Accepted Report: 76561197962457473 - ([TF2] Team Fortress 2 Items)

Scam Report

Report Type: [Money] PayPal scam or scam attempt
Virtual item type involved: [TF2] Team Fortress 2 Items

Accused profile: 76561197962457473

Victim profile: 76561197989941941

What happened? Description:

This user "Mikey Sano" and another user, alias "Martin" steamid 76561198273017110, engaged in a fake middleman scam and stole the three most valuable items in my backpack.
I was attempting to sell my Strange Kritzkrieg for Paypal funds as I needed money IRL. I made a post on the Reddit subreddit r/GameTrades and "Mikey Sano" responded to me first with his Reddit account, which is u/Winter-Personality97. We chatted briefly and upon my request he left a comment on my original Reddit post which is viewable at https://www.reddit.com/r/GameTrade/.../?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3. This confirmed that he was not banned as the most common scammers are. However, he messaged me before he commented on the post.

He then added me on Steam. We sent more messages where he again asked if I was cashing out, to which I responded no. He asked if I had ever sold items for Paypal funds before and when I replied that I had not, he then asked if I would be okay with using a Reddit-approved moderator/middleman for the transaction. I did not know that this was a common scam so I agreed. He said he selected the first moderator from this page: https://www.reddit.com/r/GORedditTrades/wiki/index, alias Martin.

We (supposedly) both added Martin, who I was not previously friends with on Steam but I do not know if the two of them had any prior relationship. After I explained to Martin that we were going to use his services as a "middleman" he then added us both to a group chat.
In the group chat, I unfortunately agreed to use "Martin" as a middleman, who would receive Paypal funds from "Mikey Sano" and then would give them to me once "Mikey" received the items. I don't remember the entire conversation and as soon as "Mikey" received my items both of them blocked me on Steam, so I was kicked from the group chat and could not get any screenshots of it. This happened yesterday, May 21st.

What I do remember was that "Martin" falsified several screenshots of Paypal transactions that supposedly were sent to him from "Mikey". He claimed he was recording everything at the beginning of the conversation and explained the supposed process where he would take the Paypal funds, I would give "Mikey" the items, and then he would send me the Paypal funds I was due. After I had sent the first item I had agreed to trade, a Strange Kritzkrieg with an Allied Healing Done strange part attached, "Martin" claimed to have attempted to send the $100 in Paypal funds we had agreed on for the item. He sent a falsified screenshot of an "error" on Paypal claiming that he was unable to send me any less than $200. I mistakenly believed that this screenshot was legitimate and agreed to add two more items to the transaction: a Strange Frying Pan with a Spies Killed and Critical Kills strange parts attached, and a Strange Huntsman with a couple strange parts attached that I don't remember at the moment. Once these items were sent to "Mikey" I was immediately blocked by both users and lost all access to the group chat. I have not heard anything from either user since and I believe "Mikey" also blocked me on Reddit. I was able to take screenshots of all conversations that occurred before that group chat but unfortunately have no records of the group chat.

"Martin" has three negative recommendations on his Backpack.tf page, one of which I posted. The other two also claim that he has been involved in middleman scams before.​

Provide Evidence:

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Here is a screenshot of my Trade Inventory History with the user's name moused over, as well as a screenshot of my Paypal Activity from May 20th to now, as you requested.

The Paypal payment sent to me on the 21st by "Henry Hasty" is from a person I know in real life, not the user I am accusing of fraud.

Here are the full screenshots -- the right side is my second monitor