Getting Scammed: For Dummies - How to know if you're being scammed and what to do if scammed.

PART ONE: HOW NOT TO BE SCAMMED

If they have added you, ask for a steamtrades profile. If they provide you with one with a URL linked to it different than the one on their profile, remove them. Be sure to check that both profiles have the same amount of games.
Check their steamrep profile to see if they are a scammer. Also check, to see the creation date of their profile. If their profile was made within the last month or so, be wary.
If they have less than 30 games in their library, be cautious.
If they offer you an outrageous deal (along the lines of Bioshock Infinite for your Bad Rats) its most likely a scammer.
+rep on the user's profile is easy to fake and should not be trusted. Since all comments can be deleted by the scammer, putting -rep on a profile is pointless.
Be cautious of anyone who is/has been trade or VAC banned.
If their username says [Valve] or [Steam] in it, it does not mean they are from Valve. However, if it says [CANDY] it means they have free candy and should be trusted 100%.
Make sure their paypal is verified before doing a paypal trade.
Check their recent game playtime. Many scammers use seperate alts for gaming and scamming.
If the item is tradeable make sure it isn't region locked.
Make sure that a tradeable collection has what you want in it. For instance, old copies of CS: Complete do not include CS: GO
NEVER click links to steam profiles given to you by traders. These are often phishing sites and logging into them will result in your steam account being hijacked.

PART TWO: WHAT DO IF SCAMMED

Do NOT make a thread on steamgifts. You will be suspended for calling out users. Instead, submit a ticket to steamgifts support with proof of the scam.
If the scammer has a lot of +rep on their steamtrades profile, check to make sure that it was the actual user. If not, contact the person being impersonated and let them know.
Take screenshots of your conversation.
Get their steamID64 off steamrep by entering their profile's URL in the searcher. Save this URL for future reference.
Report the user as a scammer on steamrep.
Cry yourself to sleep.

Leave any other tips below, sure there are some things I forget.

11 years ago*

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114 Comments

I've given advice on so many "I got scammed" threads. I don't think anyone reads it. They only learn the hard way.

11 years ago

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XtremeNugget

Agreed.

11 years ago

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cutiepie

11 years ago

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shockedfrog

I found someone earlier who won a game here, tried to trade it on Steamtrades and lost it to a scammer.

11 years ago

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BloodEmblem

oh dear

11 years ago

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Incog

karma

11 years ago

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Yoru9102

LoL

11 years ago

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dovecoon

What it the scammer then came on here and made a giveaway with it, and the cycle repeated itself?

11 years ago

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Doobs

DUN DUN DUNNN

11 years ago

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XtremeNugget

Plot twist?

11 years ago

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crazyseeder

EPIC Twist!

11 years ago

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NemoKhan

epic chain potential

11 years ago

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Doobs

11 years ago

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Funkii

steamception ?

11 years ago

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xarabas

(Junior Moderator)

directed by M. Night Shyamalan

11 years ago

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Bigshrimp

ROFL...

11 years ago

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EGod

My gaming name is TwisttedElement

11 years ago

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BloodEmblem

Should mention that you should get a middleman if you're trading a key with a low rep person.

11 years ago

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Eh, personally I don't usually bother with that. I just insist they go first.

11 years ago

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So both parties give the middleman a key, and then the middleman gives the keys to the other person. What good does that do if one party gives a bad key?

11 years ago

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MagmaClaw

lol yeah agreed

11 years ago

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BloodEmblem

I was mostly refering if the trade was a tradeable game for a key.

If its two keys.. yeah

11 years ago

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Rinarin

Keys go to the middleman.
Collateral of agreed value goes to the middleman.
Middleman activates both keys.
If there is something wrong, middleman can compensate with the collateral from the person who gave the bad key.
If keys are fine, collateral returned.

Just a thought. No idea on this.

11 years ago

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Not bad, but that's assuming that both keep gifts/items in their inventory. I usually don't.

11 years ago

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Shad0WeN

Middleman activates both keys!? Am I missing something here? That would completely nix the terms of the trade. There is no way to test whether a key is good or not without actually activating and claiming it.

11 years ago

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MaximumBunny

She probably means with a program like teamviewer. The middleman can remote access the computers to make sure the keys are indeed activated properly and not just on word of mouth. A bit intrusive, but lots seem to do it.

11 years ago

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Shad0WeN

Good point I suppose, but yes, intrusive is a good word. Personally, for security reasons I would never let someone remote access my system that I didn't know well, regardless of whether they are a 'trusted' middleman or not.

11 years ago

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Teamviewer doesnt give others access. It can be set to show just the desktop. Would be the same as having a webcam pointed at your desktop.

11 years ago

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It can be used to do both.

11 years ago

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It can be set to show just the desktop.

11 years ago

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Teamviewer doesnt give others access.

11 years ago

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crazyseeder

^this

11 years ago

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atroxic

On Part 1, number 1: usually, you don't need to ask for their steamtrades profile. It's the first they will send you. If that happens, be wary.
Also, when it comes to trading, don't trust people with private profiles.
Rule of thumb: never go first (in key exchanging) with someone who adds you without commenting on your steamtrades thread.

11 years ago

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All you have to do is click on the steamtrades profile link, and click through to the person's steam ID to verify it's the same person. Not hard.

11 years ago

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atroxic

Yes, but people new to trading don't know that (or even how to do that)... That's why so many get scammed.

11 years ago

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Crizyz

I don't think it's that hard. I was new to trading. But the first thing I did was ask for steamtrades profile (if I didn't see a reply in my replies), and then simply follow the link there to the steam profile. If it does not say there, you are friends, you know it's a different guy. Think that is some basic logic.

Also, just ask for the thread they are reacting upon, once got added by someone, I asked, you added me for a trade? Yes. Could you give me the link to the thread? And then I was removed from the friend list. :P

11 years ago

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Rhesus

well - the world is full of bad people and it´s also full of idiots. i think this fits very well :)

11 years ago

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If you have trades open on sites besides steamtrades they don't usually bother sending you their page.

11 years ago

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You make it sound like Steamtrades is infallible and the end all be all to anti-scamming. I could spoof up a golden looking steamtrades profile if I want to.

11 years ago

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MagmaClaw

"3.If they have less than 30 games in their inventory, be cautious. " I think you mean in their library, anyways i started tradin when i had like 20 games

11 years ago

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thomas404

And some people only trade in-game items. But you can see if someone is legit when they have 300+ DOTA 2 items.

11 years ago

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GIH4N

good tips but i hv seen even the people with years old accounts and 20+ reps in steamtrade trying to scam people.
and once i traded with a guy who created steam account week ago. I thought he was scamming but he wasnt. trade went fine.

11 years ago

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UZuhl

I have my personal Fight Vs Impersonators some month ago, because is tipicial that impersonators use my profile to scam people cause of my high rep. I'm tired of explaining this to scammed people (million of times), but not understand nothing: Impersonator Alert - Click

I think Steamtrades is abandoned some months ago...:

Nobody Admin.
No reporting thread.
Nobody help you if anyone give u random -rep.
Much pople have more than 3 or 4 thread (Spam) and nobody do nothing.
People trading games that won on steamgifts...
And more...

Anyways, I have 2 Really Good Ideas to fight vs impersonators and help the community, but cause is not Admin, nobody do nothing...:

2 IDEAS TO FIGHT VS THE IMPERSONATORS (If u have a idea, post here):

I think that report or ban this scammers in steamtrades or in steamrep does not solve anything because this scammers use secondary accounts to scam. So my first idea is make an alert really visible in top of Web to alert all users about this mode of scam.
Another idea is that only registered and login users can see the forum. I think this is the best to fight vs the impersonators and all the scammers in general, because normally scammers use secundary accounts without games / money to scam.

11 years ago

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Yoru9102

11 years ago

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Shad0WeN

Agree 100% with all of this. The part about no administrative presence on Steamtrades is particularly noteworthy. I've seen several instances of crazy amount of spam (like a single person posting dozens of duplicate threads in the same day), yet nothing ever seems to be done about it. There is an old reporting thread, but it is pointless to do so as it seems totally abandoned as you pointed out.

11 years ago

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Yoru9102

I think someone tried to scam me the first time I want to trade something (and the only one), but he doesn´t have an account on steamtrades and said he saw my comment there... suspicious.

11 years ago

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ceildric

I was expecting a guide for how to get scammed.

11 years ago

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Crizyz

Me to, as an humorous twist to not getting scammed. :P

11 years ago

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CHTonRage

Me three.

11 years ago

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Dooleh

there should be a sticky like this.

11 years ago

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satoru

Personally I prefer my golden rule

Unless EVERYTHING fits in a SINGLE trade window, DO NOT DO THE TRADE

Follow that and you cannot ever be scammed. Period. Requires no research or any other nonsense.

11 years ago

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Herpulese

except for your games being revoked... nice try you can ALWAYS be scammed, you can only lower the chance to almost nothing

11 years ago

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MaximumBunny

In which case support returns your items. Hence the safety of the valve endorsed trade window vs other methods. Edit: Oh, hiya Mr. Herp. :)

11 years ago

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pielord17

Duped TF2 hats can be valued at less.

11 years ago

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Azzaboi

Getting scammed for dummies, huh? So umm... like erm... if I follow all those rules... you can guarantee I'll get scammed???

11 years ago

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crazyseeder

number 6 is what scammed person does the most ;)

11 years ago

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c00lizz

Some additional advice. Ignore all steamtrades rep, ignore all profile rep. Rep gotten for just regular trades is pointless. The only rep that matters is rep gotten from going 2nd in a key/money trade.

11 years ago

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MrCastiglia

This, giving rep for a traded with both giftables in a trading window is pretty much useless to make sure an user is trustworthy or not.

Details of the trade should be given with handing out rep, such as I went first and he followed. Things like that.

11 years ago

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KuroiSama

Can some write a guide: How to scam, but it should consider this 2 guides, so, I can scam again without problems

11 years ago

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Skylark

How about "Scamming: For Dummies"??!
Just kidding :D nice guide!

11 years ago

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JFloading

Really helpful, I just got Scammed these days, but don't care. It was a really cheap game. Now I'm taking care about.

11 years ago

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PhantomLord

+large numbers for Monty Python sketch :D

11 years ago

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Denninja

Now I know how to get scammed! Thanks!

11 years ago

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Broax

Nice post! This should probably get sticky...

11 years ago

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TheDukeofNukemberg

I entered this expecting it to be a tutorial on how to get scammed.

11 years ago

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Deleted

This comment was deleted 1 year ago.

11 years ago

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WackyJ

I think there should be possibility on steamtrades to write a warning on top of your profile.

11 years ago

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Added two more tips.

11 years ago

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