Accepted Report: 76561197985412985 - ([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: 76561197985412985

Victim profile: 76561198038856993

What happened? Description:

Accused added victim and offered 1200 USD through Paypal in return for vast majority of victim's TF2 inventory (see attached chatlog and screencaps thereof).

Upon completion of the trade offer, accused promptly removed and blocked victim on steam without honoring their end of the agreement (see attached Paypal screencaps, note the lack of any payment rendered). Cue sad violin.

Let me know if there's further evidence needed to verify something, though I think I added all that was pertinent. Once evidence is deemed satisfactory, please kindly remove any attached images with personal information included. Thanks.​

Provide Evidence:

View attachment 814425 View attachment 814424 View attachment 814423 View attachment 814422 View attachment 814421 View attachment 814420 View attachment 814419 View attachment 814419 View attachment 814420 View attachment 814421 View attachment 814422 View attachment 814423 View attachment 814424 View attachment 814425 ​

Monday, January 1, 2024

[1/1/2024, 02:43]
Shoogi:
Hey there

[Monday 02:43]
Dietner:
ohi
i uh, hah, just saw your comment on a random screenshot i didn't even realize was like... public? or whatever
(no idea how steam handles this s✿✿✿ anymore i'll be honest.)
and figured it'd be rude to not at least give some kind of response.
so, in pursuit of as much clarity as possible right off the bat - i didn't think my current uh, steam inventory was even publicly visible at the moment much less expecting offers in it lol.

[1/1/2024, 02:46]
Shoogi:
That’s fair, well as far as I’m aware you still have the Sniper Stranges and such, Max’s head and couple of Unusuals.

[Monday 02:46]
Dietner:
i haven't really touched the game more than a dozen times in a year or three, so there's a rough idea of how much i care about tf2 summed up in a line, after the whole bot fiasco
right, yeah that vaguely rings a bell

[1/1/2024, 02:46]
Shoogi:
Yeah sadly I don’t see them ever getting rid of the bots
Classic valve

[Monday 02:47]
Dietner:
i'll mention right now that a good deal of what's sitting there has some degree of sentimental value and i'm in a 'decent' enough monetary position that i wouldn't feel massively pressured to take any particular buyout offer on it on the spot
and uh, being the time of year that it is, i'm a little drunk at present so of course i won't be rushing into any transaction of note, certainly not one with over a 3 digit number in real-life dollars involved
having said that:
as stated, i don't really play this game anymore.
so i might take a look at things in the morning and see how i feel about the whole deal, maybe fiddle over particular things and determine if theres any real residual feelings about... anything in my bp (doubtful)
and uh, maybe entertain the offer from there :y
is that an acceptable response for the time being?

[1/1/2024, 02:49]
Shoogi:
That sounds good to me and yeah completely acceptable
We can go about it sometime tomorrow or over the next few days to see how you feel about it

[Monday 02:50]
Dietner:
alright, works for me

[1/1/2024, 02:50]
Shoogi:
Thanks for getting back to me. Happy New Years!

[Monday 02:50]
Dietner:
again i don't want to overly get your hopes up or anything because again, i can be kind of illogically sentimental about stupid s✿✿✿ like virtual hats and etc.
but i wanted to extend the courtesy of a measured response and acknowledge the polite reaching-out that you did.

[1/1/2024, 02:51]
Shoogi:
Yeah that’s fine^^

[Monday 02:51]
Dietner:
o/
Happy new year's, and such!

[1/1/2024, 02:51]
Shoogi:
I appreciate you being straight forward and looking to hear from you again!

Wednesday, January 3, 2024

[1/3/2024, 17:20]
Shoogi:
Hey, feel free to re-add me if you decide to go ahead with the offer. Have a great one!

Friday, January 5, 2024

[15:54]
Dietner:
Yeah, my bad on not getting back to you in a timely manner. :i [generic excuse]originally i was skeptical about the matter, since1) "wow this feels incredibly fishy to get a trade offer on a screenshot from six years ago. what are the odds it's even in earnest?"2) i dont trust paypal much as they can be shady and anti-user seemingly out of nowhere3) i dont really *need* the money and "what if i get back into tf2 some time?"but i couldn't find anything meaningful when snooping around, i've never had a serious issue with paypal, and - being perfectly honest with myself - its been years, i'm done with tf2. i've moved on so if the original offer stands, i'd be willing to try and wrap it up over the weekend, while maybe nitpicking over this or that minor item i'd prefer to exclude from the trade (small s✿✿✿, a few cheap stranges perhaps - and we'd adjust the original offer, naturally) and go from there(also i dont remember how steam handles messages from non-friends so uh, presumably you'll be able to see this)

Tuesday, January 9, 2024

[21:08]
Shoogi:
Hello
Is it about the offer I made earlier this month?

[21:15]
Dietner:
hey hey.
oh hold on i had a thing typed up before i realized i couldn't send messages unless you were friended.
one sec
Yeah, my bad on not getting back to you in a timely manner. :i [generic excuse]originally i was skeptical about the matter, since1) "wow this feels incredibly fishy to get a trade offer on a screenshot from six years ago. what are the odds it's even in earnest?"2) i dont trust paypal much as they can be shady and anti-user seemingly out of nowhere3) i dont really *need* the money and "what if i get back into tf2 some time?"but i couldn't find anything meaningful when snooping around, i've never had a serious issue with paypal, and - being perfectly honest with myself - its been years, i'm done with tf2. i've moved on so if the original offer stands, i'd be willing to try and wrap it up over the weekend, while maybe nitpicking over this or that minor item i'd prefer to exclude from the trade (small s✿✿✿, a few cheap stranges perhaps - and we'd adjust the original offer, naturally) and go from there
procrastination is a heck of a drug and such.
but yeah, sure, f✿✿✿ it; i think it was a more than reasonable offer
and you dont seem super fishy all things considered, so.
uh, ignore the 'over the weekend' bit since it's now tuesday lol.

[21:20]
Shoogi:
I wanna read all of it real bad but I’m at the gym, I should be home in 15 mins and I can read all of it.

[21:20]
Dietner:
no rush, get them gains

[21:20]
Shoogi:


[21:56]
Shoogi:
Hey, so sorry for the wait. Just got home.
And thanks for getting back to me, I’m completely fine with sticking to the same offer really and if you wanna keep a couple of small stuff that’s cool too. I’ll stick to the original offer regardless.
Let me know what/if you wanna keep anything so I can exclude it from the trade offer, I’ll need your PayPal email or http://PayPal.me link as well

[22:01]
Dietner:
right right. let me dig up my paypal from somewhere
oh, email will be [email protected]
hrm, i know steam is finicky now about trade offers with people you havent had friended for ages already
tbh i wouldn't really know what the 'general expectations' are re: items to irl-bux trades so you may have to enlighten me somewhat there.

[22:07]
Shoogi:
Since it's large at night there aren't usually any delays with trade-offers but it could take maybe 5-6 mins to go through usually since it's over 500 items.

[22:07]
Dietner:
huh

[22:08]
Shoogi:
late*

[22:08]
Dietner:
well i guess i'll start sifting through things and start working on a trade offer of some sort then

[22:08]
Shoogi:
Do you re-call what the original offer was? I completely forgot
$900? or $1000
I just can't seem to find it and unsure if you removed the comment lol

[22:09]
Dietner:
found it
https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd....623/258139E32285CE26F1C3ECC11E157549E2AAC8EA/

[22:09]
Shoogi:
$1200, that's right. my bad.
[email protected] would be the email correct? just wanna confirm

[22:10]
Dietner:
yes, that's correct

[22:10]
Shoogi:
And you're ok with USD?

[22:10]
Dietner:
being an american, yes
though i'll ask that you not make any transaction just yet on the off-chance if you were planning to

[22:11]
Shoogi:
Yeah, I'll have to set up the trade-offer but I have an extension that makes it easier
Just wanted to confirm the details

[22:11]
Dietner:
i see, that makes sense
speaking of, i have to assume there's some kind of convenient data-scraping tool that collates info of like... steam profiles that havent played tf2 in a while over a certain value of backpacks
i have to say its a pretty smart approach if thats your thing
im just throwing out a guess, looking at that random steamrep thread where someone ripped you off for a whopping 2 bucks or so

[22:13]
Shoogi:
LOL yeah
that guy was a ✿✿✿✿✿✿, sorry not sorry.

[22:13]
Dietner:
oh let me set my profile and such to public for a bit.
there

[22:14]
Shoogi:
You don't really have to if you don't want to, I can send a trade-offer regardless since it lets me open it
Thanks

[22:14]
Dietner:
ah

[22:15]
Shoogi:
I can set up the offer now, is there anything you wanted to keep or should I send it for everything?

[22:15]
Dietner:
uh... hold on lemme poke around a bit more, just started the game
likely nothing significant
a couple basic weapon drops per class might be nice, i spose; sometimes my friends bother me to play with them once in a blue moon
i guess i could go class-by-class... uuhh
oh maybe leave out one or two of the renamed stock weapons for like, stock sniper rifle, scattergun, knife etc i dont think those should be worth much at all
stranges i generally dont care about though

[22:20]
Shoogi:
Sure thing, that's fine with me. Will need a couple mins to do that

[22:20]
Dietner:
why the f✿✿✿ do i have an unused ring
when did i BUY this
do you want this

[22:20]
Shoogi:
LOL, I'll take it if you don't want it. they're hard to sell to be fair

[22:20]
Dietner:
yeah i can see that.
i won't twist your arm over it
everything else i basically dont care about tbh.
basically just wanna be able to maybe hop back in at some point whenever if i feel like it, and still have a flare gun to shoot people with etc
stranges, cosmetics, whatever i largely dont care about.
alright yeah thats p much all i got to say on that front
now i'm looking through things, i dont really feel as sentimental or whatever as i feared

[22:24]
Shoogi:
You're good lol, sorry didn't mean to ignore any of the messages just wanna make sure i don't accidentally click on the stuff you wanted to keep

[22:24]
Dietner:
nono you're fine.

[22:27]
Shoogi:
Almost done! couple mins mins

[22:27]
Dietner:
yep, don't worry about me waiting on you or anything
just wrapping up evening things, so no hurry.

[22:31]
Shoogi:
Shoogi (added to make 1200 offer on bp) sent you a new trade offerView trade offer
Trade-offer has been sent, will let you know once it goes through. once again sorry for the delay just wanted to make sure i don't take anything you didn't want me to. I left all the regular weapons along with the re-named weapons so if you ever wanna hop on you have them all

[22:32]
Dietner:
alright, looks good to me for the most part chief.

[22:34]
Shoogi:
Sounds good, will notify you the second they showed up on my end

[22:34]
Dietner:
>unable to confirm, please try again later. (HTTP OK)

[22:34]
Shoogi:
Should go through, it's a regular steam bug

[22:34]
Dietner:
i see little has changed since i stopped messing around with steam trading.
ah

[22:34]
Shoogi:
If you close the app and re-open it they confirmation should be gone lol

[22:34]
Dietner:
worth a shot

[22:34]
Shoogi:
So let's give it a few mins and see if it worked lol

[22:35]
Dietner:
mmyeah it's not asking me to confirm anything now.

[22:36]
Shoogi:
yeah should be good, just need to give it a few mins

[22:36]
Dietner:
maaan i'll kinda miss the edgy spy s✿✿✿ i had though, heh.
way back when i used to have no other outlet for my leisure time but to f✿✿✿ around as spy and try to learn the cool-kid youtube tricks.
and of course you have to look like a total a✿✿✿✿✿✿ while you do them, so

[22:37]
Shoogi:
Were you a comp player lol

[22:37]
Dietner:
black paint assassin creed hood mandatory.

[22:37]
Shoogi:
I used to love watching tf2 comp

[22:37]
Dietner:
ech, i dicked around in a few seasons on steel teams (as demo of all things) nothing significant
and while i did pretty well on a personal level i dont think i ever really went above 'pubstar/above average dm for my bracket' levels
which again, steel is or was kind of swamped with pubstars, munchkins, and general low tier dickery so it's not really notable
even so!
i dont think one can spend close to 6k hours playing one game and not be *sort of decent* at it
at the time i had some... 'interesting' work obligations which led to me not really capable of committing to most scheduled games which suckedi think my brother went on to play in a few more seasons of comp than me (we were on the same team for a bit which was fun) though i dont think he went significantly further, mostly it was just something besides pubstomping and the opportunity to get a bit of a deeper understanding of the game we obsessed of
over*
anyway, looks like it went though as far as i can see here
huh, i thought steam had a thing where they put trade offers on hold for a while if you weren't already friends since forever.
ah well

[22:59]
Dietner:
hmm.
https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd....70E2A12DE0E4CC567F5676C9E472D48FE9/[/spoiler]

Alright, well, my Activity looks like first image attached at the moment. His URL can be seen via the Trade History screen, though (second image). Not sure how to give you more than that unless Steam is just being glitchy with Activity or something. Let me know if there's something else that's preferable.

Okay. Is there possibly someone on the staff that I could add on Steam for a few minutes, to work through that more expediently?

I have a hard time believing there's only this one narrow method of accused ID verification that seems to hinge on an activity feed not being arbitrarily blank. Is this a common hitch in the process? Maybe some weird privacy setting I have enabled somewhere?

Surely they don't have to be friended still to show up in activity...?

From what I can tell after experimenting with removing and re-adding friends, it seems to me like users added while my profile is private don't show up in the 'My Activity' page regardless of other settings.

Okay, thank you for the extra leeway offered. I dunno man, I could easily stream or record my screen of me clicking on the convo (the message window is open on my desktop) and show that it links to his profile right now.

I know there's a whole preferred procedure to all this which is very neat and orderly, and I want to respect that - really I do - but I'm just running out of ideas here.

I'm dead certain that if you could see what I see, there wouldn't be any question; it's just a matter of transferring that info in a way that's deemed acceptable, which is where we're hitting a wall.

Here is the problem as I see it, correct me if I'm wrong:

I have not yet proven beyond any doubt that the posted convo is from the same user as the one in my trade history. The profile in the convo could, theoretically, be a throwaway account I made after the fact, to accuse this guy of going back on an agreed exchange - where in actuality, maybe he paid me through a different payment system (or hell, maybe I decided to give away my inventory to frame this guy?). Sure, whatever. Frankly I think this is an insane thing for the process to get hung up over, but I can at least see the argument.

An accepted way to prove that Person-in-Convo is Person-in-Trade, then, is to show that I added them via Steam's My Activity page in a browser, with their URL visible through there. We've established that this activity feed doesn't want to cooperate with this whatsoever, and in fact seems to wipe itself every day or so(?!), so that's sadly out of the question.


The one way I can figure out how to give you what you're asking for is by simply clicking on the chat window in Steam and using View Profile, which takes me directly there with no problem at all. Unfortunately, I don't think I can do that with a single screencap. So, something's gotta give. Unless there's some obscure method I'm unaware of, there are a couple ways I can see how this frustrating debacle might end:

- I upload a ten-second video to Youtube or something where I demonstrate the aforementioned method of accessing the profile in question. This would be extremely easy and only hinges on the staff's willingness to accept what is - I'm guessing - considered a third-party platform being used (since it seems like I can't just upload video files here).
- I somehow squish a .gif file of the same thing down under 3MB since I'm seeing that's an accepted file type here. I recorded an instance of this just now and it was... 30MB, so that might not be terribly easy to do while keeping everything legible. Maybe I could mess with the aspect ratio on my screen...
- We throw our hands in the air, say "screw it ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯", and decide this guy didn't actually do anything wrong. This is even easier than the other options, but as much as I'd like to forget the whole embarrassing affair by now, it'd be lazy of me to not at least try to prevent this user from gleefully screwing other folks over with no recourse.

Awaiting your reply. Thanks again for your considerable patience with all this.

Okay. Attached are screencaps of Trade History, Inventory History, Paypal Activity over the last 90 days (with exact dates shown), and Paypal profile (with real name and phone number obscured by a Steam window). Just let me know if there's anything I can try to provide further or with better clarity.

Well! I got a Community Message recently and it now looks like the accused has been trade-banned on Steam, so that's something.