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How to avoid being scammed.


λngelღмander

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GENERAL TIPS

 

Never trade with anyone who has a private backpack or profile.

 

Be aware that very new and very old steam profiles may be scammers. Scammers make new accounts frequently and buy old accounts to look legitimate.

 

Always check the number of hours in the game they're trading in. If they have less than 100 hours, they're probably a scammer.

 

A high steam level DOES NOT make someone reputable. Nor does having a valuable backpack.

 

DO NOT TRADE for wallet codes, CD keys, or games from unreputable people. These can be bought with stolen credit cards (which will get you trade banned) and are a COMMON SCAM.

 

SCAM TYPES

 

In paypal trading, NEVER send your item until the money is IN YOUR WALLET. If they send you a picture or a link, it's a SCAM. The money is only sent when you actually have it in your wallet. Scammers will use fake invoices to trick people into thinking the money is on its way. There is no such system on paypal. If you're not comfortable sending the money first, use a middleman or a site like OPskins.com or bitskins.com

 

STEAM WALLET funds can NOT be transferred without the PURCHASE OF AN ITEM on the market. DO NOT accept an offer claiming you will receive wallet funds.

 

If someone adds you saying they want an item, and another person adds you selling that item, IT IS A SCAM. This is called the glimmer drop method. The scammer pretends they want it, but when you buy it off the market (from the scammer) they make profit on you and leave. Rather than accepting the current sale price as an item's value, look at the GRAPH to see what it has sold for in the past. Generally, AVOID 'rare' Dota 2 items.

 

NEVER, for ANY REASON AT ALL trade your item for nothing. It doesn't matter what they say, they are scamming if they want you to trade them your item. Whether they say it's for "item verification" or to "check if it's duped," you should ALWAYS be receiving an item you want in a trade. This includes trading items to friends. Don't send your item to a friend, THEY COULD BE SCAMMED TOO!

 

ALWAYS check the trade before accepting. Sometimes people will put in a bunch of stuff and remove one of the valuable items. ALWAYS MAKE SURE that every item you want is there.

 

Similar to the previous scam, ALWAYS check item quality. If you're trading for an item of a specific quality, for example factory new, or burning flames, ALWAYS make sure it really is what you think it is.

 

NEVER trust a middleman, admin, or anyone else claiming to be reputable until you've checked their SteamREP page using the method detailed in this guide: http://steamrep.com/tips/pretrade

 

For simple item trades (items only on steam, no cash or codes) DO NOT involve other people. An item trade is between TWO people, anyone trying to get your friend involved or get THEIR friend involved is trying to scam you.

 

Your item is not glitched, your item is not broken, NEVER let someone convince you that there is something wrong with it. This is the premise for MANY scams.

 

No Steam admin will EVER add you, period. DO NOT TRUST anyone claiming to have power over your account. You own your account, and you own your items. It is your responsibility to keep your items safe.

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Be aware that very new and very old steam profiles may be scammers. Scammers make new accounts frequently and buy old accounts to look legitimate.

:ph34r:http://www.steamcommunity.com/id/welcometonuket0wn

 

I learned the hard way to not trust middlemen, got scammed of my Texas Half Pants and Demoman's Fro that were atleast a key at the time. which was alot back then, to me atleast. 

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I wrote this because I find myself constantly typing out the tips I can remember off the top of my head to the people who add me for a middleman and don't know what they're doing. This guide is meant to be very ambiguous and only mentions steamrep, since a CS:GO trader wouldn't know a thing about backpack.tf or tf2outpost. 

 

If you have any suggestions, please do post them. If anything is worded in a confusing way I need to know, the people who I'm sending this guide to aren't always the sharpest knives.

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A few more tips:

 

Always be cautious with anyone you're trading with, making sure to do background checks using Rep.tf. Even a highly reputable trader can turn sour and attempt to cash out all he can.

 

Profile reps / reputation amounts to nothing. Backpack.tf trust or CSGOREPorts are where you can find legitimate reps from other people that have done risky cash trades with the person you're trading with.

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a CS:GO trader wouldn't know a thing about backpack.tf or tf2outpost.

 

Rather than advise CS:GO traders to send the item after receiving paypal funds you should just direct them towards OPSkins or another alternative.

People can still easily chargeback through paypal and most legitimate CS:GO cash traders are unlikely to go first with the type of newbie that would need this guide.

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No Steam admin will EVER add you, period. DO NOT TRUST anyone claiming to have power over your account. You own your account, and you own your items. It is your responsibility to keep your items safe.

 

 

Actually, that's not true. I've seen steamrep admins add people to clear up scam reports and whatnot. You should edit that..

 

 

Your item is not glitched, your item is not broken, NEVER let someone convince you that there is something wrong with it. This is the premise for MANY scams.

 

 

Also wrong. I've seen many items that are glitched and broken. Some collectors actually pay more for those. I believe what you're trying to get at is that you should never give your "glitched" item to someone to check if its "ok". 

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Actually, that's not true. I've seen steamrep admins add people to clear up scam reports and whatnot. You should edit that..

 

 

Also wrong. I've seen many items that are glitched and broken. Some collectors actually pay more for those. I believe what you're trying to get at is that you should never give your "glitched" item to someone to check if its "ok". 

He wrote Steam Admins. As in from Steam/Valve directly.

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Actually, that's not true. I've seen steamrep admins add people to clear up scam reports and whatnot. You should edit that..

 

 

Also wrong. I've seen many items that are glitched and broken. Some collectors actually pay more for those. I believe what you're trying to get at is that you should never give your "glitched" item to someone to check if its "ok". 

In the guide I spoke in very absolute terms, because I want it to be as clear as possible, even if it's a bit misleading at times. Rather than saying "Your item could be glitched but it probably isn't, I just said it definitely is not glitched, so that the people I'm sending this to get the point. 

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In the guide I spoke in very absolute terms, because I want it to be as clear as possible, even if it's a bit misleading at times. Rather than saying "Your item could be glitched but it probably isn't, I just said it definitely is not glitched, so that the people I'm sending this to get the point. 

Fair enough, I just didn't want newer traders to read this and trade away their glitched x hat

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I'd like to add/tweak a few things here, no particular order.

 

Private backpacks and profiles don't imply that user is a scammer and that you should never trade with them. Try to see if there is any backpack history on backpack.tf to get an idea if they are a newer account or what value items they should have. When in doubt it's usually safer to stay away though. You can always add them and see if they can make it public just for a short time so you can check.

 

Links and pictures don't imply a scam, but you should be cautious all the same, especially if you don't recognize the site.

 

Be cautious about links the other user provides, primarily to backpacks and rep threads. Check the links they send with their Steam, outpost, backpack.tf, rep thread's and make sure they link back to the Steam account that is trying to trade with you.

 

The same is true when middlemen are involved in a trade, verify that they are who they say they are by yourself. Don't trust links they may provide. Frankly, I don't blame anyone who doesn't want to use a middleman at all. They can charge fees, may not be available when you are, and still have the possibility to run with your items. Even highly trusted middlemen can and have scammed before.

 

Not all rep is created equally and should not be treated as such. Who did the trade, what was traded (value wise), and when it was traded all matter. A few examples, rep for lending small items, or a couple refined spycrab should mean nothing when the person wants to buy 50 keys on paypal. One older cash rep can look stronger than a few trades a day or two old.

 

In paypal, the cash sender usually goes first, but high repped traders usually expect the other party to go first no matter what. That's fairly normal.

 

Don't trust everything backpack.tf says. Prices can be off or flat out wrong. The way skins and killstreaked items are valued (from the SCM) is a poor one in my opinion, it works for some but other can be ridiculously wrong. Research the item you're interested in without using the SCM first, if you can't find much then look at past SCM sales, not only the current sellers. Users can and do take adantage of this by having 2 of an item, putting one the SCM at a extremely high price and list the other one for sale claiming backpack.tf says its worth this much. 

 

Having a low number of hours in tf2 can be an indicator that an account is new, but that alone isn't enough, user's sometimes bring wealth from other games, mainly csgo and dota 2. You should look at backpack value, number of other paid games and hours in those games, steam level, etc. You should be cautious of users with low hours in tf2 and other games but have a high backpack value and seem to know exactly what they're doing. I HIGHLY recommend https://rep.tf/ for background checks. Ask others if the'd trust them for the kind of risky trade they want to do, PM a mod or post it on a status update.

 

I personally will never recommend trading Steam wallet codes, at the very least it's just as risky as paypal and if you're scammed sometimes you simply can't get the scammer banned with any amount of evidence as it's impossible to tell if codes actually worked at the time they were give in the trade. If you're going to do it, the person giving the code should always go first. If the other person refuses, walk away from the trade.

 

Most importantly if you're not comfortable with a trade, don't do it. If you aren't sure the other person is going to come though on their end of the deal, walk away. They can beg and threaten and try to sweeten the deal for you all they want, nothing is going to happen to you for refusing a trade.

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