Question - trading safely

https://www.steamtrades.com/

Oh, sorry, I thought that was part of the same website. I was looking at that but was wondering how the actual trades occur.... is it based off rep Or is there a 3rd party middleman?

^ use steamtrades

for starters, install enhanced steam, it will tag known scammers in their profiles so it helps a bit (not all scammers are tagged, so be careful, READ their feedback @steamtrades).

if you trade with someone, check their rep and always be sure you are trading with that person. cross-check profiles on steam and on steamtrades so you don't get fooled by an impersonator.

if you're just starting to trade, stick to people with high reputation. also don't fall for impossible trades that look too good, those are obviously scams.

Before you do any trading, I recommend you install Enhanced Steam. You can find it here.

[Edit: I am too slow.]

As far as reputation (rep) goes, keep in mind that anything posted on someone's Steam wall is useless as people can just delete anything they don't like. SteamTrades has it's own rep system, and that one is more reliable.

The process I use when trading is thus:

1. Find a trade.
2. Check out the person with whom I'm trading by checking SteamRep.
3. Check the person's rep on SteamTrades (optional).
4. Include the trade details in Steam chat (exactly what is traded, method of payment, etc.) so I can take a screenshot.
5. Take screenshots of the transaction (including PayPal confirmation) as evidence that the trade was made.

If I run into any trouble, I have everything I need to provide evidence of what happened. The last thing I do is leave trade feedback on SteamTrades (if the person has an account).