Be careful who you sell your buds to...

[Zork Nemesis]

Here's a rather interesting post I found on Kotaku (it's on the Steam news blotter for TF2 as well). It's worth looking into if you're into this sort of thing. The post was made on Sunday (the 11th) and Kotaku picked up on it yesterday. The tl;dr summary at the bottom reads:

A group of Russians bought >5,000 Keys from Store today using illegitimate credit cards and bought few hundred Buds from TF2 Outpost at an ridiculous price of 28-30 Keys (The average yesterday was 25.5 Keys). They have been doing this for quite a long time and their activity today is alarming.

From what I gather, these people are flooding the trade markets with keys likely obtained through illegitimate means (all the more reason to monitor your account data closely), exchanging them for buds, then selling them back for money (which the article points out these guys are getting 700 rubs each, which is the Russian equivalent to $22.71 USD)

Here's the full post, conducted by a guy who probably has too much free time:
http://forums.steamrep.com/threads/toda ... ket.14096/

Just goes to show, if you openly engage in trading markets, keep an eye out for less-than-scrupulous buyers/sellers out there.

[frostdillicus]

I wonder how things like TF2 Warehouse and in game stores are viewed in terms of money laundering laws. I've always been curious.

[Larry]

I've heard anything from the Russian Mob is laundering money to stolen credit cards.

[frostdillicus]

Oh, I have no doubt this is some sort of money laundering scheme. I'm just curious as to what, if any, liability Valve and TF2WH have in regards to the law.