Accepted Report: 76561198151822916 - ([Steam] Steam Games)

Scam Report

Report Type: [Other] Any other fraudulent behavior
Virtual item type involved: [Steam] Steam Games

Accused profile: 76561198151822916

Victim profile: 76561198352957086

What happened? Description:

TLDR: SAKHAZKY (https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198151822916) scammed me (https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198352957086) out of 40 keys. They agreed to the total sum of 130 keys in exchange for my Adventure Time: Secret of the Nameless Kingdom steam gift. We agreed a forward payment of 90 keys (which was paid on the 12th January) and the steam gift was sent in exchange. 40 keys were then to be paid by the 7th February (within a month of the accepted deal proposal).

The current date as of the writing of this post is the 19th February and the user in question has made it clear to me several times he has no intention of paying this 40 key debt. For this, he has given me several reasons for which he is unable/unwilling to pay this amount, and I will discuss this in further detail in this report. The user SAKHAZKY has unfriended me (several times), most recently being thus far permanent, in order to escape the situation. Luckily I saved the appropriate documentation. All screenshots are in chronological order and cover the full breadth of our conversations.

Full report: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KoXVjJqWEu4ldBe78anAm3NhJ04eS5gaofhmPH7t520/edit​

Provide Evidence:

Unfortunately, the user has blocked me so I can not provide screenshots with the link address as you are asking me to.

1. Proof of the initial trade agreement:

https://barter.vg/u/633a/o/3876667/

Screenshots 1-9 on Google Doc

2. Proof of the broken agreement or scam attempt

Screenshot 24 on Google Doc

3. Proof that you verified the identity of the person

The attached screenshot showcases the link of the accused user. As the trade was too big to fit on one window without losing so much res. Full image (but low res) on google doc (Page 11)​

TLDR: SAKHAZKY (https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198151822916) scammed me (https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198352957086) out of 40 keys. They agreed to the total sum of 130 keys in exchange for my Adventure Time: Secret of the Nameless Kingdom steam gift. We agreed a forward payment of 90 keys (which was paid on the 12th January) and the steam gift was sent in exchange. 40 keys were then to be paid by the 7th February (within a month of the accepted deal proposal).


The current date as of the writing of this post is the 19th February and the user in question has made it clear to me several times he has no intention of paying this 40 key debt. For this, he has given me several reasons for which he is unable/unwilling to pay this amount, and I will discuss this in further detail in this report. The user SAKHAZKY has unfriended me (several times), most recently being thus far permanent, in order to escape the situation. Luckily I saved the appropriate documentation. All screenshots (1-23) are in chronological order and cover the full breadth of our conversations.


INITIALLY…

The user SAKHAZKY proposed the offer: https://barter.vg/u/633a/o/3876667/ on the 7th January

I happily accepted the offer under the assumption that he would be able to pay the amount in full at the time of proposal. However, this was not the case as you can see in the following conversations:





As you can see. He explicitly states that “a full month is the maximum” amount of time he would need in order to provide payment of 130 keys.


SAKHAZKY states “do you trust my Steam reputation to drop Gift in exchange for them and then I’ll pay the rest?”. I was not comfortable at the time, and fortunately with the power of hindsight, I’m glad to say I was able to receive 90 keys at least, instead of losing the full 130 keys that would have probably happened if this user had his way.


As you can see in the above screenshot, the user SAKHAZKY EXPLICITLY ASKS (for the later mutually agreed terms of our trade): “80 keys for a gift, and the rest are on loan”.

I highlight this because he would later falsely claim that I was the one who pressured him into accepting this agreement, hence why he would not provide the agreed payment - even though HE WAS THE ONE WHO SUGGESTED SUCH A PROPOSAL IN THE FIRST PLACE.



It was at this point of our conversation that we agreed to the trade. I said “If you manage to get 90 keys I will accept this in exchange for the gift. The remaining 40 keys out of the total 130 keys in this trade you can pay me back within the month”

As you can he see he agreed to these terms: “Done! Received…. Agreed!”



I was comfortable making this proposal because despite his relatively low amount of reputation, upon inspection of his profile, it appeared that he was a serious collector - having Neverwinter Nights Platinum and Angry Birds Space on his account.


WARNING SIGNS…


As you can see in the same above screenshot, I noticed that one of his trades on barter was disputed.


https://barter.vg/u/5ab9/o/3874183/


As I was not privy to the situation, I have little information to discuss here. But I mention this in order to provide additional characterisation of this user. As Barter (user) pointed out in his mediation, the user SAKHAZKY has done the same charade before - deceiving users with region locked games (https://www.steamtrades.com/user/76561198151822916#kM53H). Their deceitful, and generally ill maligned nature was only beginning to manifest and would rear its ugly head later on in our interactions.

The above screenshot details the initial trade that was carried out on the 12th January. For contextual purposes, it is important to note that it took SAKHAZKY only 5 days to gather 35 keys (as you can see in screenshots 5 and 9 the user themself notes they had 55 keys on the 7th January).


I make it EXPLICITLY clear MULTIPLE times that upon completion of this initial trade SAKHAZKY would still owe me 40 keys, to be paid within a month (by 7th February).


The user says “I will definitely send them”.


I state the terms of what would happen if he is UNABLE to produce within a month - I will bump up the price to 45 keys, and I would leave a negative rep.


The user says “Yes, quite honestly)”



I ask him to confirm a THIRD time: “You agree to these terms? I need an affirmative answer”


The user replies: “Yes, I accept your terms”


As you can see I accepted the INITIAL trade of 90 keys in exchange for my Adventure Time: Secret of the Nameless Kingdom steam gift, with 40 keys to be paid within a month (by 7th February). The trade itself is shown below, and the user confirms the acceptance of this trade and their receival of my steam gift.



As you can see in the above screenshot there was no communication issue, we both perfectly understood the terms of the trade at this point.



The above screenshot does not concern the scam but it does provide further context to the situation and better characterisation of SAKHAZKY. The user asks me about my Adventure Time: Finn and Jake investigations gift and offers 300-400 tf2 keys to purchase said gift. I mention this because later on the user would claim to no longer have the money to provide payment of 40 measly keys to complete our trade.

THE SCAM...



On the 28th January, I provided the user with a courtesy warning regarding the imminent debt collection.

It was this point that the user ATTEMPTED to change the terms of our trade.


The user SAKHAZKY attempted to mention another user selling the 75 keys and attempted to persuade me to purchase from him to allow the user to keep his 40 keys. I declined.


I declined again… and again… and again


The user then UNFRIENDED ME to attempt to escape the situation, but then shortly added me back.



And I declined again here…



Again the user continues to try and change the terms of our trade - which I should remind the reader he agreed to FIVE times in total (barter proposal, initial agreement, three times before completion of initial trade on 12th January).



At this point I naturally grew frustrated at the user’s apparent lack of self-awareness or moral obligation.


The user claimed they were “ready to defend my position on the barter”. This was the FIRST suggestion I was given that they would not pay the debt.

On the 28th January, 9 days before the upcoming debt collection deadline, the user attempted to pass off another excuse for why he was unable to provide payment.

The user claims “prices for tf2 have recently increased by more than 30%, so I cannot fulfil my current obligations to you if I wanted to”.


I find it curious that the user is unable to fulfil his obligation of the remaining 40 tf2 keys that he agreed to as early as 7th January, when he is perfectly happy to offer 400 tf2 keys for another one of my steam gifts on the 20th January (eight days beforehand). As I also mentioned in my comments towards the user, he was perfectly happy TRADING WITH OTHER USERS in tf2 keys.


https://barter.vg/u/5ab9/o/3898120 (22nd January)

https://barter.vg/u/5ab9/o/3903049/ (24th January)

https://barter.vg/u/5ab9/o/3911550/ (30th January?)

https://barter.vg/u/5ab9/o/3923091/ (6th February)

https://barter.vg/u/5ab9/o/3926542/ (8th February)


These are just the trades that are visible on barter for anyone to see. I also have other traders informing me that he is proposing EVEN MORE offers in tf2 keys privately in DMs. I respect the privacy of those traders so I will not post the evidence of those conversations in this public forum - however it is available for request from the moderators who are reviewing this report.


Even if we disregard all of the evidence that he clearly has the money to fulfil his obligation. I quickly fact checked whether or not tf2 key prices really had increased. This is completely FALSE. As you can see in the below screenshot, prices had already lowered by the 28th January (when the user made the false claim) to even lower than when the user initially proposed the offer (7th January). The fact that he even was able to offer 400 tf2 keys on the 20th January, when prices of tf2 keys were peaking, provides further evidence that the user clearly has the funds to provide payment - but has simply chosen not to.



And EVEN IF we discount every single bit of evidence I have outlined above, the simple fact of the matter is that the user SAKHAZKY agreed to the trade - FIVE TIMES - and should not be trading with any other user if they are unable to fulfil their obligations due to an ‘apparent lack of money’.


As you can see in the above screenshot, SAKHAZKY is yet again attempting to falsely spin another web of lies that I ‘forced him to agree to the trade’. Yet again, as I highlighted under Screenshot 6, the user was the first person to propose such a loan agreement. Furthermore, quite simply, don’t propose a trade, don’t agree to a trade, don’t FIRMLY agree to a trade three times no less, if you are not willing to follow through.


The user has since unfriended and blocked me again to try and escape the situation…


So to recap:


They agreed to the total sum of 130 keys in exchange for my Adventure Time: Secret of the Nameless Kingdom steam gift. We agreed a forward payment of 90 keys (which was paid on the 12th January) and the steam gift was sent in exchange.
40 keys were then to be paid by the 7th February (within a month of the accepted deal proposal). No such payment has thus been received and it is currently the 19th February.


Excuses SAKHAZKY has given for not being able to pay:

‘I am not able to afford the payment because of TF2 key price increases’:

• User continues to trade with others in TF2 keys
• User offered me 400 keys, at the peak of TF2 key prices, then is unable to afford 40 keys 8 days later?
• TF2 key prices, quite simply, have not increased (comparing rates when he initially proposed the offer and when he suggested they had)

‘You forced me to trade and was blinded by your own greed’

• User was the one who proposed the barter offer (130 keys in exchange for Adventure Time: Secret of the Nameless Kingdom)
• User was the one who initially proposed a loan agreement (Screenshot 6)
• User was the one who agreed to receive the gift without ensuring he could pay for it in its entirety, user was the one who was blinded by his own greed
• User agreed to the trade FIVE times, explicitly

Throughout this whole process, I have been nothing but patient with the user who has continued to lie and cheat his way through the process.


This characterisation is further supported by the negative rep left by other users who have interacted with SAKHAZKY, who by their own accord, have reached the same conclusion that this user is deceitful, manipulative, and indeed a scammer.

Due to personal reasons, I was unable to submit this evidence sooner. As you can see I had prepared this all the way back in February.

The screenshots provided cover the full breadth of our conversations. Since then I have been permanently blocked by the user and have no expressway of contacting them. If the issue is that you need to verify that I did not receive the remaining 40 TF2 keys in this timeframe of 5 months, then you can look no further than the barter offer which failed.

https://barter.vg/u/633a/o/3876667/

Since barter requires users to log in to verify their use, the comments made in this thread are verifiably from the same user. He makes an adamant comment that he would not pay, and he has made no further comment indicating that he has paid even the slightest bit of compensation.

I have made several trades in the last 5 months, covering around 3 pages. But of course, the difficulty is that I am unable to cover many of the trades in one screenshot (as you can see above). I am more than happy to record a video of me scrolling through my trade history for you - since that functionally fits the same role. Or we can do it in real-time and screen share.

Furthermore, we EXPLICITLY agreed that he would need to pay me the 40 keys within a month (Screenshots 12-15). As he did not produce the keys within a month, surely my burden of proof would be to provide screenshots of this timeframe 12/01/21 (when we agreed and completed first half of the trade) to the 12/02/21 (give or take a week).

First contact was made 2pm on the 7th Jan.

I sent my end of the trade screenshot 3-4 (Unknown package 43941 - https://steamdb.info/sub/43491/ ). As you can see timestamps match up with previously submitted chat logs.

Cont.

Cont. 2

Cont. 3 - Having fun?

Cont. 4

Cont. 5

Cont. 6

Cont. 7

So sorry for making you go through all this inconvenience. I really do appreciate all your help. Please let me know if there is anything else, any other evidence I can provide.