Accepted 76561197990705923 solaris32 (SR Caution)

| steamname: solaris32
| steamID32: STEAM_0:1:15220097
| steamID64: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197990705923
| customURL: http://steamcommunity.com/id/solaris32
| steamrep: http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561197990705923

On August 1st 2013 I wake up to see a friend invite from a guy called "what?" (http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198070335921 who was not tagged at this time). As someone who had several trades on Outpost and Bazaar to buy various items using keys and metal this was nothing out of the ordinary. I had just woken up so I accept the friend invite and say "hi". Basically the conversation continued where he said hi back, I ask how can I help, he says he has tickets and asks how this will work, I say we trade you put up the tickets I put up the metal, so we trade. He sold me 31 tickets at 2.22 ref each which results in about half a bud. And nothing more was said.



I've dealt with completely legit traders who flipped large amounts of tickets like this that were obtained in trade servers and the like, so in my early morning condition I didn't think anything of it. Certainly if I was aware this guy was an obvious alt and therefore purposefully traded with him anyway, I would not have kept him on my friends list because then you're just asking to get investigated. But to my shame and still-continuing regret I neglected to look at his profile beforehand at which point I would have immediately identified him as an obvious scammer alt and refused any and all trades with him. Normally I do look for these kinds of trades, but the one time I forget...

So what happened is the guy stayed on my friends list as I generally don't immediately delete the larger traders, because I was still unaware "what?" was a scammer alt. Hours later I presume Vintage Cobra is investigating the guy and sees a Trusted Seller on his friends list, me, and gets curious why I would have someone like that on my friends. Eventually he gets in contact with me and here is a screenie of the only words he's typed to me then and to now:



As a TF2shop Seller I recognized the name of Vintage Cobra as a fellow seller (hence the part where I say he could talk to me via the groups tab). I've also had conversations with other TF2shop Sellers who were trying to snoop in my trading business. So when I see a TF2shop Seller ask me about a guy I just bought 31 tickets from I get just a tad defensive. It wasn't cash so I didn't see how it could possibly be any of his business. He didn't identify himself as a SR Admin and I don't frequently interact with Steamrep staff so it can't be expected of me to have all the admins memorized. If a guy you've seen at your work comes up to you and starts asking questions about your private business without first informing you he has a second job as a police officer then you're under no obligation to do what he wants, because until he does identify himself he's just someone being nosy. All I asked was to be informed what was going on, but for some reason VCobra clammed up immediately, refusing to say why he was asking. But I still tried to be reasonable saying I would answer any questions if I just knew something about the matter. Does this excuse my error in failing to look 1 time out of the 1000+ times that I have looked? Of course not. The purpose of this explanation about the conversation is to show that at no point was I trying to hide anything from those who clearly made it known they had a right to ask. Which leads to what happened next.

A few minutes later Butane adds me, and long story short I'm 100% cooperative with him and do everything he asked of me as quick as I could, because I knew who he was and he knew I knew, as we have conversed in the past. What I did for him included explaining the situation the best I could, screenshotting the trade history with the scammer alt, then screenshotting my entire last 5 days of trading history (over 80 screenies, rushed in 15 minutes as requested). And I know Butane found there was no other suspicious or shady activity for the simple reason that this instance was an innocent accident.

As someone who trades a lot for small value items paid for with ref and keys, I didn't always check every single one of the 50-100 people in a day who added me and I did business with (though I do now), because most of it involved values less than a key. But when the values were higher, I would check them out. Why exactly I didn't look this time, I don't know. Still being a little sleepy I'm sure affected me, combined with the mistakenly placed comfort of an all item trade. Me doing the trade knowing it was a scammer alt is out of the question, so is me not caring because I do care. For example I collect level 32 vintage weaps among other things and I once turned down a guy wanting to sell me a lvl 32 huntsman simply because I happened to run his id64 on SR and saw he was tagged. Did I want it? You bet. But I would've refused him even if he offered it for free. I refuse trading with anyone I know to be a scammer or scammer alt. I've even refused people who were probably legit but something about them made me ask where they got the items they wanted to sell to me and rather than be reasonable and tell me where they got those items they got defensive and refused to answer, so I said no thanks. That's how strongly I feel about not trading scammers or even suspicious people. Therefore this unfortunate situation has been very hard on me, and not just all the stuff that's happened to me like this caution tag, but the fact that I accidentally helped a scammer.

I do agree that Trusted Sellers like me should be held to a higher standard, but it should be reasonable with all the details of a particular case taken into careful account. Like is a lengthy caution tag for a first offense that was on accident really necessary when before this I've had a great track record? As stated in the SR rules a caution tag for a situation such as this is only temporary, and I've had it now for several days. I am a good and moral person who is truly sorry for what happened. Even if nothing came of the ill-fated trade and everyone forgot it, I wouldn't forget. I still think about it, asking myself why I didn't look, and that alone has been a fair amount of stress on my mind. Plus the embarrassment this tag has already caused me from some of my friends who are confused why it's there because they know I would never purposefully do anything like it. I just can't stand helping scammers when the fault is my own. So I ask to please consider removing the tag. I know I messed up and I can't stress enough how sorry I am, but it was an accident done by an otherwise solid, honest, and trustworthy trader in the TF2 community. Nothing will be gained by permanently harming my reputation for this first and accidental offense, only that you would be gimping not just my trading, but the trading of the people who would have traded me, but understandably would say no when confronted with a caution tagged person.

So what have I been doing since this incident? I learned my lesson that's for sure. I now have been at the least examining the Steam profile of every single person who adds me, without fail. I do it for myself actually, because I can't stand the thought of screwing up again and helping scammers out once more. Whatever happens here I will continue to be as vigilant as reasonably possible, but not because I don't want to get in trouble again, but because that's my morals and who I am.