Steam Card Scams

Steam Card Scams: How They Work

Due to the popularity of this amazing brand, Steam card scams have been perpetrating a lot lately. Whether they are Steam gift card scams or a simple variation such as the Steam wallet card scam, you have to be aware of questionable proposals. Let's dive into exposing the fraud.

If you're reading this article, we assume you already know what Steam cards are, so we will skip the intro part.

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Every person eager to get involved in trading has to be familiar with various kinds of trade scams to know what he/she can expect. We will provide you with a description of a trade scam, a situation when a Steam user persuades somebody to make a deal.

Steam Gift Card Scams and More

Steam gift cards are trendy. As technology advances, questionable practices will only increase. Scammers try to make people believe that they will get a great deal, which is not true. However, let's take these tricks one by one, and we will keep updating this article every month.

To raise your awareness of possible dangers when trading, you have some of the most frequent scams related to it below.

Top 13 Steam Wallet Card Scams and Other Variations

1. Money Offered For Items

Do not accept when somebody offers to pay via PayPal, PaySafeCard, Steam Wallet codes, Steam Digital Gift Cards, etc. If you do so, you may come across a situation when the scammer provides you a fake payment code, the trade is already completed, and there is nothing you can do to bring back your money. When Steam Gift Cards are in question, it appears that the scammer has paid you, but he/she has the intention to charge the Digital Gift Card back later.

2. Fake Invite To Join a Tournament

Some of the users were convinced to install malware by a fake invite to play in a tournament. Another variation is an invitation to vote for a user rather than play in a tournament. An example of this is the WeCup scam. You should not accept installing any software as it may cause harm to your machine.

3. Switching the Item

When you first see the item, you start discussing the offer, quite sure of the item's qualities and features, but once they notice your interest in the item, they put into the item that looks like one you want, but its value is not the same.

4. Spamming or Begging

This is a situation when a very valuable item is asked for nothing or a meager sum of money in return with the hope that the user will click and accidentally accept the offer. A user spams trade offers requesting high-value items for nothing or little in return in hopes that you misclick and accept the offer.

5. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive: Bait and Switch

You are actually offered a brand new Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) item, but then they change the item with one of lower quality.

6. Forward Confirmation Email

There are instances when a user convinces another one to forward the confirmation email to them. By doing this, you allow them to confirm the trade, which can be done via the link available in the message you forwarded. It is significant to mention that you should forward trade confirmation emails or links or give information related to your account by no means.

7. Users Offering Item Duplication

You may get an offer to duplicate your items. This should never be accepted as, in the majority of cases, this is a scam. The condition for this duplication is to trade away your items, and once they are received, the user simply blocks you, and your items are lost.

8. Hidden Item

You come across an offer that involves several not so worthy items with a high-value item which is concealed.

9. CD Keys For Items

Another typical scam is when a person gives you an offer of sending a Wallet Credit code or a game's CD Key as payment for your item. You typically get a fake CD Key, but the trade is completed, and you can only regret your decision.

10. Middleman Trades

When starting to trade, it is necessary to get familiar with Steam's trading guidelines. You will need to follow them and adhere to the rules. And if you do trade within these limits and regulations, a middleman is not necessary. By giving your trust to another user, they are given a chance to scam you.

11.Users Acting as Trade Bots

People also reported cases when a user pretended to be a trading bot and told them that they must trade them certain items. In case you accept this trade and decide to send them the items, the next thing that will happen to you is that you will be blocked on Steam, and they will keep your items.

12. Fraudulent Items for Resale

These criminals are ready to do everything to profit. They even acquire unusual items, which they try to trade to you for items that have a higher value.

To reach their goal, they tend to influence and control the Steam Community Market price of these unusual items. Wise people would notice that this is a scam, as there is no reason why a user will trade with a loss.

Our suggestion is never to accept these kinds of trades.

13. Verification Accounts

Another suggestion is never to trade an item for “verification”. In case a user tries to convince you to trade the item so that he/she can verify whether it is valuable or not, you can be sure that he tries to scam you. If you accept his/her offer, you can expect that your item will be kept. You will be blocked and left without your money.

Steam Card Scams: How To Avoid

We want to mention a few useful tips which you can use to avoid the Steam card scams:

• Don't be in a hurry. You need to spend some time going through and thinking about the offer you received. Then you can take a final decision. Think well, consider everything, and only then confirm the offer.
• You should never accept the offer under pressure from another user.
• Actually, if they force you to believe them and keep on insisting on accepting the offer, you can be sure that they are trying to scam you.
• By putting a mouse over every item, you will get all the information you need related to its quality, description, and name.
• This is necessary to make sure that the item properties are correct.
• Separate or future trades have to be avoided, and in case you are asked to make multiple trades, you may be a victim of scams.
  You need to persist in completing the trade-in one offer.
• Trading with the correct user is the best way to get protected from scammers.

There were instances when scammers pretend to be friends or traders that a person trusts to accomplish their bad intentions. You are responsible for knowing a person you are trading with.

What Is The Difference Between a Scam and a Hijack?

Making a difference between these two is necessary in the trading world to become aware of the possible threats and avoid them.
A scam happens when you are convinced to complete a trade by your will. Scammed people make the trade, but they do not receive what was promised or the items are changed with worthless or useless things.

A hijacking is quite a criminal act, as a person's account or a computer is used by another person. The owner is not familiar with it.

Hijacking frequently happens after the attack of malware or a virus. Either the user gives their login information as the notification deceives them in the email they got, or they click on a link which enables a virus to get into his/her computer and take it over.
Hijackers usually perform this crime to gain items or games or do additional fraud.

Steam Gift Card Scams: How To Report

You are always highly suggested to report if something of the above-mentioned situations happens to you. Even though you were not a victim, but a person just tried to scam you, you should use the Report feature built into Steam.

Once scammers are reported, the organization can take the necessary actions to stop them from committing more fraud:

What you need to do is visit the profile of the user you want to report, then click the ‘More' drop-down. You can find that at the top right corner of the page.

The next step is to choose ‘Report Violation,' select the type of violation you have experienced, and press ‘Submit Report.'

That way, you will draw attention to this user, and Steam will explore whether there is evidence against him/her taking illegal actions.

If it turns out to be true, Steam Support will ban his/her account from using the Steam Community and the Steam Market.

How long the ban will last, it always depends on the number of scams performed and how significant they were. If the acts are too severe, scammers will be banned from using their account permanently.

There are occasions when the same person has a few accounts, and if he/she is proven to be a scammer, all the accounts will be banned.

 

How Else To Report The Steam Wallet Card Scam

Let your family and friends know about these Steam card scams by sharing the article. You can also officially report criminals and any other suspicious activities to the Federal Trade Commission using the link below:

Report To The FTC Here

How To Protect Yourself More

If you want to find out the most prevalent scams every week, please subscribe to the Scam Detector newsletter. You'll receive periodic emails.

Meanwhile, educate yourself with a few other fraud-related articles listed under this paragraph.  Learn how to stay safe online. Finally, use the Comments section below to expose other scammers.

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