Im VAC Banned and i dont scam ......

Easiest way to not get scammed is to give them to me. xP

You've forgotten to mention that if a person has "[Steam-admin]" or "[Valve]" or "[GabeN-cousin-totaly-legit]" in his name, that it means that he is affiliated with steam, should be totally trusted and is 100% safe to send your password to.

4: If someone offers you anything for bad rats, its already a crazy deal. I mean, nothing is worth as much as bad rats...

Added #7.

How about those people with fake (+rep) on their profile scamming no rep people? Just because they have no rep, people wont believe them.

Make sure that their paypal is verfied before you make a paypal trade.

DO NOT rely on every russian who offer you buying games for a cheap price from him.

If they use google translate to communicate with you, its not cool.

Thank you, TartFlavor, for posting this information. You have saved me from at least one scammer, already.

HOW TO SCAM

I've seen a lot of links to this post, helping people who have been scammed; and I think that that's a great thing. But it's a bit one-sided, so I figured I'd write some tips for people on the other end.

1. Change your name to put the [SCAMMER] tag at the beginning. This will catch the people you are trying to scam off-guard, because they'll assume that a real scammer would never advertise it openly. Additionally, scammers can recognize each other by that tag, so they don't accidentally scam each other.
2. On the other hand, when starting a trade, remember to loudly add "ALSO I AM NOT A SCAMMER" to your initial trade suggestion. Reassure the other person in great detail that you are not about to do whatever it is you are about to do ("don't worry, I will definitely not take your gift and then run off laughing at your foolishness for trusting me despite the [SCAMMER] tag!") When talking to them, emphasize how much you hate scammers. No, how much you hate hate HATE scammers. Play it up to an utterly creepy degree. Rant for at least half an hour about how scammers are the scum of the earth and you want to murder them all (describe this in brutal, sickening detail.) This will earn the user's trust and totally not make them think you are deranged madman (and even if they do ask if you're a deranged madman, just say hey, deranged madman != scammer!)
3. Always go first! Give them a gibberish key or, better yet, say "HA HA I AM A SCAMMER! I send you NOTHING! Now send me the game as agreed." Since they will have promised to send you the game at this point (and, unlike you, they are not a scammer) they will be honor-bound to send you their game even after this.
4. Remember, it is easier to scam people out of common things; people will be less on-guard if they don't perceive what they're trading to you as valuable. Smart scammers focus on scamming people out of DotA 2 keys or out of keys that are currently being given away for free in unlimited numbers. Probably the most clever scammer I know once managed to scam someone out of ASCII art of a bear (which they tricked the other person into copy-pasting into the chat.) If you can do that, then you'll be a true scammer.

PART TWO: WHAT TO DO AFTER A SUCCESSFUL SCAM.

1. It's important to report your successful scam so you can get credit for it in the scammer community. Create a post for it on the Steamgifts forum. Remember to lower your rating on steamrep. Update the "people scammed" counter on your Steam profile.
2. This is hard, but remember: Don't send them the game you agreed to send them. Remember, you are a scammer. It may be tempting to send it to them, and a lot of scammers screw up this step. Other times, you may get absent-minded and find yourself buying a game, then sending it to them. That's why it's very important for you to go first, so you don't forget you were planning to scam them while waiting for their game. It's particularly embarrassing if you send them the game, wait about a month, then contact them while they're playing it and say "AHAHAHA I AM A SCAMMER! THE GAME I SENT YOU, I DID NOT SEND!" That doesn't usually work.

(Next someone needs to complete this set by writing HOW TO GET SCAMMED.)

Too many threads of late, this needs a bump.

Sorry, but my guide is way better.

How to avoid being scammed:

1. Don't trade.

I don't understand how being VAC banned means that a person might be a scammer and we should avoid trading with him!
Being VAC Banned has literally nothing to do with trading! I'm VAC Banned, and I've done MANY trades, both Money trades and strictly Steam trades.

Added tip 12

Just bumping this for some people out there to see.

Don't trade using paypal. That will stop a lot of major scams.