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Tomorrow is the second Flares that Care fundraising livestream. This event, whose stated goal is to hold quarterly fundraisers to benefit the Child’s Play charity, could become a shining example of the competitive Team Fortress 2 community’s generous spirit. Or it could be a TF2 item and/or monetary scam which has the additional benefit of raising money for Child’s Play. I have no way of knowing for sure the motivations of those leading this event. The more I’ve looked into the people who are heading Flares that Care (FTC), however, the more I’m inclined to think the second option could be the truth. I first became concerned about FTC after I read the top comment on this reddit post, where someone questioned FTC having a Valve trade-ban scammer (Plotchy) as an admin. The co-founder and lead spokesman for FTC, Snoven, replied: “Plotchy may have had bad rep for previous scams he's done, or ones he still does, however, he's still a valued member of our team.” Needless to say, Snoven’s reply sounded alarm bells for me. Why would a group which is asking people to donate money and items (in addition to time and effort) not be concerned about being involved with a known scammer? The “or ones he still does”, especially worried me, as it implied that the head of FTC was okay if a member of their admin team was currently in the process of scamming TF2 community members. Beyond the moral and ethical reasons for why condoning something like that is a no-no, wouldn’t FTC be worried about how actions like this could impact their reputation? So I did some research. Here’s what I found:

According to the Flares that Care website FTC has 10 people on its staff. Seven of those administrators have no suspicious online history that I could find; they’re all established Steam accounts with no hint of scandal associated to them. Odds are, those seven people are donating their time and effort in good faith. Listed co-founder B_Red has some oddness to his online history, but as of today his profile states he’s left FTC due to not liking how Snoven left it, so he’s not being factored into this post. The remaining two members, however, are a different story. Snoven is the co-founder of Flares that Care and is its main spokesman and driving force. Were it not for his high Steam level and well-known friends, Snoven’s Steam account would probably have raised a few eyebrows: he has a private inventory, used Steam achievement manager for his TF2 achievements, and his account was only created on September 19, 2014. The reason Snoven has been able to go from new Steam account to the leader of a large TF2 charity event in less than 6 months is not because he is an amazing networker, but because he has the experience that comes with his nearly 4 year old alt account, AmethyzFox. TF2Outpost was the first to note that these accounts had the same owner (by banning them both), but there is also numerous supporting evidence as well. Here’s where things get interesting. Snoven’s original account, AmethyzFox disappeared at the beginning of November 2014 after he earned a Steam rep caution, and gleefully admitting to bilking an entire community out of about 40 buds worth of TF2 items. Here’s the post where he gloats about his scamming to his victims. While the entire despicable thing is worth reading, here is the key bit: “In total, I gained somewhere near the 40 bud range of total input from people specifically from the vsh server, and I appreciate it greatly. It pleases me greatly that simply by asking for s*** from all of you, and pretending to care, or make some effort to scam it, via a broker, ill pay you back, etc., I could get ALL OF THAT.” That’s the guy who, a few weeks later, launched Flares that Care. We now move onto Plotchy who, unlike Snoven, hasn’t swapped accounts to hide his sordid past. Plotchy is currently Valve Trade-banned, has 3 reports against him on Steam Rep (the most recent of which is from December 9, 2014), is banned on TF2 Outpost for impersonating a TF2 Outpost admin for scams, has 12 friends with various trade bans on his Steam account, and is banned for scamming from multiple online communities (including CS:GO Lounge). He's one of Flares that Care's two Public Relations admins. When I began writing this post earlier today, Snoven, Plotchy, and B_Red were the sole friends of the Flares that Care item donation bot. After Snoven and B_Red’s fallout, Snoven became the sole friend of the donation account, the donation account’s inventory became private, and donations were announced as closed (at last check with 2 unusuals donated amongst other items). Item donations will supposedly “be used to pay for keys and crates in a possible finale unbox, and otherwise will be used as prize packages for the top 3, 5, or 10 donators dependent on the amount of item donations [received]” and “All donated items are under no circumstance to be used outside of the Flares that Care events, and all item donations are considered final.” Nowhere, however is there a public documentation of who has donated items, or proof that all items are being used to for the event. FtC has also requested monetary donations beyond that of the direct link to Child’s Play. Although FTC’s policy claims that “Monetary donations are sent directly to Child's Play” an announcement a made a month later states that the Paypal link on their site and group supposedly benefits their group: “The other available types of donations are monetary donations to pay for our VPS and website, the donation link will always be available and exclusively used to pay for our VPS / site hosting. You can donate for web hosting / VPS [link to Paypal site].” Once again, no documentation or transparency is provided to the public. Those are the facts which I’ve found out. I’ve heard rumors of participants finding themselves signed up for events they had never agreed to, rude behavior, disorganization, and the money donated not via the direct Child’s Play link going astray – but these are not things I can personally substantiate. However, I believe that people should know what they’re getting into before donating their items/time/money. Additionally, Flares that Care borrows heavily from the well-known and reputable Tip of the Hats and the last thing I want to see is an event like TOTH suffering in reputation because of the shadiness of a similar event. Again, I do not know Snoven’s motivations. He might be doing this all from the goodness of his heart, he might be planning to skim a bit each event, or the whole thing except for the direct link to Child’s Play could be a giant scam. He could also have been planning to take option 2 or 3 but will feel forced to run the event completely legitimately now, in order to prove my concerns needless – which is fine by me. My main concern was to help make sure the community was informed, and, now that I have, it’s up to you.

Tomorrow is the second Flares that Care fundraising livestream. This event, whose stated goal is to hold quarterly fundraisers to benefit the Child’s Play charity, could become a shining example of the competitive Team Fortress 2 community’s generous spirit.



[b]Or it could be a TF2 item and/or monetary scam which has the additional benefit of raising money for Child’s Play.[/b]



I have no way of knowing for sure the motivations of those leading this event. The more I’ve looked into the people who are heading Flares that Care (FTC), however, the more I’m inclined to think the second option could be the truth. I first became concerned about FTC after I read the top comment on [url=http://www.reddit.com/r/tf2/comments/2tx6zh/flares_that_care_a_fundraising_livestream]this[/url] reddit post, where someone questioned FTC having a Valve trade-ban scammer (Plotchy) as an admin. The co-founder and lead spokesman for FTC, Snoven, replied: “Plotchy may have had bad rep for previous scams he's done, or ones he still does, however, he's still a valued member of our team.” Needless to say, Snoven’s reply sounded alarm bells for me. Why would a group which is asking people to donate money and items (in addition to time and effort) [i]not[/i] be concerned about being involved with a known scammer? The “or ones he still does”, especially worried me, as it implied that the head of FTC was okay if a member of their admin team was currently in the process of scamming TF2 community members. Beyond the moral and ethical reasons for why condoning something like that is a no-no, wouldn’t FTC be worried about how actions like this could impact their reputation?



[b]So I did some research. Here’s what I found:[/b]

According to the Flares that Care [url=http://www.flaresthatcare.org/people.php]website[/url] FTC has 10 people on its staff. Seven of those administrators have no suspicious online history that I could find; they’re all established Steam accounts with no hint of scandal associated to them. Odds are, those seven people are donating their time and effort in good faith. Listed co-founder B_Red has some oddness to his online history, but as of today his profile states he’s left FTC due to not liking how Snoven left it, so he’s not being factored into this post. The remaining two members, however, are a different story.



[b]Snoven[/b] is the co-founder of Flares that Care and is its main spokesman and driving force. Were it not for his high Steam level and well-known friends, Snoven’s [url=http://steamcommunity.com/id/snoven]Steam account[/url] would probably have raised a few eyebrows: he has a private inventory, used Steam achievement manager for his TF2 achievements, and his account was only created on September 19, 2014. The reason Snoven has been able to go from new Steam account to the leader of a large TF2 charity event in less than 6 months is not because he is an amazing networker, but because he has the experience that comes with his nearly 4 year old alt account, [url=http://steamcommunity.com/id/AmethyzFox/]AmethyzFox[/url]. TF2Outpost was the first to [url=http://www.tf2outpost.com/user/76561198155316177]note[/url] that these accounts had the same owner (by banning them both), but there is also numerous supporting evidence as well.



[b]Here’s where things get interesting.[/b]



Snoven’s original account, AmethyzFox disappeared at the beginning of November 2014 after he earned a Steam rep caution, and [u]gleefully[/u] admitting to bilking an entire community out of about 40 buds worth of TF2 items. Here’s the [url=http://forums.steamrep.com/threads/report-76561198042571598-tf2-team-fortress-2-items.82594/#post-227233]post[/url] where he gloats about his scamming to his victims. While the entire despicable thing is worth reading, here is the key bit: [b]“In total, I gained somewhere near the 40 bud range of total input from people specifically from the vsh server, and I appreciate it greatly. It pleases me greatly that simply by asking for s*** from all of you, and pretending to care, or make some effort to scam it, via a broker, ill pay you back, etc., I could get ALL OF THAT.”[/b]



That’s the guy who, a few weeks later, launched Flares that Care.



We now move onto [b]Plotchy[/b] who, unlike Snoven, hasn’t swapped accounts to hide his sordid past. Plotchy is currently Valve Trade-banned, has 3 reports against him on Steam Rep (the most recent of which is from December 9, 2014), is banned on TF2 Outpost for impersonating a TF2 Outpost admin for scams, has 12 friends with various trade bans on his Steam account, and is banned for scamming from multiple online communities (including CS:GO Lounge).



He's one of Flares that Care's two Public Relations admins.



When I began writing this post earlier today, Snoven, Plotchy, and B_Red were the sole friends of the Flares that Care item [url=http://steamcommunity.com/id/flaresthatcare/]donation bot[/url]. After Snoven and B_Red’s fallout, Snoven became the sole friend of the donation account, the donation account’s inventory became private, and donations were announced as closed (at last check with 2 unusuals donated amongst other items). Item donations [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/flaresthatcare#announcements/detail/234522998927483169]will supposedly[/url] “be used to pay for keys and crates in a possible finale unbox, and otherwise will be used as prize packages for the top 3, 5, or 10 donators dependent on the amount of item donations [received]” [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/flaresthatcare/discussions/0/604941528473522514/]and[/url] “All donated items are under no circumstance to be used outside of the Flares that Care events, and all item donations are considered final.” Nowhere, however is there a public documentation of who has donated items, or proof that all items are being used to for the event.



FtC has also requested monetary donations beyond that of the direct link to Child’s Play. Although FTC’s [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/flaresthatcare/discussions/0/604941528473522514/]policy[/url] claims that “Monetary donations are sent directly to Child's Play” an [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/flaresthatcare#announcements/detail/234522998927483169]announcement[/url] a made a month later states that the Paypal link on their site and group supposedly benefits their group: “The other available types of donations are monetary donations to pay for our VPS and website, the donation link will always be available and exclusively used to pay for our VPS / site hosting. You can donate for web hosting / VPS [link to Paypal site].” Once again, no documentation or transparency is provided to the public.



Those are the facts which I’ve found out. I’ve heard rumors of participants finding themselves signed up for events they had never agreed to, rude behavior, disorganization, and the money donated not via the direct Child’s Play link going astray – but these are not things I can personally substantiate. However, I believe that people should know what they’re getting into before donating their items/time/money. Additionally, Flares that Care borrows heavily from the well-known and reputable Tip of the Hats and the last thing I want to see is an event like TOTH suffering in reputation because of the shadiness of a similar event.



Again, I do not know Snoven’s motivations. He might be doing this all from the goodness of his heart, he might be planning to skim a bit each event, or the whole thing except for the direct link to Child’s Play could be a giant scam. He could also have been planning to take option 2 or 3 but will feel forced to run the event completely legitimately now, in order to prove my concerns needless – which is fine by me. My main concern was to help make sure the community was informed, and, now that I have, it’s up to you.