Lesson number 1: Don't send money to people via Paypal.

Let this scammer piece of shizzle remain unnamed since Steamgifts rules say so. This guy sold me Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and GTA V for 40€ on Paypal. Deal seemed good (although suspicious). I got his two gifts and I paid him on Paypal. I even know his name (Виталий Жук) and yes - he is Russian. And no, I don't live in Russia.

So, I activate those games and play them happily for about a month and today I just learned that both of them have been revoked due to some transaction problem (stolen credit card, no money on bank account - whatever the reason is) and I lost my two games. Well, I knew the dangers so I am fine with losing 40€ by being scammed.

Now, my only request is that this guy get either banned or at least some sort of punishment. I contact Steam and Paypal and write a report on him Steamrep. I go to University on my lectures and come back during the mid-day just to see response from Paypal:
Dear #myname,

Thank you for contacting PayPal regarding your steam purchase.

I can understand that you have received the wrong items you bought.

Unfortunately, we only cover non received items, when it is a virtual item. We will therefore not be able to assist you, in getting your funds back.

Instead I recommend, that you contact Steam or your local police. They might be able to do something.

I hope you find a solution, and I wish you a wonderful day.

Yours sincerely,
Mikkel
PayPal

(in other words: GTFO noob)

Guess what? Scammers not going to get any punishment by Paypal! Yaaay! Good for them.

Then I check Steamrep: I provided 7 printscreens of our conversations that took place about a month ago, obviously he has changed his nicknames already, I was stupid not to printscreen his Steam id page at that time, so I get marked as "possible case" and admin asks me to provide more information on that case - which I don't have! So yaay for that, he has "possible fraud" mark on his profile now. -_-

I am still waiting for response from Steam, but knowing how they responded last time I had an issue with Assassin's Creed Syndicate not working properly (took them over a month to respond some automatic message) I know they will do abso-effing-lutely NOTHING about it.

All in all, I got rekt for 40€ and dude got away from it like nothing happened.
Next step, will file an online police report of scam/fraud online, but guess what - no one really cares about 40€ so he won't get anything - also he lives outside EU so screw that.

Update on 24th September:

Today I received a message from Steam saying following:
Hello #myname,

Thank you for contacting Steam Support.

A gift sent to your account was refunded due to fraud or a payment dispute and has been removed from Steam.

Unfortunately, we will be unable to restore the game to your account.

Please refer to the following article for more information:

Title: Revoked Gifts
URL: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=5854-QWLN-2621

You all were right: Steam and Paypal being large corporations can't be taking any actions against their clients on their own and a person needs to be too big of a scammer in order for Steam to even ban him from their service or give him a trade ban. Not cool!

What I learned from this? Don't use Paypal to send money to any individual and Gaben is a fat f#ck!
My trust-o-meter dropped so low after this case that I will never go first again on trades.

F#ck my life!
Sincerely,
rekt person

8 years ago*

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Have you ever been scammed?

View Results
Yes
No
I am a scammer. Hohoho!

Lesson number 1
gta 5+ dx:md can't be bought for $40, EVER

(=^・ω・^)y=

8 years ago
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you have no one to blame but yourself

8 years ago
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Lol, the only support worse than Steam is Paypal.

8 years ago
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I bought gta v preorder copy for 26$ usd and i bought mine for 30$ usd preoder copy aswell

Sadly no one can help u i have been scammed around 6 times but everyone learns there lessons

Don't worry karma is there

Though your money won't come back ud get over it someday like us all

Goodluck with future trades

8 years ago
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as a lawyer, I can say that your problem will be easily solved by a fine lawsuit against paypal, because they were paid.

8 years ago
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So the scammer's main account only has 49 games, the alt account is level 0 with no friends, and he has no trade feedback on SG. Sorry this happened to you, but my goodness, this just screamed "SCAM!!!" in bright blinking lights.

For the future, the thing you want to look for in a reputable trader is some connection and investment in community. It's not just about whether someone has any "bad" or negative things written or said about them, but whether they show evidence of having gaming roots and something to lose, by that I mean, an account that has enough non-free games in it that you know it's not just a shill account, or trade and posting activity here on SG, or something tangible that says, this person isn't going anywhere. Basically, the way to pick a trader you can trust is to evaluate them as if you were a judge trying to determine bail for a suspect. Is this person a flight risk or not? Do they have roots in the gaming community such that they wouldn't just drop everything and disappear, leaving their accounts behind? If you can't answer that question based on some rational evidence, then you shouldn't trade with that person.

8 years ago
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That's why my plan is to get to lvl500 on Steam, lvl10 here and then scam people for all the free GTA Vs, nobody would believe I did it and I get all the profitz!

8 years ago
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By the time you get to level 500 on Steam, you spent so much money on cards that you'd have to scam hundreds to make it profitable.

8 years ago
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Don't go spoiling great plans with minor details like facts.

8 years ago
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first beg for all the cards to level up ツ

8 years ago
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Got any cards to spare? I desperately need them to reach even lvl310.

8 years ago
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you should try to scam my 3k+ TCs... could help you to became a high-level scammer... \o/

View attached image.
8 years ago
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Sorry but there are bigger fish here with over 30k cards, I'll try them first and then move down.

8 years ago
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but these are all the high-lever scammer... :P

8 years ago
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Daaaamn, didn't think about that. So they might scam my measly cards instead?

8 years ago
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Lets gang up on them... $_$

8 years ago
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Good idea. We should split the work, you can first scam enough for me to get to lvl500, then I can scam all the free GTA V for both of us without any risk.

8 years ago
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that's a deal... starting to spam invites and trades...

i will msg you asap after success... o/

8 years ago
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Epic. XDD

8 years ago
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But they could use stolen account (which are sold cheap regardless of how many games are there) and then leave duiscard it.

8 years ago
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Just as SickTeddyBear wrote:
"
It seems they misunderstood you.

No, they understood him, he just sent the wrong type of report. If you submit a "wrong items" or "items not as described" report, that is how the report is handled and answered as. Since the items were revoked, he didn't receive the items, or no longer has them, and therefore, he needs to submit an "item not received" report as you said.
"

8 years ago
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Next time when u want something from paypal with a scammer, open a dispute that "item wasn't received" and escalate to claim. Just that, no small talk, and then paypal will contact scammer wich won't reply at all and u will get your money. Don't bury yourself in the start with too much info.

8 years ago
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if u actually know how to charge back u would got the money back.
i used to do charge back service a while back and its always easy to get money back whether said person buys or sells items

8 years ago
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I mean I lost 30to a totally trustworthy guy recently so I know how you feel .
But it's literally in PayPal tos that they don't refund that kinda stuff , so you can't blame them .
Although I do agree PayPal's a piece of shit platform in general.

As for steam you will just receive a copy of the payment details and the refund request made by the card owner .
And a copy pasta of the paragraph that using stolen credit cards is breaking steam tos , and legal actions can be taken for such offence.... that's what I got .

The lesson here , I guess , is if something seems to good .... it most likely isn't . I gave up on trading for anything worth more then2$ tbh ....
I rather just w for it to begin sale .... and it will sooner or later .
Mbynot as cheap .... But I rather save 33% on something ,then 66% on nothing .

8 years ago
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Yeah, guess the deal was way too good to be true. But, hopefully Steamrep will stop him from further scamming. ^_^

8 years ago
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They can stop him from scamming people who check his profile there ... but the ones who doesnt ... well :/

8 years ago
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Closed 7 years ago by pavepode.