Toad Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 The following comment was posted on my profile this morning: "Hello, I'd like to apologise for the harsh comments. I didn't ask them to, I'm sure you're a wonderful person. I got scammed out of 8 years worth of items, nearly half of my life. I'm sorry I couldn't trade you the hat I offered. An impersonator got me to me first. I would offer you something as an apology but I'm afraid I don't have something really. I wish you luck trading, and thank you for your time reading this." - Graivus Especially the last year or two, I've gotten so many messages of people saying they've been added by impersonators and have lost their items, this comment hit me hard however. So here I am wondering...how the hell do I prevent people from getting scammed when they want to trade with me? It's something that I've always thought about but I can't figure out a solution for it. It seems that whenever someone comments on my profile (or if they send me an offer), an impersonator will reach out to them and redirect them to a sketchy site. This isn't just one or two people, I get messages saying "I got scammed by you/an impersonator" several times a week now. Does anyone know how I can prevent so many people from getting scammed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob the Unsymmetrical Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 As a person who got scammed before, we can only increase awareness and public knowledge of various scam methods. Everyone that does tf2 trading videos has already addressed these methods. Other than increasing awareness and telling users to use rep.tf, there is not a really a way to prevent scams from happening. One way to increase awareness of these scams is that we, as a community, band together to create a megathread (pinned), so that traders (both new and veteran) can add their input, ask questions, gain knowledge of any scam tactics. That megathread can be updated with common tactics as well as new ones, so people can learn and prevent such scams etc. That or let people experience a harsh reality, but that would be a last resort if you ask me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krapek Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 you can't prevent dumb people from doing dumb things Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toad Posted June 22, 2020 Author Share Posted June 22, 2020 Just now, freesito said: you can't prevent dumb people from doing dumb things Falling for a well elaborate trick doesn't make you dumb at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob the Unsymmetrical Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 9 minutes ago, freesito said: you can't prevent dumb people from doing dumb things You can prevent by increasing awareness, I myself thought the scams are dumb until you actually fall for it. Like Phone-Call scams for example, they sound dumb until you start acting irrationally and ended up getting scammed (I am not sure if is common to have phone scams in EU and Americas, but in Asia is extremely common). You can't just say people are dumb and let the problem solve itself, increase awareness, scammers always take the easy route when commiting their acts, so if more people know their act, they stop what they do and move on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
🔥Master Throne Crimson🔥 Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 43 minutes ago, Toad said: whenever someone comments on my profile Make comments friends-only. 43 minutes ago, Toad said: (or if they send me an offer), an impersonator will reach out to them Impossible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob the Unsymmetrical Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 48 minutes ago, Toad said: how the hell do I prevent people from getting scammed when they want to trade with me? It's something that I've always thought about but I can't figure out a solution for it. It seems that whenever someone comments on my profile You have a reached a popular phase called being impersonated, so I suggest you put on your Steam Profile something like "impersonated, beware" something along the lines. Additionally, try to get in contact with the mods on this site, let them know that you are being impersonated. They will update your profile with a huge-ass yellow box saying "This user is frequently impersonated" or something. That will deter the scammers to link your backpack.tf profile when they commit their acts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toad Posted June 22, 2020 Author Share Posted June 22, 2020 Thanks for your suggestions. I will keep a comment on my Steam profile bumped warning people of impersonators, I also added a little warning in my profile description. I will also reach out to the mods about your suggestion Bob. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Program Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 Ive been scammed before, and impersonates are quite common, I get them pretty much all the time I contact higher tier traders, it is helpful make aware how to spot them though, different level, no items / private inv, etc. Thanks for you doing your part. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeus_Junior Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 As we already shortly discussed on my profile comments, i've sent a message to the other report moderators about giving you the banner. The solution to greatly reduce this is to make your profile comments private or friends only, though that is likely not prefered Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wsdea Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 Here is what I do : The solution is to have a bot check the comments on your profile which automatically deletes them. To avoid losing track on who is who when I get multiple adds, the bot automatically sets their steam nickname to their comments. Let me know if you need help doing that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diamond jozu Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 i've been scammed when i first started trading and then got impersonator when i was a known trader in tf2. honestly,you can only do so much for someone and give all sorts of punishment to your impersonator like banning them on steamrep and etc.. nothing else can be done...just ensure on your profile you put up a guide or something as a warning to anyone who is gonna trade with you to check their trades properly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wsdea Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 14 minutes ago, Diamond jozu said: i've been scammed when i first started trading and then got impersonator when i was a known trader in tf2. honestly,you can only do so much for someone and give all sorts of punishment to your impersonator like banning them on steamrep and etc.. nothing else can be done...just ensure on your profile you put up a guide or something as a warning to anyone who is gonna trade with you to check their trades properly Stop saying there is no solution, there is one that I just posted above. None of my customers are being added by an impersonator anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrei#Ukrainian Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 close comments on your page Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krapek Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 2 hours ago, Toad said: Falling for a well elaborate trick doesn't make you dumb at all. "well elaborate", takes 2 secs to make those profiles and none look promising, i did think it was the real deal once too but it took me a whopping 1 minute to realize i'm wrong, you have to be very unintelligent to fall for something like that, or just very very lazy and non-caring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NineDevil Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 You could add "impersonated" in your name such as other few people do Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D.Alex Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 6 hours ago, Toad said: I also added a little warning in my profile description I don't think a warning which requires people to click "View more info" is going to be very effective. I put my warning on top of my profile page and I still doubt it helps much Backpack.tf could make a warning to "always use rep.tf" whenever people come from steamcommunity.com by checking HTTP referer but they won't cause they always find a reason not to improve anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MFB Goobie Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 All I can think of is put "WATCH OUT FOR IMPERSONATORS, i'LL NEVER ADD YOU PERSONALLY" in the top of your description, and close the comments/keep one bumped as I believe you mentioned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HaloGAMER0329 Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 9 hours ago, Toad said: The following comment was posted on my profile this morning: "Hello, I'd like to apologise for the harsh comments. I didn't ask them to, I'm sure you're a wonderful person. I got scammed out of 8 years worth of items, nearly half of my life. I'm sorry I couldn't trade you the hat I offered. An impersonator got me to me first. I would offer you something as an apology but I'm afraid I don't have something really. I wish you luck trading, and thank you for your time reading this." - Graivus Especially the last year or two, I've gotten so many messages of people saying they've been added by impersonators and have lost their items, this comment hit me hard however. So here I am wondering...how the hell do I prevent people from getting scammed when they want to trade with me? It's something that I've always thought about but I can't figure out a solution for it. It seems that whenever someone comments on my profile (or if they send me an offer), an impersonator will reach out to them and redirect them to a sketchy site. This isn't just one or two people, I get messages saying "I got scammed by you/an impersonator" several times a week now. Does anyone know how I can prevent so many people from getting scammed? disable comments, ask people to contact you through trade offer. Tell them to add you when they comment so if they get a friend request after they have sent one to you they know its fake. Theres a lot of things you could do like mention your steam level or join date in your buy/sell orders etc. I mean kudos to you for trying to fight impersonators, but any trader worth their salt should know how not to fall for them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D.Alex Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 18 minutes ago, HaloGAMER0329 said: Theres a lot of things you could do like mention your steam level or join date in your buy/sell orders etc. The whole idea behind this scam is that victim sends a friend request and then expects some response from that person, they have no reason to think that someone else might interfere and that they might need to compare one Steam profile to another, so this suggestions imho just doesn't work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HaloGAMER0329 Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 15 minutes ago, D.Alex said: The whole idea behind this scam is that victim sends a friend request and then expects some response from that person, they have no reason to think that someone else might interfere and that they might need to compare one Steam profile to another, so this suggestions imho just doesn't work. I didnt understand what you meant, but if you send the legit profile a friend request and a scammer adds you, you would know it was not the legit profile as they would have just accepted it. If it was the legit profile the request would just be accepted rather than you having to confirm the one the scammer sent. Hence you could say Add me and comment, I will not add you, if someone adds you seconds after you comment its probably a scammer so double check. Idk but its up to the people adding you to protect themselves, theres only so much you can do before it turns into an impractical, ineffective, waste of time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creepio Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 Put IMPERSONATED in your name Note your friends list on profile - you may have some high level friends and some well-known traders added. Scammers won't. Note Steam level to confirm identity - Can't say I've seen many scammers with eye-catching steam levels. Make a note that you don't send random invites on your steam page Note your backpack will never be private Unfortunately there are a lot of inexperienced traders out there that don't really understand how to deduce whether or not someone is a liar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beaser Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 Maybe just stop being too popular and then there will be less scams Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D.Alex Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 1 hour ago, HaloGAMER0329 said: but if you send the legit profile a friend request and a scammer adds you, you would know it was not the legit profile as they would have just accepted it You know it, I know it, victims unfortunately do not, judging by how often this impersonation method actually works. 23 minutes ago, creepio said: Note your friends list on profile [...] Note Steam level to confirm identity [...] Again, we are talking here about a specific impersonation method - adding people after they left a comment. I suspect that in many cases it goes like this: Victim leaves a comment Victim follows Steam notification to https://steamcommunity.com/my/friends/pending "Hey, it's that guy!" - victim accepts, they start chatting - all of this without even visiting impersonator's profile. 7 hours ago, creepio said: Put IMPERSONATED in your name I'm afraid this is not very effective either. Complete newbies don't know what this means, others are getting used to other traders having "impersonated" in there name and just ignore it. Some cases where this didn't help: one, two, three. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryG Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 I have asked for this banner multiple times in the past to help prevent scams but it seems like report mods only add it when they have recently received reports of impersonators. Despite having sent to report staff in the past multiple instances of my impersonators they pretty much don't care if they aren't reported officially (and most sensible traders know that a large majority of these impersonation scams are not reported) so it seems kind of ridiculous that the banner isn't given out to anyone who has received multiple impersonators. What is the harm in giving it out fairly liberally, this should be used to help prevent scams and it's treated like it's some exclusive badge of honor which is absurd. If the staff really add the banner to prevent scams maybe they should do it when there's evidence of impersonators every time instead of debating over it and/or telling people what to do with their steam profile settings Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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