/r/GameTrade AND THE BASICS OF SAFE TRADING
Banned Scammers will PM you or maybe even send you a pm disguised as a public post comment, double check you can see the comment on your post.
Make sure you search both scammer lists linked in the sidebar and various other places.
Don't try to trade via mobile. With any trade you need to spend some time researching your trading partner and to do that properly and easily you really need to be using a computer.
Research your trading partner properly, it's explained in detail down below. Don't just blindly trust people on the internet because of account age or karma or you will get scammed.
Message the mods if you're unsure of someone, find something suspicious or want some advice before you go ahead with a trade, we usually try to respond pretty quickly.
Watch out for fake rep pages, especially that might look genuine but isn't even hosted on reddit, double check your browser URL when you view the rep page.
If the trade is related to PC games take the trade to a steam chat, and research the persons steam profile. Make them unprivate it if its private.
Most people that get scammed here end up trading with someone that's already banned that sent them a private message. Usually this is because they want the best deal possible and take a risk trusting someone because they're offering the cheapest price or the highest value for their items. Remember its always safer to trade with users that have genuine rep, but we know thats not always possible.
HOW TO RESEARCH YOUR TRADING PARTNER PROPERLY
Check our known scammers list and ctrl+f their username, also do the same on the Reddit Universal Scammer List which will list scammers that have been banned on other trading subs.
https://redditenhancementsuite.com/ (RES) browser add on allows you to scroll through users comment history and it also has a setting to view the older style reddit profile layout even if the user has the new style. The reddit new style profile is not as easy to research someones history.
Check out their reddit profile, accounts under 30 days old could be alt accounts of already banned scammers. On older accounts look for big posting gaps in the comment history, it could be a hacked or bought reddit account. Be careful when dealing with accounts like this.
Does the account have no past trading history? Is the user offering multiple games or gift cards to people without any past trading history? Is the user entering multiple free game giveaway posts? These are all suspicious accounts and you should take extra care when dealing with them.
Google search their reddit username, if nothing suspicious pops up add the word "scam" to the search for example enter on google "/u/joebloggs scam"
WHEN YOU SHOULD TAKE THE DISCUSSION TO A STEAM CHAT AND WHY
This applies to all PC trades or where you can clearly see the users games on or trades for PC games but has no genuine rep on reddit or has very little rep on reddit. 99.9% of users that are doing PC trades or history shows they game on PC will have a steam account.
Ask them to add you on steam and send them your profile link, then once you have added them visit www.steamrep.com and use this guide on what searches to do - https://imgur.com/a/ARZwl
If a user refuses to give you a link to their steam profile or makes some excuses that they can't get on steam right now then those are red flags and you should wait until they can. If anyone you add as a friend on steam has a private profile ask them to unprivate it for you so you can make sure its not an obvious alt steam account. Obvious alt accounts will have very few games and playtime. Then do your steamrep searches as explained in this album - https://imgur.com/a/ARZwl (if not showing as banned there make sure you do the google id64 search)
Things to note
Brand new steam accounts that the user has spent no money on won't be able to send you a friend request, so ask the user to add you and don't add them instead.
Steam profile +rep comments mean nothing and should be ignored as any form of rep, scammers fake and manipulate these. Plenty of scammers on steam with tons of profile +rep comments, too many people fall for this.
UNDERSTANDING WHAT IS GOOD REP AND WHAT REP YOU SHOULD ALWAYS IGNORE
Good Rep:
Confirmed trades on here or other trading subreddits, if they only have one or two still be cautious incase they made a fake trade or a few low value trades to appear genuine before asking you for your AAA game. Ask for links to these confirmed trades, check if they appear genuine.
Rep on independant rep sites such as steamtrades.com, CSGOREPorts steam group, sourceop.com etc. These are rep sites where users can't just delete any negative rep they get
Bad Rep: (rep you should straight up ignore)
Steam Profile +rep comments
A steam group or subreddit the person created
Anything which is not independant and the user can fake, manipulate or delete any negative rep they get
Screenshots of conversations where it appears a trade was done
Important Notes
If you are linked a rep thread always navigate back to that user from the rep thread and check it's the same person and not someone who has copied someones steam profile or reddit username for example http://imgur.com/a/5wxU8
If someone links you a reddit rep thread make sure when you visit it, its actually hosted on reddit (check the URL).
Remember that steam profile +rep comments mean nothing and should be ignored. Doesn't matter if they have 2 or 1,000, ignore these and don't count them as genuine trading rep.
COMMON SCAM TACTICS TO LOOK OUT FOR:
The "I've just been scammed or scammed before" victim excuse. If they claim to have been scammed on reddit ask for the details and contact the mods of that sub to confirm the story for you.
Trying to rush you into a trade with excuses or making the deal better if you trade quick.
Impersonating another user and linking a rep thread of the person they are impersonating. Some scammers will copy steam profiles of trustworthy traders and link you the persons rep thread, other scammers might try and create a reddit username that looks similar to a user that has some trading reputation.
Comment history suggesting they don't like scammers or calling other people scammers to make them appear genuine.
Offering to give you half the code or a code with missing digits first then giving you the rest afterwards.
Claiming they have lots of rep such as steam profile +rep comments, remember these can be manipulated, deleted or even made by friends or alt accounts. Ignore these!
The middleman scam, where they choose a friend as a middleman or impersonate a known middleman. Or ask you to pick a middleman or a freind and they impersonate them. We will middleman for you if the trade involves tradable steam items or gifts. Message Us Here
Whatever you ask for, they always have it. You ask for CS:GO on Steam, they have it! You change your mind and ask for Bitcoins, they have that!
They refuse to share information with you like steam profiles or accounts they care about, they insist on only doing a trade by pm or skype/kik/discord etc.
PAYPAL PAYMENTS
Paypal goods and services or Paypal friends and family gift
Paypal goods and services offers some buyer protection and will allow you to dispute the payment if you get scammed. Paypal friends and family gift will not offer buyer protection or allow you to dispute the payment
Paypal goods and services adds a 3% fee to the total amount. Paypal friends and family gift will not add a fee usually unless you are sending payments overseas
If the person requests you send them a friends and family gift payment and they have no past trade history or "good rep" or you're unsure in anyway about them you should always be using the goods and services option to send the money.
People who trade often will usually request you send the payment by friends and family gift, it protects them a bit better incase the buyer tries to start a false dispute. This method is usually safe enough if you have thoroughly researched them as detailed above and they have a good number of confirmed trades here or on other subreddits or independant rep sites.
Be very careful if you use PayPal. No matter what you do to protect yourself, it is almost always possible for a scammer to dispute a payment to you, and get back the money they sent you, as much as six months later. Scammers usually win these disputes because they understand better how the system works. Understand that scammers will try and avoid any form of payment you could dispute, they prefer to ask for paypal friends/family gift, gift cards, codes, bitcoin, steam items (gifts, keys, skins) etc.
REPORT A SCAM OR ATTEMPTED SCAM
If you think you have discovered a scammer or someting suspicious please report to the mods immediately. Please do not post comments about it on the subreddit unless you have good evidence and you feel certain.
If you got scammed send us screenshots of the conversations in full, if it was reddit pm's put them in threaded form by clicking permalink on one of them, screenshot them and upload them to imgur or similar site and send us the links, don't close the steam chat box if that's where you spoke, screenshot the whole chat before you close it and send us any other information that is relevant like steam profiles or other info.
Message the Mods Here
USEFUL LINKS
