This situation started about 48 hours ago. Creating a thread about the issue to spread awareness and due to a conversation on skype with sl8a.

Yesterday I was trying to trade with someone I believed (at the time, anyway) was YugiohPro, not so sure now. At any rate, I haven't received any money after transferring my own $500 (despite the person claiming they would send zelle shortly) and I've been ghosted on Skype by that person for the past 18 hours or so.


Here's a quick summary of what happened.

Two days ago, I talked to someone on Skype claiming to be YugiohPro about a transfer, agreeing to transfer $1k in 2 $500 increments, my PS (sn: Duncelanas) for zelle with me sending first. I was ok with this, as that person asked me to send to PS account YugiohPro, which is publicly known as the real YugiohPro's ps acct.

I sent $500 to Yugiohpro at 5:00 am 6/24 (GMT+8). They claim the transfer doesn't go through for about 2 hours, but remain in contact on Skype over this time. Then they send me the $500 back on PS (from the Yugiohpro account) at about 7:00 am, and a minute or two later messaged me on skype explaining that they had some problem with zelle and would get back to me after they'd fixed it.

At this point, I was mildly unhappy with the situation, but we've all dealt with bank bs, and this person had returned my $500 on PS in a transfer from the YugiohPro account. As far as I was concerned, this was sufficient confirmation that I was dealing with the real YugiohPro.

The next day, Yugiohpro told me they'd sorted the zelle problem and we could try again. This time, though, they asked me to transfer to the stars account sl8a, mentioning that sl8a is a 2p2 member and long-time friend. Assuming this is to prevent the transfer problem we had yesterday, I do a quick search on sl8a and find multiple threads of sl8a selling action in the past, some posts in the hsnl xfer thread, and even some community members willing to hardvouch for sl8a in some of his package posts. Sl8a mentions multiple times in the posts that his stars sn is sl8a, so I feel (again, at the time) it's more or less confirmed that it's the same person.

So I send $500 to the sl8a account while talking to the supposed "yugiohpro" on Skype. "Yugiohpro" confirms receipt of xfer by sl8a (who they say they're talking to at the time on Skype) and soon after tell me they're sending zelle shortly. Then they either go invisible or block me on Skype, and haven't replied to my messages in the past 12+ hours. My money hasn't been either sent on zelle or returned on PS.

Transaction screenshot attached, middle transaction is $325 to a friend for a separate matter involving APT Ho Chi Minh buyin next week. Shown are also both transactions with YugiohPro as well as the $500 sent to Sl8a:

Here is a copy of my chat with "YugiohPro": https://pastebin.com/00DmppUT

Today, I PMed both YugiohPro and sl8a on 2p2. Sl8a responded to me, confirmed that they'd also done a trade which was "YugiohPro's" PS for Sl8a's BTC. Sl8a also provided a skype log of Yugiohpro asking for another $500 transaction, but it doesn't seem that transaction was finished. Sl8a further said that they had received my $500 on PS and that my money had not been touched, then requested I make this 2p2 thread. I have not yet received a response from YugiohPro.

At this time, I basically believe as follows: YugiohPro has either started scamming members of the community (unlikely, let's hope), or a scammer has access to YugiohPro's PS account and is using it to steal from the community. Said scammer is also impersonating YugiohPro on skype. Sl8a seems like a third party here (although I don't understand why "YugiohPro" would request I send directly to sl8a), has avoided being the victim of a scam, and should send back my $500. I was likely the victim of a middleman scam, but the money is sitting in sl8a's account and hasn't been transferred to the scammer.

At this time, everyone should be careful dealing with anyone claiming to be YugiohPro, even if they are dealing directly with the YugiohPro pokerstars account.

Thanks for your time.

Duncelanas

This is a copy of the chat log between me and whoever is behind the YugiohPro account.

I flat out refuse to send first to anyone I don't know personally or have a solid relationship with.

I didn't check who the stars transfer was from until Duncleans PM'd me this afternoon. I don't think it would have affected anything in this situation and I don't think it's uncommon for people to send for others. It is fairly sloppy on my end not to check though.

Ah, I see I misunderstood a bit when talking to you before. Seems like I'm the victim of a middleman scam and the YugiohPro PS account has also been compromised.

''I'm now aware of two scams posing as me to make trades. Please be careful when trading and ask to confirm through 2+2 PMs and multiple other methods.

My screenname on PokerStars is YugiohPro and I'll make extra sure to double check our identities when trading from now on.''

Post from Jae (YugiohPro) a couple posts before yours OP in the P2P transfer thread.

Yes, I was aware of this post -- my concerns were alleviated because I initially transferred to the YugiohPro PS account and got the $500 refunded from the YugiohPro PS account, so at that point I was pretty certain it was the real YugiohPro. Nothing in that post mentioned PS being potentially compromised.

Ohh that sucks, I wonder how, assuming he's got an RSA Token.

Hello,

I apologize for this mix up. It disheartens me that there are so many scumbags out there orchestrating such elaborate schemes to take money from people.

It looks like Duncelanas (dunc) was scammed by a person I know as "Tony" on Skype. ID is isunkurbattleship, Mobile +15416392119, Location listed as US.

Timeline of Events from my Side

- Tony first messaged me on 05/19 claiming to be justcool54 on 2+2. I did a light check of his background it seemed ok.

- We had a fizzled trade where I received $100 from an account dursty54 and sent $100 in Crypto to the address he provided. After this he claimed to have a Stars issue and stopped sending the rest. I didn't think much of this at the time but was a bit annoyed.

- Around 06/10 he began asking me if I needed Party funds. In retrospect this was pretty fishy since he sent me multiple messages on 06/10, 06/11, 06/12, 06/13, and 06/15 asking me about buying funds. I have noticed in both scams involving me that they get pretty desperate about asking me if I need funds. Unfortunately I was traveling in Hong Kong at the time so I was not paying attention to these messages.

- On 06/18 I made a post in both xfer threads saying "''I'm now aware of two scams posing as me to make trades. Please be careful when trading and ask to confirm through 2+2 PMs and multiple other methods.

My screenname on PokerStars is YugiohPro and I'll make extra sure to double check our identities when trading from now on.''

- On 06/24, Monday Morning my time in Asia, Tony sent me a few messages. I was a bit tilted from having to deal with this while deep into my Sunday grind. He had just wiggled out of the bigger transfer before and then started this one on his own so I was not happy with him. I'm posting the full chat log despite the messages not reflecting super well on me. I think he was banking on this from me obviously.

(06/19)
YugiohPro, 오후 1:33
hey sorry about that, was traveling. yes i'll take Stars or Party (prefer Stars)

(06/24)
Tony, 오전 5:54
You around?

Tony, 오전 5:58
Just sent $500 on stars to YugiohPro from Duncelanas

Tony, 오전 5:58
My bitcoin address is

Tony, 오전 5:58
1BUTM8Z5EgBe3FWmowbYy2X83aw9Su2pym

Tony, 오전 5:59
Can send 500 more once received

Tony, 오전 6:16
Just let me know when sent and ill send the other 500. Might be looking at doing another 2-3k worth as well

YugiohPro, 오전 7:31
how much are we talking here

Tony, 오전 7:32
I sent 500 already gonna do another increment of 500 and if all goes well ill send 3k more

YugiohPro, 오전 7:33
pretty out of line for you to just initiate the trade by yourself

Tony, 오전 7:33
I apologize

YugiohPro, 오전 7:33
what if I don't want to do 500 increments?

YugiohPro, 오전 7:33
because I don't

Tony, 오전 7:34
I assumed that it would be acceptable. If you want to send back thats ok. Or we can do 500 then i can send the rest. Just with your recent post i figured it would be acceptable to do increments.

Tony, 오전 7:34
Again i apologize for taking it upon myself.

Tony, 오전 7:40
If you could just let me know when you have sent back i would appreciate it. Again I apologize for sending without confirming with you first.

YugiohPro, 오전 7:45
i'm not sending 500 back

Tony, 오전 7:45
Whys that?

YugiohPro, 오전 7:45
you're just wasting my time

YugiohPro, 오전 7:45
we did 100 last time as well

YugiohPro, 오전 7:46
what you should do is send another 2k or whatever it is you wanted to trade

YugiohPro, 오전 7:46
and we can just resolve the trade

YugiohPro, 오전 7:46
not sure why you think sending a blind 500 to someone is safer

YugiohPro, 오전 7:47
i'll send the 500 back on a poker site if needed

Tony, 오전 7:50
I do need it on a poker site (ignition) thats why i was sending for crypto. i really do apologize.

Tony, 오전 7:53
Would you consider taking 2-3% of the 500 as vig for my mistake.

YugiohPro, 오전 7:55
what do you think I am? your deposit option or something?

YugiohPro, 오전 7:56
you already wasted my time the last time with $100 and just moved out

YugiohPro, 오전 7:56
you think you can just make me run around for $100 or $500 at a time? seems like a joke to me

YugiohPro, 오전 7:56
i'm sending 500 back to Duncelanas stop messaging me now

YugiohPro, 오전 7:56
we're done with any trades or anything

Tony, 오전 7:57
Thats not my intention

YugiohPro, 오전 7:58
alright sent 500 back

YugiohPro, 오전 7:58
we're done here
************************************************** *******

This is now the third or fourth scam I've heard of involving me and I'm disappointed to know that such human scum exists in this world. In retrospect a lot of Tony's actions makes sense to me now. I'm not very familiar with how these scams work so I didn't recognize some of the signs.

Few things here in closing:

1) I've never interacted with dunc on 2+2 or Skype. I wish he had contacted me through PMs, especially after I posted in both xfer threads.
2) It started to get real ugly when the guy requested dunc send the money to sl8a. There is a tangled web of multi-party transactions here going on I was not aware of. I was only aware of the xfer from Duncelanas and sent it back because I didn't recognize the name and I was tilted.
3) Despite #1 and #2 I do recognize that everyone (including me) is not always thorough about these things because we aren't absolute scummers like the scam artists perpetrating these frauds. My name/reputation do matter to me and I am genuinely upset that dunc and others had to suffer from this. I'd be happy to consent to arbitration along with sl8a and dunc or offer some kind of one shot staking deal or listen to any other proposal to help dunc recoup his losses.
4) Anyone else who has been scammed using my name prior to today please post in this thread if I haven't already been speaking with you on Skype.

is this the same "isunkurbttlship" on 2+2? he also lives in the US and plays on ignition, dont know if this is just a coincidence or not.

https://i.imgur.com/o66da9S.png

he has marketplace approval, so if it is the same user the mods may want to look into that. if its not the same user and hes being impersonated as well then it seems this tangled web of lies and multi user scams is getting thicker......

Got in touch with YugiohPro and as a generous gesture he offered to freeroll me for some action -- this entire situation was clearly not his fault and in my view is going above and beyond.

Further, I think it's now clear that YugiohPro's PS account was not compromised. I was the intended victim of a scam where I send $ to YugiohPro and YugiohPro sends $ to the scammer. In reality, YugiohPro refunded my $, and then the scammer told me to trade with someone else to accomplish the same thing. YugiohPro and sl8a are both pretty clearly innocent parties in this and luckily YugiohPro's account remains under his control.

I guess all I can say here is please be careful when dealing with anyone and try to verify you're talking to the real person no matter who it is, how reputable they seem, or even if you're transferring to the "correct" or "reputable" account on whatever pokersite. Even with YugiohPro's generosity, I'm left holding the bag on a few hundred lost due to a middleman scam that could have been prevented if more care had been taken in the transaction process.

While I appreciate anything YugiohPro or sl8a are willing to do in this situation to help me recoup some losses, I did not start this thread to try to get money from either YugiohPro or sl8a, I do not feel I am owed any compensation from either of them and, and I feel any sort of arbitration process is unnecessary -- neither of them have acted materially wrongly in this situation, and both of them have been responsive and reasonable in my contact with them after reaching out today. I hope at least starting this thread can inform the community about some of these scams that exist (beyond just simple chargeback scamming) and inspire people to be a bit more careful with marketplace transactions in the future.

Hi, just wanted to pipe in and say that I am not involved and my skype must be being impersonated. My skype is the same as my name here, my name is not Tony and I'm not from the US. I've been impersonated before and also scammed in a similar manner before. There is a group of us on skype who have all been scammed by who we believe to be the same person with the same MO

Just wanted to clarify the first part of this. I'm Canadian and play on Bodog

You guys making trades need to be really, really careful. If you don't regularly take part in the forums, you might not be aware of these scams. A lot of the OP's reasoning seems solid if you're not familiar with this kind of thing, but the holes were apparent if you are. As soon as I read the first post, I was pretty sure that OP was mistaken about Yugioh's Stars account being compromised, as it sounded like a classic middleman scam that has happened numerous times before with different accounts, and that is far more likely than someone's poker site account being compromised.

I mention all of this not to come down on the OP, or to be condescending - just pointing out that the best thing you can do to arm yourself against this kind of thing is research. Lots of research. Read through some of these threads to see how scammers operate. When someone purporting to be a 2+2er contacts you off the site, confirm it via PM here - and even then you need to be wary of a compromised account on this end if anything seems suspicious, as that's happened occasionally. These transfer threads attract scammers like flies to honey; beware!

I've done some title editing to better reflect what transpired here; OP, please LMK if you think it needs any further fixing. Sorry you were scammed, but happy for you that Yugioh has given you some value that, as you say, wasn't necessary. Nice gesture on his part. And thanks to you for posting the thread in order to warn others.

Hello,

I'm not active much here in the forums, but I'll add my 5 cents, I'll highlight the info which may be new and/or helpful for possible victims.

About 2 weeks ago I posted in transfer thread offering party$ for skrill€/stars$. Beside making a successful swap with one user, I was contacted by an acc "Yugiohpro" on Skype. First warning flag was the skype login which was "raw__force". I asked him to post in the thread (which is a condition of the forums) which he avoided by claiming he made many successful trades in the HS thread bla bla. Still I knew that on party the transfer is made to an acc+real name, which I like a lot and adds me a tiny bit of secureness. (Anyways, with how this scam worked, it would not have helped me) I was considering writing a PM to YugiohPro here on 2p2, but it felt stupid and I didn't want to make a HS reg feel weird about my $500 increments ... Yes, this was a mistake, along with not forcing a thread post, even from a very reputable person.

I decided to do this swap, I sent $500 to IMSOBOSSY on party (which should be real YugiohPro's party login, at least based on P5s). I got lucky there as the transfer did not work because "the account name does not exist". The scum says he's going to solve this with support and let me know. 3 days later he says he has still no answer (which is strange as I had a recent experience with party support in a complicated matter and they were acting quite promptly, even though I'm a much smaller stakes player than YugiohPro) and whether I'd like to do this xfer straight to his horse, for whom the funds were originally designed anyway. I considered this shady and I wasn't willing to do this trade. This "horse"'s login is "Zurgok.", name Adam Bonham. This will either be another victim of this scammer's work, or, less likely, the scammer himself. If you know this person, please, let him know about this post/situation. (they may have figured anyway as this happened about 2 weeks ago...)

I didn't like this option as, even if there was a real swap intention, this would be how the scam would work, if it was one. So I did not react to this and later I said I already had done the trade with a friend outside of 2p2 (which was true). Then he asked me whether I was able to do $300 or $200 on party. This felt really strange if someone having ABI $100+ iirc and plays high NL asks for a $200 swap. So since here I knew I wasn't doing a swap here and I decided to share this because of the little more new info to share with the others. So to sum up, I didn't get scammed.

Last but not least I want to express a big respect for the real YugiohPro and his offer to Duncelanas itt.

And please let me know if anyone has any info on the Zurgok. player, or, let him know about this, pls. Thanks and GL at the tables, and clearly also outside of the tables, with these negative freerolls called trades :/.

Wow, this gets weirder and weirder. The real Raw_force is a good friend of mine and would have had no part of this. I'm assuming that skype name had two underscores?

This is just so distressing. There are so many scams going on with my name attached. Thanks for posting your account duklaak and I'm glad you didn't fall for it. Sending to a third party is always going to be a huge red flag.

Hi mate, I was also intended as a victim and had a similar situation that I posted into xfer thread 6days ago: https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/s...ostcount=43185

Yes indeed, that's why I quoted. It was also one of the suspicious things in this matter, I figured this out in the beginning (the two underscores), I realised if this was a scam this login would be intended to be misread and I still tried to send the first installment. How stupid am I? ...

Beware this guy is still about!!

Used raw__force skype name to impersonate YugiohPro who was allegedly vouching for "Drew" who initially messaged me about a trade. I didn't get scammed because I wasn't interested in trading with him. But just be aware please. Known names:

Skype:
raw__force
reefpoopoo

2p2:
Jzeroney

Good job dodging the scam. Fwiw the real raw_force (1 underscore not 2) is a good friend of mine and is not involved with the poker world anymore/won't be making random trades

Also used Skype name of ahh_snap.

I embarrassingly fell for this scammer the other day.

Long story short, I didn't do my due diligence and made a few assumptions leading to myself getting scammed. A series of coincidental events lead to me disregarding usual security procedures. Out $500, could had been worse.

Be forewarned this guy is still out there.

https://gyazo.com/f6903dce8fa0dead758ba459a1ae2aa7

Bump as this guy is still around doing the same scam. Was made aware of someone using this skype ID: https://gyazo.com/fea6621aa290f5ef367d427a26c7fd2a . I have no association with this person and he has scammed me in the past.

scammer still around (poorly) impersonating Primordial, don't trade with ahh_snap / +15305422885 on Skype https://imgur.com/lpwmlGV