There has been quite the rise in impersonators around here lately and more and more people seem to fall for their scams. It has been suggested that there should be a post concerning the subject, in order to prevent users from getting scammed, however considering that ST is not actively moderated, we wouldn't be able to maintain such a topic currently. The warning about this subject is more on how to avoid or handle such scams.
Please make sure the ST profile being linked from the person adding you, actually belongs to them. Verify that their steam profile URL is the same as the one who added you to trade and obviously, please search for them on steamrep, don't ask them to link their profile/rep, just do it yourselves.
In the case of such a scam occuring, please report them to steamrep and SG support, by providing some proof of what happened and explaining any details (please attach screenshots of your chatlogs and their steam profile). Creating a thread on SG forums in not the way to go, as that will get you temporarily suspended for calling out. There have been incidents of the wrong person getting blamed for a scam and thus harassed for absolutely no reason.
On feedback
Misuse of feedback has been turning out to be quite an issue, not only with messing up trades but also with reports on support about its removal. I think that most users are not aware of how it should be used thus this thread will serve as a reminder and a warning on how it should be used, how it shouldn't be used and what will happen if it's not used accordingly.
Feedback should be used for :
Successfully completed trades.
Scammers/Impersonators and warning the community about those
Feedback should NOT be used for :
Random comments, unrelated to a trade.
Comments such as "rude", "lowballer", "regifter" and so on. This is trade and not attitude related feedback.
Fake positive feedback for boosting your reputation count.
Revenge reputation (such as giving negative rep to someone just because they gave you false negative rep).
Common sense should apply in the above. The fact that I didn't mention a specific comment does not mean that it's acceptable. Misuse of feedback can get you suspended temporarily and if done repeatedly, suspension can get permanent. Revenge feedback, in particular, is especially tricky considering a lot of people want negative reputation removed from their profiles. If the people requesting the removal of negative rep from support have left such revenge negative feedback on the other user's profile, they can get temporarily suspended as well. Giving them revenge feedback does not make you any better than them.
Considering all the above, I would like to ask users here to remove any feedback they have left on other people's profiles that does not follow the guidelines above. Any investigation done on the removal of negative feedback from now on will take this thread into account and the fact that everyone should have read it and complied with it. No appeals will be handled for temporary misuse of feedback suspensions, considering you had the time to remove it yourselves.
Since lots of people ask :
Request for removal of fake feedback is done through SG support here
Please attach some kind of proof of what happened if the comment doesn't contain an explanation.
Thank you for reading and good luck in your trades!
Edit : Considering the "Gives fake feedback"-like comments as acceptable. Still under discussion but looks like it will be added.
On impersonators
There has been quite the rise in impersonators around here lately and more and more people seem to fall for their scams. It has been suggested that there should be a post concerning the subject, in order to prevent users from getting scammed, however considering that ST is not actively moderated, we wouldn't be able to maintain such a topic currently. The warning about this subject is more on how to avoid or handle such scams.
Please make sure the ST profile being linked from the person adding you, actually belongs to them. Verify that their steam profile URL is the same as the one who added you to trade and obviously, please search for them on steamrep, don't ask them to link their profile/rep, just do it yourselves.
In the case of such a scam occuring, please report them to steamrep and SG support, by providing some proof of what happened and explaining any details (please attach screenshots of your chatlogs and their steam profile). Creating a thread on SG forums in not the way to go, as that will get you temporarily suspended for calling out. There have been incidents of the wrong person getting blamed for a scam and thus harassed for absolutely no reason.
On feedback
Misuse of feedback has been turning out to be quite an issue, not only with messing up trades but also with reports on support about its removal. I think that most users are not aware of how it should be used thus this thread will serve as a reminder and a warning on how it should be used, how it shouldn't be used and what will happen if it's not used accordingly.
Feedback should be used for :
Feedback should NOT be used for :
Common sense should apply in the above. The fact that I didn't mention a specific comment does not mean that it's acceptable. Misuse of feedback can get you suspended temporarily and if done repeatedly, suspension can get permanent. Revenge feedback, in particular, is especially tricky considering a lot of people want negative reputation removed from their profiles. If the people requesting the removal of negative rep from support have left such revenge negative feedback on the other user's profile, they can get temporarily suspended as well. Giving them revenge feedback does not make you any better than them.
Considering all the above, I would like to ask users here to remove any feedback they have left on other people's profiles that does not follow the guidelines above. Any investigation done on the removal of negative feedback from now on will take this thread into account and the fact that everyone should have read it and complied with it. No appeals will be handled for temporary misuse of feedback suspensions, considering you had the time to remove it yourselves.
Since lots of people ask :
Request for removal of fake feedback is done through SG support here
Please attach some kind of proof of what happened if the comment doesn't contain an explanation.
Thank you for reading and good luck in your trades!
Edit : Considering the "Gives fake feedback"-like comments as acceptable. Still under discussion but looks like it will be added.