On Februar, 11th 2022 I got scammed for 200 keys. I had done a comment on a trustworthy players profile that I want to sell keys for paypal. He added me as a friend within a minute, we had a nice talk, i sent him 200k and while waiting for the paypal-money to arrive i got another friend request from the same player - and realized I got scammed.

Stupid? Right! I should have checked the profile. No doubt. But lets put the focus on Valve. I reported the sammers profile and checked backpack where he had several negative scam-reputations over several months. Its most likely that those reporters also marked is profile for scamming. So why is he still able to use it?

I watched the profile of the scammer for a about a day seeing how he impersonated several different profiles every hour. Then I contacted Valves support via the normal support-function (hard to find - they dont wanna support their customers).

I wrote them that i know that I missed to check the profile, that i know i should not trade outside steam and that I know they will not refund me. And I asked 3 questions:

1. Why are profiles marked for scamming by the community still active after weeks and months? It would be easy to check the accuse by checking how the user is impersonating 50 different accounts per day or by taking a look on the users trade history or in his chats.

2. Why does steam has a function enabling the user to change profile name and avatar unlimited times a day? There are not other uses for continual re-profiling than scamming or cloaking aim-bots.
Update: Meanwhile you have a trade cooldown after changing your profile name. Good improovement.

3. What can I do - which legal actions do I have to take - to get information about the profile, e.g. phone-number, from Valve.


The answer was: "Very sorry... cannot restore your items ... please read the faq."


I thanked them for giving me the answers i allready knew on question I didnt asked and asked for an answer on my three questions a second time.


The answer was: "Very sorry... cannot restore your items ... please read the faq."


And they closed the ticket.


So this is why Valve supports scammers more than honest players:

1. They dont close profile that are scaming for a long time though they could easily check whether the accuse is justified.

2. They provide functions that help scammers and aimbots without having a meaningful use for real players.

3. They dont help to get information about scamming profiles.

4. They earn money from scamming: scammers sell their items at community market and scammed players buy new items for the ones they lost. Double profit for valve.


So keep in mind: Valve benefits from scamming and their support is a just b u l l s h i t .