Mh. I don't know about you guys, but this is kind of a sad situation, because it is true that he could be lying and this is indeed a case of a purchased account. On the other hand, I can easily see a sibling gifting an account to someone within the family, specially if that person needs a lil source of income.
Unfortunately for you, Martyns. Even if your story is true many people around here believe that accounts being gifted is a bad thing because there can be an abuse of the previous onwer's reputation, to do many bad things. There are others who do not mind much. I personally, cannot argue about it. Because in the same family there can be a sibling who is honest, cares about reputation while the others do not mind burning an internet account they did not leveled up, so they can make a bit of money in an illegitimate way. Not your case, but it can happen.
Perhaps, this would have been a different situation if your brother opened a reputation thread asking for people's opinion and letting them now about his consideration on gifting the account (together with a signed message).
Anyways, Take care.
I also feel that this is a sad situation. The guy is a nobody on the forum. Keeps his/her head down and makes a few dollars via sig campaigns. Doesn't seem to be worried about the trust system or any of the drama surrounding it.
Did he buy the account? No clue. Will he admit it if he did? Probably not. Did all of this happen recently? Nope. Is the account on DT? Nope. Does the account have any reputation at all? Nope. Who is he harming? Not 1 single person.
Bottom line, he is dishonest by not making the account for himself. I agree 100% but I also think this is no different than people who sold accounts in the past and have not been tagged. This is something that happened awhile back and probably just needs a neutral tag IMO and for everyone to ~ the account so they can never make DT. Account buying and selling is not illegal, just frowned upon. My personal opinion is red tags should only be given when reputable accounts are found to have changed hands.
There's some who will agree and some who will disagree, but i'm curious why this was even brought up? I agree with the OP that they are likely correct, but why were they even searching?