DISCLAIMER:

This old story only contains a part of the story and is written for educational and entertainment reasons only. It is important to note that scamming scammers, for example by offering them money for their stolen hats and then not paying it, is frowned upon by the trading community and NOT ACCEPTABLE.

Do NOT be a vigilante. Convincing a scammer to return his items

is acceptable

, as I have done in this case, but do not pull scams on scammers. I borderlined on breaking the Steamrep rules by accepting his hat.

Allowing vigilante stunts opens a whole new can of worms of people doing bad things with good intentions.

Some background information about TF2 trading

Approached by a scammer

He did not even ask me how much I am selling it for The value of the unusual in question was much lower

Day two - Justice

Never tell your password to anyone.

Dienstag, 10. April 2012

21:22 - ZakMcRofl: hey there 21:22 - ZakMcRofl: quick question 21:22 - Hunter: yes? 21:22 - ZakMcRofl: you used to have an unusual jumper cap 21:22 - Hunter: YES

21:22 - ZakMcRofl: what happened to it 21:22 - Hunter: oh my god

21:22 - Hunter: it got scammed

21:22 - Hunter: do you have it???

21:22 - ZakMcRofl: i thought so 21:22 - ZakMcRofl: no 21:23 - Hunter: aww :(

21:23 - ZakMcRofl: i am talking to the guy who has it 21:23 - Hunter: DOOD

21:23 - ZakMcRofl: mr shnipz 21:23 - Hunter: omg please

21:23 - ZakMcRofl: i believe he is a scammer 21:23 - Hunter: i would do anything

21:23 - Hunter: if u could get it back

21:24 - ZakMcRofl: let me try 21:24 - Hunter: ok

21:24 - ZakMcRofl: i can give you the profile link 21:24 - ZakMcRofl: but do not add him 21:24 - ZakMcRofl: now 21:24 - ZakMcRofl: it will scare him off 21:24 - Hunter: ok thanks\ u soooo much, i wont

21:24 - Hunter: i was lookin so hard

21:24 - ZakMcRofl: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198061280822/ 21:24 - Hunter: i love you

21:24 - ZakMcRofl: valve might be able to help you 21:24 - ZakMcRofl: explain what happened 21:24 - ZakMcRofl: they can look into the trade history 21:24 - ZakMcRofl: least they will do is restore the item 21:24 - Hunter: yup it was a lvl 77 jeecap w orb fire

21:25 - Hunter: thats it

21:25 - ZakMcRofl: it is the same hat 21:25 - Hunter: ya

21:25 - Hunter: exact same

21:25 - ZakMcRofl: http://www.tf2items.com/item/786758567 21:25 - ZakMcRofl: history 21:25 - ZakMcRofl: how did he scam you? 21:25 - Hunter: he hacked a trusted middleman

21:25 - ZakMcRofl: 1sec 21:25 - Hunter: atom, he had a good rep, only later did i read he was being impersinated

21:26 - ZakMcRofl: i think i understand their scheme better now 21:26 - ZakMcRofl: i just need to get them to admit to it 21:26 - Hunter: ya

21:26 - Hunter: ok

21:26 - Hunter: who r u?

21:26 - ZakMcRofl: i will voice chat you 21:26 - Hunter: like steam batman?

21:26 - ZakMcRofl: just another potential victim 21:26 - Hunter: cool

21:38 - ZakMcRofl: V = victom, A= scammer A, B=Scammer B 21:39 - ZakMcRofl: A approaches V telling him that he would pay 100 for something worth 10 21:39 - Hunter: yup

21:39 - ZakMcRofl: B conveniently offers the item for 50 21:39 - ZakMcRofl: V buys from B, hoping for quick profit 21:39 - Hunter: yup

21:39 - ZakMcRofl: A is suddenly not interested in it anymore 21:40 - ZakMcRofl: thats what he was pulling with me i think

22:23 - Mr.Shnipz: hey

22:23 - ZakMcRofl: hi 22:23 - Mr.Shnipz: you talk to him?

22:23 - ZakMcRofl: not yet, no 22:24 - Mr.Shnipz: k he add you?

22:24 - ZakMcRofl: he is offline, so no 22:24 - Mr.Shnipz: ok

22:24 - Mr.Shnipz: yea if you get get it that be great :)

22:25 - ZakMcRofl: cool unusuals, where did you get em from? 22:25 - ZakMcRofl: unbox? 22:27 - Mr.Shnipz: nah...i bought them when i first heard about unusual hats...and i got like 500 dollars for my birthday so ya :D

22:27 - Mr.Shnipz: its good investment :P

22:27 - Mr.Shnipz: you unbox yours?

22:30 - ZakMcRofl: how can you play tf2 and not hear about unusuals :) 22:30 - ZakMcRofl: its the world's biggest hat simulator after all 22:31 - Mr.Shnipz: well at first i played the game reg. with the defaut games like 2fort...then i got onto a server and i saw one...and i was like wtf!

22:31 - Mr.Shnipz: lol

22:31 - Mr.Shnipz: so ever since :)

22:31 - ZakMcRofl: and you paid 500 bucks for it? 22:31 - ZakMcRofl: thats insane 22:32 - Mr.Shnipz: no liek 100 for the jeep and like 180 for marauder...spent rest on soccer cleats :P

22:32 - Mr.Shnipz: but anyways...you postitive youll get the hat cuz im about to buy 2 white paints

22:32 - Mr.Shnipz: but anyways...you postitive youll get the hat cuz im about to buy 2 white paints

22:32 - ZakMcRofl: i am not positive, no 22:32 - ZakMcRofl: its hard to get stuff like that 22:32 - Mr.Shnipz: o

22:33 - ZakMcRofl: anger is a popular hat 22:33 - ZakMcRofl: the guy is looking for 6 buds 22:33 - Mr.Shnipz: yes but its 4.5

22:33 - ZakMcRofl: what did he say he was looking for? 22:34 - Mr.Shnipz: idk but he told me he doesnt like my marauder

22:34 - Mr.Shnipz: im sure one of your hats is worth what he wants :)

22:37 - ZakMcRofl: so do you want exactly this anger 22:37 - ZakMcRofl: or any anger? 22:39 - Mr.Shnipz: any..i would like an orbit fire one or g energy

22:39 - ZakMcRofl: and you would 2:1? 22:39 - Mr.Shnipz: yes

22:39 - ZakMcRofl: that guy has smoking 22:39 - Mr.Shnipz: ok get it ...

22:39 - Mr.Shnipz: you can get it now?

22:39 - ZakMcRofl: trying to 22:40 - Mr.Shnipz: kk

22:40 - ZakMcRofl: steaming, not smoking 22:40 - Mr.Shnipz: how much it worth?

22:40 - Mr.Shnipz: o yes steamign is great

22:40 - Mr.Shnipz: get it ....lol

22:44 - Mr.Shnipz: u get it?

22:44 - ZakMcRofl: not yet 22:44 - ZakMcRofl: relax 22:45 - Mr.Shnipz: lol ok

22:45 - Mr.Shnipz: you talkign to him :)?

22:47 - ZakMcRofl: yo 22:48 - Mr.Shnipz: yes?

22:48 - Mr.Shnipz: lol

22:50 - Mr.Shnipz: im just asking because i need to get the white paint for my boots and the hat, unloess you can find out if it already has white paint on it.. thanks for your help :)

22:51 - ZakMcRofl: its not painted afaik 22:51 - Mr.Shnipz: afaik? and ok

22:53 - ZakMcRofl: as far as i know 22:55 - Mr.Shnipz: kk.. you postive you going to get it?

Mr.Shnipz is now playing Team Fortress 2. Click here to join.

23:01 - Mr.Shnipz: how you doing on it?

23:04 - Mr.Shnipz: you there?

23:06 - ZakMcRofl: yo sorry 23:06 - ZakMcRofl: he's hard to deal with 23:06 - Mr.Shnipz: ask him if yed take my stuff

23:07 - Mr.Shnipz: who is it?

23:07 - ZakMcRofl: that Spock guy 23:07 - Mr.Shnipz: o ask him if hed take your hat and my jeep cap...

23:07 - Mr.Shnipz: and ill give you y marauder

23:08 - ZakMcRofl: i offered my crown and he said no 23:08 - ZakMcRofl: he said he would do it for the jeepcap and my crown 23:08 - Mr.Shnipz: offer something else dude..im givign you profit

23:08 - Mr.Shnipz: ok do it and ill give you the marauder

23:09 - ZakMcRofl: 23:09 - ZakMcRofl: OH MY GOD 23:09 - ZakMcRofl: he traded me the jeepcap 23:09 - ZakMcRofl: for NOTHIGN 23:10 - ZakMcRofl: you there? Hunter is now Away.

23:15 - ZakMcRofl: DUDE 23:15 - ZakMcRofl: GO ONLINE Hunter is now Online.

23:15 - Hunter: why

23:15 - Hunter: wuts up?

23:15 - ZakMcRofl: http://steamcommunity.com/id/zakmcrofl/inventory#440_2_791491348 (picture of the stolen hat with ownership info) 23:15 - ZakMcRofl: OWNED BY 23:15 - ZakMcRofl: ZAKMCROFL 23:15 - ZakMcRofl: i got your hat 23:15 - Hunter: dood thank SOOOOOO much

23:15 - ZakMcRofl: haha that guy is such a tool 23:15 - Hunter: i love you

23:15 - Hunter: i LLLLOOOOOVVVEEE YYOUI

23:16 - Hunter: im so happy...words cant express

23:16 - ZakMcRofl: haha 23:16 - Hunter: how?

23:16 - ZakMcRofl: this story is so fucking epic 23:16 - ZakMcRofl: this is going on reddit.com 23:16 - Hunter: omg i bet

23:16 - ZakMcRofl: i am writing it all down 23:16 - ZakMcRofl: that guy is such a moron 23:16 - Hunter: you are....steam batman

23:16 - ZakMcRofl: i guess i am lol

Epilogue

23:57 - ZakMcRofl: wow you even suck at faking screenshots 23:57 - Mr.Shnipz: but i dont understand how to do it i just copyed and pasted it ff the site

23:57 - ZakMcRofl: Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently: Skychief12@yahoo.com 23:58 - Mr.Shnipz: yes thats his email

23:58 - ZakMcRofl: yeah, it doesn't exist [...] 00:02 - ZakMcRofl: you can get it back if you provide proof 00:02 - ZakMcRofl: a crappy screenshot and some faked text is not proof 00:03 - Mr.Shnipz: your a bully faget

00:03 - Mr.Shnipz: thanks for beign a bully

00:03 - ZakMcRofl: i am not scamming people 00:03 - ZakMcRofl: you are 00:03 - Mr.Shnipz: you scammer

00:03 - Mr.Shnipz: i thought we were friend sand nwo you scammed me

00:03 - Mr.Shnipz: thanks a lot and imk contacting steam support

Mr.Shnipz left chat.

Never tell your password to anyone.

Mittwoch, 11. April 2012

00:04 - ZakMcRofl: ok this is going straight on reddit 00:04 - ZakMcRofl: and to valve 00:05 - ZakMcRofl: i got your entire little scam circus on tape 00:05 - Mr.Shnipz: lol idc.....you scammer

00:05 - ZakMcRofl: you , your fake middleman 00:05 - ZakMcRofl: you want steam ids? 00:05 - ZakMcRofl: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198059470884 00:06 - ZakMcRofl: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198045981486 00:06 - ZakMcRofl: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198059470884 00:06 - Mr.Shnipz: lol yep and yepo...i SCAMM PEOPLE....IVE SCAMMED SO MANY THINGS FROM PEOPLE YOU DONT EVEN RELIZE>>>IM THE ONE WHO FUCKS EVERYONE UP...AND U MAKE IT STOP!!!lolIM NOT STOPPING...ITS ONLY THE BEGINNING!! :)

00:07 - Mr.Shnipz: HAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA

00:07 - ZakMcRofl: you realize valve will delete your account and all your game in it 00:07 - ZakMcRofl: and your friends 00:07 - ZakMcRofl: and your real account 00:07 - ZakMcRofl: once this goes to reddit.com 00:07 - Mr.Shnipz: LOL LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

00:07 - ZakMcRofl: i can't believe you fell for a reverse scam. scamming a scammer. that is GOLD 00:07 - ZakMcRofl: so greedy 00:08 - Mr.Shnipz: LOL IT WAS A FREE HAT IDC

00:08 - Mr.Shnipz: LOL

00:08 - Mr.Shnipz: YOU REALLY THINK I FUCKING CARE

00:08 - ZakMcRofl: it is illegal, fraud, if you get caught you could face jailtime. stealing a 100$ item is not a petty crime 00:08 - ZakMcRofl: i hope you realize that 00:09 - Mr.Shnipz: lol

00:14 - Mr.Shnipz: ?

Mr.Shnipz has ended the call.

00:15 - Mr.Shnipz: look dude im srry ok i will never scam again...i promise

00:15 - ZakMcRofl: you are not anonymous on steam 00:16 - ZakMcRofl: your ip has been recorded 00:16 - Mr.Shnipz: ill give you my unusuals...im dont with the game

00:16 - Hunter: wow

00:16 - Hunter: we should return the maurauder to its owner to

00:17 - ZakMcRofl: yeah 00:17 - Hunter: can i haz my hat back tho?

00:17 - ZakMcRofl: ok course :)

00:18 - Hunter: k thanks

Hunter has accepted your request to trade.

00:18 - ZakMcRofl: you're welcome

00:18 - Hunter: u dont know what this meen 4 me man

00:18 - Hunter: thanks so much

00:19 - Hunter: im gunna name my child after you

00:19 - Hunter: ZacMcRofl <HuntersFamilyName>

00:19 - Hunter: the 3rd

00:25 - ZakMcRofl: still in chat with him

00:25 - ZakMcRofl: i got his IP adress 00:26 - ZakMcRofl: he got caught with his pants WAY down 00:27 - Hunter: lol

00:27 - ZakMcRofl: do you plan to prosecute him? 00:27 - ZakMcRofl: its fraud / theft after all 00:27 - Hunter: im on a phone caLL WITH MY buddy, add him, your his hero

00:27 - ZakMcRofl: i can't let him off the hook, that is up to you 00:27 - ZakMcRofl: tell him to add me 00:28 - Hunter: i honestly dont care, i got my hat back and i got taught a valuable lesson

00:28 - ZakMcRofl: you mean HE got taught it 00:28 - Hunter: but i also dont want this scammer loose

00:29 - Hunter: ya,, but i also learned 2 be more carful

Never tell your password to anyone.

Mittwoch, 11. April 2012

00:29 - vis: hey

00:29 - vis: so im srry again

00:30 - ZakMcRofl: make your backpack public 00:30 - vis: ok

00:30 - vis: k

00:30 - vis: you can look nothing in there

00:30 - vis: just sticky jumper

00:31 - ZakMcRofl: what other accounts are involved 00:31 - ZakMcRofl: (do NOT lie) 00:31 - ZakMcRofl: i got a list 00:31 - vis: what you mean...my other accounts

00:31 - vis: ?

00:31 - ZakMcRofl: all steam accounts that were involved 00:31 - ZakMcRofl: profile urls 00:32 - vis: nsane321

00:32 - ZakMcRofl: profile urls 00:32 - ZakMcRofl: like this one 00:32 - ZakMcRofl: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198045981486/ 00:32 - vis: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198059470884

00:33 - vis: thats th eaccoutn i used to buy the hat from dresno just so you know

00:33 - ZakMcRofl: ok, what else 00:33 - ZakMcRofl: what other profiles 00:33 - vis: like my other ones?

00:34 - ZakMcRofl: yes 00:34 - vis: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198043908434

00:34 - vis: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198047533968

00:35 - ZakMcRofl: and do NOT bullshit me 00:35 - vis: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198007564932

00:35 - vis: im NOT

00:36 - ZakMcRofl: what about the rest? 00:36 - vis: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198061089758

00:36 - vis: those and mine currently right now

00:37 - ZakMcRofl: make the bp public on the last one 00:37 - vis: i swere those are it...i want to go clean and not do this anymore...i love the game and i respect you....i wouldnt ever do it again....i can sign a contract with you

This is quite a long story and I created this blog just to tell it. Rest assured it is epic and you will not regret reading this wall of text. You will learn about the dark side of TF2 trading, how to protect yourself against it and finally, how to scam a scammer!The game Team Fortress 2 has a virtual item economy. It allows trading of such items via a safe Steam Trading mechanism. Traders like myself use this system to get items they prefer in exchange of items they like less or that are worth less.The most sought after items are Unusual Hats which offer special particle effects like flames over your head.Since they can only be unboxed with a chance of 1% using keys that cost $2.50 each, they can be quite valuable.This leads to the deside to sell or buy these hats for real world money. The catch is that Steam Trading does not allow for monetary transactions so that such a trade is insecure by nature. Either the buyer or the seller has to "go first" by giving out the money or the item without knowing if the seller / buyer will keep their side of the bargain. This risk is somewhat reducable by using an independent, trusted "middleman". The seller gives his item to the middleman, the buyer can verify it is there and transfers the money. After receipt, the seller confirms payment receipt to the middleman who gives the item to the buyer. Aside from possible Paypal chargebacks, this process is relatively safe (using other payment methods).I will explain how people exploit this process and try to scam others in the process.After years of trading, I have many valuable items and unusual hats in my backpack . So there I was on an unsual hat trade server, checking out other nice hats people are showing off and trying to sell. Suddenly I get a trade request from a guy on the server, let's call him. Skychief's first question is "Can I buy the Unusual you are wearing for $120?". This is very odd for two reasons.This behavior is actually on purpose, the point is to invoke greed in the victim. Sure I want to sell my $30 hat for $120. However for an experienced trader, these points are obvious red flags.Anyways, I decided to play along because I was curious what he was going to try on me and of course he might still just be a moron looking to spend $120 on a virtual item he loves.So I ask him some basic questions, like do you know how this works ("No, first time") and if he is familiar with the middleman method. Conveniently, he already has a middleman available. This was another red flag, either people have traded unusuals before, then they know and select a middleman, or they haven't and they will take a long time understanding the concept, even longer to find a middleman.So he sends me this Steam profile link to his middleman:Following the sourceop link we find the profile of the real (albeit not widely known) middleman:A couple more red flags: the name history on the fake profile shows many other names, especially of other middlemen. Also real middlemen are usually old school TF2 players and therefore have old steam accounts as well as. And short playtime as our fake profile has, is a good indicator of a fake (usually it is even less).So anyways, I again decide to play along at first and tell Skychief that I will add the middleman. Suddenly Skychief seems to get cold feet and tells me that the middleman might be untrustworthy. This very confusing and rare, I assume he googled my nickname and found some of my sourceop scammer reports. Worried that he might find another target, I add a guy who was on the server with us and is also on Skychiefs friendslist, his name is. I ask him if he was approached by Skychief and tell him to watch out since Skychief seems to be a scammer. Now it gets weird. He gets all defensive, says that Skychief seems to be an innocent and nice guy. When I tell him that I will monitor Skychief for a while, he says its probably not necessary and that he will keep an eye on him for me. Very fishy and I go to bed with the lingering feeling that they are connected. But I keep both Skychief and Mr. Shnipz on my friendslist in order to keep an eye on their activities in the next days.The next day Mr.Shnipz starts chatting with me again and tells me that he needs my help to trade his two unusuals 2:1 for a certain hat (unusual steaming anger) held by another guy that is worth way less than his two. I check out his backpack and sure enough he has two unusuals that I didn't notice the day before: http://www.tf2items.com/item/786758567 (Orb fire Jeepcap) http://www.tf2items.com/item/779968197 (Stormy Marauder)I decide to talk to the previous owner or the Jeepcap, Hunter:If you prefer to read the rest of the story as a chat transcript, I have uploaded it here: http://pastebin.com/JJRQQY4J So I explain to him that I think that Mr. Shnipz is trying to do the TF2 equivalent of the " Fiddle Game " con on me:Mr. Shnipz has gone offline by now so I spend some time with Hunter reconstructing how he got scammed. He still has the scammer who approached him on his friends list and it turns out the fake middleman was the same one that was used when I was approached, only under the name "Atom-3000+hours of TF2" (trusted middleman). By the way, if you ever need to trace back who you traded with, go to View -> Inventory and click "View Inventory History" in the upper right. Anyways, I promise Hunter to try to build a case against those scammers and ask him not to scare them off in the meantime. I try to contact the other unusual's previous owner with no success.Finally, Mr. Shnipz returns. Since we still cannot be sure that he is part of the scam and didn't just buy the hat from the scammer, I try to lure him into lying:Ah, he is getting pushy again. Time to test my theory so I add the owner of hat he wants so desperately, let's call him Spock. Carefully I try to figure out if I was right about my suspicions and if Spock is trying to get some of my fine unusuals from me. Since he is asking a low price and seems like a nice guy, I explain the situation to him and keep him friended.An idea forms in my head and I switch to Mr Shnipz's chat again:By the way, this confirmed that they are not working together.Now it gets tense! He opens a trade with me and places Hunter's Orbiting Fire Jeepcap into the trade. Apparently he wants to to give it to me, assuming that I would use it to get the hat from Spock.Needless to say I accept with a pounding heart...... OMG I have the hat!Of course I have to tell Hunter about the new development right away:I promise him to give the hat back later and keep it in my backpack in order to not scare off Mr. Shnipz. Having the upper hand now, I am trying to get him to admit to his lies.I think that the rest of the story is most amusing in transcript form (scroll to 23:11 in http://pastebin.com/JJRQQY4J ) but I will some it up here.First, I get him to admit that his birthday is in january. Since the item history shows that he got the hat in April, me must have been lying about it being a birthday gift.I give him a huge benefit of the doubt and let him try to prove that he purchased it.He posts a hillarious fake Paypal statement: http://i.imgur.com/ieLLE.png (I edited the email address)and cannot resist to call him out on it:Damn, that seems to be the end of it. But wait, he is still in my friendslist!Note that I only invoke reddit as my personal army at this point because I want to get him to return the remaining unusuals. Public shame seems like the best option, but then I get a better idea. Steam chat is P2P, you can easily notice by the huge lag the chat sometimes has. So I open up wireshark, record all outgoing IP traffic and click on the "Start Voice chat" button. He accepts.I tell him on the call that by accepting it, he allowed me to record his home IP address (via wireshark). This apparently has the intended effect:Now that we have admission of guilt, I talk to hunter to give him his hat backMeanwhile Mr. Shnipz is scared shitless and I force him to list all of his steam profiles. Turns out the fake middleman is also him, so I get him to switch to that account and make the backpack public. I am fishing for more intel on potential accomplices but he's either very loyal or there really weren't any. Finally he admits that he is just 14 years old and has scammed "only" 3 unusual hats which are not in his posession anymore. He seems to be pretty shaken:Well I won't make him sign a contract but instead tell him that I would publish this story. And that he should duck and cover for a shitstorm of angry reddit nerds coming his way.In a way I feel sorry for the kid, he is only 14, did some really stupid shit and is genuinely scared that the police might come knocking at his door. So I tell him to return all unusuals, if he still has any, to their rightful owners. And that I will release his IP if one of his victims gets in touch with me.Finally I tell him to leave all the accounts I mentioned behind, to prevent the shitstorm.So that's it, my first blog entry. Will it be the last? I felt that this story should be shared for the good of the community. I love this game and I f*cking hate scammers.Finally I ask you, my reader, to please NOT hassle him, if you should find him. He is very scared and remorseful and will certainly not do it again.