1. There is no such thing as a "pending" ban or Steam admin. Anyone threatening your account is a scammer trying to scare you. Read more.

So there's a common scamming method happening in the Steam trading forums for DOTA2

Discussion in 'SteamRep General Discussion' started by Karien, Dec 5, 2016.

  1. Karien

    Karien New User

    Messages:
    4
    Steam:
    STEAM_0:0:32259081
    Basically, the new ver scam relating to fake high priced corrupted/autographed items is where the scammers just trade offers you said trash for your high priced items without saying anything or adding you to avoid being marked as scammers by Steamrep. Steamrep invalidates any scam that happens using this system. This is usually done by a DOTA2 item scammer to a CSGO newbie trader, but has happened to me and was invalidated because there was no chat on it.
  2. a Gentleman

    a Gentleman SteamRep Moderator Partner Community Donator - Tier V

    Messages:
    2,674
    Steam:
    STEAM_0:0:25990581
    We generally don't take item price into consideration unless an accused user knowingly quick-switches an item before a trade.

    It is up to each trader to look up or know the prices of the items that they are trading for. Recognizing market manipulation and junk high-priced items is just one of many things I believe SteamRep should be educating traders about, because throwing down punishments for traders trying to trade obliquely priced items is akin to sharking - something we also generally do not get into.
  3. Karien

    Karien New User

    Messages:
    4
    Steam:
    STEAM_0:0:32259081
    It has gone from them stating it in chat before trading to just trade offers sent to you. What is the difference of someone saying it's worth more than it really does, and just outright steam offering you the same thing? In both ways, the scammer is trying to prey on new traders or traders from another game who wouldn't know the prices of things. And being honest, the market/OPskins/whatever price site one could use price is skewed to the scammer's profit on such items so they are useless to someone who has no clue about the different types of DOTA2 items. So even a quick check might not help those who don't know the truth. It's a reason there's a rise in such scams (I see them every day now.) since it gets invalidated here due to lack of chats between the scammer and the newbie/honest trader possibly who deals in other game trades. And before you ask, that guy that tried scamming me did the same to others. Every negative review on his profile gets deleted the moment he gets on, thus why I ended up coming to Steamrep, hoping he'll be at least marked with a warning so it might help those few who bother looking up Steamrep. And I can say this generally, most traders usually will look up Steamrep and go by it, so such a warning does help against such people (like stating the person has attempted to scam in what way.). And it's still a form of tricking people thinking they have gotten a good deal. Isn't that what a scam is IRL?

    Also, I do apologise about my odd train of thought so it might be hard to read. Trying to say what I think about it but I feel like it comes up as off. Also a little bit annoyed at watching such people (Scammers) get away scott free.
  4. a Gentleman

    a Gentleman SteamRep Moderator Partner Community Donator - Tier V

    Messages:
    2,674
    Steam:
    STEAM_0:0:25990581
    We only mark people based on the quality and substance of the evidence provided in each report. If there is not evidence then we can't really mark a user just for being a bad cookie. I wish we could do that, but we're evidence-based investigators, and as stubborn as some of the invalidations are, those invalid reports were marked as invalid for not having enough evidence.

    Again, this is basically sharking but in reverse. We decided a very long time ago that it would be hard to mark and then maintain the marks on users who shark.

    Most of what we do here is mark users as scammers based on either broken agreements, impersonation, or chargebacks. Unless the accused quickswitched the items and you have evidence for it, then it'll be very hard to mark someone for what you're talking about under misrepresentation of items.
    Roudydogg1 likes this.
  5. Clive

    Clive SteamRep Admin

    Messages:
    6,571
    SteamRep Admin:
    STEAM_0:0:43668349
    Not a lot, really (besides an agreement/evidence of price manipulation), but neither of those are situations we ban for. What you are referring to is sharking, which is taking advantage of a user's lack of knowledge in trading to trade an inexpensive item for significantly more expensive items. This is not something that Steamrep tags for, because both users do agree to a trade and fulfill that trade. Prices are subjective, and it is the user's responsibility to know the price of their items and the price of the items they are trading for. We do not police prices, and it would be very difficult to set a line that says x price is ok to shark, but y will get you a tag. Also, items are worth what users are willing to pay for them, so saying an item is worth x or y would mean we are giving that item a static value, which is not what we are here for.
    a Gentleman likes this.
  6. Karien

    Karien New User

    Messages:
    4
    Steam:
    STEAM_0:0:32259081
    What I mean is, take for example, that shield item. It markets for 0.04~ and the gems in it is maybe worth another 0.10 each. That's a $0.30~ item being sold for $70+ (On the market by 1 person, usually the main scammer or his alt. Hate how they removed the ability to check people's profiles from the market due to that.) in order to scam people. And i suspect sometimes it's a chain of scams, sadly, there's no tracking system for DOTA2 items unlike unusuals for TF2. I just hope no newbie accepts that offer of his since there's no way of warning them.
  7. Dragoon™ ♛ | TRADING

    Dragoon™ ♛ | TRADING Banned on SteamRep

    Messages:
    93
    Steam:
    STEAM_0:0:89145434
    There will always be users who fall for such methods, it's inevitable. Hence why SteamRep is trying to educate players and communities alike to get to know these methods and prevent being scammed. I would say helping out friends is a thing YOU could also start with, make them aware of this method.