So, despite the fact that it's [current year], there will still be people who unwittingly give their account details to someone who they don't know or give away items expecting to make money back or whatever. This guide isn't for the smart people because they don't need to be told how to not get their account hijacked, this guide is for the people who think their account will get deleted or something because someone "accidentally reported them" or whatever. If you've played TF2 for more than a year, have a valuable inventory, or even know what CS:GO and DOTA are, then chances are you've come across someone BEING scammed or someone tried to scam you themselves. Most people know a scam when they see it. It's obvious.

However, there is a scam that's far more dangerous than any item scam. Stealing your virtual pixels worth $100+ is one thing, but scammers are actually hijacking accounts and taking over the whole thing. While some people can get their stuff back, not everyone can. So, If you ever find yourself in the situation of where someone wants you to contact a "Steam Admin", I'm going to give you a brief rundown on what to do to avoid losing your account for good.


Here we have the profile of an actual Valve Employee, Jill, who's account is public for all to see. Now, upon inspection, you may have seen an account like this before, with the Steam name "Jill", same level, same group, everything picture perfect. However, there's one thing that no "Steam Admin" scammer can EVER have, no matter who they are.


This is the badge given to all Valve Employees. If they're an official Employee at Valve, then there is a VERY high chance they are displaying this badge. If they're not displaying it, then they at least have this exact badge. 1,000xp too. Don't fall for any other badge that may say this but isn't EXACTLY 1,000xp

Still confused on if this person is an official Valve Employee? Don't worry, Valve has you covered!


There's an official group where mostly only Valve Employees are located. This group is invite-only, and I don't think just anyone would be allowed in Valve's Official isolated group.

Still not able to wrap your brain around all of this?? Well, don't you worry friend, as if they knew there were people incredibly stupid out there, they made it even EASIER to recognize a Valve Employee!


All Valve Employees have the name of the actual friggin company right beside their username! People who have these names are ACTUAL employees at Valve. If they're not in the VALVE group and don't have the company name next to their username in any groups, then guess what?

they're not a Valve Employee.

So, I know what you're thinking. How do most of these scams and hijackings go down? Well my friends, it's not at all complicated and not at all easy to fall for. Seriously, you'd have to be actively trying to fall for these scams to fall for these scams. Here's an example my friend had gone through just earlier today:


The scammer contacted them, informing them that they had "accidentally" reported them and are afraid that their account may be "banned". How you accidentally report someone when it's a whole multi-step process? I have no idea, but I'm going to suspend my disbelief for a good few minutes to humor this possibility. Let's just say this person DID happen to lose control over their hands for a solid few minutes, looked at the screen, and saw that a report went through.

Well, for one, like my friend states, Valve doesn't regard themselves with reports that have to do with duped items because in reality duped items don't even matter, some traders just have a high distain for duplicated items and scammers use "duped items" as a main point in their scams a lot of the time, whether it be that they want to get a "Steam Admin" in to "verify" the item or not, Valve Employees won't middle-man trades regarding things like possibly duped items, and rightfully so, I wouldn't want to waste my time on something like that when I have to put the 40000th "When's Half-Life 3 releasing?" email in the spam folder.

Also, the reason I didn't leave the scammers name unblurred is because there's a good chance the scammer is using a hijacked account to attempt to hijack more accounts, and I don't want the person who got hijacked be held responsible for actions that aren't their own. However if this was the scammer's main account, one: dumb. two: I would so love to out their stupid ass. Regardless, do not witchhunt this person, as it may not be the original owner's fault, and they may be working towards getting their account back.


The scammer then tries to route my friend to the account of a "Steam Admin" who isn't really an Employee at Valve and doesn't have the badge, of course. It may be the scammers main account or another hijacked account, so I decided to blur out a lot of their info too, however the inventory makes me think it's the scammer's main. Regardless, Valve doesn't worry themselves with "duped" items, and sure as hell won't ask for your account details like a password. Why do they need your password? They work at the same company that made Steam.

Either way, scams like this are very very VERY easy to avoid if you're sober or have a brain, and the fact that people get fooled by things like this just shows that there are actually people THAT dumb out there. I know I'm blaming the victim here, but come on, that's like j-walking when a car is flying down the road at 80mph and being surprised when you end up in the hospital for getting hit.

I hope you enjoyed my sarcastic humor in this guide that I decided to spend ten minutes on. This is only a way to prevent one of the dozens of scams out there, but honestly if you're smart about it, you can avoid all of them effortlessly. Just be smart, okay? Please for the love of god use your brain I know you have it.

For those of you that didn't need this guide because you don't jump in white vans when the man offers candy, congrats! Let everyone else know just how smart you are and how you don't need no guide to help you live your life.

I'm going to bed.