Most Dangerous Trading Scams In CS2 (CSGO) [Read To Avoid]

Impersonation Scam

Impersonation scams were highly effective five to eight years ago, as the CS community was filled with many young and naive players. However, most CS2 (CSGO) players have grown up and become wary of this type of scam.

Scammers will try to impersonate famous CS2 (CSGO) YouTubers, websites, or personalities by creating social media accounts using the same name and profile picture, hence the term impersonating. Then, they will add or message you asking you for skins. In return, they’ll give you a shout-out or something like that.

Though it may be obvious, lots of beginner CS2 (CSGO) traders lack the knowledge and still fall for this scam. No YouTuber or professional player will ever ask you for your skins!

You can avoid this scam by checking the account’s social media follower count or if it has a verification badge. Most CS2 (CSGO) YouTubers are verified on social media platforms like Instagram and have tens to hundreds of thousands of followers.

If these impersonators are adding you through Steam, most influential personalities will have their profiles set to Public. You can also look through their friend list for high-level Steam users and check their inventory for their skins.

Middleman Scam

The Middleman scam is another prevalent one in the early days of CS. In typical CS2 (CSGO) skin trades, you can send trade offers so nobody has to go first. However, in transactions involving real money, someone has to go first.

If neither the buyer nor seller wants to go first, they can call in a Middleman, who will act as a third-party holder. Here’s how a Middleman transaction looks like:

• Neither Buyer and Seller want to go first, so they call a Middleman

• The Seller sends the Middleman the money

• The Middleman confirms the money and holds it until the Buyer sends the item

• The Buyer sends the Seller the item

• The Seller confirms that the item has been received and verified

• The Middleman releases the money to the Seller

Middlemen are trusted people within the community and are required for high-value transactions. However, lots of scammers take this opportunity to become “fake” Middlemen.

With the entire process in mind, you can imagine what happens when a buyer or seller is working with a fake Middleman to scam traders.

When looking for a Middleman, make sure to check their reputation on websites such as SteamRep. Some CS2 (CSGO) trading plugins could also help you avoid this scam.

Phishing Link Scam

Phishing link scams have become more and more common over the years. Many scammers use scam links to infiltrate the data of users who click on them.

Random people (scammers) will try adding you on Steam. Once you’ve accepted them, they will come up with excuses to make you click on their phishing link.

A common excuse people have been using is they need an extra player in their team for an upcoming tournament. These scammers will ask you to join their team and send you a link to the tournament page for more information.

If you decline their invitation to participate in the tournament, they will go on and ask you to just “vote for their team” instead of playing in it.

If you can’t tell already, the tournament link they sent you is the phishing link. When you click on the link, these scammers can steal your information, such as your Steam login details and steal your items from there.

In other cases, these scammers will say you have won a giveaway, and you have to click on a link to claim your reward.

API Key Scam (Very Dangerous)

The API Key scam is somewhat similar to the phishing scam. However, instead of directly taking your skins by force, these scammers are only focused on your API key.

Many scammers are impersonating legitimate CS2 (CSGO) trading and gambling websites by creating fake websites and paying Google to display their websites at the top of the search bar. For example, you Google CSGOEmpire, and the “Sponsored” website is a fake version of CSGOEmpire.

If you’ve visited a lot of CS2 (CSGO) websites like trading sites, there’s a slight chance you might have clicked a fake one and have been infected with the API scam. You wouldn’t know this immediately because API key scams wait for you to make a Steam trade to take action.

So, how does the API Key scam work? When sending a regular trade offer, here’s how it goes:

• You send a trade offer to another person

• Steam tells you to confirm it on your mobile device

• You go on your phone and confirm the trade

• The trade is completed

But when you’re infected with an API Key scam, the process becomes different:

• You send a trade offer to another person

• The API Key scam will automatically cancel the trade offer and immediately send the same offer to another account with the same name and profile picture

• This “other” account is one automatically created by the scammer

• You go on your mobile device to confirm the trade, thinking that you’ve checked everything in the past minute

• The trade is completed, and you soon realize you sent it to a scammer

Since the scamming process happens instantly after you’ve sent an offer, you could easily let your guard down and confirm the trade on your phone. The scam happens in a one-second window, so this scam has also affected experienced traders.

Exit Scam (Very Dangerous)

If you’ve delved into the world of cryptocurrency, you have probably heard of an exit scam. Unfortunately, the same type of scam can be applied in the CS2 (CSGO) trading market. You could have a highly trusted trader who has completed hundreds of high-value transactions with an amazing reputation and is trusted by notable members of the CS2 (CSGO) community.

However, for whatever reason, this trader might want to pull off an exit scam. This could be due to going through hardships in real life, like personal problems, financial issues, or whatever it could be. Then, this trader will use the amazing reputation they’ve built up over the years to pull off an exit scam.

Usually, these traders will post that they are looking for big deals. This “deal” could be them either “buying” or “selling” something. For example, they could be cashing out a decent chunk of their inventory, or they could be buying one of the most expensive CS2 (CSGO) skins like a Blue Gem. The traders will offer great prices or some sort of discount to make the deal more enticing.

Once a person is interested in the deal, the trader will ask the victim to go first in the transaction. This is a normal thing to do for people who have incredible reputations in the trading community, so the victim would usually be ready to go first. And lo and behold, the trader runs away with the victim’s money or items.

Before getting exposed, the trader will try to scam as many people as possible before everyone is aware. We think this is the most dangerous scam, as it takes years and thousands of CS2 (CSGO) trading transactions to build up a massive reputation to pull this scam off. Also, it is probably the hardest scam to avoid since things like these do not come up that often.