HOW TO: Practice Safe Trading

HOW TO: Practice Safe Trading

1. ALWAYS use common sense. If it seems too good to be true it probably is. DON'T BE GREEDY/HASTY, GO AT YOUR OWN SPEED AND KNOWLEDGE LEVEL. ALWAYS BE ON GUARD. AS A HABIT, JUST DON'T TRADE/DEAL WITH PRIVATE PROFILES AND PEOPLE WHO KEEP PRIVATE ACCOUNTS.

2. NEVER trade if you are unsure about a trade or a procedure for ANY REASON. ASK AN EXPERIENCED TRADER OR COMMUNITY BEFORE DOING ANYTHING.

3. ALWAYS discuss deals and haggling IN THE CHAT WINDOW, NOT IN THE TRADE WINDOW.

4. ALWAYS double check EVERYTHING, BEFORE you click confirm trade. (WATCH OUT FOR QUICK SWITCHING, GIFTED ITEMS, ETC.)

5. ALWAYS screenshot high value trades, or if you encounter suspicious activity.

6. NEVER TRUST STEAM PROFILE REP, it is worthless. ONLY TRUST MODERATED SOURCES OF REP. SourceOP is the standard.

7. ALWAYS REMEMBER, VALVE WILL NEVER ASK YOU FOR YOUR ACCOUNT INFO OR ASK YOU TO TRADE YOUR ITEMS IN ORDER TO "SCAN THEM". BLUE OR GREEN TEXT IS AN EXPLOITED CHAT COMMAND THAT SCAMMERS USE, DO NOT BE FOOLED. VALVE WILL MOST LIKELY CONTACT YOU THROUGH EMAIL.

8. ALWAYS BE WARY, STEAM WALLET FUND TRANSFERS CANNOT OCCUR VIA CHAT WINDOW. BLUE OR GREEN TEXT IS AN EXPLOITED CHAT COMMAND THAT SCAMMERS USE, DO NOT BE FOOLED.

9. ALWAYS check a user's Steam profile for suspicious indicators: Ban status, Profile privacy, Date of account creation, # of games (be wary of the 30+ F2P games), ETC.

10. ALWAYS use SteamRep to check a person's reputation and identity. USE THE QUICK LINKS. BEFORE TRADING, CHECK TO SEE IF THERE ARE OPEN REPORTS ON A USER (CLICK SR: "THEIR STEAM64ID") WATCH OUT FOR IMPERSONATORS.

11. NEVER CLICK ON RANDOM LINKS. DO NOT DOWNLOAD UNKNOWN CONTENT. Use individual, complex passwords.

12. ALWAYS BE CAREFUL OF PHISHING WEBSITES THAT MIMIC THE STEAM COMMUNITY LOG IN PAGE. (ALWAYS CHECK YOUR URLs)