πŸ’©

3 years ago*

Comment has been collapsed.

I'd lol, but unfortunately I know someone is bound to actually get caught by this. :/

3 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

jeez i hope not. the only part that kinda surprised me was when i looked up the steam employee account, and found out it was an actual steam employee. threw me off a little bit. at least anyone who sees this will know better in the future.

3 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

There's a Discord server for the /r/Steam subreddit and a good dozen people, mostly children, come in every single day who've either given up their accounts, or ask weird questions that are telling that they're being scammed (is chris coomer a real valve employee? Is the $50 I sent to verify my account refunded?). The crazy part is when these people come in for help, because they're suspicious, are explicitly told they're being scammed, and they proceed to give up their account/items anyways. You can only lead a horse to water I suppose...

Anyways, the next parts of this scam are (from interactions gleaned on that Discord server):
The Discord guy, if asked for proof of being a Valve employee, uses Inspect element to paste some HTML and text on your profile page to make it look like he has special employee tools, and records a video of it (so it can't be a photoshop, cause it's a video and that totally can't be faked bro).

The Discord guy uses password recovery to reset a user's account password, but they need the code sent to the email to actually do the reset. So they ask the person for the code from their email and their mobile auth code as part of 'verification'. [Victim's account is stolen].

They also sometimes ask for pieces of information like your transaction history. This kind of stuff is information they can send to Valve later on as evidence that they're the rightful account owner.

Victim is told they need to get a gift card for like $50 to verify their account. Victim is lead to believe their account is locked so that's why they can't login now.

So they steal your account and then extort you for money. Pretty vile and evil, especially since most of the people gullible enough to believe them are literal children.

3 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

man, that's gotta hurt hearing from recently scammed people, asking if they're gonna get their money back. i'd hate to be the person that tells them they're out of luck. i wish people would stop falling for these things so the whole industry would die out. gotta say, that's pretty clever if they can hook you with the whole discord thing. tweaking the html in their browser to make it look like they have access. i imagine if you believe steam support will chat with you on discord, then you've already fell for it.
thanks for explaining the rest of the scam though. my mind doesn't work like that so i would never have figured it out, but i like knowing how things work. whether or not i'm going to use that knowledge.

3 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Isnt it against the rules to call out, even if it would happen the user is not a member of this community?

3 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

idk, i'll censor it if a mod says so, but i think it'll be fine. calling out an sg user for taking too long to leave feedback is much different than notifying people about a scammer that was trying to steal my steam account.

3 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Scammers often use stolen accounts that are later returned to the user or copy the details from other legitimate users. If either of those two is the case here, your post with the username and profile could result in harassment targeted at an innocent person.

3 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

actually just learned they're impersonating someone else. there's a legit account with the same username. they've had scammer status on steamrep.com for 1274 days, so i don't think this anything new for this particular account.

3 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Glad you didn't fall for it, though I'm pretty sure I've read something very similar to this a while back here on SG. ;)

Edit: Found it

3 years ago*
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

ah now that i'm reminded of it, i totally remember that thread. i guess some of these scammers are having a hard time coming up with new tricks.

3 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

random friend request > decline

thank me later

3 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

This πŸ‘†

3 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Hiding inventory also decreases the amount of random invites.

3 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Deleted

This comment was deleted 2 years ago.

3 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Looks like heyday above me is on the ball.

3 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Level 70, 10+ games.

Ahhh, yes ! the scammer starter pack

3 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Deleted

This comment was deleted 2 years ago.

3 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

I got this from somebody who's been on my friends list for a while, so it threw me, and the only link they sent was to a legit valve employee profile (didn't click it directly). I'm not on discord, tried contacting the valve person on steam, but friends list full, no way to leave comment on profile, so asked the guy to screenshot his chat with said valve employee so I can send it to support. he obviously didn't do it, unfriended me, so I contacted steam support, attached our conversation and they said there's no report, etc.

3 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

This is so involved lmao. Basically why I don’t accept random friend requests. If I do get one, I check SG if I’ve won something or if they won something from me previously. If the user isn’t on SG at all, I ignore it. As of yet, not a single random request has come from SG

3 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Just reply: "Sorry I'm too busy playing games right now. Tell Valve I love them."

3 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Birthday: 21 Jun - Zodiac Sign: Taurus

Yeah... right.

3 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

hah, that's hilarious.. good catch. dude can't even get his zodiac signs correct.

3 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Deleted

This comment was deleted 2 years ago.

3 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Deleted

This comment was deleted 1 year ago.

3 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

you know the drill, random friend request, accept it

lemme stop you right there

3 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Two people tried scamming with this exact same opening lines just 2 days apart. The second time I was like, at least come up with different scenarios man.
Anyway, it's great you didn't fall victim to it, and hopefully no one else does either.

3 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

A few months ago someone tried something similar and insisted a lot to add the other guy that would ask for my password and would solve everything, I just blocked him

3 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Not new, just a variant on the usal "accidental report" scam. I'd guess they're just trying to take it outside of Steam so that Valve don't have their own record of the message history. "Proof" of a chat elsewhere can obviously be provided but it wouldn't be hard to doctor it especially as Discord as a web version as well.

3 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

I spilled my drink at "can i just give you my steam password or something.." :D
I wonder why did they not take this option, their plan seems to be more difficult

reported their account with your screenshots, hopefully steam can get them banned

3 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

+1. We should report andreeeeeww for lost drinks. ;)

Wait, is it 4 or 5 e's.... Oh.... Ok, edited.

3 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

ran into this like two years ago. they sent me a link to what another proflie saying to add them and they were a valve employee to talk about my report. reported them both and moved on

3 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

I would remind you that you are supposed to blur out the scammer's name when posting screenshots. We do not "name and shame" on SteamGifts. "Calling out" another user on SteamGifts is grounds for suspension, and the Mods should have directed you to correct the situation. Seeing as how a significant amount of time has passed without any of the other Mods noticing, however, I will simply leave this reminder and ask you make the correction as is feasible.

2 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

tbh, i really don't understand the logic behind it in this case. they're branded as a scammer per steamrep as of a few years ago, plus they aren't a member of this community. in my opinion, it would be better left up to warn others, but i'll go ahead and delete it.

2 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

In general, the reason sites do this is because while it's obvious to you, mods have no way of knowing if you've faked screenshots and even if it only takes 2 minutes to verify that it's true that's still two minutes spend on something that isn't pertinent to them or the site. They feel it's easier to have a blanket no naming rule than to have to deal with drawing a line, especially when a lot of users will interpret that line differently and lead to more people doing it and more mod work required.

2 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Warning others against a scam is fine. Pursuing a vendetta against a particular user is not. If you feel someone needs to be punished here on SG, you contact Support. If corrective action is warranted on another site, then you do it on that other site. The logic seems clear to me.

2 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

no idea how you made the leap to assume i was pursuing a vendetta against the guy, and i already stated this person isn't a member of sg. nowhere did i suggest that any action (other than maybe being reported, which i had already done) should be taken against the person. not that a whole lot could be done, his comments section was already littered with spam. i don't know, maybe i'm not nefariously creative enough. it wasn't a call-out, it was a warning and an example of how someone could bait you into a scam. only reason i left the name in is because i saw literally no reason to actively protect the scammer.

2 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

didnt see the full original report, just the icon its now displayed .

obviusly i have nothing against you or nothing similar.
but i understand the rules like this:
if show the name of the user account, many people can go to that account and make the steam "inform this account for fraud/pishing etc (reports)" that options that steam gives to all users.
you are not responsable for what others do, of course, but if this user Is a real scammer it not on SG mod members to evaluate, and your "i'm warning others" can be fake, maybe you have a personal problem with this particular user, and you are making a "vendetta" hoping others to report the user in steam, and making him lose his account or similar.

i think that Is why the rule exists, and thats why the mod say its calling out and not permited here.

*sorry for my basic english

2 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

only reason i left the name in is because i saw literally no reason to actively protect the scammer.

There was no need to include the name in the first place. You claim your goal was to protect others from a scam, yet you targeted a specific individual. The former does not require the latter. Without a user name, it is a general warning. With a user name, it is a "call-out." (sic) I am hoping that you understand the difference so as to avoid making the same mistake in the future.

2 years ago*
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

i already told you why i included the name, i simply saw no reason to edit it out. the subject of the post was the scam, not the scammer. i didn't target the scammer, he targeted me. i could see a problem if i doxxed him or something, but i'm not an asshole, nor was i remotely upset over this situation. it was comical to me, as you would know if you read the post and included chat logs. you can go ahead and drop the notion that i had it out for the guy, i could not care less. i had a funny interaction with a scammer and thought i would share it as it could serve as a quick chuckle for some, and an educational tidbit for others.

i understand the point of the rule. it's a bad thing when somebody puts someone on blast over something that's either false, minor, private, irrelevant, etc. or if someone makes a post solely for the purpose of attempting to rally some kind of attack on another person. also, doxxing = no-no.. obviously.

it's very hard to imagine that my inclusion of his steam username on here would negatively affect this person's life, especially when he's already putting himself out there by actively scamming many others, and is already publicly branded as a scammer per steamrep.com. it's worth noting that i never posted his profile page, only his public username, which can be changed at any time. so anyone hypothetically reading the (now-dead) post in the future might not even be able to find the scammer, assuming he's since changed his name, which is likely.

if you wish to continue this pointless argument on semantics and interpretation of a rule, you know how to find me. bumping this thread is not the way.

also, your pointing out of my spelling of 'call-out' is not only petty and confusing, but also wrong.

2 years ago
Permalink

Comment has been collapsed.

Closed 2 years ago by andreeeeeww.