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?

[Mad Scientist]

Publicado originalmente por DC-GS:

Publicado originalmente por ReBoot:

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.

I were active on the Rust forum and this seem to be very common. At least there are A LOT of people claiming getting "hacked" and their account being used to cheat, resulting in EAC permabanning them. Of course they shift the blame and demand to lift the ban.

Because games with a high volume of skins/items will have that set of users that are so greedy they fall for "skin"/"trade"/"gambling" sites, all of which promise to delivered profit or "more" in the long run, designed to steal from individuals over time or as soon as they use it; all randomly applied.

Where you have gullible, security-weak users with not a second thought or care about "Should I be using my Steam Login outside of Steam?" followed by "of course, I'll get stuff!", then you'll see more people falling for it, in such high-volume item/skin games.

You'll also see people more post when something negative happens, after the fact, than asking questions in advance that could save them from such a mistake. This hardly makes a huge trend/problem, as most users don't even use the forums and don't make such mistakes.

[Aahzmandias]

Scams work best on greedy and dishonst people. That is the beauty of it.

It's much easier to fool them, than any honest person, who just minds his business. And there are much more of these greedy people, than honest ones.

Scamming is basically an art form, based on psychologie. A study in human greed and the fear of missing out.

Even game corporations use scams all the time in their ingame shops, and people fall for it all the time.

[❤ Sly Succubus ❤]

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?

Simple. People would rather do illegal stealing of online pixels then finding a real job as the requirements for stealing stuff compared to being employed don't exist in any form so people who can't pass collage resort to stealing online stuff via scams.

[crunchyfrog]

Publicado originalmente por Aahzmandias:

Scams work best on greedy and dishonst people. That is the beauty of it.

It's much easier to fool them, than any honest person, who just minds his business. And there are much more of these greedy people, than honest ones.

Scamming is basically an art form, based on psychologie. A study in human greed and the fear of missing out.

Even game corporations use scams all the time in their ingame shops, and people fall for it all the time.

A very good point.

Scams whole raison d'etre is to expose and poke at YOUR flaws and insecrities.

If you're greedy then you WILL fall for selling your steam items for real cash. It's as old as the hills.

[crunchyfrog]

Publicado originalmente por Nepgear The Fallen:

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?

Simple. People would rather do illegal stealing of online pixels then finding a real job as the requirements for stealing stuff compared to being employed don't exist in any form so people who can't pass collage resort to stealing online stuff via scams.

Actually there is some mitigation for this here.

Sure, some people will always prefer to lazily choose a liife of crime.

However there are also those you have to have some empathy or rather sympathy for.

There are many areas of the world where it's dire and there simply are very few routes to income.

Take for example certain areas of Russia. After the soviet system collapsed, there are whole regions or cities that see NO Police, and have bugger all much in the way of infrastructure. Typically these have no job prospects at all, and high rates of drug abuse and prostitution too (because well, there's bugger all to do and no income).

These are places where people will turn to anything to get money. Sucks but that's how it is.

[❤ Sly Succubus ❤]

Publicado originalmente por crunchyfrog:

Publicado originalmente por Nepgear The Fallen:

Simple. People would rather do illegal stealing of online pixels then finding a real job as the requirements for stealing stuff compared to being employed don't exist in any form so people who can't pass collage resort to stealing online stuff via scams.

Actually there is some mitigation for this here.

Sure, some people will always prefer to lazily choose a liife of crime.

However there are also those you have to have some empathy or rather sympathy for.

There are many areas of the world where it's dire and there simply are very few routes to income.

Take for example certain areas of Russia. After the soviet system collapsed, there are whole regions or cities that see NO Police, and have bugger all much in the way of infrastructure. Typically these have no job prospects at all, and high rates of drug abuse and prostitution too (because well, there's bugger all to do and no income).

These are places where people will turn to anything to get money. Sucks but that's how it is.

Thats fair, I indeed didnt think of those that are in those situations and I apologize.

[crunchyfrog]

Publicado originalmente por Nepgear The Fallen:

Publicado originalmente por crunchyfrog:

Actually there is some mitigation for this here.

Sure, some people will always prefer to lazily choose a liife of crime.

However there are also those you have to have some empathy or rather sympathy for.

There are many areas of the world where it's dire and there simply are very few routes to income.

Take for example certain areas of Russia. After the soviet system collapsed, there are whole regions or cities that see NO Police, and have bugger all much in the way of infrastructure. Typically these have no job prospects at all, and high rates of drug abuse and prostitution too (because well, there's bugger all to do and no income).

These are places where people will turn to anything to get money. Sucks but that's how it is.

Thats fair, I indeed didnt think of those that are in those situations and I apologize.

No need to apologise :)

It's just one of those things. Unless you're aware of these foibles it's going to seem unusual. No matter.

[Random Ryan (RETURNING SOON!)]

Because there are plenty of gullible people with valuable items

[Yzal]

Because 99% of people on any large group is bound to be stupid, and with Steam's number of users scammers have their "work" cut out for them.

[Judgmental Amaterasu]

Publicado originalmente por MalikQayum:

the way second hand is described made it sound like the buyer would buy something unsealed.
I would assume nobody here ever bought something from amazon or ebay before.
I am sure FBI will be come knocking no sarcasme, maybe even the CIA. everyone lives in the USA.
had i only known all scammers lived in america, one could have suggested american users not being able to communicate with non americans again no sarcasme.

but just to remind people, valve has had various hardwares for sale;
- controllers
- steam link
+ valve vr index
+ steamdecks

and probably other stuff, so you have had various hardware to pick from.

regardless of what one may say, one can sell hardware as one pleases as you own it.
valve can't prevent you from selling your hardware, they might not give warranty for it. but why would i care if the buyer gets the warranty or not. i am selling brand new hardware sealed for a discounted price.

before you say nobody is going to be buying it, they do, as i have sold 2 valve vr index kits.

This is just further proof that you shouldn't be given advice. No scammer in ANY context be it phone,email etc utilize hardware in order to wash money. Just stop.

[Mad Scientist]

Let me give an example. Shortly ago I got a notification, some random tried adding me. they haven't interacted with any posts, checked their profile - regardless of looking at those, I declined (and usually block them), as this is usually a sign of being a scammer for randomly adding people.

How not to fall for random scam messages; don't accept random adds, lol.

All of this is as simple as using what SHOULD BE common sense for most people.

Publicado originalmente por Random Ryan:

Because there are plenty of gullible people with valuable items

This.

[Gun Tech.]

I got Steam when Portal 2 came out, whenever that was. Since then, I've had 1 person try to scam me. One too many, sure, but I don't agree with the description that scamming is rampant on Steam. It's rampant on Facebook Marketplace and some other places, but not on Steam. According to my anecdotal evidence, at least.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

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?

Because by gaining control of other people's Steam accounts, they (1) get more accounts to burn on hijacking/phishing attempts, and (2) have a much greater potential to hijack/phish those people's Steam friends.

And why does this keep happening? Because, from their perspective, it's still worth it. Steam inventories can be worth up to hundreds or even thousands of dollars, and that's not to mention that some people even sell the Steam accounts themselves. And there's probably even some side benefit involving circumventing cheating bans. But, given that other platforms also have games and multiplayer cheating constrols, but Steam gets so vastly many more scammers, and given how there are tons of third-party sites that deal in Steam virtual items (many of which have been confirmed to be scams one way or another), it's rather clear that the main attraction here is the fact that there's transactionable virtual items that is the main attraction for scammers.

(And this is why I say the virtual item economy was a mistake.)

[crunchyfrog]

Or to add to what Mr Gentlebot says, if you feel confident enough you CAN add anyone (I generally do) but NEVER EVER let them do anything.

So they can talk to you, say what they like as long as you neither click on any links of theirs, or do anything daft.

Trading within Steam is fine as long as you pay attention.

It's really up to how diligent YOU are which you need to ask yourself.

[The Emperor Of Mankind]

Scamming is done everywhere.