Team Fortress 2 Scams that aren't so obvious

The Lucky No. 42

This is a promotional item from summer 2011.Scammers use it, because it has 2 variants - craftable and non-craftable. The craftable version is much more rare which makes it more expensive. (As of writing this, Non-craftable is ~6 keys while craftable is 30 keys).

The Non-craftable price

The craftable price

How it goesThe scam starts with you receiving a trade offer that looks generous with the trade message claiming that the person sending you the offer is overpaying and links the backpack page to the craftable version of the item while the trade offer contains the cheaper non-craftable version.

Sharpened Volcano Fragment

This scam is quite uncommon but it still happens. Besides the Collector's, Genuine and Vintage, there is also an non-craftable version of this weapon which is very rare and expensive.

Price of the uncraftable version.

Price of the normal weapon (0.5 scrap, nothing special).

How it goesIncase you own one of these non-craftable ones, you might recieve a trade offer with your Sharpened Volcano Fragment hidden between other weapons so you don't notice or even know its true value. There are also a few other items that have a much more expensive non-craftable version, mostly cosmetics. Always check prices before trading, the smallest detail can change an item's value.

The Festivizer/Industrial Festivizer

A scam that is based off the person not being well-informed about hats and tools in TF2.

This is a Festivizer. It's used to add christmas lights to certain weapons and weapons skins. It's priced around a key.

This is the Industrial Festivizer. It's a craft hat for engineer. It's priced at 1.33 ref (a craft hat).

How it goesThe scam starts with you being offered a "festivizer" while the scammer hopes that you won't notice it not being a festivizer but an Industrial Festivizer in its place.

Festive/Festivized Items

A festive weapon is a weapon that could be unboxed, a festivized weapon is a weapon which had the "festive" part added with a Festivizer.

This is a festive medi gun. It was unboxed and is much more expensive than a festivized version.

This is a festivized medi gun. It was crafted with a festivizer and is much cheaper than an actual festive weapon.

How it goesYou are offered a FESTIVIZED weapon with the trade message claiming it is a festive one. They might also link the price of the festive version to mislead you further.

Community Market Description Scams

This one I have reported to Valve in hopes of them doing something about it (hopefully removing descriptions on the Community Market). It's another scam preying upon newer or inexperienced traders.

FAKEThese two are obvious fakes to players that know how descriptions work, however they still pop up on the market if someone searches for the specific attributes that are faked on these weapons.

REALReal effects, spells and attributes will show up in colored text. They will never be written with plain white text, those are always descriptions.

A Few Things You Should Always Keep In Mind While Trading

Nobody is going to pay you to advertise their website, it's a scam.

Valve will never contact you through friend requests and steam messages OR discord.

You will never have to "scan" or "validate" your items. DO NOT trade your items to anyone.

Never log into any website that someone sends you. If a friend sends a link that's suspicious, they might have had their account stolen.

Always double check your trades, use backpack[backpack.tf] .

There are no such things as "pending reports", "false reports" and "steam admins", someone is trying to steal your account.

If your name or profile image ever change on their own, change your passwords everywhere, it's not Steam, it's someone who has access to a leaked database and has your password and email combination.

Never trust anyone. Only do direct trades.

Conclusion

Stay safe, double check all your trades, don't log into random websites, change your password regularly, don't trust anyone, especially people who are "generous" with their offers. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Take care.

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2656288755

Scams that aren't so obvious