The Most Common Steam Scams

Steam is the No. 1 marketplace for buying and playing PC games. It’s got well over 100 million users, which makes it a popular place for scammers to operate, as it gives them such a big audience to target. Steam scammers also have many sneaky tricks up their sleeves to trick gamers out of their cash or personal data.

This guide explores some of the most common Steam scams.

Scam Detectors Most Trusted Websites in Online Security

Guard.io (100): Do you want to surf the web safely? Just add Guardio and block phishing for good!
Incogni.com (100): Delete your personal data from the internet and protect against scams and identity theft.
ExpressVPN (100) Stay secure and anonymous online - Best VPN Out There

How Do Steam Scams Work?

Steam scams take numerous forms and can work in different ways. Many scams involve scammers tricking you into either sending them money or game items, or even giving away login details to your account. And Steam accounts can be quite valuable, especially those of users who have purchased many games in the past and have large libraries of content.

Some of these scams involve people pretending to be from Valve (the company behind Steam) to ask you for personal information. Others use fake item trades to trick you into sending money for stuff that you won’t actually receive in the end. All of them involve some level of deception and trickery, but there are clear red flags to watch for (which we’ll explore in greater detail below).

Common Steam Scam Types

Phishing Scams

Phishing is when scammers trick you into giving away your data. They usually do this by creating fake websites that look like the real thing, like a fake Steam log-in page. Then, they’ll send you links, maybe via Steam direct messages or comments, telling you to log in to receive some sort of reward or secure your account. In reality, if you type in your login details, you’ll actually be giving them away.

Impersonation Scams

This is when someone pretends to be a figure of authority – like a Valve employee or member of the Steam support team. They’ll message you, with the ultimate aim of either getting some personal details from you or making you give them an item from your account. They often use coercive language or scare the user by making up claims that their account will be blocked or deleted.

PayPal Scams

Steam PayPal scams usually involve the scammer sending a PayPal invoice, asking you to pay them for some item, like a weapon skin in one of your favorite games. You pay the money, assuming that it’s all official, but then the item never gets sent to your account. Or, they’ll send you money via PayPal to buy an item, you send the item, and then they do a chargeback to get their money back.

Steam API Scam

This scam can only happen if a scammer has access to your Steam credentials, which they might get via phishing, or if you use a password that’s easy to guess. They’ll use bots to cancel any legitimate trade offers you get and replace them with other offers from their scammer accounts so that they can get your items without having to pay for them.

Steam Malware Scams

Many gamers on Steam are always looking for tools or third-party apps that might help them get more from their games or even generate gift cards to buy more Steam content. You can find many such tools online, but some of them are made by scammers. If you download them, you may inadvertently install malware on your device that could steal your data.

Steam Item Switching Scam

This Steam scam was once very prevalent. It’s not such a big deal nowadays, as Steam has introduced measures to combat it, but it can still trick some victims who aren’t careful. With this scam, you start a trade for an item and at the last minute the other user swaps for a different (low value) item. If you click too fast, you might end up overpaying for something you didn’t want. Always double-check before confirming a trade.

Red Flags You Shouldn’t Ignore

Messages From Low-Level or New Accounts

Steam largely does a decent job of weeding out scammers and getting rid of their accounts. This is why many scammers create new accounts quite often and why many scam attempts come from low-level accounts that don’t have much or any game history.

Threatening or Coercive Language

Scammers often resort to threatening language, blackmail, and similar tricks. Don’t fall for anyone who asks for any type of payment and threatens that your account will be blocked if you don’t pay.

Asking to Communicate or Exchange Money Outside of Steam

Since Steam has many protective systems in place, like confirmation messages and two-factor authentication, scammers will often ask you to pay them or communicate with them on other platforms.

How to Protect Yourself From Steam Scams

Be skeptical when communicating with other Steam users.
Check the account of anyone who wants to trade with you to see how long they’ve been a user and what sort of reputation they have.
Only do trades and exchanges on Steam itself – don’t use exterior platforms.
Don’t click any suspicious links sent to you in comments or messages.

Report the Scam

Reporting Steam scams depends on where and how they take place. You can use Steam’s built-in reporting tool to report suspicious or malicious users. Additionally, report them on any other platforms they try to contact you on or payment systems they use.

You may also: