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Accepted Appeal: 76561198073867179 - (natural / SR CAUTION)

Discussion in 'Archived Appeals' started by SpicyCandy, Jul 11, 2015.

  1. SpicyCandy

    SpicyCandy New User

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    Steam:
    STEAM_0:1:56800725
    Appeal for SR CAUTION

    Steam profile: 76561198073867179 (natural)

    Appeal Plea: I commited the offense(s), but it was minor or I disagree with SteamRep policy
    Appeal Reason: [Other] Another reason (Not commonly accepted)
    Victim Repayment: No, I committed no fraud or had no direct victims
    Previous Appeals: No, this is my first appeal here

    Alternate Accounts:


    Appeal description:
    First, I would like to post a link to a report against me on Fortress of Gamers, a community affiliated with SteamRep: http://forums.f-o-g.eu/threads/5214-76561198073867179-spicycandy.html#post54673

    I will now proceed to explain the situation in the best way that I can.

    I am marked as a Caution for the reason, and I quote SteamRep verbatim here,

    "Why am I marked as a CAUTION for my reputation?

    These marks are given for shady or fraudulent trading practices where evidence or circumstances do not warrant a full SCAMMER tag. These are provided at administrator discretion to help protect community traders from risk. Note that a cautionary reputation may be temporarily applied as a notice to speak with admins as part of an investigation or as a first offense warning."

    I will relist what I said in my previous appeal with Fortress of Gamers.

    The items I brokered were craft numbers crafted by Prawstitute (the marked scammer) himself. I never brokered any items that that he scammed NOR did I sell anything of those craft numbers. He asked for them back when I did not manage to sell them and I returned them promptly. That was the entire situation.

    Prawstitute has paid back the person he scammed, plus extra. The person he scammed has also made a statement that he had forgiven him. He has since made an appeal, but SteamRep ignored his appeal completely. However, in those 3 years, Praw has never scammed or sharked anyone. His appeal is located here: http://forums.steamrep.com/threads/76561198046140165-prawstitute-sr-scammer.41367/

    I have not brokered for anyone else that is marked or even considered a scammer since Prawstitute. Starting about 3-4 months ago, I have since quit high tier trading and only buy CSGO knives from the Steam Community Market.

    What I have done here is anything but a shady or fraudulent practice. The scammer I brokered for had appeal years before and had already paid back everyone he scammed and had since given up high tier trading. The items that I brokered for the scammer ARE NOT ITEMS THAT HE SCAMMED. Instead, they were craft numbers that he crafted himself. The items that I brokered for him were not sold and were returned to him.

    I would like to note that I've donated hundreds of hours to the improvement of the CSGO trading community as one of the head admins of CSGORep, however, I was not, at the time, an admin for that group at the time of the trade.

    I have also spent countless hours as the co-owner of Fire Friendly, a community group that hosts many servers for TF2, many being prominent and popular, and have spent much of my time helping new players and teaching them how to trade, how to avoid getting scammed, etc. At the time of the brokering, I was only a head admin for FF's servers, I attained the rank of co-owner a few months after I returned Praw's items.

    These positions by prominent and important members of the TF2 community who's judgement came into play due to the long backlog of the SR Staff.​
    Fire ̷̨●̷̨° likes this.
  2. Fire ̷̨●̷̨°

    Fire ̷̨●̷̨° New User

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    Steam:
    STEAM_0:1:20684450
    I will also vouch for Spicy as he has been the co-owner of my community for over a year and I trust him completely as a person. A mistake was made where he thought it might be justified to broker these items because of how long it takes for SR to look into appeals. The person he traded with was marked but the items could not possibly have been scammed or stolen as they have his name on them via crafting. There were no victims in this matter and it doesn't seem right to issue a tag for this when Caution tags should be reserved for people who are actually shady.

    Thanks.
  3. Lava

    Lava Public Relations SteamRep Admin

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  4. Lava

    Lava Public Relations SteamRep Admin

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    @SpicyCandy Can you please give a timeline on what communities you staffed for, when you joined, when you left, if you left? If you are still working for any communities, can you list those too, as well as your current role?
  5. SpicyCandy

    SpicyCandy New User

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    Steam:
    STEAM_0:1:56800725
    @Lava, sure.

    Fire Friendly: Joined the staff at 2/3/13 to current. Current rank: Co-Owner.

    CSGORep: I will be honest, I do not remember when I joined the staff of CSGORep, however, I do remember I signed up for it when the founder, Junglist, made the first announcement asking for volunteers. The first announcement was made on July 24th, 2015, so I will correctly assume that is when I joined the CSGORep staff. I agreed to being removed from the staff when I received from Caution Tag after talking to Junglist. I still made reports on the group and do what I can for it. My rank when I first started was a Mod, but I would say I moved up to one of the few administrators after half a years work.
  6. Lava

    Lava Public Relations SteamRep Admin

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    Did you resign or otherwise leave any others?
  7. SpicyCandy

    SpicyCandy New User

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    Steam:
    STEAM_0:1:56800725
    No, I did not. Apologies, I have also forgotten to report that I am also a Mod for the Vatican City Servers. I was mainly given this position as I was constantly on their unusual trading server. I am unsure when I entered their service, but when I first entered, I was given the rank of Middleman half a year ago. I resigned roughly two months ago from that position one day after being a moderator and asked to be given back the position 2 weeks ago, which I was promptly given.

    I am now sure that this ends my previous and current list of affiliations. I will relist them:

    2/3/15-Current: Co-Owner of Fire Friendly
    7/24/14-7/18/15: Moderater/Administator of CSGORep!
    Date Unsure of/Roughly 6-7 months ago, left 2 months ago. Regained Mod position 2 weeks ago: Moderator/Middleman of the Vatican City Servers
  8. Lava

    Lava Public Relations SteamRep Admin

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    Be on the lookout for a friend request from me.
  9. Lava

    Lava Public Relations SteamRep Admin

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  10. Lava

    Lava Public Relations SteamRep Admin

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    SteamRep Admin:
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    After carefully weighing in your circumstances, and consulting at length with multiple other current as well as retired admins on your case, I am reaching the following conclusion:

    As a long-time unusual trader at the time of your trade, you should have been well-aware of SteamRep and our policies. By your own admission, you not only traded with, but knowingly and willfully brokered for a marked scammer because you disagreed with his tag. You worked with a marked scammer - who was marked for impersonation - with the intention of helping him circumvent his ban and turn a profit. While I do believe your intentions are benevolent and genuine, our expectation is that high profile traders and community admins are held to a higher standard; many admins at SteamRep and elseware would issue a full BANNED tag for this blatant of an offense, and quite possibly deny the appeal.

    That said, you were already reported to a partner community for the same offense, and the report was closed. The purpose of partner communities directly issuing tags is not to have traders repeatedly defend themselves on multiple websites for the same offense until one decides to accept a report. This leaves me to decide if FoG's decision has merit. While you undoubtedly and blatantly brokered for a marked scammer with the intent to circumvent a ban you disagreed with, your behavior since that time, and the fact you were honest through the course of this appeal, suggests you are not a scammer and pose little if any risk to the community. Considering your reply on FoG/here, and individual circumstances and case, I feel there is insufficient reason to overturn FoG's decision.

    I am granting this appeal for your double jeopardy situation, and reducing the CAUTION tag to a private note on your profile. If you are found to trade/broker with scammers again, you will not be given a second chance. Consider this your formal warning about trading with scammers per SteamRep's FAQ.
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