CS2 | Scam Prevention Guide | WCKD Trade

This guide offers a comprehensive overview of common scam methods in CS2, helping you recognize and avoid potential threats. Knowledge is your best defense—learn the tricks scammers use and protect yourself while trading. Let’s dive in!

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Essential Trading Guidelines

Avoid One-Sided Trades:

• Never accept a trade where the other side offers no items. While one-sided offers can be legitimate when dealing with trusted trading sites, assume you’ll receive nothing unless you’re working with a trusted Cash Trader. To reduce the risk of API scams, consider adding a very cheap item on the side of the person receiving cash.

Verify Steam Account Ownership:

• The only reliable way to confirm someone owns a specific Steam account is through their connected Discord profile. Ask them to link their Steam account in Discord Settings -> Connections to prove ownership. Links to profiles, trade URLs, screenshots, or videos do not count as valid proof.

Common Scam Prevention Tips

"Accidental Report" Scam:

• If someone DMs claiming your Steam account is at risk of being banned, block them immediately—this is a common scam.

Avoid Screen Sharing Calls:

• Never agree to a voice or screen-sharing call for a trade. Scammers use this tactic to avoid leaving chat logs and pressure you into making impulsive decisions.

Official Communication:

• Steam will never contact you through Steam Chat, Discord, or any other messaging platform. Be wary of anyone claiming to be Steam Support.

No Payment Requests from Support:

• Legitimate support agents will never ask for payment. They are paid by the company, not by users.

"Item Verification" Scam:

• You never have to send items for "verification". Only trade if you're 100% sure you'll receive what's promised in return (see Essential Trading Guidelines #1).

Impersonator Check:

• If trading with a "big trader", verify their identity through Discord Connections. If they lack the correct Steam account linked on Discord, they are likely an impersonator.

Avoid Suspicious Links:

• Never click links offering price checks or additional item information. Legit traders can price-check items themselves. Links like these are often scams.

Overpayment Offers:

• Be cautious of unrealistic overpay offers. If someone offers way more than your item is worth or doesn't care about specifics, it's likely a scam.

Tradelock Scams:

• Tradelocks cannot be bypassed. Anyone claiming to bypass them through a trading site is scamming.

Fake Giveaway Messages:

• If you receive a private message about winning a giveaway, ignore it. Official giveaways require active participation and announcements.

Fake Tournament Invites:

• No legitimate team will invite you to their tournament. This is a scam and will result in the scammer gaining access to your Steam account.

Avoid Steam Gift Cards as Payment:

• Steam gift cards can be bought with stolen credit cards or charged back. Never accept them as a form of payment.

Ghost transactions (dropped and replaced scam):

• The purpose of this type of scam is to trick you into thinking that you have received funds when, in reality, the funds never reached your wallet. This is why they're known as ghost transactions. The scammer sends you a transaction (often an Ethereum or ERC20 transaction). However, they either replace the transaction and route it back to the scammer's address or another address, or they don't have the funds to begin with, so the funds never reach your wallet. They hope you will send them funds, goods, or other services, and think they have paid for it. To avoid this scam, if you recently received a transaction, you can confirm your balance with a block explorer to see if you actually received the funds.

The iCloud Hack:

• If someone hacks your iCloud account, they can use your saved iCloud backup for Steam to "clone" your login session to their own phone. At that point the hacker has full access to your Steam Authenticator and can steal all your skins. To avoid this hack, always use a unique password for your iCloud account that you don't use anywhere else, and go to your iCloud Settings and turn off Steam backups.

Self Scam:

• It's important to always make sure you know the approximate real value of your skins, so you don't end up selling or trading them for way too little. You can do this by researching your skin's prices on different marketplaces.

Fake Items:

• On the Steam community market there are cheap items from other games that resemble expensive items from CS2. An example of this would be this fake crown foil item, and this real crown foil. The scammer will send you a trade offer for your expensive items and include their fake item on their side, hoping you think you're getting a good deal and quickly accept.

Google Ads Scam:

• If you google the name of a popular marketplace, the first result might be a paid advertisement for a fake site that resembles the real website you were searching for. Once you log in on that fake site, your account is compromised. The best way to avoid this is by not googling website names to get to them, and just doing directly to the URL.

Fake YouTube/Twitch Livestreams:

• Scammers will create accounts to impersonate popular individuals from the community and start livestreams, often claiming to be giving away thousands of dollars in skins. Use common sense, don't click any links, and report the livestream to the platform.

Steam Account Sales:

• Selling your Steam account goes directly against Valve's TOS. Don't do it. Buying a Steam account is also extremely risky, because it's very easy for the people that sell those Steam accounts to claim them back. A scammer will sell you an account, wait for you to load it up with skins, then claim it back. Effectively stealing all the skins you acquired with that account.

Hidden Valuables in Trades:

• When you receive a trade offer from someone asking for alot of your items, carefully check the contents of the trade. Scammers will often send you a trade offer asking for lots of $0.03 skins but secretly place one of your expensive items amongst the other skins to camouflage it, hoping you don't realize before accepting the trade.

How to Verify if a Cash Trader is Legit

Trading with cash in the CS2 community can be risky if you don’t know who to trust. However, determining whether a Cash Trader is legitimate becomes straightforward if you follow these steps:

Verify Their Steam Account

• Discord Connection: If you're communicating through Discord, their Steam account must be connected via Discord Settings -> Connections. If it's not, that's a major red flag.
  
• Steam Account Verification: If you're using another platform, ask them to add you on Steam from the account they claim to own and send you a specific word in a message. This ensures they control the account.
  
• Inventory Check: Look through their Steam inventory. Is its value significantly higher than the item you're selling? If not, ask for an explanation. A legitimate trader should be able to justify any discrepancies.

Check their CSGO-Rep Account

• Confirm Ownership: After verifying their Steam account, check their associated CSGO-Rep profile, the only reputation service WCKD Trade recommends.
  
  
• Find Their Steam64ID: Use SteamID Finder[steamidfinder.com] or ask them directly for their Steam64ID, ensuring it matches the account they control.

• Review Their CSGO-Rep Profile: Visit CSGO-Rep[csgo-rep.com] and paste their Steam64ID. Look for:
  
  • Trade History: Have they completed trades as big or bigger than yours?
    
  • Reputation Details: Do they have enough individual positive reps where they went second? If not, proceed cautiously and ask for explanations.

Evaluate Their Community Presence

• Social Media Activity: Do they have an active Twitter or other platforms where they post regularly and care about their reputation?
  
• Community Engagement: Are they active on Discord or in trading groups? A legitimate trader should have a clear online presence and something valuable to lose if they scam.

If a trader has a valuable Steam Inventory, solid CSGO-Rep history, and strong community engagement, they're likely trustworthy. However, always do your research before trading. Stay safe and be vigilant!

How to Avoid API/Phishing Scams

API/Phishing scams are simple to understand but remain the most common and misunderstood scam method in the CS2 trading community. Here's how they work and how to avoid them.

How Do API/Phishing Scams Work?

Phishing Login:

• The scammer tricks you into logging into a fake phishing website.

Credential Theft:

• The site collects your Steam username and password and logs into your account, triggering a Steam Guard notification on your phone. Many users approve this, thinking it's a routine login.

Trade Redirection:

• The scammer gains an active session on your account and can redirect trade offers to themselves without you knowing.

Common Misconceptions

"The Scammer Uses My API Key to Steal Trades"

• False! The scammer is logged into your Steam account, not using your API key. API keys cannot redirect trades on their own.

"You Can't Tell a Legit Site from a Scam Site"

• False! It's easy to tell the difference—here's how:

How to Identify a Scam Site

Log into the Official Steam Website:

• Visit Steam Community on your browser and log in to your account.

Visit the Trading Site You Want to Use:

• Legit Site: Clicking "Login" will redirect you to a Steam login page without asking for your username or password. You'll see a green button that says "Sign In".
  
• Scam Site: If a popup asks for your Steam username and password (even with QR login), close the site immediately! Only the official Steam website should request these credentials.

How This Works

• Legit Sites use OpenID (Steam OpenID Docs) to securely log you into your Steam account without ever asking for your credentials.
  
• Important Tip: When confirming trades via the Steam Mobile Authenticator, ensure the account name and Steam level match the person you sent the trade offer to. If they don't, revoke the trade immediately! You've been API/Phishing scammed.

What to Do If You've Been API/Phishing Scammed:

1. Deauthorize All Logins:
   
   • Deauthorize Logins
2. Change Your Password:
   
   • Update your Steam password immediately.
3. Deauthorize Logins Again: (Recommended)
   
   • Deauthorize Again
4. Reset Your API Key: (Recommended):
   
   • Change API Key
5. Spread Awareness:
   
   • Inform friends and ask them to report the scammer's account. While you won't get your items back, a banned account means the scammer can't profit from your items.

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Sources:

• https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cwK23EZdHlkVLD_G-B3xuaW02_GQr54baPX-Lt7u8as/edit?usp=sharing
  
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VaMAmzaomU
  
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLZcPUcNOHI
  
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CT3gkop7244
  
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjOiNI3_SVU
  
• https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/auth
  
• https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/3195-9FFB-BA06-F25B
  
• https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/70E6-991B-233B-A37B
  
• https://www.exodus.com/support/en/articles/8598817-what-crypto-scams-should-i-watch-out-for#h_51988057d3

[Uchiha Madara]

Happy to see you're trying to help back the community.

[Ethen]

Guide is very useful nice

[Twentys]

Q for Rescue

[Obito]

Happy to see you're trying to help back the community.

[PyroKnight]

Ive got scammed in the past and I wish this would have existed at that time so that I would have been saved :( This is a W guide as the same stuff happened to me. W Q hope everyone reads this so they get educated and don't get scammed in the near future<3

[mad]

very useful and nice, thanks