 9-10 keys on Monday, August 20th (I eventually sold it for 10 keys following the TF2 spreadsheet update). Again, he has no actual evidence that proves his claim of timing. His evidence from a competitor's website has no indication of time (not that it would be trustworthy anyway since they are direct competition), nor does his tf2outpost.com link shed any light on timing. Both follow:
    http://imgur.com/4khUWhttp://www.tf2outpost.com/item/1045336471

    When updating the sheet on the 20th I was thinking that these prices were coming down fast and yet I updated the Spreadsheet anyways - believing that the sheet's accuracy is always more important. Mondays are typically a trough in prices since fewer players are active and the volume dies down considerably from weekends. After I updated the price on the sheet to 9-10 keys, a buyer took my price of 10 keys and the item was sold.

    On top of all this, Tf2items.com has since deleted a full month of my backpack history (from the 19th of July to August 21st) around the date of this trade that could have supported my version of the sale of the item. They also deleted 2 full months of history from my TF2 Spreadsheet Admin's account (insert image) although it is not clear why. Also, following these accusations being publicized on reddit, I questioned Drunken Fool (who is a Valve employee, Steam User Forums moderator as well as owner of Tf2items.com) about previous posts by a Steam User Forums user named "TF2 ItemsEditor". The comments in question were inflammatory and conspiracy-laden about my site, TF2 Spreadsheet. All posts by "TF2 ItemsEditor" on TF2-Trading have since been deleted. All his other posts to other subforums remain intact as of this writing.

    My backpack with the deleted month of data, note dates at bottom:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/90145720@N07/8191036921/

    My Admin's account with over a month of deleted data, note dates at bottom:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/90145720@N07/8192123438/


    (note: following this accusation and days after the trades in question, I made my backpacks private. There would be no data from backpack sites approximately 3-4 days after this incident. The idea was that I didn't want any more false accusations related to items in my inventory since having them open was clearly no protection. However, they were never private before this and historical data from Tf2items.com should be complete going back to the beginning for each account.)

    Big picture: Let logic and a skeptical examination of all evidence be the guide. The fact remains that I give away far more to my visitors in freebies and prizes nearly every day than I made on this single trade. If what this accuser has claimed were all true, it would follow that he should have witnessed dozens of similar trades over the long period of time he was watching my accounts. Surely there should be solid, real evidence of a methodical and long history if his accusation was true. It has been nearly 3 months since these false allegations came to light, surely there should be others who come forward with solid proof as well. There is none. There is none because this was a single trade where the accuser cooked the books so that he could smear and damage the reputation of my site.

    I understand that I have critics, that is ok and I encourage honest feedback. However, this accuser took it to a whole new level by creating false 'evidence' to smear both my and my site's reputation. I would recommend that any other accusations this person has made towards other Steam users be re-examined with much more scrutiny. I would also recommend another reddit administrator, not previously involved, take a closer look at the 'evidence' put forward from this accuser and revisit the unjust "scammer" label attached to my accounts.
  8. Duskfall -a^DF

    Duskfall -a^DF New User

    Messages:
    387
    Steam:
    STEAM_0:1:41806566
    http://i911.photobucket.com/albums/ac315/Sev62_FMJ/tf2sproof1.png
    http://i911.photobucket.com/albums/ac315/Sev62_FMJ/tf2sproof2.png
    http://i911.photobucket.com/albums/ac315/Sev62_FMJ/tf2sproof3.png
    http://i911.photobucket.com/albums/ac315/Sev62_FMJ/tf2sproof4.png
    http://i911.photobucket.com/albums/ac315/Sev62_FMJ/tf2sproof5.png
    http://i911.photobucket.com/albums/ac315/Sev62_FMJ/tf2sproof15.png
    Not sure how that would help with this investigation, but I tried posting a comment saying that he should remove the need for each comment to be approved before being post. If you check the time stamps of the first four images and the last image, you can see that three days has elapsed without my comment being posted. Of course, the possibility that he is innocent of the main accusations and is simply trying to avoid fallout is present. However, I don't think that is the case since he is accusing Datastorm of trying to strike down the spreadsheet as well.

    http://i911.photobucket.com/albums/ac315/Sev62_FMJ/tf2sproof6.png
    http://i911.photobucket.com/albums/ac315/Sev62_FMJ/tf2sproof7.png
    http://i911.photobucket.com/albums/ac315/Sev62_FMJ/tf2sproof8.png
    http://i911.photobucket.com/albums/ac315/Sev62_FMJ/tf2sproof9.png
    http://i911.photobucket.com/albums/ac315/Sev62_FMJ/tf2sproof10.png
    http://i911.photobucket.com/albums/ac315/Sev62_FMJ/tf2sproof11.png
    http://i911.photobucket.com/albums/ac315/Sev62_FMJ/tf2sproof12.png
    http://i911.photobucket.com/albums/ac315/Sev62_FMJ/tf2sproof13.png
    http://i911.photobucket.com/albums/ac315/Sev62_FMJ/tf2sproof14.png
    The first image in this block is the main post of the spreadsheet admin's call to review Potato's report against him. Somewhere in the middle, he states that Datastorm closed the thread because he didn't want pro-spreadsheet comments getting in (On a personal note, I wish conversation on that thread could have continued. I feel that this is something that needs to be discussed. Politics yo...)
    The images "7-10" are screenshots of comments in the thread that contradicts spreadsheet admin's statement, as I'm fairly certain that the SteamRep staff has the power to removed comments from threads.
    Images "11-14" are screenshots of my attempt to point out the above error in logic on his spreadsheet's thread. I have only submitted that recently, and I've no idea what the spreadsheet admin's sleeping schedule looks like. I'll wait a day to give a SITREP on that.
  9. Duskfall -a^DF

    Duskfall -a^DF New User

    Messages:
    387
    Steam:
    STEAM_0:1:41806566
    SHAdmin posted some "software output" that his spreadsheet allegedly runs on. http://tf2spreadsheet.blogspot.com/2012/11/a-day-in-life-of-our-trade-analysis.html
    I find it very suspicious that he couldn't upload anything more substantial than something that could easily have been created on Microsoft Excel. I challenged this and tried to post a message stating that this would be simply unbelievable unless the software was actual shown running or if he actually gave the software to someone to verify it.
    Tried saving the page into a PDF... can't figure out how to upload PDFs...
    http://i911.photobucket.com/albums/ac315/Sev62_FMJ/001.jpg
    http://i911.photobucket.com/albums/ac315/Sev62_FMJ/002.jpg
    http://i911.photobucket.com/albums/ac315/Sev62_FMJ/003.jpg
    http://i911.photobucket.com/albums/ac315/Sev62_FMJ/004.jpg

    Of course, he doesn't want people to see that error in his "software".
    http://i911.photobucket.com/albums/ac315/Sev62_FMJ/SHFakeSoftware2.png
  10. Enstage

    Enstage SteamRep Admin Partner Community Donator - Tier V

    Messages:
    4,705
    Steam:
    STEAM_0:1:52569926
    Already banned for what looks to be the same reason.

    Thanks.