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.

Middlemen / Admin Scammer Friends?

Discussion in 'Discussion Archive' started by Reelix, Jan 17, 2012.

  1. Reelix

    Reelix New User

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    Just wondering - What's with the large percentage of Middlemen and Admins having scammer friends? o_O

    Whilst I can partially understand the Middlemen (Trading between legit users and known scammers), why Admins? Surely an Admin with a known scammer friend has the potential for being a scammer himself? And being a scammer Admin, he could make scammer profiles look clean on this very site!

    Any explanation?
  2. Mattie!

    Mattie! SteamRep Admin

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    As mentioned on SteamRep profiles, Admins get friended by scammers (and vice versa) in order to handle the many appeals received. Also often times when an account is hijacked, we mark it as a scammer temporarily and remain on the friends list so we can verify the identity of the person when they regain access to their account.

    That being said, it's easy for admins to be forgetful and accidentally leave a scammer added for a couple of days (especially when real life schedules get in the way of our Steam time). I think we should do a better job of keeping that list down, because it's not encouraged what-so-ever.

    Note that Diego coded SteamRep.com actually to automatically avoid recommending any Admin / Middleman / Trusted Seller who has too many scammers on their friendslist. When that happens, they are automatically hidden from the lists (at the top of steamrep.com) so people who are looking for trusted contacts aren't directed to people with a significant number of scammer friends.

    Note that most of the Community Admins you see on SteamRep don't have access to clear tags on-demand, especially not from communities they don't moderate themselves. For example a UTC admin couldn't clear a REDDIT tag, and even a SteamRep admin would have trouble on their hands if they mucked around with community server reputation tags without confirming with the tagging admins.

    Thankfully the bar is incredibly high for choosing Middlemen, Trusted Sellers, and Admins, so there's been very little problem with that sort of thing. Is it possible for someone to go rogue? Sure, as with any site, organization, government, sewing circle, etc-- but that's not something the senior SR admins would tolerate for a second.

    -Mattie
    rolmos likes this.
  3. daemon

    daemon Retired Staff

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    what
  4. atom-

    atom- Retired Staff

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    The sewing circles I have been a part of are cut throat. Grannies backstabbing grannies for the premium cotton, its a seedy underworld.
    HelenAngel likes this.
  5. Horse

    Horse Administrator SteamRep Admin

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    No longer child labor huh.... now its Grannie labor.
  6. DataStorm

    DataStorm Retired Staff

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    Just to be VERY clear: admins and MM are NOT allowed to trade with scammers, that includes MM roles. Any admin/MM that encounters a scammer will refuse to deal with the scammer. If not, its a immediate removal of the tag on SR, and prolly a scammer tag for the Admin or MM, for those REALLY should know better.
    HelenAngel and Mattie! like this.
  7. Ðiego™

    Ðiego™ Retired Staff

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  8. Horse

    Horse Administrator SteamRep Admin

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    I get added from time to time by tagged scammers but after I address any issues they are removed - period. If someone on my list gets tagged they are removed - period.

    Not a hard concept to follow considering it reflects bad onto SR and myself.
  9. Rob

    Rob New User

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    I often have many scammers on my friendslist. I take reports and deal with shitlords all day. Not a whole lot I can do about that.
  10. Horse

    Horse Administrator SteamRep Admin

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    insect overlords now shitlords.... what is this world coming too!
  11. DataStorm

    DataStorm Retired Staff

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    Its the same really. Shitlords are a species of insects, of the overlord type.