Stopping Scams

[メキさま]

I personally dont know how to do coding and all that stuff but for the steam community and to stop scammers i sugest this; Scams usually happend using 'bots' and stuff so its pretty easy to do, just dont do that if they are using bots or third party member. But some scammers look like real traders until they for example switch a skin quality to a lower more cheaper stuff like in cs from FN to WW/BS. What i suggest is that valve should make when a trading happens but its a scam but we already accepted it, if they block us the trade will be automaticly cancled or to make a friend only trade and if the 'friend'(scammer but accepted as friends) trade with us but after that unfriended, the trade will be cancled. My point is that after the trade they either block or unfriended, the trade will not happen. If any of the readers out there reading this agree, help valve notice this. And if valve is reading this please add this for the sake of trading. Also sorry for bad english/bad grammar.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by NoLagPlez:

I personally dont know how to do coding and all that stuff but for the steam community and to stop scammers i sugest this; Scams usually happend using 'bots' and stuff so its pretty easy to do, just dont do that if they are using bots or third party member. But some scammers look like real traders until they for example switch a skin quality to a lower more cheaper stuff like in cs from FN to WW/BS. What i suggest is that valve should make when a trading happens but its a scam but we already accepted it, if they block us the trade will be automaticly cancled or to make a friend only trade and if the 'friend'(scammer but accepted as friends) trade with us but after that unfriended, the trade will be cancled. My point is that after the trade they either block or unfriended, the trade will not happen. If any of the readers out there reading this agree, help valve notice this. And if valve is reading this please add this for the sake of trading. Also sorry for bad english/bad grammar.

Accepted trades that have no holds or are finished with their holds are final.

You can cancel any trade that is on a hold or not accepted yet.

Pay attention to what you are doing when trading and you can not be "scammed" into giving away your items.

[CJ HUNTER]

People most of the time delete the other people from their friends lists after the trade is successful. You are suggesting that you need to keep someone on your friends list just to validate a trade. I consider this suggestion something that would be very bothering for most of the people.

There is another better way to stop scams: don't fall for it.

[Spawn of Totoro]

I still feel the best way is to remove trading completely and have everyone use the market. Imho, that should remove 99% of scams and hijackings.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by Spawn of Totoro:

I still feel the best way is to remove trading completely and have everyone use the market. Imho, that should remove 99% of scams and hijackings.

I agree. The Steam Market is more than enough.

[CJ HUNTER]

Originally posted by Spawn of Totoro:

I still feel the best way is to remove trading completely and have everyone use the market. Imho, that should remove 99% of scams and hijackings.

I could add an improvement to that: only allow trading if you were friends on Steam with that person for more than 5 years. This should stop most of the kids from crying on the forums and I would still be able to trade with my friends. :D

[Spawn of Totoro]

Originally posted by CJ HUNTER:

I could add an improvement to that: only allow trading if you were friends on Steam with that person for more than 5 years. This should stop most of the kids from crying on the forums and I would still be able to trade with my friends. :D

Sadly, that won't help. It would create targets for phishing in order to use such accounts to scam or cause other issues.

[The HopelessGamer™]

Originally posted by Spawn of Totoro:

I still feel the best way is to remove trading completely and have everyone use the market. Imho, that should remove 99% of scams and hijackings.

I see that as a bad idea. It may somewhat solve some of those issues but why should steam start removing features due to some shady people scamming others? I made a suggestion a few weeks back that would probably stop hijacking and what not pretty well but none the less i disagree with steam removing features due to some shady individuals.

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/10/2747650363462298503/

[Spawn of Totoro]

Originally posted by The HopelessGamer™:

Originally posted by Spawn of Totoro:

I still feel the best way is to remove trading completely and have everyone use the market. Imho, that should remove 99% of scams and hijackings.

I see that as a bad idea. It may somewhat solve some of those issues but why should steam start removing features due to some shady people scamming others? I made a suggestion a few weeks back that would probably stop hijacking and what not pretty well but none the less i disagree with steam removing features due to some shady individuals.

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/10/2747650363462298503/

People already give away their authenticator numbers when being phished. Wouldn't be hard to have them approve the e-mail change as well.

The reason for scam and hijacking is due to the ability to transfer items directly between accounts. Remove the core issue, trading, and scams and hijackings are reduced more then any other method.

It really wouldn't be far fetched to remove trading as there will still be the community market avaialble. It may even allow for Valve to improve the market as well.

Valve did state removal as an option when they added the cool down period and required the authenticator, so it is still a possibility, though a last resort one.

If the issue becomes big enough, it may be the only option left to them.

[The HopelessGamer™]

Originally posted by Spawn of Totoro:

Originally posted by The HopelessGamer™:

I see that as a bad idea. It may somewhat solve some of those issues but why should steam start removing features due to some shady people scamming others? I made a suggestion a few weeks back that would probably stop hijacking and what not pretty well but none the less i disagree with steam removing features due to some shady individuals.

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/10/2747650363462298503/

People already give away their authenticator numbers when being phished. Wouldn't be hard to have them approve the e-mail change as well.

The reason for scam and hijacking is due to the ability to transfer items directly between accounts. Remove the core issue, trading, and scams and hijackings are reduced more then any other method.

It really wouldn't be far fetched to remove trading as there will still be the community market avaialble. It may even allow for Valve to improve the market as well.

Valve did state removal as an option when they added the cool down period and required the authenticator, so it is still a possibility, though a last resort one.

If the issue becomes big enough, it may be the only option left to them.

Well that would be rather sad if steam had to remove a big feature all because some people want to scam others out of their stuff..... I mean... Common sense goes a long way... yet some dont seem to use it... I do see your point. It makes sense but when i made my reply to you... i did not think people would actually give out their authenticator codes.... i really didnt expect that lol.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Originally posted by The HopelessGamer™:

Well that would be rather sad if steam had to remove a big feature all because some people want to scam others out of their stuff..... I mean... Common sense goes a long way... yet some dont seem to use it... I do see your point. It makes sense but when i made my reply to you... i did not think people would actually give out their authenticator codes.... i really didnt expect that lol.

I know, right? I didn't either, but then people were posting that they tried to log-in (through a fake client) and entered all the codes (2x authenticator) and now their items were gone and their authenticator wasn't working.

Turns out the phishers used the information to attatched a new number and authenticator to the account, so they could approve the trades themselves.

Every hole that gets plugged, opens another. Hence why I personaly feel removal of the trade system is the better idea. At least using the market is more secure and it also remove the issue of selling skins on 3rd party sites as well as gambling becoming a non-issue.

It is more then just the scammers and hijackers that got me to the point that I felt it was the better solution.

It just solves so many problems in one move.

[Theblaze]

Valve should have considered to disable trading entirely a long time ago as people obviously still falling for the know scams since the beginning of the feature.

[Start_Running]

I dunno. Why should I lose the ability to trade because someone else is an idiot. It's like saying no one should be able to drink beer because a couple people got alcohol poisoning.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Originally posted by Start_Running:

I dunno. Why should I lose the ability to trade because someone else is an idiot. It's like saying no one should be able to drink beer because a couple people got alcohol poisoning.

If 10% of those who drank beer, got alcohol poisoning, then it would be restricted or even banned by any government, if such restrictions were ineffective. One restriction may be that you can only purchase it from a specific government source (aka, Community Market).

And that is just from those abusing it.

What about those making fake drinks with poison or unknown methods/ingredients? What about those stealing others drinks and re-selling them on a shady market?

At some point, the problems out weigh the benefits and we are, in my opinion, closing in on that mark.

It it was only a few, then yes, I could see staying with the system, but it is a lot more then a few from what I have seen.

Gambling, 3rd party sites, scams, hijackings, phishing, spam, ect. Most of all of that is tied to direct trades.

We would still have gifting of games, Steam Gift Cards (digital and physical) and the community market, so there would, imho, be little difference in the end as people can still gift others and exchange items, just not directly with others.

[CJ HUNTER]

Trading was a big thing that made Steam popular and what it is today (for example, nobody cared about TF2 and CS:GO until they have added the economy to them). I bet that some people worked very hard to get this going and it would be very sad to make it go away because people are lacking common sense.

I would let the natural selection do its thing and ban some scammers every now and then. I think that keeping 'normal' users happy is more important than stopping greedy kids who give away their login details crying on the forums about getting scammed.