Team Fortress 2 – How To Determine If Someone Is A Scammer Who Isn’t Marked

Disclaimer

Disclaimer: 
 
This article is based on my own experiences mainly, 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. 
 
 
 
 
 

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. 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” 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”. Looking at it closely, you can point out many things, like how a steam admin doesn’t need you items to get more details, 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”. 
 
-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  
 
Usually introduced with “Are You Selling Your Unusual Still”, 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”. While on this website that you have never heard about, which is usually real like bitskins, he explains how to send your items to a bot, but tells 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 miniscule 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. 
 
-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 and 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). 
 
-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 suspision, the item might be in a different game tab from another similar looking game tab. 
 
 
 
 
 

Common Indicators that You Could be Dealing With A Scammer

What Scammers Usually Do in Text 
 
Most scammers try to seem nice and offer great things, but you can tell by their terms like “yo”, “ok”, “bro”, “hello”, “hi”, and their private inventories, empty inventories, low level (I have seen high level ones though), 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. We will all get contacted by scammers as long as they can get away with it, stay safe out there. 
 
 
 

This is all about Team Fortress 2 – How To Determine If Someone Is A Scammer Who Isn’t Marked; I hope you enjoy reading the Guide! If you feel like we should add more information or we forget/mistake, please let us know via commenting below, and thanks! See you soon!