About 4-pack sales on the Forum

[Ed Herdman]

I paid back on Sunday for a four-pack buy-in from this "guy" (http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/member.php?u=791197) (who knows what the actual gender is). So I figured what the hell, the guy only joined July but maybe he's legit. Also, there's no Steam Community URL, and there's a post on the L4D forums (http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1377235) trolling for a four-pack buy in as well!

The 4-pack game thread, started by somebody else, was here (http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1375162) (these Forums). Deleted. Was that due to scamming? In any case, our friend is off and away to who knows where.

I definitely should have known not to do it, but I figured it was worth a try.

UPDATE: The phone number given by the account responds "Governor's Office" of New Jersey.

UPDATE #2: During my service call with PayPal, they said that they were going to look at getting the fake phone number fixed and whether there were any other reasons for looking at it from the standpoint of fraud, but I see they've already refunded my money.

So, almost definitely a scammer. If anybody else sent some money to this turd, get on the phone now.

[RicardoSousa11]

When buying 4 packs , you should buy from people you know..never pay someone for a 4-pack if you dont know them.

[Ed Herdman]

When buying 4 packs , you should buy from people you know..never pay someone for a 4-pack if you dont know them.
Yeah, I've done that before and just got complacent / greedy this time.

Anyway, this is more of a "haha laugh at this idiot" Public Safety Announcement! G.I. JOOEEEEeeeeee

[Syldan]

If he did his transaction throught Paypal, the joke's on him. He still have to give some official informations to Paypal to transfert the money somewhere and it leaves heavy traces. He may have transfered to another account, they can still catch him.

Here's some REP for your warning, but don't do that again...

[Pheace]

What's to prevent someone from getting their money back, even if they did gift the item? how would anyone prove that?

I really don't bother with these 'deals' since it's just too unsafe.

[Syldan]

That is true too, but I guess there was more evidence of fraud from the other person's side. Some other complains for example. Out of a 4 pack there's probably been 2 other persons scammed with Ed.

I guess in the case of a seller getting scammed by buyer, sller would keep emails and proof he sent the item to buyer. We do get an email saying it was sent to that person... I forgot if the information (Steam name or email) appears in your receip.

It is just the same for eBay.

[Ed Herdman]

Out of a 4 pack there's probably been 2 other persons scammed with Ed.
Actually, assuming it's a scam, they had no intention of getting together four people. It could have been more or less. Probably less because there aren't so many people like myself who are so gullible :D

For what it's worth they said they already had a friend, so two were spoken for, and then they'd send on Monday when another person sent.

Just to make it clear, I've already gotten my money back. It looks like the decision to refund was made by this person, possibly to throw everybody off their trail, and not by PayPal - otherwise it would have taken longer. Either way the money was safe: PayPal will lock your payment (if it hasn't been withdrawn before you open your complaint, so move quickly) while the dispute is being processed.

About Gift payments; I wouldn't use it. No Gift was asked for but I factored in fees as a result of that (asking price was $5.62, which still puzzles me). If you Gift the money obviously you have no expectation PayPal is going to bat for you, because you haven't paid for their services (via the little fee - $.20 - $.40 sounds like a lot out of a small payment, but call center employees make more than minimum wage, so...)

For what it's worth, I didn't have enough money in my PP to directly buy the game at half-off from Steam, so it's not as if I lost a chance by throwing some money towards this person, so they don't get the satisfaction of having screwed me over despite not getting a cent in the end. I'll just wait until another half-off or price cut happens...well, maybe, depends on how the game progresses.

Thanks for the relatively kind words, everyone.

[CuPeD]

I make the same mistake Ed. I buy one copy of this man...3 days ago.

[Ed Herdman]

Holy cow! So that makes at least two other people who have been scammed. Which means the bit about having a "friend" onboard was totally a lie because none of us three are this ♥♥♥♥♥♥bag's friend. (I don't think they have any.)

OK, here's what to do.

Log into PayPal, open a dispute after selecting the item. Write item not received, and also write that they promised delivery on a certain date.

Then call up PayPal's toll free number and mention that at least two other people have had this same problem.

If you're lucky, they will just refund the money quickly. If you're not so lucky then they have already withdrawn the money (I was kind of surprised it wasn't withdrawn), but PayPal will still have your back.

IF you paid via Gift, well, you shouldn't have but you should still call PayPal up and say that you were misled about the way Gift works. Then don't use Gift again for anybody you aren't actually giving a Gift to (in practice people use it to pay for stuff with people they "know" but it's still not worth it, just pay for their protection service, it's a good deal when stuff goes down).

I hope this person likes dealing with collections!

I hope that's helpful. Also hope that Steam Forums have dealt with this leech too.

[Ed Herdman]

Well, that's interesting to know, but it's just an arbitrary restriction. A dollar is a dollar.

Anyway, I think I might end up getting the retail version, although that may get less money to the developers I kind of want the boxed version, if it shows up.