Random user contacted saying they accidentally reported me for scamming. Trying to get me to contact a "steam moderator" on discord

[Sven]

I'm fairly certain that they are trying to scam me by having talk to someone pretending to be steam support.

They said they reported me for $3500 in trade scamming. And I haven't traded anything in almost a decade. They said they tried to contact support but they were going to disable my account no matter what.

I haven't received an email, and they wanted me to join a discord to talk to a moderator about it.

[Bee🐝]

This is a scam! Do not provide them with any account info or login to any site they suggest. Report the account and ignore them.

Steam mods do not use discord or any site that's not steam.

[rawWwRrr]

Originally posted by Sven:

I'm fairly certain that they are trying to scam me by having talk to someone pretending to be steam support.

You are correct.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Valve does not communicate anything related to your Steam account through Discord.

Even Alden (a Valve employee) tried warning people when they were impersonating him...

https://twitter.com/aldenkroll/status/1308869949818052615

https://twitter.com/aldenkroll/status/1309167149282451457

[Teksura]

Let's make a quick list of just how absurd this scam is.


The first claim they make is that a false report can get you automatically banned even if you're innocent of all wrong doing. Just think about that for a second. Supposedly, even if your trade history shows that you never traded with someone, they can just press the report button and have your entire account shut down? How would that work? It wouldn't. In truth, Valve has access to all information on your account, and would be able to review your trade and message history and see you never interacted with someone, much less traded with them.

The next claim they make is that support staff will personally speak with with people about a pending investigation. Why? Why would they need to talk to anyone? Once again, Valve has access to everything that happened. All of your trade history, all of your chats, everything. There is no question they could possibly ask which would give them more information than what they already have. Talking to people is time consuming, especially when dealing with people who have a tendency to lie. In truth, Valve will only comunicate through the ticket system.

The next claim they make is that instead of using that ticket system, you need to either reach out to someone via the steam friends list chat, or using a third party app Valve has no control over such as Discord. This is such blatant garbage I'm not sure how to explain it without being condescending. They're basically telling you to take on good faith that this random account literally anyone could make- which often isn't even associated with Steam in any way -is more legit than the official Support Ticket system. In truth, once again, the only way to reach out to support is through the ticket system.

The next claim they make is that they need to "check" your items or something similar. They will claim that on a system Valve created, owns, and operates, that a Valve employee whose job is to look into these things has no tools to do so without you first sending them a trade offer gifting them your items. Let's go over this claim again. The claim is that Valve- a major tech company -is incapable if creating a system to view items in your inventory without your assistance. What a load of garbage. If such a system were to exist, your cooperation would not be required. They would just up and do it without any need for you to send any trade offer. In truth, once you send them the trade offer, they accept, block you, and then laugh at you having successfully gotten you to gift them your items.



No part of this scam is legit, or logical. I'm honestly flabbergasted that it continues to work.

[Trew Domko]

just had this happen to me. thankfully i could tell it was a scam and googled and came here before saying anything to them

[76561198407601200]

Originally posted by Teksura:

No part of this scam is legit, or logical. I'm honestly flabbergasted that it continues to work.

You have to remember that it's likely kids who are falling for this scam. Most now a days just befriend anyone online that they meet and within weeks are considering them best friends. That alone is a recipe for disaster.

"Good, I've gained their trust, now to work my magic"

The closest I've ever seen someone get scammed with a game during my youth is when a kid let another kid that they in fact knew borrow a game and they didn't return it, but that rarely happened from what I've witness and that was purely due to it not being something done online. You throw internet into the equation and it's much easier to scam kids and it can be done with more than 1 at a time. It is why I've stated in a previous topic that I wish I had a dollar for each one of these scam topics brought up. I'd easily get a free new game each month just on that alone.