Scam Protection Policy - Suggestions to improve

[arti.1996]

Probably sometimes things are going wrong and we lost items in inventory by scam. We need to create a mechanism with which we will be able to undo any action taken on steam in the previous 24 hours (or perhaps longer).


At this moment, the existing policy within the company protects fraudsters and allows them to get out of the water dry, without the possibility of returning items that were stolen from us, without a fair exchange, or an exchange under the promise of an offer. .

Since the items in the inventory are always lost, in the case of fraud and there is no way to get back the things we offer either by mistake or by fraud. (https://help.steampowered.com/en/wizard/HelpWithEconTrading)

The application of sanctions that penalize fraudsters is not enough. I do not agree with these measures that are currently provided by Valve, as it is not fair for the fraudster to sell and exchange the fraudulent items, and the profit obtained from these will not be transferred to the owner account (I had a situation, in which I was a victim and so I know what I say and why).

Likewise, to avoid plagiarism and false alarm situations, I propose to give the fraudster a chance to explain why he does not want to return the items (and also prove, if necessary, if it is plagiarism, provide a bank statement or an identical one that proves in a guaranteed way that the exchange took place according to the established conditions).

Why is this all? Well, following a scam, he removed me from the list of friends and even put me on the black list. In other words, I had no way of contacting the scammer to ask for the return and the technical team at this moment was unable to help and provide the necessary support, as the current policy does not allow us to do more than just talk and cry, as there is no protection of the owner and his willingness regarding the donated items.

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I am sure that the company has enough profits to invest to defend consumers and protect the interests of the owners of the acquired goods, the last word and the decision being left to the owners!

I am the owner of the goods and I would like to return the item "offered" (circumvented), canceling this operation in a forced way with the help of the Steam technical team, since the fraudster will not return any item and, moreover, I inform you that I am on the recipient's black list of contacts, making it impossible to directly request the return.

In this way I hope that you understand me and are willing to help protect your customers.

Thank you and I appreciate a future improvement in company policy that will focus on protecting property owners.

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It is my knowledge that when there are scams on Steam accounts, it is almost always used the mechanism of theft of items for exchange of inventory or for sending gifts, and the use of Steam Mobile Authenticator minimizes the probability of account theft, in however, it also does not guarantee full protection, in case the con man has access to the mobile phone.

I know that without this protection the account is completely unprotected and that there is always the possibility of theft knowing the login [sensitive information] and being able to divert the recovery email to the temporary email box. That is why I leave an alert here to signal this weakness of the system that I noticed a few years ago.

[76561198407601200]

This topic again? Scammed items used to be restored, they no longer are. At some point people have to take responsibility for their actions. In this case, you, and hopefully others, will take better care of your items and not fall for scams. Use the search feature, this have been brought up numerous times.

[Zekiran]

Big long block of text. Didn't bother reading, since I know the content instantly.

Steam provides AMPLE security and safety features for their trade and market system.

PEOPLE are the weak link in this security fence, and only individuals can control what they do and how they use or do not use those security features.

Having yet another hoop, or a 'safety net' beyond what is already here, would simply lead to more scammers gaming the system, and would not reduce the number of scams in any way. People are gullible, greedy, and ignorant of basic online security methods.

[Daggoth]

Long story short: Steam isn't interested in arbitrating between fools and thieves. Too much trouble, too much time, too little benefit.

And as far as you being the 'owner' of the items, you might want to read the Steam Subscriber Agreement again.

You also understand and acknowledge that Subscriptions traded, sold or purchased in any Subscription Marketplace are license rights, that you have no ownership interest in such Subscriptions, and that Valve does not recognize any transfers of Subscriptions (including transfers by operation of law) that are made outside of Steam.

[arti.1996]

Originally posted by The Living Tribunal:

This topic again? Scammed items used to be restored, they no longer are. At some point people have to take responsibility for their actions. In this case, you, and hopefully others, will take better care of your items and not fall for scams. Use the search feature, this have been brought up numerous times.

If this topic is repeated, probably exist a problem that needs to be improved and adjusted. The search feature doesn't give you protection.

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You haven't spent any money and your account is zero [Steam level reports you], which has nothing to lose. It is not? ;-)

But there are those who are a source of financing for Valve and who buy games and items. All of this makes it possible to benefit game developers, as well as Valve (part of the profits are received by Valve from product sales).

I have vision of Valve provides a Steam platform that stands out for the design and customization items of the account.

But I would like to warn you that, first of all, it is the users who define the rules. If Steam stops having customers for not taking care of the loyalty aspect, it loses confidence and sooner or later a new platform will appear on the market that will stand out for this aspect. I prefer that Valve is aware that this worst case scenario could become a reality, if a company admits it.

Yes, I worked in the Marketing area and that's why I know what I say.

I appreciate that you understand my point of view. I hope I am not too arrogant with you in response. Sorry, if I abused it. Thanks.

[arti.1996]

Originally posted by Daggoth:

Long story short: Steam isn't interested in arbitrating between fools and thieves. Too much trouble, too much time, too little benefit.

And as far as you being the 'owner' of the items, you might want to read the Steam Subscriber Agreement again.

You also understand and acknowledge that Subscriptions traded, sold or purchased in any Subscription Marketplace are license rights, that you have no ownership interest in such Subscriptions, and that Valve does not recognize any transfers of Subscriptions (including transfers by operation of law) that are made outside of Steam.

Yes, I know this terms. But, my message hear is to be Steam a better platform. That's why here I left my message.

[Theblaze]

Originally posted by arti.1996:

Originally posted by Daggoth:

Long story short: Steam isn't interested in arbitrating between fools and thieves. Too much trouble, too much time, too little benefit.

And as far as you being the 'owner' of the items, you might want to read the Steam Subscriber Agreement again.

Yes, I know this terms. But, my message hear is to be Steam a better platform. That's why here I left my message.

Steam is fine as it is, security and restrictions wise.

You NEED to change people for people to STOP falling for scams and phishing.

[Seretti]

Originally posted by arti.1996:

You haven't spent any money and your account is zero [Steam level reports you], which has nothing to lose. It is not? ;-)

All private profiles show as level 0. They could have spent several thousands on Steam for all you know, so maybe stop judging based on what level is shown to you.

[Zekiran]

Yeah, again:

People are the weak link here.

No matter what any security system might be able to do, all it takes is the user leaving their keys in the hands of the criminals.

That's 100% of the way this happens, and it's not because of Steam having a weak or poor system. It's because people are, as I said: greedy, gullible, and ignorant of basic security methods.

There are dozens of threads a week that deal with this, but whenever the ones come up saying "so, account hijacks, am I right! nudge nudge" as if everyone has a problem with that?

Most of us do not.

At some point, they really do need to just remove the freakin market.

[Crazy Tiger]

Originally posted by arti.1996:

If this topic is repeated, probably exist a problem that needs to be improved and adjusted. The search feature doesn't give you protection.

The problem is known, it's called "people who both knowingly and unknowingly give away their login credentials". You're trying to solve the wrong problem. It's also not a problem Valve can solve.

Scams that go through promises of a Paypal payment on Discord are also something that cannot be proven by or to Valve.

Originally posted by arti.1996:

You haven't spent any money and your account is zero [Steam level reports you], which has nothing to lose. It is not? ;-)

He simply has a private profile. You cannot possibly know what he spend or which level he has. You are showing you clearly know little about Steam.

Originally posted by arti.1996:

Yes, I worked in the Marketing area and that's why I know what I say.

If you'd worked in Marketing, you'd know that for a company the benefits have to outweigh the time and costs invested.

Restoring items created an unsafe environment, as people expected to get their stuff back and thusly stopped looking after account security. People got scammed multiple times and never learned their lesson.

A hard line sometimes is the better line.

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by arti.1996:

Probably sometimes things are going wrong and we lost items in inventory by scam. We need to create a mechanism with which we will be able to undo any action taken on steam in the previous 24 hours (or perhaps longer).

or you just need to be smarter about things. You know, like noty falling for the pathetically stupid scams out there.

At this moment, the existing policy within the company protects fraudsters and allows them to get out of the water dry, without the possibility of returning items that were stolen from us, without a fair exchange, or an exchange under the promise of an offer. .

False. Accounts that are found to be guilty of fraud, scams, etc do have their maerket features reviokled I.e no trading, etc. But some facts.

- You can'thave items stolen from you unless you did something silly like give your login credentials to a third-party or installed some malware on your system. U

- Fair echange is upto the two people involved in the exchange. If the exchange wasn't fair why did you agreee to it. If you think its unfair after the fact, then thats just buyer's remorse and thats not Valve's problem to fix.

- Exchange under promise, shoulder NEVER be done, and the fact that the ssytem actually warns you about this means you have to be stupidA AND willfully ignore a warning. Thats a combo nothing beyond slapping your hands away from the keyboard will fix.

Since the items in the inventory are always lost, in the case of fraud and there is no way to get back the things we offer either by mistake or by fraud. (https://help.steampowered.com/en/wizard/HelpWithEconTrading)

Yes because the number of confirmations required for any transfer or trade kinda makes the idea of mistake impossible..

The application of sanctions that penalize fraudsters is not enough. I do not agree with these measures that are currently provided by Valve, as it is not fair for the fraudster to sell and exchange the fraudulent items, and the profit obtained from these will not be transferred to the owner account (I had a situation, in which I was a victim and so I know what I say and why).

One party alleges fraud, the other claims it was trade in good faith. The defendant has more going for their side given the security errors that would need to happen otherwise. I do agree that the system should do more though. People who complain or report being scammed should have their market, and trade privs revioked for at least 3 months. Notghing in or out of the iinventory for 3 months. No cards, no items, no market purcghase, no trade, no market sales. I think that will do more to stop scams and frauds than anything else.

Likewise, to avoid plagiarism and false alarm situations, I propose to give the fraudster a chance to explain why he does not want to return the items (and also prove, if necessary, if it is plagiarism, provide a bank statement or an identical one that proves in a guaranteed way that the exchange took place according to the established conditions).

I don't think you understand the meaning of plagarism. as for whhy the fraudster doesn't want to return it.. simple, they can claim it was a trade made in good faith. As for bank statements.. last I checked Inventory items aren't tracked by your local bank.

Why is this all? Well, following a scam, he removed me from the list of friends and even put me on the black list. In other words, I had no way of contacting the scammer to ask for the return and the technical team at this moment was unable to help and provide the necessary support, as the current policy does not allow us to do more than just talk and cry, as there is no protection of the owner and his willingness regarding the donated items.

Yeah. Thats life. Do a stupid thing, suffer consequences. IUts basically your word against the alleged fraudster. Either way the trade was valid. You agreed to it.

I am sure that the company has enough profits to invest to defend consumers and protect the interests of the owners of the acquired goods, the last word and the decision being left to the owners!

They already have. But nothing they can do can prortect people from their own stupidity. Its not like these are some god tier schemesm, and scams. These things are so basic even a 10 year old should be able to spot them

I am the owner of the goods and I would like to return the item "offered" (circumvented), canceling this operation in a forced way with the help of the Steam technical team, since the fraudster will not return any item and, moreover, I inform you that I am on the recipient's black list of contacts, making it impossible to directly request the return.

Coorrection. you WERE the owner,. then you transferred ownership to someone else. Whether or not you want to offer what you received in return for what you gave is a different trade and the other party is under no obligation to entertain or accept the trade.

In this way I hope that you understand me and are willing to help protect your customers.

At this point I'd like to revise m suggestioon. People whoreporty being scammed, sghould have their accounts locked from the market and item system permamnently.

It is my knowledge that when there are scams on Steam accounts, it is almost always used the mechanism of theft of items for exchange of inventory or for sending gifts, and the use of Steam Mobile Authenticator minimizes the probability of account theft, in however, it also does not guarantee full protection, in case the con man has access to the mobile phone.

Yes because you cannot fully protect a fool from themselves. That is impossible.

I know that without this protection the account is completely unprotected and that there is always the possibility of theft knowing the login [sensitive information] and being able to divert the recovery email to the temporary email box. That is why I leave an alert here to signal this weakness of the system that I noticed a few years ago.

Yes because people surprise....also tenmd to do silly things like give out their account credentials to dubious people.


There is nothing here for Valve to fix. Beyond locking your account from market features to protect you from making ill-advised decisions. you later regret.

[76561198407601200]

Originally posted by arti.1996:

Originally posted by The Living Tribunal:

This topic again? Scammed items used to be restored, they no longer are. At some point people have to take responsibility for their actions. In this case, you, and hopefully others, will take better care of your items and not fall for scams. Use the search feature, this have been brought up numerous times.

If this topic is repeated, probably exist a problem that needs to be improved and adjusted.

Unfortunately there's no way to prevent one from being gullible and allow their items to be scammed. After all, if it weren't for that, scamming would cease to exist, but alas people allow it to continue on.

[Yasahi]

Originally posted by The Living Tribunal:

Originally posted by arti.1996:

If this topic is repeated, probably exist a problem that needs to be improved and adjusted.

Unfortunately there's no way to prevent one from being gullible and allow their items to be scammed. After all, if it weren't for that, scamming would cease to exist, but alas people allow it to continue on.

Perhaps the OP wants to remove trading and the market as features since that's the only way to stop this.

[BloodShed]

Originally posted by Yasahi:

Originally posted by The Living Tribunal:

Unfortunately there's no way to prevent one from being gullible and allow their items to be scammed. After all, if it weren't for that, scamming would cease to exist, but alas people allow it to continue on.

Perhaps the OP wants to remove trading and the market as features since that's the only way to stop this.

No it won't.

Scamming on Steam existed before trading was introduced.

Back then they just went for the accounts.

[Yasahi]

Originally posted by BloodShed:

Originally posted by Yasahi:

Perhaps the OP wants to remove trading and the market as features since that's the only way to stop this.

No it won't.

Scamming on Steam exited before trading was introduced.

Back then they just went for the accounts.

That's hijacking, different problem. Sometimes one leads to the other but pure scamming requires the ability to trade. If that is removed, it would be much harder to do it but in a way could still be done on the Market.

[Brian9824]

Better solution, listen to everything steam tells you and stop trading for promises and you will never be scammed.

Most of your "suggestions" like making people provide bank information is actually illegal