I know this might sound like a dumbass, but can I ask about a bit of info for help?

[Poisonous]

Recently, I've heard that people began to impersonate me in attempt to scam people.

It all started on Oct 22, 4 days ago when a user send in my comment section that I hacked his account and stole his items and a -rep.

At first, I just laughed thinking it was a troll trying to fuck with me, so I replied that he could send proof if he has and told him if it ever was for clout or trolling, then too bad.
 

Then another user, Carver send me in my comment that someone was pretending to be me and that the other user got hacked by someone who was using my name and image. This is where I took this more seriously. since I received this midnight, I told him that I was going to do something next day, luckily I didn't need to, since the account was deleted off steam.

 

I updated my profile letting a warning about scammers who impersonates me.

and today I've received an actual -rep on bp.tf for the same reason, an Impersonator tried to scam another user via Discord pretending to be a Steam Admin. And no, I won't blame the user for this, he has the right to. it's more of a misunderstanding.

 

Like I said, I know that I ain't the Sharpest tool in the shed, I consider myself someone who's pretty fucking dumb. but a bit of information about how to combat this would be helpful.

Also, if references are needed, I can provide them. I didn't want to post links of peoples profile out of thin air for malicious reasons in case if it would bring me trouble.

[Rainy]

Any time any user starts to be more popular in the trading community or is making a higher volume of trades, people impersonate them. The best you can do is turn off your comments and make a note about your discord account and steam account. There’s really nothing to be done unfortunately. I’ve dealt with this for probably close to a year now, they fluctuate but they never quit. It’s a sad reality that people will do anything for a little cash. 

[TheRenegadeSniper]

There's not really any effective way to combat the people that impersonate you. They sort of just target anyone that has a somewhat large inventory for whatever reason and then move on to another person. Typically this situation happens when somebody that wants to trade with you leaves a comment on your profile. Had the same problem like a year ago and they sort of just disappeared as time went on. 

 

That -rep you can report and let backpack know to hopefully add a warning on your profile that "This user is highly likely to be impersonated by scammers" for the sake of user safety, but anybody that gets by scammed by this sorta stuff is unfortunately out of luck as far as retrieving their account back. It's been an ongoing problem now for years amongst top inventories. 

 

You can't really do much outside of that though, as much as I'm sure you'd love to combat against it. There's like dozens of guides on how to check people's profiles/not fall for this sort of stuff. If you have a unique badge or steam level/keep a public inventory, that can be a way to help distinguish the real profile versus a scammer's one. 

[duskfen]

It was a bit tough when somebody added me one day explaining how somebody impersonating me scammed them for everything they had, but the bottom line is that you can't do anything but either close off your comment section, report any impersonators personally, and or put a warning on your profile which prevents them from linking back to your profile posing as an "alt" of yours.

But it's also INCREDIBLY easy to tell when somebodies an impersonator. If somebody falls for it, it's their fault, not yours. It could just be bias, but it's mind numbing the things people can fall for when there's $$$ involved.

[Bananas]

3 hours ago, duskfen said:

close off your comment section, report any impersonators personally, and or put a warning on your profile which prevents them from linking back to your profile posing as an "alt" of yours.

just do all of these and move on report the -rep on backpack for being false and move on

 

it is what it is and it’s super common because there’s 0 punishment dont think too much about it

[Littlepudintater]

I would just keep it pushing, -reps are super easy to have removed since they will literally never be able to tie you to the stupid alts that pop up impersonating. You can't intervene on any of these noobs' naivety, especially if they don't check things for themselves.

[Poisonous]

Alright, thx for the info. 

 

The rep was removed. 

 

And yeah, I know it's not my fault, it's just I feel bad for those getting scammed in the end by someone pretending to be me.