Why is scamming rampant in Steam?

[Hanzo The Rain]

I've never been scammed before nor is concerned about it but this topic gets posted by victims of scammers all the time so I don't understand why out of all place, scammers are going after Steam profiles when they won't get pennies from it? Why go through the length to steal stuff from their inventory? What do they gain from it?

[Voss]

some lie, some are honest. They sell the items on 3rd party site to get real money.
Dumb people are like a drop of blood in the water, more blood more sharks(scammers).
And people fall for the easiest of scams and not even thinking twice about it.

[Fake]

Because in certain countries, selling cs:go skins will make more money than moving bricks at a construction site.

Stealing skins is safe, meaning the local police isn't likely to kick down their door.

[ReBoot]

Publicado originalmente por Sleepy:

I've never been scammed before nor is concerned about it but this topic gets posted by victims of scammers all the time so I don't understand why out of all place, scammers are going after Steam profiles when they won't get pennies from it? Why go through the length to steal stuff from their inventory? What do they gain from it?

There's services, some shadier than others but all of them being shady in one way or another, that let you "cash out" digital items. Quotes because there's still no cash involved, but you can get money from digital items using shady services.
Scammers are, pretty much by definition, not opposed to shady services so yeah, that's how you get money.

Well, that, and hijacked accounts are still good to cheat on/test cheats on. Granted, I've no idea whevether hijacked accounts genuinely get used for testing cheats, but it's not improbable and with cheating being another way to scam money, it's imaginable.

[secuda]

In short greed of the user. when people think they can cash out their skins on third party sites, but in reality they handed out their security to that site.

[MalikQayum]

valve let's you cashout as well.

[Judgmental Amaterasu]

Publicado originalmente por MalikQayum:

valve let's you cashout as well.

No they don't. Any funds earned from the community market are wallet funds which are essentially store credit.

[MalikQayum]

Publicado originalmente por Damp Wizard Sleeve:

Publicado originalmente por MalikQayum:

valve let's you cashout as well.

No they don't. Any funds earned from the community market are wallet funds which are essentially store credit.

and you can buy hardware from valve, which is essentially a way to cashout as that hardware is limited.

[secuda]

Publicado originalmente por MalikQayum:

valve let's you cashout as well.

No, only if you bought a game with a credit card and decide to refund that specific game for that price.

[Sovietball]

Theres also sites that will let you trade skins for real money
Bypassing the wallet issue.

[ReBoot]

Publicado originalmente por MalikQayum:

Publicado originalmente por Damp Wizard Sleeve:

No they don't. Any funds earned from the community market are wallet funds which are essentially store credit.

and you can buy hardware from valve, which is essentially a way to cashout as that hardware is limited.

If you really want to go the great lengths of buying an Index, then looking for someone to buy your second-hand index for cash (not getting any warranty in the process), then sure, there is a not-officially-prevented way to cash out.
However, that's not exactly endorsed. Consider this a loop hole, not anything officially supported.

Speaking of "officially supported", Valve's warranty policy is pretty explicit. The warranty travels with the product if it gets gifted as per Valve's words. In other words, Valve explicitly don't support what you've just described.

Publicado originalmente por Sovietball:

Theres also sites that will let you trade skins for real money
Bypassing the wallet issue.

Those are the shady places I was talking about earlier. You got absolutely no way to make sure they won't screw you over and if they don't (which, apparently, happens often enough), they take a hefty cut.

[[N]ebsun]

Publicado originalmente por MalikQayum:

valve let's you cashout as well.

Cashing out implies cash is coming out, not a form of limited credit.

Publicado originalmente por Sovietball:

Theres also sites that will let you trade skins for real money
Bypassing the wallet issue.

That is why and how people get scammed and / or phished... by using 3rd party sites.

[✨Saint✨]

You sound very young to not know abut this...Scamming is rampant in the whole world OP, and it is all about the money, some things may not have any value to you, it has for them and the country where they are from.
You can totally stay parallel to those things, without ever getting scammed, just mind your own business and do not give personal info away, passwords etc.

[Heimeri Klein]

Publicado originalmente por Sleepy:

I've never been scammed before nor is concerned about it but this topic gets posted by victims of scammers all the time so I don't understand why out of all place, scammers are going after Steam profiles when they won't get pennies from it? Why go through the length to steal stuff from their inventory? What do they gain from it?

It happens literally everyday everywhere. Somewhere right now not just on steam someone is getting scammed.

[Muppet among Puppets]

It has the audience, the functions and the gain.
And a forum.

[Your Mom's Oshi]

Uhh. Because steam is a business and every business in the world is targeted by scams?