Steam Virtual Item Scams
During recent years we've seen an emergence of many new forms of online scams. One of the most seen has been virtual item scams targeting Steam users. Many games on Steam allow users to purchase and use virtual items to enhance their gameplay experience. Steam has built-in trading functionality to allow users to trade items with one another. Unfortunately, scammers are taking advantage of the trading aspect of Steam in an attempt to steal virtual items from users. Some virtual items from popular games such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive can be worth thousands of dollars so it's very enticing for scammers to target.
This page will hopefully serve as a guide to teach Steam users what to look out for. We will regularly update this page as new methods and domains are detected. All domains we detect promoting such nefarious scams are fed into our global domain blacklist which is utilised by services such as VirusTotal.
This page will hopefully serve as a guide to teach Steam users what to look out for. We will regularly update this page as new methods and domains are detected. All domains we detect promoting such nefarious scams are fed into our global domain blacklist which is utilised by services such as VirusTotal.
Known Methods
Fake gambling siteIt was reported that $5 billion was spent on CS:GO gambling during 2016 alone. This recently created and thriving community is a target for scammers. Be cautious when you're offered large deposit bonuses. The scam usually works because using your bonus you will win something desirable but to withdraw you must deposit. Depositing will simply result in the loss of your item.
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Fake trading siteThere are many legitimate trading websites for virtual items from games such as CS:GO, Dota and PUBG. However, like gambling websites scammers have realised trade sites are a good vector to attempt to scam unsuspecting Steam users. The trade site scam works by offering really good trades for you (this should be an immediate alarm bell) or a new user bonus which you can use in conjunction with an item you own to upgrade to a better item. The site will require that you deposit your item first. That final step is usually a good indicator of a fake trading site since the legitimate ones will send you a Steam trade offer where all items in the trade are in a single offer.
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Fake Steam login (phishing)Scammers targeting Steam users using phishing dropped dramatically when Steam introduced the requirement for users to make use of the Steam Guard Mobile Authenticator. However, with the prevalence of virtual item gambling it's opened up a new way for Steam phishing to be useful for scammers again. Scammers have now been seen targeting Steam users known to frequent gambling sites. Using phishing the scammers can take those credentials and authenticate into gambling sites. Once in the gambling sites the scammers can withdraw any balance you may have then or in the future (the latter is dependent on the gambling sites security).
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Fake marketplaceLots of legitimate marketplaces have sprung up online that allow Steam users to sell their virtual item for real world currency. Legitimate platforms such as OPSkins process hundreds of thousands of dollars every single day in virtual item sales. Scammers attempt to leach off the success of legitimate marketplaces by offering Steam users better valuations for their virtual items. However, when the user sends their virtual items to the site they receive nothing in return and are left out of pocket.
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Domains
We are constantly blacklisting domains dedicated to virtual item scams. To view our full list please click here.