I was added by an obvious alt who said he'd purchase my unusual from me with buds that he was going to go buy. He said, however, to trade my unusual to a trusted friend, to make sure I was legit. I gave him a friend's profile link, and he added my friend, telling my friend to trade me for my unusual to make sure I was trustworthy. The scam comes in when an alt acc with my friend's username adds me and invited me to trade, and I got instructions from the original guy who added me to trade "my friend" (the alt). I blocked the alt and gave the unusual to my real friend instead, telling the scammer that I had given it to my friend. My friend then was invited to trade by the same alt account, this time using my username. My friend didn't trade the alt (thankfully), and he blocked the alt at my telling him to do so. The scammer realized that we had both blocked the alt, and he removed us both.

I'm a stupidhead and I was too lazy to take screenshots (mainly cause I know it does little if anything to stop scammers).

Here's a step-by-step breakdown of what happened (if my summary was too confusing):
1. Added by scammer A, who used an obvious alt account (no games, low level, no hours on games, few friends, etc...).

2. Scammer A wants to buy my unusual (he did not say "I wil pay your B/O", but he said he wanted to buy my unusual with buds that he was about to purchase from a seller via real money).

3. Scammer A wants to see that I'm trustworthy, and tells me to link him to a good friend of mine who I trust, and he adds them.

4. I linked a friend of mine to Scammer A (he will specify and want an "online" friend), and Scammer A changed the username of another alt (Scammer B) to be that of my friend to try and convince me that Scammer B is actually my trustworthy friend.

5. Scammer A starts a group chat with me, my friend, and himself. This allows Scammer B to invite me to trade, which he does. Scammer B had a private profile, and he did not have my friend's nickname next to his username, proving he was an alt.

6. Scammer B invites you to trade. DO NOT TRADE HIM UNLESS YOU KNOW IT IS 100% YOUR FRIEND AND YOU TRUST YOUR FRIEND.

At this point, I blocked Scammer B to mess with the whole scam thing, but continued to play along. The scam would end if you trade your items to Scammer B at this point. At this point, I traded my REAL TRUSTWORTHY friend my unusual (because I love him and trust him <3), and I told Scammer A that I had traded my friend (which I actually had done).

Potential other steps:
7. Scammer A changes Scammer B's username to YOUR username and then tries to fool your friend into trading items "back to you" (who is actually Scammer B, but with your username).


Scammer A removed both me and my friend once he realized that we both had blocked Scammer B. After everything was over, my I explained everything to my clueless REAL TRUSTWORHY friend, who traded my unusual back to me (andthenwehadamakeoutsessionovertheinternet).


PLEASE BE CAREFUL ABOUT THIS TYPE OF SCAM. I'M SURE MANY YOUNGER OR MORE INEXPERIENCED PLAYERS CAN AND WILL FALL FOR THIS TYPE OF THING.

Please let me know if this explanation was too confusing/needs clarifying
:pinkheart: