DON'T FALL FOR SCAMS!

BE WARY OF SCAMS!

Tips for safe trading:

1) DO NOT click on any links unless you are extremely sure that it is legit.

2) Enable your steam mobile authenticator. It is actually a great while to prevent yourself from being susceptible to script files. It helped me to not lose my entire CS:GO inventory.

3) Always check on steamrep [steamrep.com] to confirm that it is a legit moderator. You can also check if the person has ever been banned in any form, be it trade bans or game bans.

4) Try to prevent involving middlemen in any trades. There are legit middleman that can be found on steamrep [steamrep.com], but they massively complicate the trade, as compared to if you were to simply resolve the trade in just one trade window.

5) There are steam profiles which link their "inventory" to another account's inventory. They claim that they do so for "security purposes". I mean, what the hell??? That is complete and utter BULLSHIT. Don't even bother talking to them, just block those people.

6) There are steam profiles which display a good CS:GO skin on their inventory. On their steam profile, however, their supposed trade link is to another steam profile. Do take note. One example is the StatTrak™ M4A1-S | Hyper Beast. The Factory New wear is worth $200+, whereas the Well-Worn, Battle-Scarred, and Field-Tested are all less than $50. BE CAREFUL WHEN TRADING. I recommend downloading Steam Inventory Helper, a very useful Google Chrome extension [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/steam-inventory-helper/cmeakgjggjdlcpncigglobpjbkabhmjl]. I personally use this extension myself. It's easy to use and extremely effective.

7) Never believe any CS:GO roulette. They may claim to be roulette moderators and can choose who to win, but THESE SITES ARE FAKE. Even if they can choose the winner, they may not necessarily let you win, and your items are "donated" to them. Some easy ways to check if the roulette server is:
	- Search Google for "Is [Roulette Server URL] legit
For example, search "Is csgostarbets.com legit" (It's not legit, btw, it's a fake roulette website). After searching for this, click "Show full review of [Roulette Server URL]"
You will get a good site checker called ScamAdviers [http://www.scamadviser.com]. It tells you which sites are legit and which sites are not. Some common similarities of illegimate sites are:
	- Russian Federation based
	- Less than 1 year old
	- The owner of the website is using a service to hide their identity
	- High Number Of Suspicous Websites On This Server
	- Website's expected life is relatively short (Less than 1 year)
	- Site is Russian Federation based

8) They claim to be very big on OPSkins [opskins.com]. They want to buy your items using OPSkins. However, try to keep the entire trading process in 1 trade offer. They may even be able to skype with you and share screens, but that is still not legit. Trust me, I lost a knife because of that.

9) They are scams that utilise Google Chrome extensions. A steam user wants to buy your CS:GO item on OPSkins [opskins.com]. He or she asks you to download a google chrome extension first to verify your item. However, anyone can post extensions, and not all of them are trustable.
For more info on the above type of scams, visit the link and look for No. 4 (Malware Browser Extensions) [https://www.reddit.com/r/opskins/comments/4742c4/common_scams_to_watch_out_for/].

10) There are scammers that want to verify your items via middleman trading. He or she will offer multiple middlemen, and say that whoever accepts friend requests first will be the middleman for that legit. However, if you check all of the middlemen on steamrep [steamrep.com], most of them are legit except for 1. That 1 person is an impersonator of a real middleman. Plus, the legit moderators will all be conveniently offline, and if things went according to the scammer's plan, the impersonator will accept your friend request first. Always check all middlemen that he sends you.

11) Check their steam level, comments, and badges when dealing with any other traders. Also look out for if they have the game CS:GO. If they don't even have the game, why would they bother with trading for it?

12) Some steam profiles have artwork showcases that display item showcase. They look pretty similar. Take note of this.

13) Never trust anyone for having +rep comments. No matter how many pages someone has, +rep's are worthless! QUOTE FROM STEAMREP [steamrep.com]! You should always check them on steamrep [steamrep.com]. Also, profiles that have numerous +rep over a course of 1 to 2 days are highly suspicious.

14) Anyone who says they're from Valve or SteamRep and needs to "check your items" is lying and trying to scam you. QUOTE FROM STEAMREP [steamrep.com]!

15) Just don't accept friend requests from bots. Easy ways to check them are:
	- Extremely low steam levels (1/2)
	- Have the words "PRIZEBOT" in the steam usernames
	- Private profiles
	- The moment you accept them, they send you a huge chunk of text, often both English and Russian
	- Send you a pastebin link, but in reality links to you a download page (DO NOT OPEN THE DOWNLOADED FILE)
When you get friend requests from bots, just block them. :D


For more information on how to trade safely, visit Recommended Trading Practices [https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=8912-WEYU-8454].