How To Determine If Someone Is A Scammer Who Isn't Marked

Everyday, many people are scammed out of items mainly from TF2. I personally have been scammed and I know many who have also been scammed at least once. After being scammed in 2020, I vowed revenge towards the people who did this sin; I wanted to study them when the opportunity was presented, learn their techniques, and in the end bring awareness to the souls who don't deserve to be taken advantage of and prevent future scams.

Disclaimer:

Disclaimer:

This article is based on my own experiences mainly that I have had attempted on me, these scams always have slight variations and are always changing, so don't follow this as a bible. I did not include dead scams or rare scams as they aren't important in my mind, (a trusted trader going rogue and stealing everyones items etcetera). There also might be spelling or grammatical errors in this text, just a heads up. Scamming is a terrible thing, I hope that by making this article I can make the community a safer place in which we can all enjoy our favorite games and items. Another thing, sharking is not scamming! Sharking is one undercutting someone by misleading them for their own gain, scamming is when someone misleads someone into giving them their items. And for all, never ever trade with a suspicious account that is probably a scammer, greed is why scammers make their money. Just because you got scammed doesn't make you an idiot, it has happened to the best of us many of times, it isn't the method that usually gets someone to follow the directions rather the words. While I can't put my finger on the powerful speech of most scammers and how it seems like your only choice is to follow their commands, but I feel it every time I talk to one in the middle and height of the scam. Also scammers do not truly care about you, they will ask for more items and many even threaten you to give more items, like what they did wasn’t bad enough. Also to note, I have blurred out all URL's, my previous guides got taken down and I believe its because of the URL's so I am not taking any chances.





What a Scammer Sent Me... (maybe next time they will send a better quality one)

Rule of Thumb:

Rule of Thumb:

When trading, always keep it to the real trade window you opened from steam, not in a link sent by that random guy. Don't ever and I mean ever send your items for nothing unless you know that the profile you are trading with is a website bot that is real or your friend that you planned to set up. Even the profile picture can be deceptive, a picture of your friends account can send you a trade and deceive you! To prevent this, actually click the profile to see who you are trading with or are planning to. While this has never happened to me personally, scammers sometimes want you to download questionable things that usually steal your info. New scams come out every day, so if it looks like a to good to be true trade, it probably is. Most scammers will add you when you have items of value around or above 20 dollars. They will add you out of the blue or directly contact your account out of the blue.

Common Kinds of Scam Methods:

Common Kinds of scams:

-I reported you and need to talk to a fake admin who will take your items for "safety/verfication" so you don't get your account "deleted"

This method uses two accounts, one as the person who contacts you, says you need to talk to this official "admin". Who will then say you need to give him your items so he can "authenticate it". But I have been told that sometimes it involves instead "fake purchases". Looking at it closely, you can point out many things, like how a steam admin doesn't need you items to get more details, if he works at valve he can kind of find anything. But their are different variations of this, sometimes the admin is on discord (typing with a weird font for some reason), and sends you a video that shows that he can "delete your account" or something like "I will ban your account".

-I would love to trade for a really good price for you, but could you put your items to the website through this bot which is definitely from the website/could you sign into this website to check the discount off/average price

Usually introduced with "Are You Selling Your Unusual Still" or "Hello, how are you", this method sees a "trader" try to buy your items at your perfect price that you dream of, but it is too good to be true in this case. As he settles at a price, he then says "could you go and send your items to this website so I can see the statistics" or "could you go to this site to find the average price/discount". While on this website that you have never heard about, which is usually real like bitskins or a fake copy or one, he explains how to send your items to a bot or how to sign in with pictures and arrows. If he proceeds with the bot scam, he will tell you not to touch the button to actually send the request to the actual website. After you say you did what he asked, he sends his own fake account to take an item of minuscule value, saying look you can get it back whenever you want as he gives it back to you. Then he says list your expensive items through the "website bot", this is where he takes your items and sells them immediately.
-If you gamble on this website with your items, I will let you win because you promoted it

A more recent scam, this involves someone coming to you wanting you to promote their website for gambling in exchange for items. After completing that, he sends you the gambling site, which looks real with a chat and all. He asks you to pick a name, and after you do, he says look he won, I can do the same for you if you pay the minimum bet. Of course after doing this, your items are lost, but to rub it in more, they say you are in cool down and your items are in safe storage, while they have been already sold instantly, they usually say "if you want them back, deposit more money".

-Look at these free items on this phishing link/You won a giveaway now sign in to this website/Could you vote my team by signing in to this website

Every once in a while you see this scam, where someone sends a link that they say is a trading URL, which doesn't display as the default trading thing which is the first give away. If you go to this link, it shows a copy of the steam trading format, which upon accepting, will say you have to log into steam. This steals your information, which then means they can intercept your trades, resend fake ones, and more.

-I am an official trading website, to authenticate your items, please send them to me

While quickly looking through the profile and logic of it all can often make this scam not so believable, this scam can be applified if the website has a password sent with the trade that only you know, and the scammer finds out this password and sends it to you. This can happen when you leak your password, and they put in their own API key to watch your every move.

-Middle Man Scam

Slightly close to the admin scam, this scam involves two accounts that are operated by the scammer. They will usually involve a "real trader" wanting to trade with you, but through a "middle man" who will take both of your items and then give the items to the other side because he is "trusted". Taking a second to reflect on this, you can probably see the lies, but scammers often use wording that makes no sense, but seems to fit the fake picture they want you to see. Steam is the middle man if anything in any trade, you don't need a second account that will most likely take your items and run off with it.

-Account creating scam

Unique to this scam, they aren't actually trying to steal anything from steam, but rather personal data. For me they tried to pull the join "the team scam", but instead of trying to get my steam information, they tried to get my birthday, name, country, ect. Just interested, I put in fake data and sure enough I couldn't sign in to my "new account", and google said my password on the sight had been stolen. What can they do with this information? Truthfully I don't know, maybe sell it, maybe try to log into sights with it, steal your identity I truthfully don't know. The lesson is all scams that occur on steam don't have to be related to stealing steam things.

Less Common Scam Methods:

Less Common Scam Methods:

-(Technically Sharking) Look I have a "festive weapon" and not a festivized, buy it for a lot!

A sharking method, but basically a scam, this is where a person claims they have a festive weapon, which is expensive, while they have a festivized weapon, which is dirt cheap. Make sure the wording is right before you confirm any out of the blue trades like this one.

-Look I am someone you know, could I "borrow" your items?

One of the scariest scams, this can occur also when a password is leaked and you API is changed. The scammer could take direct control and send you messages and trades, or it could intercept a trade you send, and swap out a gift lets say to another similar looking account.

-I will give you money or crypto currency first, then you give me your items

Truthfully I have never really sold my items for real money, so this is a little bit of a grey zone for me. All I know is they can steal your information if you sign into the wrong website, and even sometimes after they send the money, do a charge back and get back the money they just gave you (leaving you with no money and no items). They can also have a website that makes it look like you received funds, but in truth it is just numbers on the screen. Trading for cash should be taken with precaution especially and done through trusted ways that you and others have pointed out.

-Fake Item Scam

While I thought for a while this method was dead, a recent video has made me reconsider if it is. This is probably the most dangerous scam I could think of. An offer is sent for your items in exchange for what looks to be a crazy god tier item, but this is the scam. This item might have everything that appears to the original, but it is most likely fake. It is often hard to tell if it is real, the best and the only way I can think of being finding the game it came from, which even then could be a fake copy of another game. So if you get a crazy offer, maybe check their inventory and account for any suspicion, the item might be in a different game tab from another similar looking game tab.

-(Sharking) Look out how expensive this item is (but its not a non-craftable)

For some reason, non craftables and craftables exist for about any item. What is worse is sometimes this small tag on steam can be worth way more than its other variety. Make sure that when trading you search up the item well and know its own value, not being told what the value is.
Common Indicators that You Could be Dealing With A Scammer: Edit
What Scammers Usually Do in Text

Most scammers try to seem nice and offer great things, but you can tell by their terms for example “like”, “so”, "yo", "ok", "bro", "hello", "hi", "dude", and their private inventories, empty inventories, usually a low level (I have seen a lot of high level ones though recently), pictures of cool things that they don't have, profile pic of a trusted trader in the community, the act of them sending fake backpack.tf inventories of their "inventory", their claim that they are the discussion account, or very scripted fast responses that ignore your comments with more instructions, usually means they are most likely a scammer. You often get found by a scammer when you are trying to trade someone and comment on the profile of a trading person, where they usually respond with an account that looks like the one you want to talk to. My friend got scammed after someone acquired his API key, and was able to track his intentions, and intercepted a trade with marketplace, replacing it with a fake one that looked like marketplace. Scammers use wording that makes the bizarre things they ask from you seem reasonable. If something doesn't make sense, ask questions instead of going along with the scammer and the constant pressure they apply. We will all get contacted by scammers as long as they can get away with it, stay safe out there.

Some more Pictures

-A nicer scammer who was most likely trying to pull off a paypal scam, he was impersonating another guy and had a fake link to the other trusted guys rep



-The scammer who got me a few years back, (I swear he appears in the video "How to Never Get Scammed" by the virtual economist or another video like that)

[KillerExclusive]

Sad to see that after all this time, scammers still try the same stuff and steal it from unfortunate souls. Stay safe out there 🙏

[Beat-wave]

I just recently got a tf2 trade scammer who tried scamming me. He got so upset at one point because I wanted to continue it another day. To the point were he threatened that he "had my account", and after I blocked and reported him, he set another friend request imposing as a Mannco.store bot and set threats that he would "delete my account" when I realized that he was fake. I ended up just wasting his time and effort :D. The funny thing is the screenshots only have the website shown so you cant tell if its fake veer the web search bar. (If anyone's interested, I've got some screenshots with the first interaction through discord).

[Ari_cheese]

amazing such good job

[Zinzin]

thanks

[KillerExclusive]

I hate to here that, one of my friends also got scammed that way. I wish you well in the coming days.

[Zinzin]

I was scammed a few months ago by a fake gambling site, lost a max head and a low tier unusual.

[KillerExclusive]

I say the last 2 guides got more view much quicker, (had to repost after the automated steam checker wouldn't let the guide be public).

[local forest cryptid]

Don't know that part sadly. But my 2FA became borked, so possibly some sort of steam guard passcode spammer.

[KillerExclusive]

I hate that scammers can use bots to sell and the buyers don't have to take any responsibility because they didn't do it, it was automated. But how did they get you to send the trade might I ask out of interest.

[local forest cryptid]

well, they used bots from quicksell stores to turn my expensive items into keys (stranges, rare war paints, my first ever unusual) and then gave the keys i took to themselves