HOWTO: Provide evidence with screenshots!

How to make screenshots:
First, you need something to get screencaps/screenshots.
Jing is a free and super easy-to-use program that I use- it also will upload your pictures for you:
www.techsmith.com/jing.html

For those running Windows 7, it includes the Snipping Tool, a free, built-in screen shot capture program.
It can be opened via Start->Run->type in "snip" and it should show up. You can select a rectangular area and save the image you took to your computer. This is the best and easiest way to take screenshots for our upload method.

If you are on Windows, you can also take screenshots by pressing Alt + Prt Scr (Alt not necessary on Win 7 or above)
Prt Scr is short for print screen and may not appear on your keyboard as the same spelling.
After you've pressed it, click on your Windows icon, search for Paint.
Open Paint, press Ctrl + V to paste it into the Paint window. Paint will give you a pop-up saying it must expand the canvas size. Click OK.
Go to File - Save As - And save the screenshot with a name you'll remember and ending in .jpg or .png format (it should default to .png)


How to upload screenshots:
The easiest way is to just upload the images to your post as an attachment. You can find this option at the bottom of your post. Before we used to allow third-party hosts, but that is no longer the case. Please always attach images to the thread.

If you use imgur or another third-party upload, you will be asked to use the thread attachment feature instead!


Commonly needed evidence & where to get it:

• Profile of the scammer(s): There are LOTS of impersonators so be certain you're viewing the right profile! In a chat, click on the person's name to view their profile.

If you've already closed the chat window, you can get their profile either by clicking on their name in your inventory history

or gift history:


Warning: Next part about "Histories" may no longer exist!
(To see how to get your histories, see the next two bullet points.)
If you are CERTAIN that you added the scammer as a friend or accepted a friend request, you can also get their profile by going to your Steam navigation. Click on Home and then click on My History to see all the people you have friended.


Click on the person's name and it will bring up his/her profile. Use the page number links to navigate your history if needed.


PLEASE NOTE a person CAN trade you or chat with you even if you are not in their friends list if you are both members of the same group! In cases of a fake middleman injection scam, it is possible that you may have added the REAL middleman as a friend but the fake middleman was the one who traded with you. ALWAYS use the trade history for these types of scams! Also note trade offers which allow anyone with your specialized link to trade with you.​

END WARNING​

• Inventory/Trade History: Go to your Inventory from your Steam profile.

On the right side you will see a drop-down box labeled More. Click it and hit "View Inventory History".


Example of a inventory history screenshot. BE SURE TO NOT INCLUDE your Steam account name! DO INCLUDE all history from the day/days of the scam. DO INCLUDE THE URL ADDRESS, NO CROPPING PLEASE!
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• Gift History: Go to your inventory from your Steam profile. On the right side you will see a drop-down box labeled More. Click it and hit "View gift history".

This is an example of your gift history. Just like Inventory history, BE SURE TO NOT INCLUDE your Steam account name! DO INCLUDE all history from the day/days of the scam. DO INCLUDE THE URL ADDRESS, NO CROPPING PLEASE!
​

• Game Licenses: Go to your Steam profile and click on your account name in the top right. (If you are using the Browser version, select View Details).

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The first page it brings you to will show your game licenses. This is an example of what it should look like. If you are asked to show that you DO NOT have a game, please show ALL your game licenses. This may take more than one image!

​

• Account Hijack: This requires taking screenshots of your report of your hijack to Valve through http://support.steampowered.com When you regain your account, we will need to see the updated ticket showing that the account was regained. DO NOT INCLUDE your Steam account name! The example image below shows what information should be hidden & what information should be available.

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• Impersonation: The image should include the URL of the impersonator's profile. If you do not have this enabled in your Steam browser, you can do so by going to your account settings.

This is an example of a good screenshot showing an impersonation. ​

1. Make sure the URL of the person's profile is visible.​

2. Click on the arrow to bring a drop-down box of the person's names. Both that and the person's avatar as well should be visible.​

3. Make sure the person's game play stats are also visible (if possible).​

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**Guide heavily updated by Pretender do to changes in the Steam UI and overall function. Guide is still subject to change. **

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Great guide helen, thanks alot. However an alternative to instant screen capturing would be Gyazo (Thread)

ZScreen does that too ( http://code.google.com/p/zscreen/ ) and a bunch of others.
its in general been discussed here in regards of in-game trading screenshots etc: http://forums.steamrep.com/threads/how-to-screenshot-trade-chat-window.1936/

Fantastic Guide, very detailed and easy to understand. Great job Helen!

That avergejoe guy you traded with seems shady.

Yeah, I hear he prefers the shade because then he doesn't get sunburnt.

Imgur is awesome.

Great Guide, i never know where to look for History of my Gifts (not trade). THX Alot.

not really, the free access is limited to some 200 pics, I was thru that within a week. And as I need pictures to stay online....

what am I supposed to do if someone imposters me? the evidence I have in defence is that I have been in TF2 for the last week and the screenshots show Monkey D Luffy as "online" also can you check 76561198006590833 his name is nick, he blocked me so I couldn't go there for evidence, can someone go see if he has played as Monkey D Luffy that would make things a whole lot easier if he was stupid enough to do that.

http://steamcommunity.com/id/76561198006590833/namehistory

not in the last week or so.

Thanks!

great guide i'm gonna translate this one too for french people as I have many ask about how to report scammers.
If you are ok i'll do that translation.
Cheers.

Helen i can't seem to find the triple arrow icon on Jing could you please help me?

It's just one arrow icon and it's on the left. You can make more than one arrow.

http://imgur.com now supports direct acceptance of images in the clipboard.

That means that, once you have an image in "memory" through use of the PrtScrn/Print Screen key, you can press ctrl+v to paste it directly into Imgur. This may help when quickly saving multiple screenshots is necessary. No more Paint.

Or you could also use http://puush.me/ , which runs in the background and adds some Shortcuts (Screenshot whole window, whole desktop, or select a Area to cap).
After uploaded, it adds a link to the Pic into the clipboard.

I dont under Stand why cant you have your Steam account name in?

Because ppl can abuse that, like hijackers. So we generally advice ppl to NOT show the steam account name.
SteamRep:
- Does NOT want steam account information shown publically (login name, password) of reporters/victims etc.
- Does NOT want or use remote access to any computer.
- Does NOT want financial information in the specific forms of bank accounts or Credit card information.

We DO collect information with which we can identify scammers and their alts. But we don't disclose what exactly we collect.

Thank you! It has helped me a lot :3