As many already know, impersonating trustworthy traders is one of many ways that a scammer will try to scam people.

They'll change their Steam profile around in an attempt to make themselves look like a trustworthy trader by changing their username, avatar, and such to try to match the trader's profile. They'll then contact victims directly from Steam, and in order to have leverage in a "trade" so that the victim goes first, they then link them to the trustworthy trader's real Steamtrades profile, hoping that the victim doesn't notice that the scammer's profile doesn't match the real user's Steam profile.

Basically, I just found out that I am being impersonated in such a way. Fortunately, though, someone did notice the difference and told me, and I've done what there is to do: report it via Steam, Steamrep, and Steamgifts. But all of those take time, understandably.

I was thinking, though, that because imposters often link to Steamtrade profiles, as mine is most likely doing, I feel that allowing users to activate a sort of warning on their Steamgift profiles, which would be blatantly visible on there, would be something that could help thwart such attempts. Of course, once the scammer figures out that you're on to them, they may simply impersonate someone else, but it makes it inconvenient for them, and although they may move on to someone else, it could still help potential victims until they do. If you're in my situation where it's currently happening and you're aware of it, It would at least allow for some sort of immediate action rather than having to wait for it to hopefully be taken care of.

Originally, the thought was to simply allow users to create a custom message for their profile, but I assume that isn't already a thing due to the fact that anything user-defined means more content that would require potential moderation. If I'm wrong, however, that would also be a welcomed, much more used/useful feature instead.

9 years ago*

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Mmh as far as I know you CAN set a custom message on your profile.. it's the 'Summary' on your Profile Edit page.. You could also use the 'Custom Info Box' in the extra Profile Box you select on there.

If you want to tell people to be wary of those attempts and to check that whoever is trying to trade with them then is really you by checking the profile linked on that user.. Go Ahead !!

9 years ago
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Oh, I mean to have a message on one's Steamgifts profile, not their Steam profile. However, you're right, if the victim thinks to at least check the Steam profile from the Steamgift profile, they would be able to see a warning there, but some don't know to do even that, and will simply accept the provided Steamgift profile as the person that they're talking to.

I'll clarify that on the first post.

9 years ago
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summary on steam profile is useless. your impersonator adds someone, sends your sg profile, victim falls for that because they're a stranger of sg or trading or whatever the reason is. and they never see your warning on your steam profile.

9 years ago
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Or the imposter puts a warning on their profile identical to yours. Perhaps even linking to you.

9 years ago
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with little to none +rep? :D

9 years ago
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As an update, I spent the week occasionally checking the imposter's profile and warning anyone that accepted his friend requests. As a result, he is now impersonating someone else, and has set their profile to private, so no more being able to warn his potential victims.

I've found and made the person that is now being impersonated aware. He has now also filed similar reports and, as a plus, Steamgifts support has permanently suspended the imposter's account here; however, as his Steamgifts profile hasn't been accessed in over a month, he must be using another account on here to find victims, so hopefully they were able to find any other account he had on here.

Still, an option like what I've suggested would be very useful for any traders in this sort of situation in the future.

9 years ago*
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