Online Scammers thoughts/experiences

[demonoid 16]

So I thought about creating this topic after recently being duped by a item scammer on Steam. I've dealt with quite a few scammers over the years both in games and elsewhere. This time I was caught a little of guard as the method used was unfamiliar to me, but I've now learned my lesson, greed is an easy weakness to prey upon.

 

So the scammer a few weeks ago sent a random friend request on steam. They had several games in their inventory of games I played, so I though maybe it was someone I perhaps met at one point that decided to add me. Well about a week after adding them they struck up a conversation in chat. They told me they were a moderator of a Rust skin gambling site, something I was familiar yet unfamiliar with as I've never used them, but knew of them. Well they started proposing a sort of sponsor type of deal. They invited me to the website and showed they could rig the roulette to guarantee a win, and we'd split it 50/50 yeah. 

 

Well I finally decided to give it a go after being coerced into it. I played two rounds, and in the first of course I won a decent amount, but a catch. In order to claim my items, new members must win a minimum of two round supposedly to prevent fraud/bots. Well in the second round the supposed ballers show up and start dropping some seriously pricey items in the lot. So in order to prevent my win from looking 'suspicious' I need to put more in to boost my chances. So in the heat of the moment I do so, and the jackpot item value soars to around $5,500 or so, and I win. Another catch, I try to claim the winnings so I can split it up but it won't let me. The system wants me to 'verify' my account by paying 10% of the lot worth in items, and this is supposedly reimbursed afterwards, kinda like confirming a credit card on some sites.

 

After that everything slowly goes down hill, and I eventually realise my error. Due to having been partially blinded by my own greed in the moment. I realized then after the verification wasn't working and my contact had gone eerily silent that I'd be made a fool of, and duped out of my items.

 

This seems to be a newer phishing scam going on, and I thought I'd make a post of my experience to potentially prevent it happening to others. I did a little googling afterwards when my suspicions had risen, and found some reddit posts calling out the exact site I had been scammed with, and they're several others out there like it for variety of games that utilize the steam market.

 

So to wrap things up, that's my story. As the saying goes fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. I made a mistake that I won't make again. You might think your fool proof, that you've seen it all, but thieves have bait in a variety of flavors, and you might just take the bait without realizing it. All in all I only lost about 500$ worth which is a small price to pay, as I know others personally who've lost thousands to scammers. I'm normally leery of these sorts of things, but I let my guard down due to it being a different technique I hadn't experienced before.

 

Stay safe out there, and don't give into temptation. Often times I deal to good to be true, isn't true after all. Has this sort of thing happened to you before? If so, feel free to share your experience.

[NotZombieBiscuit 3146]

Best way not to get scammed.

 

Just don't get scammed. 5head

 

Also you're kinda dumb for not just falling for that but being so willing to gamble that way.

 

 

Edited April 25, 2019 by NotZombieBiscuit

[demonoid 16]

Mmm scammers come in many shapes, I don't normally gamble at all, at least in the true sense. In this instance I for a moment was under the assumption my chances were fixed, and they were. The entire thing was just an illusion. None of the other people gambling there even existed. It was all scripted. If I were an actual online gambler, I would probably have had more experience dealing with a scenario like this.

 

Everything seemed totally legit until the trap had already been set off. The scammer even seemed like pretty decent guy, until I came to my senses anyway. Some of these scammers are obvious from the get go, and others are seasoned con artists. It's not the first time someone's tried to scam me, this person was just a smooth talker, and got to know me for a few days before leading me into the trap.

[RCooper 182]

Sorry to hear that but how u said the one time u are not in guard you got scammed,that is why i dont like the trading system in apb too much because i have been scammed in others game by it,for now i have done 2 succesful trades but i will never trust it.

How u have already said it something is too good to be true the most sure thing is that it isnt.

[demonoid 16]

Yeah depends on the scam, some are easy to spot, some not so. I've had tons of scammers try to contact me through Facebook for example, and most of them all use the same tactic and that makes it easy to spot. Plus most of them have obviously dubious accounts. In the case of this scammer his profile was 11 years old, over level 25, and had 100+ games on his account. It looked pretty legit. Like who would risk getting their account with that much in stow banned via criminal activity. I certainly won't let it happen a second time.

 

Guess it goes to show you can't judge a book by its cover. It could have been worse. In the forums I looked up several people lost there accounts to same type of scammer I fell victim to. Some scammers even gained access to accounts of people in their friends list and used that impersonate their friend.

 

After this I obviously immediately changed my password, and set more things on my account to private access so outsiders can't see what I have from the get go. All in all I didn't lose much that isn't easily replaced, and I'll be more guarded in the future.

 

On another note, back when I was in my late teens, I got ripped off by someone who I thought was my friend. Knew the dude for over 3 years, and out of the blue stole my gamecube and 30 games, plus some of my other friends stuff and skipped town. All my stuff was over at a friends we were hanging out at and gaming together. Me and several of my buddies left to go to the park for some disc golf, and when we came back hours later, a lot of our stuff was missing. We discovered who it was later, as he had started posting the items he stole on Ebay a week or so later. Being stabbed in the back like that made me leery for a long time, but it's been over a decade ago since then.

[RCooper 182]

9 hours ago, demonoid said:

Yeah depends on the scam, some are easy to spot, some not so. I've had tons of scammers try to contact me through Facebook for example, and most of them all use the same tactic and that makes it easy to spot. Plus most of them have obviously dubious accounts. In the case of this scammer his profile was 11 years old, over level 25, and had 100+ games on his account. It looked pretty legit. Like who would risk getting their account with that much in stow banned via criminal activity. I certainly won't let it happen a second time.

 

Guess it goes to show you can't judge a book by its cover. It could have been worse. In the forums I looked up several people lost there accounts to same type of scammer I fell victim to. Some scammers even gained access to accounts of people in their friends list and used that impersonate their friend.

 

After this I obviously immediately changed my password, and set more things on my account to private access so outsiders can't see what I have from the get go. All in all I didn't lose much that isn't easily replaced, and I'll be more guarded in the future.

 

On another note, back when I was in my late teens, I got ripped off by someone who I thought was my friend. Knew the dude for over 3 years, and out of the blue stole my gamecube and 30 games, plus some of my other friends stuff and skipped town. All my stuff was over at a friends we were hanging out at and gaming together. Me and several of my buddies left to go to the park for some disc golf, and when we came back hours later, a lot of our stuff was missing. We discovered who it was later, as he had started posting the items he stole on Ebay a week or so later. Being stabbed in the back like that made me leery for a long time, but it's been over a decade ago since then.

Maybe he was scamming u with a stolen account, because scamming with a account like that is strange

I have never scammed by a friend yet, but I have people do shit to me which is practically the same so yeah when it happen sucks 

[ch4ncer 87]

No, there's no such thing as experienced scammer or sweet talking or anything, it boils down to the percentage of obliviousness the victim has, I've never been scammed on any game or any of my online ventures that I run, it's either your way or the high way, if they refuse to comply to hell with them, next. Besides all of that, refrain from participating in shady activities that you are unsure of. Risk management is key.

[Eisena 86]

I like to give in to temptation.