Trades with Scammer Policy, End of Life

Tio José das Vacas · Jan 4, 2016

Hello. Per SR policy we are now going to reject all trading with Scammer reports. Note that we still accept brokering for scammer reports. All appeals regarding this offence are going to be accepted and reports rejected.

As you can see here: http://forums.steamrep.com/threads/steamrep-policy-changes-for-2016.119548/

As probably the biggest change, we plan to remove the policy that can escalate to a ban or caution in "Trades with Scammer" situations. This will apply to existing bans and also to partner bans and cautions.
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And here: http://forums.steamrep.com/threads/policy-change-trades-with-scammer-policy-end-of-life.119528/

What is happening as part of this change?
Not taggable anymore. No new bans or cautions will be tracked on SteamRep for cases where a normal trader (i.e. not green tagged) trades, sells, or purchases items from a banned user.
Retroactive. This is retroactive. Those banned or cautioned for this offense should appeal and, if there are no other offenses or issues, the appeal will be granted. If you had no other offenses, you should appeal even if your previous appeal was denied. (Use this reason during your appeal.)
Partners included. This applies to SteamRep partner bans and cautions as well. Those appeals should be granted by partners if trading with a scammer is the trader's only offense. (Obviously communities can still ban whoever they want on their own sites for any reason they want-- this only applies to their marks on SR.)
Brokering still bannable. It is absolutely still the case that SteamRep and communities should ban for knowingly brokering or partnering with a scammer or hijacker. Such a ban should include evidence of active brokering for or partnering with a banned user. Evidence for these bans cannot solely focus on purchasing an item or two from a banned profile.
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We talked a lot about this type of reports and we came to the same conclusion as SR:

Doesn't focus on fraud. SteamRep's database is used to alert the community of profiles that were reported for fraud. While trading with scammers can sometimes be a smoking gun to find a scammer's partners, multiple cases have come up where the only offense was buying from a scammer without firm evidence of direct fraud by the user.
Unintended consequences. The knock-on effect of this policy made honest traders fear being banned for everyday trading and mistakes. While we do want people to check SteamRep before trades, the reason should be to protect themselves from being defrauded and not to protect themselves from being banned by a trade community.
Distracts from core mission. Progress is difficult to make in other areas due to responding to the frustration of the community and the regular witchhunts that arise.
Game inconsistencies. This policy is very difficult to investigate and enforce fairly across Dota2 and CSGO, due to lesser awareness and fewer available tools to help. As a result, enforcement / investigations were inconsistent across different games, making policy decisions more complex.
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I hope everyone understands. Have a nice day!

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Trades with Scammer Policy, End of Life

Tio José das Vacas Senior Trade Moderator

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Trades with Scammer Policy, End of Life

Tio José das Vacas Senior Trade Moderator

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