a guide to indentify "steam administrator" impersonators

[The Dozer]

hello, i'm making this guide because some of my friends have had issue's with people claiming to be a "steam admin" here's a guide to help you indentify and find out if you're about to be scammed.

first of all there is no such thing as a "Steam admin", anyone who claims otherwise is a scammer. You will probably never run into a Valve employee in Steam, but if you do they can be identified by the following badge on their Steam profile[prntscr.com]

If someone doesn't have this badge, they aren't an "admin", simple as that. Most Valve employees will also have a purple badge (Example) when looked up on steamrep.com. You are very unlikely to ever run into one of these profiles in Steam, and if you do, it will NOT be in a trade. That is a scam.

be mindfull if you feel you're being scammed just know the following:

There is no such thing as a "pending" ban.
There is no such thing as "item verification" or "item checking".
There is no such thing as a "Steam admin".
SteamRep is not a part of Steam or Valve.
Valve never conducts official business in Steam chat.
Nobody will VAC ban, trade ban, or otherwise punish you for refusing to follow their instructions in Steam chat.
Once you've traded away your items, they're gone.


While trading, you may encounter someone affiliated with an unofficial Steam community, such as one of several trading communities on Reddit. Administrators and middlemen of such communities, who are NOT affiliated with Valve, will be identified on SteamRep.com with a green Administrator tag, and usually appear in the admin list. Bear in mind that because SteamRep.com is not affiliated with Valve, admins in this list do not have any special access or privileges within Steam. This means community admins cannot ban anyone in Steam, and can't get your items back if you get scammed.

Middlemen are often (but not always) administrators for their respective community, but can be verified in the same way. Their tag looks the same as an administrator's tag, except it says "Middleman". If you are working with a middleman, it's CRUCIAL you understand how a middleman works so you don't get scammed.

You can verify a community admin or middleman with the following steps:

NEVER under any circumstances trust a link that was provided to you in Steam chat.
Open the other person's Steam profile.
If you're checking a pending friend request, click the arrow to the right of their name and select View Steam Profile. This will open their profile in a Steam window.
If you're in chat, click on the name or avatar picture of the person you're speaking to. This will open their profile in a Steam window.
If you're in a trade, click on the name of the other trader. This will open their profile in a Steam window.
IMPORTANT: Do not trust any links in their trade notes, or links to other websites given in chat, and do not trust any links to SteamRep in trade notes or any place the person can edit.
Towards the top left of the Steam window, you will find the Steam Community URL if you have the settings above enabled. Copy the entire web address from that bar (Highlight it with your mouse, right-click and select "copy").
Open a new browser page, and go to: https://steamrep.com/
Paste the copied Steam Community URL in the "search" box (Ctrl-V), and click "Search"

Now For The Final Part Of This Guide I'm Going To Give You some Examples Of What a Fake Steam Admin Looks Like And What A Real One Looks Like

This is A Fake "Steam Admin" Account[prntscr.com]

This Is A Real Steam Admin Account[prntscr.com]

This Is What The Steam Admin Badge Looks Like[prntscr.com]


How To Secure Your Account:
First And Most Important, Use The Mobile Authenticator I Cant Stress This Enough.
Second, If The Deal Seems Too Good To Be True It Most Likely Is
Third, Use Common Sense, Steam Employees Will Never Contact You On Steam Directly, This Will Be Done Through The Email Adress You Provided Upon Signup
Fourth, If You Dont Trust The Situation Dont Be Afraid To Block All Communications.

Thank You For Reading Through My Guide And I Hope Everyone On The Steam Platform Stays Safe And Secure.

Game On.


tl;dr:

No Steam Admin Will Interact With You On Steam Directly

[Kargor]

Geez... why do you need so much text?

There are no Steam admins (that interact with users)
There are no middlemen

Simple as that. Anyone claiming to be any of these is a scammer.

[The Dozer]

Originally posted by Kargor:

Geez... why do you need so much text?

There are no Steam admins (that interact with users)
There are no middlemen

Simple as that. Anyone claiming to be any of these is a scammer.

i'll add a tl;dr

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by Glitchwithahat:

Originally posted by Kargor:

Geez... why do you need so much text?

There are no Steam admins (that interact with users)
There are no middlemen

Simple as that. Anyone claiming to be any of these is a scammer.

i'll add a tl;dr

While youre at it, you should edit several pieces of misinformation. Example: Middleman. It should read "when working with a middleman, dont".

[The Dozer]

Originally posted by ReBoot:

Originally posted by Glitchwithahat:

i'll add a tl;dr

While youre at it, you should edit several pieces of misinformation. Example: Middleman. It should read "when working with a middleman, dont".

"If you are working with a middleman, it's CRUCIAL you understand how a middleman works so you don't get scammed."

[ReBoot]

Exactly. Understanding how a middleman works leads to "dont, if you want to be safe from scamming". So its still

Originally posted by ReBoot:

Originally posted by Glitchwithahat:

i'll add a tl;dr

While youre at it, you should edit several pieces of misinformation. Example: Middleman. It should read "when working with a middleman, dont".

[The Dozer]

Originally posted by ReBoot:

Exactly. Understanding how a middleman works leads to "dont, if you want to be safe from scamming". So its still

Originally posted by ReBoot:

While youre at it, you should edit several pieces of misinformation. Example: Middleman. It should read "when working with a middleman, dont".

describing the do's and donts of a middleman is an entire post on its own

someone already made a very insightfull guide on the steamrep forums i'll post it here[forums.steamrep.com]

[Count_Dandyman]

Originally posted by Glitchwithahat:

Originally posted by ReBoot:

Exactly. Understanding how a middleman works leads to "dont, if you want to be safe from scamming". So its still

describing the do's and donts of a middleman is an entire post on its own

someone already made a very insightfull guide on the steamrep forums i'll post it here[forums.steamrep.com]

There are no do's of using a middleman at all any valid supported trade is done in a single window between two users or through the market.

Anything other then that is going outside the system and asking for trouble.

[Levi]

These PSA's are often fruitless.

They are usually given attention after some unfortunate event has occurred.

This sub-forum is not for PSA's / guides either.

Create your guide separately.

Edit: Thread was moved to an appropriate sub-forum.

[J4MESOX4D]

No need for a guide - Valve have already covered this in detail for years in their knowledgebase articles:-

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=3415-WAFH-6433
Valve employees will never ask you to trade your items to them; this includes users who claim to work for Steam Support.
Users claiming to be a Valve employee, accounts asking to verify your items, and users who send you a message which insist you need to trade your items to them for investigation or security reasons should immediately be reported for trade scams.
_____________________________________________________________________________

If people don't read those or demonstrate basic common sense; they aren't going to follow any guides sadly and as seen countless times on here already; people become aware of such things or reality only hits home when it's too late.

[The Dozer]

Originally posted by J4MESOX4D:

No need for a guide - Valve have already covered this in detail for years in their knowledgebase articles:-

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=3415-WAFH-6433
Valve employees will never ask you to trade your items to them; this includes users who claim to work for Steam Support.
Users claiming to be a Valve employee, accounts asking to verify your items, and users who send you a message which insist you need to trade your items to them for investigation or security reasons should immediately be reported for trade scams.
_____________________________________________________________________________

If people don't read those or demonstrate basic common sense; they aren't going to follow any guides sadly and as seen countless times on here already; people become aware of such things or reality only hits home when it's too late.

It was worth a shot, if you dont shoot you dont know if you'll hit or miss c:

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by Glitchwithahat:

Originally posted by ReBoot:

While youre at it, you should edit several pieces of misinformation. Example: Middleman. It should read "when working with a middleman, dont".

"If you are working with a middleman, it's CRUCIAL you understand how a middleman works so you don't get scammed."

The use of a middleman is basically the first warning sign that you're about to be scammed. There is NEVER a good reason to use one. If it doesn't fit in the trade window, don't try to trade for it.

When using a middleman; DON'T

Really this could be summed up as other have said into four lines:

- No Admins involve themselves in trade. If anyone claims they are an admin THEY ARE LYING.
- Anything these fake admins say IS A LIE
- Never use Midelmen. THEY ARE SCAMMERS.
- Only trade in the trade window. BOTH PARTIES SHOULD TRADE AT THE SAME TIME.

That's it. You can't get scammed following those simple riules. Every scam that happens comes from some geniius decideing to ignore some or all of those.

[zZzooey.exe]

Thanks for trying but nobody comes to these forums until after they have been scammed. So your message will probably save amount of people close to 0. But I guess its still the thought that counts.

[Supafly]

Originally posted by Start_Running:

When using a middleman; DON'T

Really this could be summed up as other have said into four lines:

- No Admins involve themselves in trade. If anyone claims they are an admin THEY ARE LYING.
- Anything these fake admins say IS A LIE
- Never use Midelmen. THEY ARE SCAMMERS.
- Only trade in the trade window. BOTH PARTIES SHOULD TRADE AT THE SAME TIME.

That's it. You can't get scammed following those simple riules. Every scam that happens comes from some geniius decideing to ignore some or all of those.

Short, concise and all that OPs guide requires. Not that a new guide is required as it's a pointless exercise.

If people read the pinned threads that already detail all this it wouldn't happen. The problem is people don't read them until AFTER they've been scammed. No amount of guides, tips or warnings will make a difference because of that fact.

[ᴠᴀʀ]

excessive 'guide' for something that could be summed up in 4 simple lines.

And what kind of guide still recommends middleman? Just tell them NOT to use it.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

We have plenty of these exact guides all over the place.