How to avoid getting scammed when dealing with paypal (online) money (Selling backpacks etc.)

Hello everyone, so recently I ran into a few scammers, one of whom has already scammed my friend. So, I decided to make a short guide on how to avoid these type of scammers.

First things first, what are paypal scammers?
So, paypal scammers will usually add you and ask to buy your backpack for paypal money or steam wallet cards. After you have traded them your backpack, they will block you and remove you as friend and you will end up with NOTHING.

So, how exactly do we identify if that guy is trying to scam you?
Based on my experience, here are a few tips.
1. Ask that guy for his reputation. Get that guy's steamrep first, then view his other reputations. Be very sure to check his backpack.tf profile. How do we do so?
Get his steam id. A typical steam id would be http://steamcommunity.com/user/XXX (if I am not mistaken)
Next, using the numbers in XXX, paste it after this : http://www.backpack.tf/u/*insert id here*
Only trust that person if he has a lot of trust. And make sure that his trust is built through paypal backpack trading. If he has negative trust or has an banned alternate account, make sure to report him. One good example is this fella.
He goes by the name cALBy, and he claims to be buying backpacks. http://backpack.tf/u/76561198138379761
If you enter the site, you can see that he has an alternate that has been banned from paypal scams. This guy has also added me yesterday claiming to buy my backpack. He will send you his steamrep which proves that he is innocent, but he doesn't send you his backpack.tf profile, where all his bad rep lies in. REMEMBER : Steamrep does not entirely prove that the guy is innocent, make sure to check all the reputation that you can before engaging in a backpack trade.

2. If he sends you his backpack.tf profile with a huge ton of reputation, something like Wayne's, and it also happens that he is also called the exact same name, he might be an impersonator. And how do we check? There are a few simple steps to do so:

-At his backpack.tf profile, click on his profile picture (on the left of his huge name). This will send you to the actual owner of that profile. Make sure that the two correspond. Otherwise, he is a scammer.

-Check the impersonator's inventory. Most scammers will make their inventory private and they are most probably poorer than the actual backpack trader.

- If all matches, there is one last step to check that he is actually a scammer. Check both profiles. Make sure that their steam level matches. Most impersonators will forget this part. This is a big lead to checking if he is actually a scammer.

So, that's about it. If you find out that the other party is actually a scammer, make sure to report him and flag him through backpack.tf so he does not scam anyone else. If you find that he is an impersonator, go to the legitimate owner of the name, and add him as friend / leave a comment on his profile saying that this guy has impersonated you so he can take actions.

Other than that, have fun and stay safe trading! Hope this helps! If there are any questions regarding this topic or if you have any info that you think can help me and this guide out, please feel free to leave a comment!

-kitty

[EVILNESCAT]

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