The Steam Community Market needs better fraud control

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thejacs 31 Oct @ 1:46am

I like Steam — been here 16 years — and I think they do many things well. But I’m disappointed by how permissive they’ve been with this issue.

Steam Community Market it's a parallel market that actually has nothing to do with games, where users can buy/sell some kind of collectible virtual stickers. It works very well with kids, especially. I'm not a big fan, but up to this point, is fine. The issue is that Steam doesn't track sticker sales or enforce any price control.

Don't get me wrong, thinking calmly I believe Steam tries to prevent fraud, but since they earn commissions from these sales, it sometimes feels like there isn't much effort into it.

Even Steam has had issues with account leaks, despite fanboys claiming 'it would be impossible' (you know, those who jump into every post to defend Steam like it's a religion). So it's not that difficult to get phished someday, and it might not even necessarily be your fault.

Why is SCM perfect for scammers? Mr. Phisher put a crazy price for a free/cheap sticker he owns, let's say 100$ (Steam allows this without any control). Later he logs into your phished account and buy this item from himself with your money. He robbed you, and Steam Support won’t help you because ‘Sorry, we can’t track those sales’ — all while still taking the full commission. This happened to thousands of users.

This post is not about avoiding phishing or Steam leaks—those issues will always be there. It's about improving fraud tracking, implementing stronger preventive measures, and exploring possible solutions once fraud has been committed.

Steam has very talented people working on their team, fully capable of making the platform safer in this regard—if those in charge are willing, of course.

Last edited by thejacs; 3 hours ago

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Originally posted by Golden Unicorn:

Originally posted by Tito Shivan:

Because some people don't want solutions, they just want to be mad at something.

this actually sounds exactly like moderation and steam suggestion hub, steam doesn't want solutions, the moderators just want to be mad at something so they pick on the innocent posters.

as for the trade and market we all know what a scam it is, why is steam feeding the scam?

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Showing 1-7 of 7 comments

Ettanin 31 Oct @ 1:52am

Please read the Steam Subscriber Agreement, which you agreed to when created an account, especially section 1 C.

In accordance with section 1 C of the Steam Subscriber Agreement, you are fully responsible for all actions on your account, no matter who used the account. This includes actions that occurred as the consequence of fraudulent account access by phishing or malware, be it input relay, session token theft or any other method that granted a third party access to your account.

パエトーン (Belle) 31 Oct @ 1:52am

Just don't get phished. Steam provides more than enough security.
If people stubbornly keep using third party sites that phish people, then that's their problem.

Tito Shivan 31 Oct @ 4:05am

Originally posted by thejacs:
Why is Steam Community Market perfect for scammers? Mr. Phisher put a crazy price for a free/cheap sticker he owns, let's say of 100$ (Steam allows this without any control now). Later he logs into your phished account and buy this item from himself with your money. He steals your money and Steam supports will not help you. This happened to thousands of users.

And what you've defined there is also regularly used as a means of willingly transferring funds between accounts.

Mad Scientist 31 Oct @ 4:49am

Originally posted by thejacs:
If your account sadly gets phished (and it's not necessarily your fault; Steam had issues with account leaks in the past, despite fanboys claiming it would be impossible), you're in trouble.

Security of the account is on the user. Phishing attempts are very low effort and are extremely easy to spot.

Originally posted by thejacs:
Why is Steam Community Market perfect for scammers? Mr. Phisher put a crazy price for a free/cheap sticker he owns, let's say of 100$ (Steam allows this without any control now). Later he logs into your phished account and buy this item from himself with your money. He steals your money and Steam supports will not help you. This happened to thousands of users.

How exactly, would the person have gotten into the account? Not clicking unknown links, not clicking "vote for my x / y / z", not believing "accidentally reported" or "pending ban" with an account saying you need to send it to one of your own, or a "Steam rep" is obvious signs of bans.

Basically; if a site or person wants your login or personal info, it's a phishing/scam attempt.
Phishing generally relies on greed like skin/trade/gambling sites asking for your steam login, or fear attempts like "accidentally reported" or "pending ban" scams.

Originally posted by thejacs:
To prevent phising is impossible

Phishing is easily prevented by not accepting random friend invites, not clicking links from random DMs, putting the inventory or profile to Private, not "voting for" anything via links sent, and especially not using a steam login outside of steam. It's a very basic low effort attack, that even a decently-enough individual with common sense of internet security/account security can avoid id.

Originally posted by thejacs:
this post is not about this. It's about improving fraud tracking and control taking this into account. And beyond fraud, it would be good to regulate a market where some people speculate based on younger users's compulsiveness.

Teaching children begins at home, the adults are in control of all payment methods until a child is old enough to obtain a job/their own payment method. One of the main issues is people want regulation instead of education; educated users are typically common sense users, so teaching children self-control, the worthless nature of most digital-items, and security practices is on the parent/guardian. Government/other regulations should not replace basic responsibilities of parents especially when a parent is worried about a particular thing, they should teach about it.

There is also Steam Families

Originally posted by thejacs:
Steam has very talented people on their team, I'm convinced they can find better solutions to make Steam safer.

Safer begins with the parents teaching their children basic internet security practices if they're worried about basic internet issues.

Last edited by Mad Scientist; 31 Oct @ 4:50am

76561199540158642 31 Oct @ 10:27am

possibly removed as should steam's trading platform of game inventory items

Tito Shivan 31 Oct @ 10:53am

Originally posted by Golden Unicorn:
possibly removed as should steam's trading platform of game inventory items

And the moment it's gone people will complain because it's not there.

Because some people don't want solutions, they just want to be mad at something.

Last edited by Tito Shivan; 31 Oct @ 10:53am