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.

New type of scam?

Discussion in 'SteamRep General Discussion' started by Catface100, Mar 25, 2016.

  1. Catface100

    Catface100 New User

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    Hey all,

    I had a browse through this thread and couldn't find anything about this. http://forums.steamrep.com/threads/safe-trading-practices-extended.119029/

    Recently I've had a couple of people send me trade offers, offering their expensive items (knives in csgo) and asking for none of my items in return. I am not friends with these people, presumably they are getting my trade link through trading sites.

    If this is a scam attempt, it is not one I have seen before. Has anyone come across this before?

    I'm a sucker for free stuff, but as much as I'd like to accept these offers, I have not, assuming there is some elaborate scam attempt behind it. Am I free to just accept these?

    Cheers
  2. Horse

    Horse Administrator SteamRep Admin

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    Trade offers should be treated carefully.... You should add the users and discuss what is going on so you have some background as to the trade.
    You take some screen shots of the chat so you cover yourself in case the other person claims you took the items for some reason.
  3. a Gentleman

    a Gentleman SteamRep Moderator Partner Community Donator - Tier V

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    Hey Cat! Sometimes people accidentally send a trade item through without adding the item they wanted in return. It's a common mistake. If you're seeing it lots, though, you may be on to something. Can you give us some more details?
  4. Catface100

    Catface100 New User

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    Unfortunately I can't give many more details. These offers are usually cancelled by the other user some hours after they're sent (can't say how many). However, the offers are not resent to me for items I have, leading me to think it's not simply an accident in sending them over. That's all I can give I'm afraid.

    I wouldn't go so far as to say it's happening lots, but from what I've seen, it's happened a few times in the last month - month and a half (where as I've never seen anything like this before then).
  5. Edward.

    Edward. SteamRep Admin Donator - Tier V

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    Never accept a one-sided "random" Trade Offer from anyone, you never know if those items were hijacked / stolen. Yes, it's a possibility they made a mistake sending you a one-sided Trade Offer but from your perspective you don't know this. For example: Let's say that individual was a hijacker sending you fraudulent items ( just to get rid of the items hoping he won't get a ban from steam ) that were recently hijacked and you accept that one-sided Trade Offer(s), Steam Support can flag your steam account as being a scammer alt / associated account with the other hijacker's account(s). So basically you can get a Community Ban for that reason and it's a big possibility that Steam won't unlock / reactivate your account if they decide that.
    So in summary: Your best choice and the safest would be to not accept Trade Offer(s) like that and try not to do one-sided trades with random users who have a throwaway, brand new, or suspicious accounts.
    Roudydogg1 likes this.
  6. schmed

    schmed r/globaloffensivetrade moderator Partner Community

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    Hey Catface!

    I just saw your post, and I just wanted to provide some insight into something that could possibly be causing the empty trade offers that you have been receiving. There has been a common bug/glitch on Steam recently that has been causing many trade offers to appear as empty, even though they are actually items that are no longer available to trade. More information can be found on a /r/GlobalOffensiveTrade post here.

    As I said before, this is only a possible reason as to why you are receiving a high frequency of empty offers. These offers could be accidental (like Gentleman said) or an attempt to dump stolen items (like Edvin said). In either case, the best thing to do would be to decline the trade.

    Best of luck with your trades! (And happy Easter to everyone that celebrates it! ;))
    Edward. and a Gentleman like this.
  7. Tooth Fairy

    Tooth Fairy Banned on SteamRep

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    Very nicely spotted mate! :D