steam trading system

[that evil m&m that rolled away]

Hi everyone,

I have some questions about the Steam trading system.

I was about to make a trade with another Steam user but as we talked about the trade, I realized that I might get scammed - i have several items in my inventory while the user claimed to have a valid key to a game that I wanted(so, not something in the inventory). Also, I noticed that the steam profile was made only on the 31st of Dec 2012.

At the same time, the user shows me his profile on a site called steamrep.com - never heard of it, but then again, it may be popular among steam gamers(http://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198080152210). I don't see any relevant info there. And even if there was something for me to see, at this moment I wouldn't be able to analyze that info.

At this point, I declined the trade, the risk of being scammed being too high.

I told the user that I only trade tradable items, through the steam trading system.
This user then told me that I can easily get scammed through the Steam trade system too, but didn't give me details.

Now, some questions:
- what's the deal with this steamrep site? Is it affiliated with steam? am i supposed to trust the info i get there?

- when making a trade through the steam trading system, should i be aware of anything in particular? I made some trades in the past and it was pretty straight-forward.

thank you for reading this.

[Satoru]

You did the right thing. Don't trade outside the system, especially for things that aren't actually tradeable like steamwallet, cdkeys etc.

That user was lying to you. You CANNOT get scammed through the Steam Trading system. You CAN get scammed by going outside it like they were making you do.

Basically what you did and what your think is correct. Just go with that and you won't be scammed via a trade.

[Ultrapwnd]

Yea you can't get scammed when using steam trading. Steamrep is a site that deals with all these third party key trades, and if you are marked as a scammer there it makes it very hard for you to trade. And yea if he denied to go first, he might be a scammer, those are the rules when trading keys. Not to mention that if the key was shady in any way, or if it was region locked, it just gets real messy when trading keys, so stick with steam trading from within the system to guarantee your safety. When trading within stem trading always make sure the game is in your region as well to avoid running into dlc problems.

[sP| Lord iHax The Naked]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Ultrapwnd:

those are the rules when trading keys.

The "rule" as in what steam allows is no trading of anything out side of the steam trading system. If you do trade out side of this system and have an issue they will not help you. As long as you trade within the Steam trading system, if you have an issue you can contact Steam support for help.

There may be "unofficial rules" regarding trading CD keys, but no matter what there is always much more risk when trading out side of the the system.

[Spawn of Totoro]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Satoru:

You did the right thing. Don't trade outside the system, especially for things that aren't actually tradeable like steamwallet, cdkeys etc.

That user was lying to you. You CANNOT get scammed through the Steam Trading system. You CAN get scammed by going outside it like they were making you do.

Basically what you did and what your think is correct. Just go with that and you won't be scammed via a trade.

To add:

Be aware though, that you can not trade steam wallet funds. There has been people using a "green text" command to fool people into thinking they will get money.

First rule of Trading: If it doesn't go into the trade window, don't do it.

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย sP| Lord iHax The Naked:

There may be "unofficial rules" regarding trading CD keys, but no matter what there is always much more risk when trading out side of the the system.

Exacly. Trading for keys and/or money is discouraged since Steam can not monitor itm because of this they will not assist in retreaving the items because there is no proof of the transaction in their system.

[that evil m&m that rolled away]

thank you all very much for your input! much appreciated!

[Wishlist Elevator Music!]

SteamRep Admin here- I'd be glad to answer any questions! We are a non-profit site that works with numerous Steam community sites to help prevent scams by identifying people who are potential scammers.

I'm the head admin who deals with scam reports and I can tell you right now that there ARE ways of being scammed even when you do all your trades within the Steam trading window. Quick-switch scams, renaming scams, impersonation scams and gift wrap scams all occur entirely within Steam trading. However, if you are careful and check all of the items thoroughly (as well as making sure you are trading with the person you want to trade) before completing the trade and complete the trade in a single trade, you can generally protect yourself from those scams.

There are other scams that also occur entirely in Steam trading that require more diligence. For instance, trading for hijacked/scammed items. If you check the person's SteamRep profile, this can help because you can see if the person is already marked as a scammer/hijacker and easily see how many hours the person has in TF2/Dota 2 and when the account was created. Newer & low-hour accounts have a higher probability of being scammer/hijacker alts, though of course this is not always the case.

Another scam that occurs entirely in the Steam trading window is the "Steam Wallet funds transfer" scam. This new and sadly popular scam sees the scammer convincing the person that they will transfer Steam Wallet funds to the other person directly for items. This function isn't even available, but the scammer will type text in the chat window (often using the /me chat command) to make it seem as though funds have been transferred during the trade. Of course, no funds have been transferred and the scammer makes off with the items.

There are some other, more obscure scams that occur entirely through Steam trading as well, so always trust your instinct. If the deal seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Back to the original question, the person was probably showing you his/her SteamRep page to show that he/she is not marked as a scammer. This does not necessarily mean a person is trustworthy- just that they do not currently have any negative tags applied to them. Also, you should always try to check a person's SteamRep page yourself- just go to steamrep.com and copy/paste their profile URL into the search box. Some impersonators will link to a page not their own in order to deceive you.

Whew! Sorry for such a long post. Let me know if you have any questions- I'd love to provide more information for you. =)

[that evil m&m that rolled away]

Wow, i didn't know all this. Thank you!
This info should be made sticky, others might need it.