READ ME Expanded FAQ (Recommended)

Click on the question to get forwarded to the right reply on this topic with the answer. The replies are in somewhat random order (new ones get added below, while here they may be fitted in the right subject.

SteamRep Questions:

• How are Scammer bans propagated from Associated and Affiliated Communities to SR?
• What are the consequences of trading with a Scammer
• How about alts, how are those found?
• I donated, but I'm still not listed on SR as donator?
• Help, I donated but forgot to include my Steam ID.

Forum Questions:

• Does General Discussion forum section include xxxx?
• For what use is the "Report" feature of the forum?
• Great Community!!
• What languages are acceptable on this forum?
• What are the different roles on the forum/SR?
• This site is great, but I miss reputation and sale threads??

Site questions:

• Why is my Steam Profile information listed on SR?
• What is a "Valve Trade Lock", "Valve Trade Ban", "Valve Trade Probation" and what does that mean vs SteamRep?
• How can I see who are scammers on my friends-list on steam?

Account safety questions:

• I've been hijacked, what should I do?
• I like to protect myself against hijacking, what I do?
• I've been trade locked/banned due a carder, what do I do?
• Does adding collateral protect against anything from Valve?
• Does that mean any trade with a scammed or hijacked item is "foul"?

Trading / Reputation Questions:

• Trading with Scammers, will I get marked for that?
• What about rep on profiles?
• Who or why should be repped?
• Ok, TS is too much, but how to gain rep?
• What is a Carder?
• What is SteamRep's stance on Game CD key trading?

Reporting Scams and appealing tags:

• My appeal is pending for so long, will any action proceed my appeal faster?
  
• I had some bad experience in trading, and don't know if I should report.
• I've been Sharked, what should I do?
• I've been scammed, what should I do?
• Where can I report scammers for SteamRep tags?
• What are scammer reports about really?
• Is all proof available to everybody?
• I found a Phishing site, fake SteamRep site, fake reputation site emulating a real one, what to do?
• When (in time) should I appeal?
• I Scammed, what should I do?

Q: Does General Discussion forum section include xxxx?
A: General discussion is for any discussion/topic not in the line of the specific subfora while still (somewhat) related to SteamRep. We may close some topics for they go ways we don't want (spam, flamewars, etc) but in general all topics are allowed.

We will close / delete threads which have no relation with SteamRep. Some examples:

• SteamRep does NOT keep reputation threads or sale threads. For those we refer to the communities. Threads with such objective will be closed.
• Counting how many birthdays one has.
• Dressing up the Christmas tree with the dog.

Threads with questions regarding SteamRep or trading, or some community or site regarding trading are welcome.

/revised: June 10, 2013

Back to top!​

Q: For what use is the "Report" feature of the forum?
A: It is for reporting problematic posts like spam, racism, insulting content, etc. to keep a certain civility in the forum. While we may not "delete" such comments for other information in their posts, we may decide to give warning points for them. With enough warning points, one is banned for duration of having more then a certain of warning points. Those warning points expire in various time, to the choice of the mod or admin.

What it's NOT for, is reporting posts on reports/appeals, to try to close topics or get them deleted for disagreement of what is in the posts. Refute those (with reason) with a post in the topic. Any missing you want to add/adjust, can be done in subsequent posts.

What still is a valid reason to make use of the report feature is on a report/appeal thread that has been locked with the question to re-open it for more information to be added or such. Once archived tho, it needs to be in a new report.

/revised: April 18, 2014

Back to top!​

Q: Great Community!!
A: Ehm, technically we are not a community. The main goals is to list Scammers and such on SteamRep's scammer Database ( http://steamrep.com ). The forums are a means for recording and storing reports responses and publicizing it to parties interested to those. A lot of people help out in reports, to make things easier to overview, and faster for the admins to process reports. As a result we don't have other services on SteamRep that other Communities do have. Like:
- Game/Trade servers
- Reputation and/or Trade forum threads or website (like TF2Outpost or TF2TP).
- other services aimed at traders or gamers that they have come up with.
As such, SteamRep is only processing reports to aid OTHER communities in protecting their users. That we have various working relations with communities to aid in both ways is part of our effort to try to keep their communities clean.

Back to top!​

Q: What languages are acceptable on this forum?
A: We only use English, some admins may able to understand/speak/read/write other languages, and may use that in a conversation on Steam private chat with others on reports/appeals, but all posts on the SteamRep forums are to be in English.

Back to top!​

Q: Why is my Steam Profile information listed on SR?
A: Even when you are not marked as Banned or caution, people look you up on SteamRep, Steamrep caches the profiles, and stores the old ones. There is no information there that you didn't share already. SteamRep only gives it in a different view, and provides links to backpack viewing sites to the backpack of that account, some trading sites to the account page on that site. This allows our users to quickly check:

• If someone has a Banned/Caution tag or not, or maybe even a Middleman or Admin tag.
• Have a look on the recent trades of that person on TradePost and Outpost
• Have a look at the backpack of that account.
• Provide steamlinks to add to friends, see comments.
• Provide links to search for further information on this account, like if it was on Sourceop (the SOP links under Search Engine Queries), or use the general Google search to broaden the search. The others under there are to direct Sourcebans pages etc of those respective communities, where can be seen if they where banned for other things.

None of the above information is some we made up, its all there from Steam (with exceptions of the Banned or Caution tag), we just made it convenient to search for related information or look that up more easily.

In the case of Caution or Banned tags, we provide links to the reports or reasons why those where marked such. Do bear with us tho, for this was not done all the time SR exists. We have some Audits going on to correct such, but that takes a lot of time.

Very rarely we receive requests to manually clear one's historical data on SteamRep. We will however not do such for a number of reasons:

• All data stored was at that time publicly available.
• Even when set private, the STEAM API still gives some profile information. This makes it futile to "clear" the data, for it will be filled in again right after.
  
• With the number of users out there, we would have to continually do such actions.
  
• If we would, the same users would request over and over. For some sites require that the profile/backpack is public to be able to Login or use them.
  
• Profiles and backpacks are cached/stored on dozens of other sites as well, with all kind of information that even we do not store.

Also, for a better understanding:
Historical data is ONLY accessible if that person is logged into SteamRep with a STEAM Login. It is not searchable by Google or other search engines, or visible on our site without such Login.

/updated: June 16, 2014

Back to top!​

Q: What are the different roles on the forum/SR?
A: Well, those are diverse:

We have the following "labels" which are displayed below the avatar:

• SteamRep Admins
  • SteamRep admins have full access (almost) everywhere. They speak for SR while on the forums and are the decision makers for SteamRep regarding reports, appeals etc.
• SteamRep Moderators
  • They keep the forums tidy by moving threads and asking questions to clarify stuff on reports.
    
  • They set report topics to "Need more Info" if a answer is required, and to "Ready to Review" when there is enough information for a SR admin to handle the report and make a decision.
  • In cases they can archive reports, if its double posts or obvious not within our policy to handle them.
  • These guys are the oil in our machinery to handle as much as we can.
• Retired Staff
  • Retired SteamRep Admins and / or Moderators. They no longer have their previous access, its just a honorary mention so when replies of them are encountered its easily to be seen that they at the time where speaking for SteamRep in that topic.
• Partner Community
  • They have dedicated subforums where they can communicate with each other and log reports.
  • Also have control over their tags displayed on SteamRep (which is why appeals for community tags MUST go through that community).
• Friend Community
  • They have a dedicated subforum where they can communicate in between and log reports. Partner Community Admins can view/post here as well to help out the Friend communities in cases.

Then there is one hidden role:

• SteamRep Web API Beta Users
  • Approved users of the Beta Web API. They have access to a dedicated subforum where they are kept aware of changes and updates of the API we provide to Friends and Partner communities. This is just for those admins that maintain the sites of these communities.

Additional notes:
As adding the roles and custom statuses are manual, we apply them to the ppl asking for the right access.
People can have multiple tags (see below).

Examples:



Most SteamRep Admins and Mods will have hundreds if not thousands of posts at least. If you see somebody responding that only has a low number of posts, be on your guard. They should have our label below their avatar (see above)

Updated June 16, 2014,

Back to top!​

Q: I've been hijacked, what should I do?
A: First establish how the hijack took place. The following is a list of possible ways a scammer took control of your account:

1. You got phished or they took control of your email linked to your account by having a known email address, and them guesstimating the "secret" question (possibly by reading stuff off of your Facebook- e.g. answering what was my first pets name, by seeing posts about your pets on Facebook)
   1. Please make sure all forwards and email rules and such are CLEARED. Otherwise you get hijacked AGAIN once you get your account back and the items stolen from you.
2. Took control over your account via a CD key/proof of purchase. You bought a game key from somebody, and that one has the original box/purchase receipt etc, and they filed a Steam support ticket to "regain their account". This is why everyone recommends to NOT trade for CD-Keys from others, only activate your own games on Steam.
3. Took control of your machine by malware, keylogger or other such programs. You downloaded some program that was infected, or visited a hacked website that installed malware thru a leak a infection. Clean your PC with a GOOD antivirus program like Avast, and yes, DO that "Boot Scan". Microsoft's Security Essentials may not be enough to detect all malicious programs. Once done that, you still have to scan with other anti-malware software like: Spybot Search & Destroy, SuperAntiSpyware, SpywareBlaster (protection, not scanner), ComboFix, etc. Be aware that a LOAD of FAKE anti-spyware packages are out there so be wary of those. It may be necessary to format your computer to get rid of it.
   Also be aware: None of the anti-malware solutions scan and find ALL malware. There is simply none that can do such, so you need multiple different scanners to solve those.
4. A list of good tools:
   1. Avast, antivirus program, please actually DO the Boot Scan!! (has a free version)
   2. ComboFix, a free anti-malware scanner that cleans up the PC. A guide to use it
   3. TDS Killer, A free rootkit remover from Karspersky.
   4. Malwarebytes, a free anti-malware scanner.
   5. MVPS Hosts, A free low key protection. Read the page, and use the "Hostsman" program linked at the bottom to auto update it.
      Warning: May block some of your websites that you use, for redirects via stat sites wont work.
   6. SpywareBlaster, a free utility to protect your Internet Explorer or Firefox from unwanted plugins/websites.
   7. SuperAntiSpyware, Free Anti-Spyware scanner.
   8. Trend Micro's HijackThis, free utility to manually clean your computer. Requires good knowledge of what is running on your computer to not render it useless.
   9. Spybot Search & Destroy, Free anti-malware scanner. (Don't install the Teatimer, but do the "immunizer" option.

I'm not familiar with Apple OS or mobile devices and their security. So input will be validated. Some Anti-virus makers have a Mac or iOS/Android version, as I'm not looking around for that, I wouldn't know. Its a total myth that Macs or mobiles are free of malware. There is actually quite harmfull stuff in the respective stores from what I read around on security sites.

The order of things to do:

1. Hijacked:
   1. Make sure you have no malware infection.
   2. REALLY make sure you have no malware infection.
      1. Be aware: None of the anti-malware solutions scan and find ALL malware. There is simply none that can do such, so you need multiple different scanners to solve those.
   3. Make sure all your email addresses are cleared of forwarding rules etc, and have a new password.
   4. Make sure that your access to trading forums aren't compromised, and change passwords.
   5. If compromised, contact an admin on that site that it has been compromised.
   6. Make a Steam Support ticket, explaining your case, and how you got hijacked.
   7. Make a new temporary account on Steam
   8. Make a SteamRep ticket that the account is hijacked with the new Steam account.
2. You got your account back:
   1. Make an appeal thread on SteamRep using your original account.

Back to top!​

Q: I like to protect myself against hijacking, what I do?
A: Short answer: get paranoid. Long answer...

1. Use different passwords everywhere
2. Use different emails for different purposes:
   1. Paypal: its own email address
   2. Steam: its own email address (that nobody knows), and use SteamGuard (highly reccomended).
   3. Communities: its own email address.
   4. E-mailing with friends, family, business, etc: its own email address.
      This way, if one of your email addresses get compromised, it wont effect the others.
3. Use a browser that can be secured. My advice would be Firefox with the "NoScript" plugin. A good second is Google Chrome, no idea what plugin is available there that does the same.
4. Use a good antivirus program, like Avast or Eset Smart Security (paid). Things that don't work are: Microsoft Security Essentials, Microsoft Defender. Check out: http://www.av-comparatives.org/ for good shopping.
5. Use some additional measures to block malware:
   1. MVPS Hosts (free): http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm (use Hostsman, linked in the bottom of that page to auto update it)
   2. SpywareBlaster (free): http://www.brightfort.com/spywareblaster.html (manual updating, it blocks bad activex plugins, etc. Read the page)
   3. Spybot S&D: http://www.safer-networking.org/
6. Don't be stupid, don't believe all websites have "good intention" or ppl giving you links are being legit. Being aware and on the defense will protect you way more then any tool. There are no "real" Steam tools or websites that "give you games/items". There are very rare real actions, but those don't need your Steam login. Just as it says in every single Steam chat: Never tell your password to anyone.

Back to top!​

Q: I've been Sharked, what should I do?
A: While SteamRep isn't normally tagging for shark reports at this time, a load of communities do ban for them and two of our Associate communities are specifically handling sharking reports for SteamRep: Mann Co Trading & AceFortress. In addition, you can report those at most of the below listed communities. While SR Admins detest Sharkers, we haven't been able to settle clear guidelines on what constitutes sharking vs lowballing and/or "normal" profit. It also has a high probability of "buyers remorse" as Valve defines it.
SteamRep may in occasion settle for a SR Caution tag on a shark that is being too bad.
While you may report it to Valve, I don't think such would be very effective.

Back to top!​

Q: I've been scammed, what should I do?
A: Make a report on SteamRep or one of its affiliated communities (See here and below). And make a report to Valve on the USER'S PROFILE, so Valve gets aware of the account scamming, they do keep track, and may act against them. This doesn't mean you will receive your items back, but at least some consequence may come of it to it.

/Revised: February 17, 2014

Back to top!​

Q: Where can I report scammers for SteamRep tags?
A: On a number of partner communities, you can find them in the FAQ of our main site:

http://forums.steamrep.com/pages/faq/

Only partner communities can add scammer tags themselves in our database, friend communities have to go through SteamRep's internal route.

/updated: Juli 31, 2016

Back to top!​

Q: How are Scammer bans propagated from Associated and Affiliated Communities to SR?
A: Communities take scammer reports. Once they deem a report proven that the reported one is a scammer they ban them on their servers/website. Then they post:

1. SR ID block
2. Link to the report
3. naming the type of offense

Then a split happens, for Associated and Affiliate communities have their own SR subforums, where Associate comm's can help out Affiliated comm's.

• Associated Communities (having their own tags):
  • A SR Admin will check the SR topic.
  • On occasion the SR admin will look into a report. (if some comes up)
  • Tag with the specific communities tags with reasons and links in private notes
  • Make a "offense" showing in the public note with the link to the report.
• Affiliated Communities (having a banner on SR, but not their own tags):
  • A SR Admin will check the SR topic.
  • The admin will then check each report of the affiliate comm to validate each reported case.
  • If its correct, the admin will tag, if not, the admin will ask some questions to relay to reporter to further validate that report. Most cases they keep it pretty tight, but sometimes its needed.
  • Once the SR admin is satisfied, they will tag that with a SR tag.
  • And make a "offense" showing in the public note with the link to the report.

As you can see, there can be some time in between that a community bans for scamming, and that SR marks them. Normally this is process is way faster for SR to do then a report handled on SR itself. It also makes the community responsible to report them to SR in the specific topic.

Back to top!​

Q: How about alts, how are those found?
A: SR does not make Statements regarding alt-finding, tagging, marking, or any process involved around this. All we do say is that we have numerous ways to find them.

Side remark on this: As errors occur, and you are marked due being found a alt, be honest and open, and if your explanatory is matching our evidence, you may get untagged. Hiding stuff or w/e will end up it a auto-deny. Further proof may be required to solidify the claim, which proof is required depends on the situation and won't be discussed publicly.

Back to top!​

Q: Trading with Scammers, will I get marked for that?
A: This new version replaces this answer: http://forums.steamrep.com/threads/expanded-faq-recommended.7263/page-2#post-120656

Back to top!​

Q: What are scammer reports about really?
A: A scammer report is a report. A mistake a lot of people make is just writing some text, and the admins will believe them on their nice fonts and black letters (analogy of "believing on your shiny blue eyes"). Of-course we don't. We basically need:

• Steamrep ID block of Victim (who should be doing the report)
• if applicable: SR ID block of reporter (only if translating for the victim)
• if applicable: SR ID block of the Middleman involved
• SR ID block of Scammer
• Naming and shaming: name who you accuse exactly (for instance if the MM is fake, name the MM to be fake, and the other party, for it may be a fake inject)
• Describe the trade, literally: wanted to sell A for B.
• Did the trade actually happen yes/no (no if it was a failed attempt)
• Proof, in the form of:
  • Screenshots of chat where the trade agreement is recorded. We don't need 320 pages of chat where you discuss the redigging up of Michael Jacksons left toe.
  • Screenshots of the trade history if the trade did happen.
  • Screenshots of the money transfer system if this became involved (paypal, webmoney etc).
  • if available: Chat transcripts (literally the full text of the chat)

A report is pretty simple, but it requires the burden of proof that proves to us that a trade did take place, that a agreement was made and not met at a certain spot, or that it became obvious a scam.
Go here for a full explanation: http://forums.steamrep.com/threads/...-look-at-acceptable-format-before-posting.51/

Back to top!​

Q: Is all proof available to everybody?
A: No, we don't publicly show our methods to find alts or our ability to link accounts etc. We do leave report topics accessible, and the information provided there stays public. But part of our responses in the reports there or in our research threads in our hidden admin forums aren't shown to the public (there is a plugin installed that allows us to hide part or whole of our responses for normal users). We will however make those available to other admins of affiliated communities if there is a need for it, of course under confidentiality. Or if a justice agency contacts us regarding this, we will validate the claim (of being such justice agency) and make it available on a case by case basis. We have provided Valve of information in rare cases, and will continue to do so if we see the need.

Back to top!​

Q: This site is great, but I miss reputation and sale threads??
A: Thanks, and reputation/sale threads are not done by SteamRep for a number of reasons. The most important one is that such reputation/sale threads are rightfully hosted on Partner and Friends Communities.

/revised Aug 6th, 2014

Back to top!​

Q: I found a Phishing site, fake SteamRep site, fake reputation site emulating a real one.
A: Great, make a thread in General Discussion or in Report a Scam if it was linked directly to you by someone attempted to scam you. We do have some ways to deal with them, but we are not able to shut down sites immediately. If somebody is abusing them vs you please give us the link so we can check them out, find out which account is linked by it, etc. Most often the culprits are already marked. But SteamRep knowing such sites allows us to warn others, and it's an added offense to the account (which can impact their future appeal(s)).

Back to top!​

Q: What about rep on profiles?
A: Such rep is not recognized by SteamRep or most valid traders. Why? Any comment on a profile can be deleted by the owner of the account. Any negative rep can therefore be deleted. Also fake rep is too easy there for some checks cannot be done against them.

Please also read this: What constitutes Reputation

Back to top!​