Be Aware of These Scammer Tactics

I've recently experienced certain alleged scammer tactics which I want to make the public aware of.

The scammer will ask to use Skype or similar service so they can share their screen.

To try to convince you of their reputation, they will show themselves posting into a Facebook group asking if they can be trusted. Within a few minutes many people in this group will respond to confirm the scammer can be trusted. I believe this entire group is set up with the purpose of making it seem like the scammers can be trusted. Ask yourself - do you know any of the people in this group? How long have you known them? Have you traded with any of them before?

(If the admins will allow, I will share the URL of the Facebook group I believe these scammers are using).

The scammer will show you their PayPal summary screen which seems to show they have a large balance (in my case over $3000). This balance can easily be faked - there are numerous methods for achieving this - just Google it. They may even refresh the webpage to show that they are not using the commonly known "Inspect Element" trick to edit their PayPal balance. Ask yourself - even if the PayPal balance is real, does that prove the person is not a scammer?

Ask the scammer to show you their PayPal transaction history. In my case, at first they refused saying they wanted to keep it private. But then he did show me - his account had many transactions for hundreds of dollars which showed as "Cancelled". Suspicious, right.

The scammer may show you their account on a BitCoin website which appears to show they have a large balance (in my case, just over 1 BitCoin, worth several thousand dollars).

Amusingly, the scammer in my case was so inept, he accidentally showed me his TRUE PayPal and Bitcoin balances - both were either zero or very close to zero. In my experience, scammers tend to be sloppy and they will make many mistakes which help you to identify them as liars and thieves.

The scammer may want to only talk using voicechat. They will avoid typing using Steam chat as much as possible. There is a very good reason for this - they know that if they put anything in text, it can be screenshotted and used as evidence to get them banned on SteamRep.

Before you send anyone your items, get a full original agreement IN TEXT which you screenshot. See here for full guidelines: https://forums.steamrep.com/threads/report-submission-fundamentals.169802/

I hope this post helps honest traders to stay safe.

There's another tactic the alleged scammer used in my case: a fake Twitch account.

He claimed he wanted my items immediately because he was doing a giveaway on his Twitch stream. This meant he couldn't wait the 7 days for the Steam Market trade ban.

I checked out his Twitch stream - sure there are quite a few views and followers. I wonder if many of those followers are the same people from the scammers Facebook group I mentioned above.

The Twitch stream does not contain any saved videos. That seems a bit strange for someone claiming to be building his channel, right?

There were 3 clips which allegedly demonstrated the streamer was doing CS:GO giveaways. But as far as I could tell, there was no evidence that these giveaways took place.

Why is a guy with a relatively new Twitch channel giving away items worth hundreds of dollars?
Why doesn't the streamer show his face?
Why can't you even hear the streamer's voice in his clips?
Why doesn't the streamer have any saved videos showing him playing the games he claims to stream?

His entire Twitch stream is a sloppy fake - designed to make you believe his story about wanting to give away items worth hundreds of dollars.

Why is the streamer willing to pay much more than Market prices for your items? If you planned an expensive item giveaway on your Twitch stream, why can't you plan at least 7 days ahead and just buy the item more cheaply on the Steam Market?