For what seems to be the newest and most threatening scam introduced to the Steam Community, we have the Fake Steam Administrator scam. The way this works, is that you will either:
1. Be told by someone you have added on Steam (who has actually had their account hijacked) that they accidentally reported you for duped items and that you need to prove to a Steam Admin (they will link you to the scammer's account) that you do not have any duplicates.
2. Be added by the scammer themselves and told "There is a random user that filed a ticket in your account for having a duplicated item."

When this happens, you will be told that if you cannot prove your items are not duplicated, that your account will be trade banned or teminated. They will likely send you a screenshot or gif to "prove" that they are a steam admin like this (this is the one that I received):

(Credit to the filthy scammer who tried this on me for this lovely GIF featuring my account!)

Now there are three major things wrong with this scam:

1. A Steam Admin would never ask you to add them, nor add you randomly to state this. They would email you, or give you a notification through Steam itself.

2. Duped items are not illegal. They were in fact created by Valve in the past (before Steam Authentication if someone was scammed, lost their account or accidentally destroyed an item.

3. Valve has made it incredibly clear that they are not going to remove duplicated items from the game, the proof being that they've existed for years with no action taken. Items are not able to be duped any longer, and Valve does not care about the existence of them.

3.1. From a trader's perspective, dupes are part of the economy and have value, Valve would suffer severe backlash from the community if they were to delete duplicated items which would impact their business and reputation. They also acknowledge current owners of duped items almost certainly did not create them, and are just innocent traders or players of their games.

If you are added by anyone who claims to be a Steam Admin, who wants to check your items for being duplicated or anything similar, it is definitely a scam, and you should either remove them or play along for a while just to waste their time. This has even been said by an official Valve Employee (Notice the badge) as you can see below:


Again; notice the "Valve Employee" Badge on his profile, one can only own this badge by being an actual worker within Valve. Additionally, notice his statement "Valve employees do not need to "check" your items. You're being scammed."

Notice: There is a similar scam in which people will create a guide titled similarly to "List of Steam Admins" and give a list of people (as well as their steam links.) This is also entirely fake, and they will shortly tell you the same thing, that your items are questionable and you may be banned if you don't let them check steal your items.

A user made a post about a scam I have not yet encountered myself. I can only assume it is new and will wait until I have my own screenshots instead of using the ones he has posted. A basic summary of this scam appears to fall under these steps:

1. Added by user claiming that they played / traded with you and that they want to be friends.
2. Mention that they hacked another user and include a screenshot of a password change screen
3. Threaten to do the same to you and provide a fake screenshot of your account's password change screen, claiming you will lose everything unless you pay them a certain "safety fee"
4. Send you a trade offer for about 10-25% of your inventory worth and say you have a few minutes to accept or else you will be hacked and lose everything

If someone threatens to hack you and you have Steam Mobile Authentication, be aware that this is practically IMPOSSIBLE. Unless you provide someone with your account password and Steam Guard code, you are at virtually no risk whatsoever.

P.S - If someone could hack you for all your items, they would. They wouldn't add you and ask for only a certain amount, keep in mind these are greedy and heartless scammers we're talking about, they would steal absolutely everything if they had the skills and ability to hack you as they claim they can.

End Advice: If you encounter a situation like this, just go ahead and remind that filthy scammer that the world would be a better place without people like them exploiting and scaring others. Laugh at them and walk away, they cannot do a thing to you if you have Steam Authentication as long as you do not give them your information. Screenshots will be fake and are designed to scare you into caving to their demands.

This is a scam that has just surfaced, and involves people / bots sending random messages to users about an "amazing deal for free items". I have personally seen two of these so far, but this is one I have just received that will become my prime example:


Basically, if you follow the link, there is a video labelled "How to get TF2 stuff for free! 2018". This is made by "Trade Help" (how original.) The first things to notice immediately are that this user only has 343 subscribers (probably mostly fake accounts and fellow scammers) and 10,000+ views. Also only has two videos.

Below is an image of the first thing that pops up when you open this video:


The basic idea is "You must have $30+ of backpack value for that game to get free stuff, you must trade it to me so that I can whitelist you from your one-time free item spree and I will give you everything back after you trade it to me". This is an obvious scam, but one I will point out nonetheless. If you get random adds / messages stating someone is giving away free stuff, it is more than likely a scam. If they link you to a Youtube video, this is only to mislead you into believing it to be more legitimate.

Please, do not think someone would just give away hundreds of keys in items to others for simply adding them and then giving their items to be "checked".

Lastly, please warn others of this, this scam is utterly stupid and should not be given any success.

This is somewhat new and relies on having other user's portray it as legit (by using the website in their Steam name) as well as fooling several users who do so. This is the message you will usually get when one of these people add you:


If you get someone claiming they will pay you to put their site in your name, be assured of two things:
1. It's a scam, you're not getting paid
2. The website is also a scam, obviously.

Does that title sound familiar? Hear it from someone who has added you? A seemingly reputable trader with an expensive or high tier backpack? News flash, this is a scam. This is an example of an impersonator's profile:

(Sorry for the image stretching past just the interactive area of the page, but you have to admit that's a pretty sweet background)

Notice: They conveniently put a link to their backpack (sometimes "Main Backpack" or "Storage") near the top. If you click on their actual inventory (circled in image 1), you will notice that it is either private or empty.


They have placed the link to the REAL trader's inventory in their "My Storage/Inventory/Backpack" hyperlink. You can actually go to the real trader's profile from there and see that they have a different profile, and that they are indeed different people. They will almost CERTAINLY ask you if they can check if your item is duplicated (they will tell you that backpack.tf does not properly check, it does though.) Giving them your item will result in it being stolen, obviously. Look for these signs, and don't take any chances.

Note: There is a similar scam to this where you will be asked to deposit items to a fake backpack.tf/marketplace.tf/bazaar.tf bot that will "automatically send you the trade offer". Additionally, there are fake websites made with fake bots to achieve the same thing. A bot will never send you a trade unless you are on a website and specify what the bot needs to do. Do not log in to a supposed trading website if it is recommended by someone who has a private inventory, typically broken english and who seems to be clueless about what you are selling. If you haven't heard of a website, look up reviews of it on the Steam Community, and check at least 3 positive reviewers to see if they have public / good inventories to know whether it is trustworthy or not.

Not too much to be said here. If someone asks you to trade your items first, do not accept. The only time a legitimate trader will ever ask that is if you're selling items for paypal (and even that can be risky.)


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Bottom Line: If someone wants to buy your items, they will directly offer you their items for yours, they will not ever ask you to give your item to them before they send theirs to you.

We have all gotten impatient sometimes, maybe someone put up an item and has bumped their trade manually a few times without accepting yours. It can get a bit annoying, so maybe you decide to leave a comment on their profile to let them know the trade offer is there and that you're waiting, or maybe you're just the kind of guy to say "Hey, I offered on this" anyways. For example:


As you can see, I (for an example and to bait one of these scammers) told him the item i wanted and that I had made an offer.

Shortly after, I got added by a blatant impersonator with the same name, but an entirely different profile description (notice, the real trader's profile says "This is my only account", the impersonator obviously wouldn't say that and would claim to be an alt.) This is the conversation I had with him:


The scammer was clueless and wasn't even smart enough to remember the name of the item I said I was offering on, then used a (to my knowledge) made up word for unknown purposes (I should have asked why.) He then gave me an obviously fake website, most likely phishing judging by his behavior. Here is what happened:

1. I did not log in to it, though I claimed that I did
2. He, posing as an ordinary trader who should not be able to know whether I did or did not log in told me not to troll him (so he knew I had not really logged in.)
3. I told him I had, then told him the website was being weird and nonfunctional (phishing websites don't work past a login screen, at least most of them did not in the past)
4. He removed me without any further words.

Please know that if you comment on any popular trader's profile, there are lots of scammers who stalk the profiles for those who want to trade and leave comments. I have even had one situation where two more impersonators added me while I was dealing with a first one, all of which followed a very similar script. Most traders will not add you with some unknown alt account, and those who do will not have a private inventory (scammers will claim its to avoid getting added by scammers, just a lie.) Always check the profile of the trader who added you and see if your comment is on their page, if not, it is definitely a scammer.

Surprisingly, quickswitching still happens somewhat frequently in the unusual trading world, usually through negotations and trade offers instead of the old replacement method in direct trades. If you ever send someone a trade offer, for instance, these are the steps a scammer may take if quickswitching today:

1. Advertises an unusual worth 40 keys as a quicksell, only asking 23 keys.
2. Receives a trade offer for the unusual with the 23 keys or more in overpay
3. Counter-offers for 25 of the keys and replaces that unusual with the same hat / taunt with a much cheaper effect. Let's say you offered on his Searing Plasma hat, he replaced that with a Bubbling version.
He then says something similar to "I'm sorry, I had meant to list it at 25 keys, it's still a good deal and if you're still interested, just go ahead and accept my counter".

Every time you get a counter offer, it is highly advised that you scroll over the item to make sure it is the exact one that you had originally intended on buying. This scam does not happen often because it usually requires alternative accounts and a high chance of the main scammer account being tracked and banned, but this does occur and it can be pretty devastating on a victim. Be sure to scroll over any item you get a counter-offer on to ensure you're getting what you intended on purchasing.

An older scam but one that should be addressed nonetheless is the fake automated transaction scam, where you will receive a trade offer for your items in exchange for none that states something along the lines of this:

"Upon accepting this trade, you will automatically be credited (for example) $15 into your Steam Wallet. This process is managed by Valve™ and will occur immediately within accepting the trade."

Of course, this is not true. It is not currently possible for active Steam Wallet Funds or real currency to be exchanged through trade offers. If you were to receive one of these offers, be entirely aware that this is a scam and that these scammers rely on making the offer appear professional by adding a supposed statement from Valve about the legitimacy of the trade.

For this scam, someone will add you with a (usually) generous offer on your items, waiting for you to say that you're willing to make a deal with them.


These items are not really theirs. They are impersonating the trader who actually owns them (if you travel from the inventory link to the profile, it will be the real trader's profile, and you will see that they are indeed quite different).

After this, they will request your Steam Trading URL and link you to a trading website (Example Below):


Notice that he avoided putting together the actual link because Steam has it marked as suspicious. While this may not always mean a website is unsafe, you should definitely research any websites that do have this tag. How these scams usually work is a scammer will make a fake account and name it (BOT) in order to fool victims into believing it is an automated trading service account. This makes the website (if fake) as well as the situation (scam attempt) look more legitimate, as operating bots (keep in mind these are fake and run by people) would lead one to believe there is enough traffic for them to be necessary. The so called "bot" will then offer you a trade for those items, and will run once you accept.

If someone offers you a trade that seems too good to be true, it most likely is. If they link you a website and avoid putting the link together properly, it is a scam. Lastly, do not trade or log in to a new website without researching it and finding out what is being said about it. Search for a reputation.

This scam follows 8 simple steps under most circumstances, if you're being asked to do anything similar to this, you should not trust the person who is trying to trade with you.

1. Adds you and asks if you have a friend you trust
2. Tells you to invite that friend to a group chat with you and the scammer
3. Tells you to trade your item to the friend to confirm it doesn't appear as duped in other inventories
4. (Behind the scenes) Scammer uses an alternative account to copy your profile picture, name and profile information
5. Scammer tells both of you that the item is clean and that the friend can trade it back to you.
6. Scammer invites alt into group chat for instant access to invite your friend to trade
7. Friend trades item to alt account thinking it is your account
8. You've been scammed.

This is a fairly straight-forward scam, not much else to say about it. You do not need to trade your items to anyone else for someone to check if it is or is not duped, this is only a premise to a scam.

This is rarely used (mostly because when an account is hijacked, the hacker must have also gotten the Steam Guard code in order to get immediate trading access), but definitely worth noting. When accounts are hijacked, someone can view the messages between you and the person they've hijacked as well as view how long you've been friends in order to determine whether or not you two are close.

If you are asked randomly by a friend if they may borrow an item, look at the way they talk and act. For instance, instead of calling you "dude" or "bro / sis" like usual, they are instead calling you by your Steam name, using different grammar and punctuation etc. If you are suspicious of a friend's behavior, most scammers or hijackers will remove your account from that friends list if you call them out.

It is advised you find a way to end the conversation (such as saying "gtg, talk later") so that if your friend regains access or has an alternative account, they can view the hijacked account's friends list and add you from there.