CS2 players take a lot of pride in the library of weapon skins that they’ve accumulated. One of the worst things that could happen to a CS2 player is if they lose all their skins to a scam. To help you avoid those situations, here is a list of the newest CS2 scam tactics.
API Scams
The API scam is the most common scam tactic within the CS2 community. Scammers need to be able to initiate and cancel trade offers from someone’s Steam account to steal their skins using this tactic. To get access to these features, scammers use phishing techniques.
Once the scammer has access, they quietly wait for you to initiate a trade with someone. As soon as you initiate the trade, they cancel it and initiate another trade with their account. However, the scammer can’t access your Steam guard, which means only you can approve the trade.
To make you believe that you are actually trading with the same person you initiated the trade with, the scammer changes the name and profile picture of their account to the ones from the person’s account you were trying to trade with, hoping that you will only check the profile picture and the name and then approve the trade.
Impersonation Scam
Another way that scammers will try to steal skins is by pretending to be a popular figure in the CS2 community, like a reputable skin trader, a professional player, or a famous content creator. You might think it is impossible to fall for that, but it’s actually one of the main ways CS2 players lose their skins.
Once a scammer has convinced someone that they are a popular figure in the CS2 community, they’ll ask the victim to lend them their skins and then block the victim after receiving them. Or, they’ll try to make a trade where the scammer gets an expensive skin, but the victim unknowingly gets a cheap one.
Skin Lending Scam
Surprisingly, in many scam cases, the scammers didn’t have to pretend to be someone they were not. In fact, the popular figure decides to scam someone using their reputation to convince the victim into lending their CS2 skins.
It’s quite common within the CS2 community for fans of a professional player to lend them valuable skins so they can play using those skins. However, there have been various reports of popular figures like this getting skins from their fans and then simply deciding to keep them.
Scam Sites
CS2 players often use third-party websites for skin trading, cashing out CS2 skins, or gambling with CS2 skins. However, the internet is filled with scam sites since anyone can create a new website. Always select reputable and trusted online platforms to avoid getting scammed from a scam site.
Phishing
Like impersonation, people can make websites that look exactly like legit platforms. You can even make a website that looks exactly like the Steam login page. However, scammers can program these websites to acquire whatever information you enter, which includes your Steam login information.
This technique where scammers try to steal information by creating a fake website is called phishing. Always ensure that you are using an official link to get access to a website so you don’t end up on a phishing link.
Conclusion
One of the best things you can do to avoid getting scammed is to stay away from websites that seem shady and triple-check all the details before approving a trade offer. Check out the list of common scam tactics above to know exactly how they work so you can avoid becoming a victim of one of them.
