As most of you probably know, there are people on the internet who will take advantage of any situation involving items or money. Here are a few tips to keep yourself and your trades safe.

1. Always do your homework.
I can't tell you how many times I've seen people get cheated by a shark. A shark is someone who looks for someone new to trading, and will take advantage of it by telling them that an item is worth much less than it actually is. The only problems is that at the moment CS:GO trading is really new, and there is no set price for anything or price cites (like backpack.tf for TF2) I have no doubt their will be some in the future, but for now, go off of what you can. Look up prices on the market, see what other people are trading. After doing so, you'll be able to make a good decision on what you should sell it for.

2. Reputation.
You normally won't have to worry about this, but if you have a feeling that someone is taking advantage of you and you want to know if they are a marked scammer, there is a website just for that. http://steamrep.com/ This website has helped determine the banishment of many steam users, valve employees will commonly look here for evidence to determine a ban. It is HIGHLY reccomended to do a reputation check whenever you are doing high value trade. Scammers like to go big or go home. Remember that.

3. Real world money trades.
(This is more of a topic for high value trades. Remember: trade real world money at your own risk.) If you ever do this, ALWAYS. REP. CHECK. Only do real world trades with people who are clean as a whistle, and who have been on steam for at least 6 months to a year. Take screenshots of everything, so if you do get scammed, you have evidence, and can report to steamrep right away. If you just want the money for steam, just use the market. It's not worth the risk if your just trying to avoid fees.

3.5 Middlemen.
A middleman is someone who both parties of a trade can trust, and will make sure nobody gets scammed during real world money trades. Both parties of the trade give their item/money to this person, and this person will give the money to the seller, and the item to the buyer. This is the safest way to do a real world money trades, and is reccomended to anyone doing so.

4. There is no such thing as a free item.
If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. Use your brain, be smart about trading.

I hope you found this information useful, happy trading!