Hey there. Welcome.

This is a guide on the different types of scams, typically used for CS:GO skins, but can also relate to various games on steam with tradeable items. I've decided to create this guide because every day, I see someone complaining about a scam that unfortunately happened to them, and looking at various guides on steam, there has not been a recent, updated guide on avoiding scams on steam, so hopefully this guide will raise awareness of various malicious scams that exist, and prevent you from losing your valuable items.

What is an API Key, And Why Is It Dangerous?
API key scams are not very well known, which makes them very dangerous. Simply put, an API key can be used to access many features in Steam, from your own website. If someone where to get your API key from you, they can also access these features. They could actually intercept trade offers, cancelling and sending new trade offers for you.

If someone where to have access to your Steam API Key, they could have a steam account that, when trading with someone on steam, instantly mirrors it's profile picture and name into the person you are trading with; they are imitating this person. This makes it look like you are trading with your friend, when in actuality you are trading with the API scammer. This would look exactly like a trade to your friend, but they would also remove the item you were to recieve in the trade, so you would basically be sending your knife or whatever to a person who looks like your friend, but you wouldn't be getting anything back, because it is not a real person.

I would also like to point out that this is extra dangerous if you're one of those people that just spam click confirm on your phone when confirming trade offers. In doing this, you may accidentally confirm one of these API scam trades, and recieve nothing when trading, for example, your knife. To prevent this, carefully go over ALL of the items in your confirmations, and check that you are recieving all of the items that you should be.

Another way to check if the person you are trading with is actually who you think it is is by checking their:
- Steam level (If the level is different, it is not them)
- Years of Service (If this is a different date, it is not them)
This works because an API scam bot cannot replicate the level or years of service of an account, so you can easily tell if this is an impersonator.

Here is an example of a real trade offer and a fake API scam trade offer (courtesy of https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcqsx0NjdN3Ng9Nd8VSOlXg)




So now you know what an API key is, but how do you know if yours has been exploited?

Firstly, make sure you're logged into steam on a browser. Then visit this link in a new tab: https://steamproxy.net/dev/apikey

This should bring you to this screen:

If you see something like the image below, then your account is susceptible to being compromised:

If your screen is identical to the first image, then good job, an API key has not been created from your account, and therefore an API key cannot be used to compromise your account.

However, if your screen displays something similar to the second image, where a key is in use, then I
highly recommend that you revoke this key by pressing the grey outlined 'Revoke My Steam Web API Key'. This will disable this key being used anywhere, meaning that anyone that may be exploiting this API key will be stopped from doing so.

I would also recommend occasionally visiting the steam API key link mentioned above, just to that your account has not been compromised and a new API key has been created.

Fake websites are commonly used to trick people into believing they are logging into what they believe to be a companies official site. Upon logging into one of these fake sites, the fake site owners now have your Steam username and password, and of course they can do a lot with this information.

This can be easily avoided

Firstly, you NEED to be logged into Steam on steamproxy.net It's very important that you're logged into steam on your browser BEFORE logging into ANY third party site to avoid a scam.

When logging into a third party site (not affiliated with steam) using steam you click this button:










You should then be directed to a screen that looks like this:



This proves that, because you are already logged into the official Steam site in your browser, this site is legit. They are not looking for your login information or anything like that, and they can be trusted.

However, if you 100% know that you are logged into steam on your browser, and you press the grey 'sign in with Steam' button, and your screen looks like this:
Then you know that this website is a scam, and they are trying to get your Steam login details.

The way to be 100% sure that you don't accidentaly login to any of these scam sites is to start by just going go to steamproxy.net, logging in (and being logged in), and then going to any site, and try to sign in with steam on any third party site. You should be presented with the first login image, where you don't need to enter your steam credentials. If you don't come to this screen, and you are asked to login to Steam, that site is fake. Whatever you do, DON'T input your username and password. If you do, that website will have access into your precious steam account.

This is a classic scam, and almost everyone knows about it nowadays, however there still are some who may not know so I'll cover it. A middleman would be used when neither you or the other person want's to send their item's or money first. A middleman would recieve both the items and money, check it's all legit and working, and then give you the money and the items to the other person.

If the person you are trading to were to be a middleman scammer, the scammer and you both agree on a trade, usually including steam wallet codes, bank transfer or something similar. To make sure everyone gets what they were promised, the scammer suggests taking a middleman, or asks you to choose a trusted friend as a middleman. The following scenarios could occur:

- The scammer chooses a friend as a middleman. He has a legit looking profile but is teaming up with the scammer
- The scammer suggests a popular, well known and legit middleman. His friend or 2nd account will try impersonating this middleman
- After you choose a friend as a middleman, the friend or 2nd account of the scammer will impersonate the profile of the chosen middleman

This would result in you sending the fake middleman your items/money, and the scammer/s would take everything and give you back nothing.

When using a middleman, use someone who is well trusted and respected in the community. They will definitely charge a price for their middleman services, but I think you can agree, It's worth paying a little to ensure your trade is safe.

I personally wouldn't use a middleman, as it poses a great risk to your items and the chance of a scam is high. I would use another method for trading items, but if you desperately need to use a middleman, please ensure that he is the right person so you don't get scammed.

I'm sure we all know of someone famous in the communities of the games we play. If they are very well-known and respected, you might trust them. These can be in the forms of professional players, YouTubers, Streamers, and even Valve Employees.

Valve Impersonators
If someone tries to convince you that he a a Valve Employee or any other type of Staff Member, and asks for items or login credentials or anything like that, they are fake. Valve employees, Steam moderators and staff members will NEVER ask you for your steam account login, credit card information, skins etc. They will also never threaten to punish users for refusing to make trades or to click on links. For example:






















YouTuber/Streamer/Professional Player Impersonators
YouTubers and streamers may be into the trading scene, and have expensive items. They may even, rarely, approach you to trade, if you have items of significant value. But how can you check that this person is who they say they are? Well, there are various ways to check them out. Firstly, you can go onto their official social media (YouTube channel, Twitch channel, Twitter etc.) where they will undoubtedly somewhere have a link to their steam profile. IF THE STEAM PROFILE OF THE 'FAMOUS' PERSON DOES NOT EXACTLY MATCH THEIR OFFICIAL STEAM PROFILE YOU OBTAINED FROM THEIR SOCIAL MEDIA, THIS IS A SCAMMER. The easy ways to check if the account is legit is by checking:
- Steam Level
- Years of Service Badge
- Games
- Inventory
- Groups
- Friends
If any of these don't match the official steam profile, then they are a scammer and you should report and block them immediately.

Edit: If they don't have a steam link anywhere in their social media (very unusual) then you should locate their Steam Group. The head Admin of the steam group will be that person, so you can compare the steam accounts that way.

This method is an extended version of the impersonator scam. The victim and the scammer agree on a trade, which seems fairly profitable for the victim. As a 'security measurement', the scammer wants the victim to trade his item to a close friend, which he trusts, to make sure the item isn't "glitched". In the meantime he prepares his 2nd account to impersonate the victim´s friend, and you mistakenly trade your items to the scammer rather than your friend.

This can easily be avoided by knowing that YOU DO NOT HAVE TO VERIFY ANY ITEM IN YOUR INVENTORY. All items in a Steam inventory are secure and safe. If however, you do somehow fall for this trick, then you can verify that it is indeed your friend you are sending the item to by checking their steam level, years of service, badges, comments, friends, groups etc. . If these don't match, it is an impersonator and you shouldn't send them anything, but block and report them instead.

This scam would appear to be quite hard to fall for, however some people still manage to believe this.
A scammer using this method is relying on a Steam users' little knowledge of how steam works, therefore they prey on new users who are most suscepible. All a scammer would need to do is to send a trade offer. That sounds pretty normal, right? However, the scammer would use the message system you can use when sending a trade offer to offer you steam wallet funds for yours skins:

This text seems very official, as if it is a message from Steam themselves. But this is not the case. The scammer themselves has typed this message out. There is currently NO WAY TO TRADE STEAM WALLET FUNDS TO OTHER USERS . In this scenario, you would trade your skins away to the scammer for free; you would not recieve anything in return AT ALL. Anyone offering Steam wallet funds for your skins is attempting to scam you. DO NOT TRUST THESE KINDS OF TRADE OFFERS . All of this is fake and you will get scammed.

To avoid this scam, all you need to know is that Steam wallet funds are not transferable to any other users, you can't receive or send money from your steam wallet. Simply knowing this fact will prevent these scams from happening.

This is very easy to avoid. Never install any software or browser add-ons in which you don’t trust, or that promise you hacks, Steam wallet funds, games, CS keys or anything like that. Scammers will post download links on Facebook, Youtube, Steam etc. to software that will install keyloggers and spyware on your machine. This way they will get access to your Steam credentials, credit card information, email login etc. Everything you type...

An easy way for someone to steal your skins is by making you click a link. These links can grant them access to your steam account, install a virus onto your pc, and even get your passwords for other services.

CS:GO Tournament Opportunity
Someone may message you saying something along the lines of: "We are a team playing in a tournament, and one of our members cannot play in the final match. Can you help us out and play with us in this match. You will receive a % of the winnings we get.". This seems like a great opportunity, but I can tell you that this is FAKE. They will get you to download a required anti-cheat or client for this so-called tournament, but this will be completely fake, and will give your computer a virus, which the scammer will then use to steal your items.

To avoid this, don't trust these people, don't download any suspicious links, and just in case, make sure you have good anti-virus software that is up to date.

If you are looking at this guide after you have been scammed by this, clear your registry using CCleaner (Trusted Anti-virus) so the virus cannot affect you anymore.

Fake Gambling Sites
Sometimes you might see messages or comments along the line of "use this code 'XBNYIB' on scamgamblingsite.net for a free $10 to spin", or something similar relating to gambling websites. THESE ARE FAKE. Who in their right mind would give away $10 for free? They will get you to sign into their fake gambling website. Now, once you're singed in (PLEASE DON'T SIGN IN, as covered by the "Fake Website Scams" section of this guide!!) everything will seem normal. It will LOOK legit, but it won't BE legit. You'll have a little bit of fun gambling that free $10, and maybe even deposit some of your own money or skins to play with. Now, you've worked yourself up to a good sum of cash and want to withdraw one of the many skins they have in stock. But you can't. The withdraw system doesn't work. You've been scammed out of the money you deposited, the skins you deposited, and now the site owner even has your steam login credentials. PLEASE NEVER EVER just trust any gambling sites that aren't well known, instead use good, secure, trusted sites when gambling. (Note: I do not promote the gambling of skins/money).

Too Good To Be True Offers
Another way to stay safe is to ignore 'too good to be true' offers'. A common representation of this is a *fake* bot commenting something on your profile, like: "Hello, I wanted trade my ak redline for all your cases or graffities. So if u dont need them just send me offer. My ak and tradelink in my main - (suspicious link here). Dont add me i got limit, just send offer. The smell of fish here is pungent. THIS IS A SCAM . This person will send you a fake tradelink, which will get you to login to a fake copy of steam, or a fake copy of a trusted third party website, and before you know it, all of your valuable skins are lost from your inventory to this scum. These 'too good to be true' offers will never be legit. If you're trading skins, make sure to use the official Steam site, however if you're buying/selling on a third party website, be sure to use the information above to stay safe while trading!

Fake prices for items
Sometimes, someone will announce to you (by messaging you or commenting on your profile) that they have a good deal for you. They will offer you to trade their Dota 2 items or a rare background for your CS:GO items. They will inform you that their item is of similar price to yours, and it will seem like a good trade. THIS MAY NOT BE REAL. These items may not be worth this amount, they could be significantly cheaper, if not worthless, than the market displays it to be. Simply put, you could losing a lot of money by trading your items to a person like this.

A way you can check if the item is worth as much as the market portrays it as is by looking at the buy orders of the item, and the Median Sale Prices. If the buy orders are significantly cheaper than the sell orders, it's likely that this item has a fake price on the market that scammers are using to trick people. This is similar with the median sale prices, look over the past week/year of sales, and if these are lower than the current sale prices, it's likely the value of the item that the scammer is telling you is fake. If the buy orders and median sale prices match the current sale price, then the trade is more likely to be legit, and safe.

We all know of rare patterns in CS:GO. From full-fade glock 18's to karambit black pearls to Lenny-faced dark waters, rare patterns are sought after for their rarity and looks. But how can you get scammed from these items?

When Selling Skins
You may not be aware of rare patterns in CS:GO. If you somehow aquire an item with a rare pattern, and have no knowledge that this is in fact a rare pattern, someone could take advantage of you and offer to buy your item for market price. But they can resell this item for a lot more at times because of its rare pattern. And you have been scammed out of all of this money you could have made. Simply having the knowledge of rare patterns in CS:GO will prevent this from happening, and to help you, I made this comprehensive guide of rare patterns on skins in CS:GO:

When Buying Skins
When buying someone else's skins, you may see that they have a skin with a rare pattern, i.e. a ruby doppler or a blue gem five seven. And they may offer you these skins at a high price because of their rarity. But be careful, these could be fake rare patterns. A classic example of this is the Black Pearl Karambit. It's difficult to tell the difference between a real and a fake, so scammers can take advantage of this and offer a fake black pearl at the price of a real black pearl. Just make sure you're all read up about rare patterns in the mentioned guide above so you know if a sale is legit or not.

Check Their Profile:

- Usually most scammers profile are about 10-25.
- Most scammers own fake +reps. be sure to check them.
- Most scammers are offering 100%-120% compared to market price.
- Most scammers will convince you to show REP thread.
- Most scammers have taken info boxes from another well-known dealers.
- Most scammers don't even have account 1-2 years old.
- Most scammers inventories are empty/private. They are taking scammed items on a smurf.

Also, make sure to ask them to show valid proof that they are legit (make sure the proof is actually legit), and try to get as much information from the buyer/seller as possible.

Ask yourself if the deal you are getting is good, but not too good that it might be fake.

Some additional security methods I recommend to prevent any hijacking of your steam account:

- Make sure only your devices are authorised using this link:
- Use Steam Guard Mobile Authenticator, this is very crucial. Getting guard codes by email alone is VERY risky, and could leave your account vulnerable
- When using Steam Guard Mobile Authenticator, make sure you create   Backup Codes in case you lose your phone
- Use a strong password for steam, different to any of your other passwords
- Install good anti virus software on your pc
- If, for some reason, you're logging into your steam account on someone else's device, make sure you logout after you're done

Helpful articles from Steam:
Account security recommendations
Recommended trading practice
Steam trading policy

Hopefully you'll take all of these tips I've given you if you come into any of these situations. My basic advice is to think not just twice, but several times before any trades happen. Make sure you are 100% sure that the trade or the link or the website or whatever it is.

If you have any concerns or questions, feel free to leave them in the comments of this guide and I'll answer them. And also, if I've gotten something wrong or missed something out, please notify me all I'll fix it xd.

I'll also try to keep this guide up to date with any new scam methods that arise, so that you won't get caught out.

If you do get scammed by someone, I advise you to report and block them, tell steam what happened so appropriate action can be taken.

Please be sure to rate this guide up if it helped you.

Have fun and stay safe!