how to deal with shady steam trading?

Will steam do anything about it? No. Even with a screencap I doubt they'll do anything.

then i guess theres only one thing i could do....

become.........THE GOD DAMNED BATMAN! and deal out some vigilante justice...

Steam only support trades through the trade window, so no keys. Just make sure you trade with someone with decent rep on steam trades and you should be fine.

The "best" you can hope for is that they will remove the game from the scammers account or give the scammer a (temporary) trade ban, but it's more likely that Steam support will do nothing at all (and you will definitely not get a tradeable gift in your inventory for losing a key).

Valve's policy on trading outside of the trading window: DON'T DO IT!

If you're new to trading read this and use common sense (most people that post that they've been scammed seemed to lack it) - and remember: if it sounds too good to be true, it's probably a scamming attempt.

Use trusted middlemen you probably won't get scammed that way unless he gives a fake key.
Steam rep could get him trade banned and others won't trade with him and that's 1 less scammer

actually, you're not supposed to trade keys, and Steam probably won't do anything if you get scammed.
best way to do it, is make the other guy go first, or use a trusted middleman.

If you're doing anything else than Steam Gift Trade you're risking losing your stuff and Valve won't do anything with scammer - AFAIK they don't save chat messages anywhere so there's no proof you were scammed - screenshots can be faked.

aight....pretty much is how i imagined....

just figured id ask and see if there was anything else to add onto it all...

any sites out there used for this ???

someone mentioned a middle-man....anybody know of someone who does this and is known?

Steam doesn't even guarantee that their own designed trade system will actually get you what you traded for, they won't do absolutely nothing for keys/money exchanged outside...