Accepted 76561198044186719 (Sammy the Chemist Cat)

Accused:
| steamname: Sammy the Chemist Cat
| steam3ID: [U:1:83920991]
| steamID32: STEAM_0:1:41960495
| steamID64: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198044186719
| customURL: http://steamcommunity.com/id/SamCats445
| steamrep: http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198044186719

Traded with:
| steamname: Plank S>unusuals
| steam3ID: [U:1:228059526]
| steamID32: STEAM_0:0:114029763
| steamID64: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198188325254
| customURL:
| steamrep: http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198188325254

Proof:
TF2 Outpost / User / Sammy the Chemist Cat

History - backpack.tf

History - backpack.tf

2nd time trading with a scammer

 

I admit full guilt for this transaction.

Full disclosure, I apologize if this is a bit lengthy: Since March 2015, I had opened a quickbuying trade on tf2op for strange austrailiums. I received a trade offer matching my b/o (7 keys for a SMG) and accepted the trade, thinking nothing of it. I would later sell the SMG on the marketplace. About ~2 weeks later, I received an add from a tf2op admin who explained I had purchased the SMG from a marked scammer; unfortunately, this was true as I did not bother checking the item owner on such a small item. I received a 2 week outpost ban and vowed to be more vigilant in checking my trades (I go through 100s of trades a day and had slacked off in checking item owners and such, as at the time I had 14,000 trades across 1000s of users).

During my ban, I received another offer: this time, it was a S. kritz for my unusual (as described in the report above). As I was cashing out, I was pleased to have received this offer. Likewise, I still had the burning memory of why I was serving the ban in the back of my head. This time, I told myself that I would not make the same mistake. As such, I check both the profile and the steamrep of the trader. The steamrep was clean, and the profile had no red flags of a scammer alt.

I did observe that he only had TF2 and relatively low hours (~50h), but I thought nothing of it as when I had begun trading, I also had only TF2 with a few keys and unusuals. Also, I noticed that he had stranges, holiday items, and refined metal: all indicative of a legitimate account. Usually, the scammer alts that I have encountered have <10 hours on the game, as well as only the unusual hats in their inventory.

This is where I made my error and decided to go through with the trade; after all, I was losing a few keys in value by trading my unusual while gaining an item to sell on the marketplace, beneficial since I was cashing out. I (incorrectly?) assumed that Steamrep marked alts through tracing IPs, and therefore scammer alts would be insta-marked on Steamrep. Unfortunately, this seems not to be the case.

Anyways, the trade was made. I was unaware of the fact he was a scammer alt until a person (and later, sirploko of tf2op) added me and informed me that he was a scammer alt. Again, my inattention to minute details had led to this situation. I felt horrible, as I felt that I had done my best to check if he was a scammer alt, but still failed; it felt even worse considering my first mishap had been so recent.

Since then, I have been in much thought about my actions as well as their effects on the community as a whole. I am honestly shaken by this - I had conducted over 14000 trades ever since I first started trading, and I was once vigilant in checking the histories of all items - however the increasing amount of trades for small value items (which I consider to be <50 keys) caused me to become lazy in checking the histories, and ultimately resulted in my downfall.

Therefore, I have decided to commit myself to the following actions:

1. Before a trade, I go to their bp.tf profile, tf2op profile, and steamrep profile to check if they are a scammer. (Previously I had only utilized steamrep, as that was the rep site I was "raised" on)
2. I have decided not to further trade the scammer's item, the strange kritz, due to my personal guilt about this situation. If the kritz was scammed from someone by the scammer, please tell them to connect with me and I would be happy to return it.
3. I will be open to any community opinions on how I can improve and be more viligant. (For example, I have installed steam invent helper and steamrep check Chrome extensions in order to be notified of scammers when trading)

Finally, I am very ashamed in myself for falling for this; I can only blame my own ignorance and inattention. However, I stand true to my word that I will always fight against scammers - I feel absolutely horrible that these two events happened so close to each other; as I have never really had to deal with scammers before; I had been able to recognize them and refuse to trade with them before, which may have lead me to being complacent.

If you require any more information for this report, please do not hesitate to add me or post here; I am also open to all advice on how to avoid scammers (for example, I had not known about rep.tf or this website before a few days ago).

Thank you,
Sam

 

Some information I forgot from the last post:

- I have discussed this trade as well as how to avoid trading scammer alts in the future in depth with sirploko, a tf2op admin. He recommended utilizing rep.tf, bp.tf, and outpost to see if there are any marks against the person I'm trading with.

- I have already been punished for this infraction on tf2op with a ban.

- Sirploko also recommended that I appeal the ban after a period of reflection on how I can improve my trading practices, which I am currently doing. I am also actively reaching out to discover better ways to protect myself and others from being taken advantage of by scammers and alts.

 

Under Investigation.

 

Also, I'm not sure if this would help, but I saw that the scammer alt still has my item in their inventory, while I have not traded my kritz on my own moral grounds. Would trading the items back be necessary? I have not been in contact with the scammer alt since the trade but he may agree to do a trade-back. I know this is not normal for these cases but I thought it would be helpful since

1. I would feel less guilty
2. This is often the recommend path to take in more serious (item scamming) attempts

If a mod/admin could give me their opinion on a trade back, I would be very grateful.

 

Thats the sign of an obvious Alt.

Don't trade with them again. You don't need to reverse the trade.

Conclusion:
Taking in consideration your honesty, cooperation and learning proceed- I'm going to ask N0:name to apply you a Temp Caution for Trading with obvious scammer alts.
The Caution can be appealed in two weeks. Take it as a final warning.

@Platinum , Thanks for the report!

 

Thank you for the quick verdict, I feel this is fair.

I added you to discuss how I can avoid trading with scammer alts in the future, if you don't mind sharing some of your time with me.