Scams and Their Prevention

In the world of CS:GO skin trading, unfortunately, many scammers try to exploit inexperienced or inattentive users. These scammers use increasingly sophisticated methods, whether it's phishing sites, fake messages, or even misleading trade offers. One of the most common scams is the "API scam," where scammers gain access to your Steam account and modify trade offers without your knowledge, resulting in valuable items ending up in their inventory.

To avoid these and similar scams, it is crucial that you always check the trader's Steam profile, observe their Steam level, the year of Steam connection, and never log in with your Steam account on unknown or suspicious websites. If you experience any suspicious activity, immediately change your password and use Steam Guard protection.

I have written a more detailed guide, tips, and examples of the most common scams and how to avoid them on the Steam Community, which you can access at the following link:

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Avoiding Scams

Information

Since scammers are present in everything that involves money, they try to steal skins using various methods. One of the most common is the "API scam," where they gain access to the victim's profile (usually possible if you logged into your Steam account on a phishing site), and when you send a trade offer to someone, the scammer instantly changes it and sends the items to their own inventory. However, with a little attention and caution, this can be avoided by always checking the Steam level and the year of Steam connection. If an item has already been stolen, unfortunately, you can only report the scammer on Steam.

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What can I do?

If your profile is accessed and you see that the trade is being changed, follow these steps:

Change your password.
Disconnect and log out from all devices.
Click this link to change your API key: (steamcommunity.com/dev/apikey) (Revoke My Steam Web API Key).
There will be a warning window that your old API key will not work, but ignore this; it only removes the scammer's access to your profile.
Verify that you have successfully changed your API key and password.
If you have successfully completed the steps, you will now be able to trade securely. However, if the trade continues to be modified, restart the described steps.

It is generally recommended to put 3-cent (so-called worthless items) in the trade to further enhance secure trading (see picture):

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Filtering out Scammers

It can happen that scammers contact you with the same name and profile picture, but I will never add you or ask for skins from you; this is my only Steam profile, which I have been building for years.

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Middleman Service

A middleman (intermediary) is needed when two parties cannot agree on a skin sale. Therefore, with this service, I take on the role of a third party to ensure both parties can trade securely. The buyer sends me the amount promised to the seller, and I forward it to the seller as soon as the skin(s) have been transferred to the buyer. The service costs 5 euros for amounts under 260 euros and 3% of the selling price for amounts over 260 euros.

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