Background check - what you should see when you look at someone's Steam profile.

Background check - what you should see when you look at someone's Steam profile.

Due to the fact that people are still trying to scam the other I would like to show you how you can do the background check and what you should see when you look at someone's Steam profile.

First of all - there are two different parts on the Steam profile - the first one includes profile name, avatar, some description, links, comments and stuff like that - DO NOT CARE ABOUT THAT PART!

Why and then what I should care about?

The answer is very simple - the owner can easilly edit that part, deletes negative comments, puts fake links etc..

The second part includes the information such as the amount of games, friends, groups, if account is brand new or not, how many hours were played etc. - YOU SHOULD CARE ABOUT THAT!



The picture above shows numbers next to various information from the second part of the Steam profile.

1 - Games shows you how many and what kind of games (F2P or payable) that user has. If someone has low amount of games it can mean that person does not use Steam very often and has not much to lose.

2 - Friends shows you how many and what kind of friends that user has. If someone has low amount of friends it can mean that person deletes friends because of some reason or people do not want to be on that user's friends list. What is more - if someone has many friends marked as a SCAMMER, it is not good. Most of trustworthy traders have not many SCAMMER friends.

3 - Groups shows you how many and what kind of groups that person belongs to. BE AWARE of FAKE GROUPS!

4, 6, 7 and 8 will be review together below.

5 - Steam Badges shows you how many and what kind of badges that person has. If there is not any badge it can mean that account is brand new or someone rarely uses it.

4,6,7 and 8 - Those information are strictly connected with each other. If the account is brand new and the owner wants to trade or buy the expensive items - it is weird. If the account is brand new and the owner has very expensive items in the inventory - it is weird. If the account is brand new and the owner is the price expert - it is weird. If the owner did not play any games during past 2 weeks or its Steam Rating is really low it can mean that person does not use Steam very often or uses it only for trading (it is up to you if you deem that kind of person is trustworthy or not).

9 - Trade status shows you the user's trade status - if someone's trade status is BANNED or PROBATION it means that person has shady history.

How to use SteamRep to do the background check?

You have to realise - if someone has NO SPECIAL REPUTATION status it does not mean it is safe to trade with that person. You should always do the background check. SteamRep has the great feature called Quick Tools so you can easily check other communities and search engines to find any information about the person you want to trade with. Sometimes someone has already been reported but not marked yet - the report is never the good sign.

If you want to know more about checking on people - read Meet the Quick Tools - the Sniper already uses it.

These are some very good tips , Another you should look at is the rep comments ( dates ) to see how close they are.

Actually, you shouldn't look at rep comments on profile at all, since rep on profile is worthless, as negative comments can be deleted.

One of the most important things that you can check (and that most people don't) is going to either of the SR under "Search Engine Queries". That way you can see if they have any ongoing reports going on. I've had multiple people add me that, when I checked that, had really serious ongoing reports that just hadn't been seen yet.

Also, I never trust any link that people give me. Using the <STEAMID> inurl:sourceop.com google command will show you if they have any rep threads on SOP. This will prevent you from being scammed with a fake rep link.

Thank you.

We should care about reputation comments only if they were posted on the trustworthy community website e.g. SourceOP. We SHOULD NOT care about reputation comments posted on Steam profile.

Actually this is not the guide about how to read reputation comments. I can give a piece of advice.

READ REPUTATION COMMENTS VERY CAREFULLY TO UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY HAVE BEEN GIVEN FOR.

There is a great thread about reputation - http://forums.steamrep.com/threads/what-constitutes-reputation.12391/

I've written about that in the last paragraph - How to use SteamRep to do the background check?

Thanks Blackie, I like it.

It would be better if You can Stick this Topic Up there.
It's really helpful.
The present-style is just great too, all clear, easy to read and checking.
*I see what you got there, below the DataStorm line.

Clear, right and simple. I hope people will use those tips finally...

On game number, there are bout 30 F2P games... if one has played them, they show up.

I added something.

I have always said I wish Valve would work even closer with SR, after all SR is a "free" of inestimable value in the scheme of things, and as such what I would LOVE to see on Profile/Trade screen is a bloody big SR SCAMMER TAG displayed where appropriate

well, some are making a browser plugin to do that... but Valve will never make that build-in. And if, SR wouldn't be able to cope with the load of it.

I know, but I can dream

Cool guide adder I liked the diagram aswell

I don't see 6, 7, 8 or 9 on Steam...(?)