Scammers are all too common on Steam especially if you dedicate time in trading and have items of value in your Steam inventory. Over the years i have been approached by countless of scammers which all use similar tactics and strategies to try and get you to give up your items or account credentials.

In this guide i will explain to you how to identify scammers and what you can do if you've fallen victim to one. All knowlegde in this guide is from my own experience with scammers, including the screenshots, some even made by the scammers themselves.

Scammers always use a fake account to approach you, luckily they all look similar and once you know how to spot them, they'll be incredibly easy to identify.

WARNING
The following link leads to a REAL fake account used by a scammer.
https://steamproxy.net/id/ccDollyTF2

If the account has been removed here are screenshots.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2206261644186162687/E2B51094B9A4C773819C26E69C7287540C831237/?imw=256&&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2206261644186167050/F4420152274013DC16F851CCEF87A897F389FE0B/?imw=256&&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

These accounts on first glance appear convicing and like a real account, but appearances can be deceiving.

Fake scammer accounts commonly, but not always have an artwork on their page with one large artwork, and one slim one next to it, that together make one large artwork together with the page's background.
They will commonly only play three games, Dota 2, TF2 and CSGO (since recently CS2)

Check their Years of Service badge, fake accounts will have just a few years if any on their badge while having thousands upon thousands of hours in their games.

They will also commonly have an info page on their account with either, specs of the pc setup, or fake personal information.

And last but not least they often will have their inventories set to private, but that in of it's self doesn't say a person is a scammer.

If an account checks several of these boxes, then congratulations! you identified a scammer. It's best to block the account and report them to Steam.

Scammers will employ a variety of scams to try and get your items or account credentials. But remember they need YOU to give it to them. they can't hack your account. luckily these scammers ain't too bright and often employ the exact same strategies on a different account.

Tactics
1. I accidentally reported your steam account.
2. Can you like my Workshop item?
3. I have a team of competitive TF2/CS, but are one member short.

Scammers can approach you via different ways. Often they will approach you on Steam via a friend request, but sometimes they will approach you via Discord. We'll go over Discord first.

Often via Discord they will approach you asking if this is your Steam account, to which they will send a link to your Steam account. Note that this is a huge red flag and you are likely dealing with a scammer, so tread cautiously. it's usually best to immediately block the user.

In this tactic scammers will pretend to have accidentally reported your account and don't want you to get in trouble. the reason for reporting can vary a lot. but it comes down to that they don't want you to get in trouble so need you to contact a "Steam Official" note that this "Steam Official" is an alt account of the scammer even though their Steam page can look convicing even holding the Valve Employee badge, I don't know how they get those, but they do have them.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/988170798701350942/988175226665857054/unknown.png?ex=655a6ce5&is=6547f7e5&hm=0f9dd8d8f2444c8484f5165364388ba5646a7c1e41cd9df00e76ed95ea116b4c&

Often they will even provide screenshot to try and add to the illusion that they actually reported you

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/988170798701350942/988175263865143367/unknown.png?ex=655a6cee&is=6547f7ee&hm=c14c4e2d4e82d38fe45d44d4ce2156ea52a3bd6cbb4cf438a74817eb8fa4ecc8&

Note that Steam support is good at what they do and will never ban an account on accusations.
Even if they create an actual report on Steam, you will never get banned for the thing they "accidentally" accused you off.

If in this sittuation, it's best to block the account and report them to Steam.

Sometimes scammers will approach you and ask you to like a Steam Workshop item of theirs.
In this scenario they aren't after specific items, but your entire account, so tread incredibly cautiously.
It will start simple and they will even seem friendly.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2206261644186042556/A22A54BB57C42D794DBC60DEB6234899D344C57A/?imw=256&&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

They will ask you if you can Like and Favorite a Workshop item of theirs, to which they will provide a link.

WARNING
The following link leads to an ACTUAL scammer website as a demonstration. you are safe to look around, but DO NOT LOGIN on the page. if you login on that page they will have access to your login credentials and you WILL lose access to your account. i can't overstate this.

Malicous Webpage: https://steam.workshopvote.com/shared/Awp_Porcelain

This is just an example of a fake Steampage and they often look incredibly convincing. Links even directing to the actual Steam page's.

Steam's actual workshop page ALWAYS starts with the link: https://steamproxy.net/workshop/
Note how the fake website is called steam.workshopvote instead of steamcommunity.

Fake webpages can sometimes be identified by the text in the link, small letters that should be capitals, capitals that should be small letters, misspelling, entirely different words, etc.

In this tactic they will try to convice you that they're a competitive player that plays in competitive leagues with a team. they will tell you they're one member short and ask you to join, if you agree, they will send you a link to a fakewebsite made to look like a website where you can vote for competitive teams. if you decline, they will ask you to vote for their team and send the same link.

Sadly for this tactic i can't provide screenshots, but if a scammer approaches me with this tactic i will update it with screenshots.

On that fake website you can find their team, but when you want to vote for them or join them you have to login with your Steam account. DO NOT LOGIN, when you do they will have access to your account.

Funny story, when Steam updated their UI recently so did Steam update their login page. A scammer approached me with this tactic, and i went along with it to try and get as much information, but their fake Steamlogin page was still the old UI.

If you've fallen victim to a scammer it's important to act fast to try to minimize the damage. if a scammer tricked you into giving away items, then i'm sorry, but those cannot be retrieved and are long gone.

If you've been tricked into giving away your account credentials, time is of the essence. Contact Steam Support as fast as you can and notify them that your account has been compromised, they will immediately lock your account to prevent further damage.

And finally if you feel incredibly stupid for falling to their lies, well don't. even i have fallen victim to scammers once and had my account compromised. but my fast reacting saved my account and made sure i had my account back within 30 minutes. Stupid things happen even to the best of us.