1 Message by you on Sat, 3rd Mar 2012 12:48 pm
Hi,

I just received an alert saying my account was restricted for fraudulent activity?

I do not understand what happened, since all the games I have bought has been with my credit card (which I paid) or with Paypal.

May I know what is happening?

Thanks,
MoneyHypeMike

2 Message by Support Tech Alex on Sun, 4th Mar 2012 6:31 pm
Hello Mike,

Thank you for contacting Steam Support.

We are investigating this issue further. As soon as we have more information, we will update your ticket.

3 Message by Support Tech Roland on Wed, 7th Mar 2012 1:29 pm
Hello Mike,

Our records show that you received a number of items/gifts that were stolen from hijacked Steam accounts.

As a consequence, we have removed any scammed items/gifts from your account. You will not get any lost items/gifts back.

Additionally, your trading privileges have been suspended for 2 weeks. We have a zero tolerance policy for scamming.

Please refrain from accepting stolen items/gifts or the account may be permanently disabled. Valve reserves the right to refer the matter to the appropriate authorities if such activity continues.

The Steam Subscriber Agreement can be found at:
http://store.steampowered.com/subscriber_agreement/

If you have any further questions, please let us know - we will be happy to assist you.

4 Message by you on Wed, 7th Mar 2012 3:06 pm
Hello,

Sorry if I sound pissed in the following text, but I failed to understand how this is MY fault and not the USER/STEAM fault.

Since SATURDAY, I have been removed the right to trade, gift, purchase games and activate CD keys for fraudulent activities. 4 DAYS LATER (today), I find out from Steam support that the ''fraudulent activities'' I got accused of happened using the STEAM TRADING SYSTEM. I did not violate any of Steam trading rules (as stated by the link from the trade ban), or any named rules in the ''Steam Subscriber Agreement'' (I read it all of it TWICE to make sure I followed every rules).

The answer provided by Steam support does not even mention which items/gifts were received form a stolen account and which account was hijacked. All I know is I have lost all the items I have acquired using the STEAM TRADING SYSTEM. The items I traded for those were legitimately bought, using either my own money or acquired from other trades using the STEAM TRADING SYSTEM.

Let me ask you a question, as a user (customer) of Steam, how am I supposed to know I received items/gifts from an hijacked Steam account? Steam does not provide me any tool to prevent this so I do not understand why I am the one getting punished for this since I used the STEAM TRADING SYSTEM as stated by the Steam trading rules. Does this mean that using Steam trade for all my trade is now unsafe for us the users (customers)?

Why doesn't Steam support provide me more information on how to not let this happen again? I have only made 1051 trades (36 pages) since Christmas, does this mean I could get ban later if someone else get hijacked or traded me stolen gifts?

The message from Support Tech Roland makes me seem like a scammer/I knew the items were acquired from an hijacked Steam account. Since Christmas, I spent close to 3000$ on Steam either to buy, trade or give away games (when eram the moderator doesn't close my giveaway thread) to people of the community. I have been investing a lot of time and money to gain all this good reputation from the community. Now this with trade ban status I have inherited, all these effort are vain because people will not think I am a scammer. All this because I have used the STEAM TRADING SYSTEM as requested by the rules.

Hopefully, Steam support review their decision and remove the trade ban I have received for something I am not responsible for.

Also, can I share with the other steam users the answer I have received from Steam support? I am sure a lot of them would like to know they could get ban if they use the STREAM TRADING SYSTEM to acquire items/games with the money they have invested on Steam.

Thanks,
MoneyHypeMike

5 Message by Support Tech Roland on Wed, 14th Mar 2012 12:56 pm
Hello Mike,

As previously stated, our records show that you received a number of items/gifts that were stolen from hijacked Steam accounts.

We will not review the item histories with you, as it is your responsibility to ensure you are adhering to the subscriber agreement while using the Steam Trading System.

In the future, you may want to avoid trades where other users offer you their entire trade inventory.

Additionally, in your profile you offer to act as a middleman. This is not only not recommended, it is unnecessary. The Steam Trading system in itself acts as a middleman by making both parties confirm what they are sending and receiving.

By placing yourself in this unnecessary role, you open yourself up to getting involved in potentially fraudulent trades or situations.

Due to the nature of the hijack, trade, and activity on your account, you received the minimum ban for this type of issue. That ban will remain in effect until March 21st, 2012.

Thank you for contacting Steam Support.

6 Message by you on Wed, 14th Mar 2012 1:38 pm
Hello,

Can I know how I am responsible for this? You are asking me to take responsibility of something and not even quoting what I should take responsibility of. Neither did you quote which rule I have broken. All you keep saying is ''you broke the subscriber agreement'', without giving me any information.

Also, everyone who I talked with do not understand why I GET TRADE BANNED for this while the user who has traded me these items GET ALL THE ITEMS BACK. Can you explain to me how this seems logic for you? I really need to know why I get ban for this, because they would like to know to since they are traders too.

I am the 1st one who traded for these hijacked items? Did user who I traded with the hijacked got banned too?

I haven't done anything wrong and Steam DOES NOT provide me a way to see if I am trading items from an hijacked account. Neither do they provide me a way to see if a user bought games from a stolen credit card. What you are telling me is Steam provides a great service for people and refuse to take any responsibility if something bad happens, while telling me to take responsibility of something I can't even check.

I also hoped after ONE COMPLETE WEEK that all my questions would be answered.
I am still waiting answers for these ones:

-Which rule(s) did I not respect to deserve this ban?
-Which user did this happen with?
-How am I supposed to know gift were acquired from an hijacked account?
-Can I let the other users know they might get ban while using the Steam Trading System? Even if their gift were legitimately bought.

Also, can I know why it takes 1 complete week for support to respond to my ticket? I have never saw such a delay from support for any service.

Thanks,
MoneyHypeMike

7 Message by you on Wed, 14th Mar 2012 1:43 pm
Am I the 1st one who traded for these hijacked items? Did the users who I traded these hijacked items with got banned too?*

8 Message by Support Tech Roland on Thu, 15th Mar 2012 8:33 pm
Hello Mike,

We do not disclose the full extent of fraud investigations in the Steam economy. However, I will attempt to answer some of your questions.

Yes. You were the first person to receive the items from the hijacked account. The account was hijacked, and then within the hour the entire TF2 inventory was sent to your account. Then from your account they were sent to what appears to have been the hijackers account.

The items were given back to the original account owner after they provided proof of ownership and were given their account back.

Yes. We have also dealt with the hijacker, and other accounts associated to the trade scam.

As previously stated, you may want to avoid trades where other users offer you their entire trade inventory or asks you to facilitate the move of their entire inventory.

Additionally, in your profile you offer to act as a middleman. This is not only not recommended, it is unnecessary. The Steam Trading system in itself acts as a middleman by making both parties confirm what they are sending and receiving.

By placing yourself in this unnecessary role, you open yourself up to getting involved in potentially fraudulent trades or situations.

This issue is not open for further discussion.

Thank you for contacting Steam Support.

9 Message by you on Fri, 16th Mar 2012 4:34 pm
Hello,

Thanks you for the fast answer.

''This issue is not open for further discussion.'' What does this mean? I did not ask to close my ticket, my questions have NOT been answered, you keep avoiding them and reply to only the one you want/ your boss tells you to reply.

Can I know which rule I broke in the user agreement, since it seems that is why I got a trade ban?
I really fail to see which rule I broke, since I used the steam trading system as requested by Steam.

I do no offer to act as a middleman anymore, it has been removed yesterday as you requested.

That question is the most important of the one I asked and so far you have AVOIDED answering that question in EVERY reply I have made.
A lot of people have been asking me this and they are waiting for your answer.

Please answer this question, so the users can be informed about the danger of using the Steam trading system, which are NOT advise by Steam.

Thanks,
MoneyHypeMike

10 Message by you on Sat, 17th Mar 2012 2:08 am
Hello,

Something else I wanted to add to your reply.

''Yes. You were the first person to receive the items from the hijacked account. The account was hijacked, and then within the hour the entire TF2 inventory was sent to your account. Then from your account they were sent to what appears to have been the hijackers account.''

I fail to understand this. Since you do not want to tell me which person I traded with, I checked to see which account you sent back the items to. It is impossible I traded within the hour with that guy acquired the items, as it took me 3-4 days (His inventory didn't change much in those 3-4 days) to get that game as I was hesitant to trade it for his entire inventory. Also, I failed to see how I traded back the items I acquired from that person account to his account since I have been trading them to MANY different people.

11 Message by Support Tech Roland on Sat, 17th Mar 2012 1:28 pm
Hello Mike,

Unfortunately, we will be unable to assist you further with this issue.

Thank you for contacting Steam Support.
12 Message by you on Sat, 17th Mar 2012 2:27 pm
Hello Roland,

What do you mean you are unable to assist me further with this issue? Is this a joke or what?

I'm not asking you to unban me, I'm asking you to answer my question that you did not bother answer in this ticket.
Isn't that support job?

I don't see any phone number I can call to get answer for my question, neither do I see somewhere where I can complain against lack of support or against steam support not doing their job.

I don't understand how you can decide to close my ticket without even asking me if I was pleased with your answer/I didn't had anything else to ask.

13 Message by Support Tech Jesse on Mon, 19th Mar 2012 10:17 am
Hello Mike,

Roland has passed your ticket on to me.

Unfortunately, Valve's Privacy Policy prevents us from releasing any account information except to comply with court orders or laws that require us to disclose such information.

As a one-time exception, I have removed the trade ban from your account. Please be careful when trading in the future.

If you have any further questions, please let us know - we will be happy to assist you.

14 Message by you on Thu, 22nd Mar 2012 2:11 pm
Hello,

How come my ticket was closed?

I have still NOT after 2 WEEKS AND A HALF received the answer about which rule I have violate under the Steam user Agreement to receive this ban. People have been asking me this, since it seems that Steam Trading System is NOT flawless.

Thanks,
MoneyHypeMike

15 Message by Support Tech Jesse on Sun, 25th Mar 2012 1:05 pm
Hello Mike,

All information regarding why trade bans are issued is provided in our first response to the issue. You can log in to your account at support.steampowered.com to review this ticket.

If you have any further questions, please let us know - we will be happy to assist you.

16 Message by you on Sun, 25th Mar 2012 1:27 pm
Hello,

No offense, but I don't understand why you guys are dodging this question.

Do you guys think I am a retard or something? Didn't you see the ESSAY I wrote after the ''reason'' for the ban? I don't think you guys realize how serious this issue is. I actually spend REAL MONEY to acquire the items that I lost using the STEAM TRADING SYSTEM.

My ticket has been open for 3 WEEKS. I have never seen a support been this slow to answer a customer question.

Maybe I was not clear enough?

Steam support have told me I got ban for this reason: ''Our records show that you received a number of items/gifts that were stolen from hijacked Steam accounts.''

Now, can I know which rule from the User Agreement I violated to receive the ban?

Yes, I asked you to QUOTE ME THE RULE I HAVE VIOLATED.

Sorry if I sound pissed, but I actually am pissed. I have never saw a support who IGNORE questions from customer and even close the user ticket 2 times without even ask him.

Also, you should actually WARN people that this can happen while using Steam Trade.

Thanks,
MoneyHypeMike

17 Message by Support Tech Jesse on Tue, 27th Mar 2012 10:15 am
Hello Mike,

Unfortunately, we will be unable to assist you further with this issue.

Thank you for contacting Steam Support.

18 Message by you on Tue, 27th Mar 2012 10:38 am
Hello,

Are you unable to assist me cause I didn't break any rule to deserve the ban?

I thought this was support, did I contact the wrong people?

Could you please link me to where I can contact Steam Support?

And again, why do you guy want to close this ticket when this issue is not over?

Thanks,
MoneyHypeMike

19 Message by Support Tech Jesse on Thu, 29th Mar 2012 4:14 pm
Hello Mike,

You were reported as part of a trade scam. We reviewed the scam and applied a trade ban to your account.

As a one-time exception, I canceled the ban.

As stated previously multiple times, we do not discuss the specifics of the trade which was reported for *any* trade ban in *any* situation. This policy will not be modified in any way. This matter is not open for discussion.

Any future replies to this ticket will be closed without response. Any future tickets regarding this issue will be considered spam and may cause your support account to be temporarily blocked.

Thank you for contacting Steam Support.