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Why *some traders eventually turn to scamming/fraud


Bananas

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With the recent Antipathy situation figured it would be a good time to remind you all.

 

There are 0 consequences for committing virtual fraud in any of valves virtual marketplace games, so long as you avoid hitting wealthy targets (1M+ CS inventory)

 

Play at your own risk so to speak, just because your green confetti goober shooter is worth “2750” keys to a “goober shooter collector” doesn’t mean you’re actually getting shit for that “limited event” hat.

 

Exit scamming is easy, requires 0 effort besides building up rep with the current big dogs. Build up enough rep and people start to trust you, then BAM exit and run. Lategum made 400k over dozens of smaller accounts.

 

Even “big” marketplaces like mannco and bot services like gladiator get picked off so not even those are 100% safe.

 

Remember that no matter how big the backpack or how long you go back, you don’t really know who you’re dealing with on the other side of the computer. Your best friend one day can be your tormentor the next, probably not a good feeling to get stolen from and then the thief brags about your stolen shit to YOU on stream. God damn.

 

Stay safe and avoid being a dumbfuck please! Happens way too often.

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I'd like to quote Triple again, "If it's not on your inventory, it's not your items."

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I took the good natured perk at birth when i spawned into the world and doc mitchell asked who I was

 

goodnatured.jpg

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43 minutes ago, Bananas said:

Stay safe and avoid being a dumbfuck please!

W

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30 minutes ago, RussellSproutz said:

I'd like to quote Triple again, "If it's not on your inventory, it's not your items."

 

Its Valves Items

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1 hour ago, TCLG6x6 said:

 

Its Valves Items

Yes lol Even still if our items are in our own respective inventories, then there's no stress in losing it.

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6 hours ago, Littlepudintater said:

im gonna start brokering, don't ask why

 

Seems legit and trusty worthy *looks at 30$ backpack *

 

i remember when i had some expensive unusuals someone on a trade server said they hadn't seen me there before so clearly I must be new , so they'll give me a deal. 15% of the sale for all my unusual that he'll gladly broker. His backpack never exceeded 200, when the hats at the time were a minimum of 150 keys. It was hilarious.

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100% agree with you. i've infiltrated some discord server with scammers to find out why they scam and this is why. doing any item scamming leads to 0 repercussion. its not like the police or anyone will arrest them unlike is very very rare moments. they'll just end up making dozens of accounts, build rep by buying small items from trusted people and then scam when the time comes. tf2 items is very easy to make the money because theres no trade ban unlike cs2 items that has 7 days ban. this is the hard and sad truth

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I can't fathom scamming tbh. If you gave me a burning TC and told me to return it to you in a week, I would.

 

Now that sounds silly and I could easily be lying, but what's the point in doing that? It would 

 

A) Be super hard to sell with everyone going ree

B ) What would I get? $15,000? Ok? This isn't really life changing money, sure maybe I could move out but in Sydney that's not even enough to cover rent for a year. And I am a person with the upmost morals, so the guilt and anxiety from taking this from someone would be worse on my mental health.

 

Anyway, these higher tier traders I guess don't have morals, hence why they get so rich in the first place I suppose (e.g. sharking / etc)

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Yeah tbh TF2 isn't worth having a second life over. it's stupid, tedious and drags you down after a while, so I can see why they just go 'fuck it' and scam a huge load then get banned.

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7 hours ago, JayTuut said:

I can't fathom scamming tbh. If you gave me a burning TC and told me to return it to you in a week, I would.

 

Now that sounds silly and I could easily be lying, but what's the point in doing that? It would 

 

A) Be super hard to sell with everyone going ree

B ) What would I get? $15,000? Ok? This isn't really life changing money, sure maybe I could move out but in Sydney that's not even enough to cover rent for a year. And I am a person with the upmost morals, so the guilt and anxiety from taking this from someone would be worse on my mental health.

 

Anyway, these higher tier traders I guess don't have morals, hence why they get so rich in the first place I suppose (e.g. sharking / etc)

so much envy... lol

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7 hours ago, JayTuut said:

I can't fathom scamming tbh. If you gave me a burning TC and told me to return it to you in a week, I would.

 

Now that sounds silly and I could easily be lying, but what's the point in doing that? It would 

 

A) Be super hard to sell with everyone going ree

B ) What would I get? $15,000? Ok? This isn't really life changing money, sure maybe I could move out but in Sydney that's not even enough to cover rent for a year. And I am a person with the upmost morals, so the guilt and anxiety from taking this from someone would be worse on my mental health.

 

Anyway, these higher tier traders I guess don't have morals, hence why they get so rich in the first place I suppose (e.g. sharking / etc)

enter sunbeams pithy spiteful buying arc

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5 minutes ago, AwesomeSause said:

enter sunbeams pithy spiteful buying arc

DBD law better 🫡

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55 minutes ago, Kolt said:

so much envy... lol

 

Envy of what? I'm lost. Assuming u mean high tier traders? Not really no.

 

41 minutes ago, AwesomeSause said:

enter sunbeams pithy spiteful buying arc

 

Hey I got my 3rd fav effect in the game out of trading for it, wasn't spiteful at all, I actually bought it for you as a gift :( 

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12 hours ago, JayTuut said:

I can't fathom scamming tbh. If you gave me a burning TC and told me to return it to you in a week, I would.

 

Now that sounds silly and I could easily be lying, but what's the point in doing that? It would 

 

A) Be super hard to sell with everyone going ree

B ) What would I get? $15,000? Ok? This isn't really life changing money, sure maybe I could move out but in Sydney that's not even enough to cover rent for a year. And I am a person with the upmost morals, so the guilt and anxiety from taking this from someone would be worse on my mental health.

 

Anyway, these higher tier traders I guess don't have morals, hence why they get so rich in the first place I suppose (e.g. sharking / etc)

theres a reason why scammers dont aim a heist too big. it'll get noticed by big traders and people can report them if they got a big/famous twitter account which gets a trade ban. they aim pretty much some mid-tier. 

 

By scamming high tier items while it may give them a great value, its not like they can sell it like a common item, they would need a specific person and very rarely they may end up counter scamming like what prodigy did.

 

in the end, the community can only do so much fighting scammers

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19 hours ago, JayTuut said:

This isn't really life changing money

 

I think that for some, it is or they think it is, and that is part of the problem. When you consider the age of the average trader or player, most are going to be high school or college age people (I know at 38, I'm definitely an outlier in the age range of the community). This generally also means that they haven't quite hit the point in life where they're having actual careers with the income they provide. So, the temptation of being a shyster is greater as the payout is more money than what they're used to having.

And if tricking a bunch of little Timmys is getting them more than a part time job, there's little temptation or reason to stop, especially when there's no real repercussions. It's like tricking kids into making a bad trade at a trading card store, but with the benefit of staying anonymous.

In the end, you can only hope they learn some morals and grow out of it, but I'd bet most that leave just move on to bigger scams like MLMs or Crypto startups.

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On 6/22/2024 at 2:30 PM, Bananas said:

Remember that no matter how big the backpack or how long you go back, you don’t really know who you’re dealing with on the other side of the computer. Your best friend one day can be your tormentor the next, probably not a good feeling to get stolen

put my faith into a 20k USD backpack who had multiple reps and he just upped and scammed me one day. You could not be speaking truer words >.>

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On 6/23/2024 at 12:53 AM, JayTuut said:

I can't fathom scamming tbh. If you gave me a burning TC and told me to return it to you in a week, I would.

Orangezest has put a ton of his trust in me doing stuff similar to this ❤️

 

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3142100212 Green Energy 2x Spelled Exquisite rack; No collateral trade

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2824609021 Golden Pan; No collateral trade

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2822990626 Golden Pan; No collateral trade

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2822502848 Golden Pan; No collateral trade

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2815444016 E-Orb Rocket launcher; No collateral trade

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2742638219 Burning Flames Polar Pullover; This is probably the biggest trade ive ever done. I dont remember if there was collateral here.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2562027041 Pro Killstreak Burning Flames Blighted Beak; No collateral trade

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2562026996 Scorching Flames Team Captain; No collateral trade

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2556779342 Darkblaze Killer Exclusive; Collateral used here, don't remember how much.

 

Then I did it with some other traders aswell.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2563610039 Arcana Pencil Pusher; Collateral used here, don't remember how much.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2823480013 Hellfire Falkirk Helm; 2000 keys in items used as collateral

 

Also did it with this hat for a screenshot for my loadout. Not a GIANT trade, but still.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2878403929 Frostbite Well-Rounded Rifleman; can't remember if there was collateral used here.

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5 minutes ago, Lucyfer said:

Orangezest has put a ton of his trust in me doing stuff similar to this ❤️

 

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3142100212 Green Energy 2x Spelled Exquisite rack; No collateral trade

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2824609021 Golden Pan; No collateral trade

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2822990626 Golden Pan; No collateral trade

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2822502848 Golden Pan; No collateral trade

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2815444016 E-Orb Rocket launcher; No collateral trade

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2742638219 Burning Flames Polar Pullover; This is probably the biggest trade ive ever done. I dont remember if there was collateral here.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2562027041 Pro Killstreak Burning Flames Blighted Beak; No collateral trade

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2562026996 Scorching Flames Team Captain; No collateral trade

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2556779342 Darkblaze Killer Exclusive; Collateral used here, don't remember how much.

 

Then I did it with some other traders aswell.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2563610039 Arcana Pencil Pusher; Collateral used here, don't remember how much.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2823480013 Hellfire Falkirk Helm; 2000 keys in items used as collateral

 

Also did it with this hat for a screenshot for my loadout. Not a GIANT trade, but still.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2878403929 Frostbite Well-Rounded Rifleman; can't remember if there was collateral used here.

 

Yeah I remember with an old forumer n!ck, he gave me his CSGO knives (which were like purple gems, im not sure the right cs term as I dont trade in CS) which were like $1200 at the time, probably worth 4x that now lol, just so I could look cool in some silver competitive games lmao, I played like 3 then gave them back to him.

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22 hours ago, Diamond jozu said:

theres a reason why scammers dont aim a heist too big. it'll get noticed by big traders and people can report them if they got a big/famous twitter account which gets a trade ban. they aim pretty much some mid-tier. 

 

By scamming high tier items while it may give them a great value, its not like they can sell it like a common item, they would need a specific person and very rarely they may end up counter scamming like what prodigy did.

 

in the end, the community can only do so much fighting scammers

what is the prodigy incident if you dont mind asking?

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