Whether you're new to CS or a veteran, you may have dealt with getting spammed by friend requests or profile comments from people you've never heard of or played with. First and foremost, DO NOT ADD OR TALK TO THEM, especially if you don't know who they are. Aside from being annoying to deal with, these people are more than likely bots or scammers trying to take advantage of you in order to steal your skins or even account.

In this section I will outline some of the more common ways scammers will try to reach out to you and how to identify a scammer.


Most commonly you will receive a friend request from an account you don't know or previously played with. If you see lots of friend requests and they all have a common level between 0-3 or more recently 10-15, look at their profiles carefully as they are more likely to be a scammer. If you don't recognize them and you don't have mutual friends, avoid them.


Sometimes you will find a new comment on your profile unexpectedly. Most commonly the comments I've seen are people saying something along the lines of "+rep", which essentially means the person is vouching for you, or asking for you to add them. These two were the most common comments I've found on my profile and others. Although, lately it seems that they're now complementing how well a player is doing in CS and their skill.

If it wasn't obvious already, people you've never played with won't know how good you are. Additionally, if someone is asking for you to add them, it's safe to assume they want you to add them so they can see your inventory and/or talk to you about your skins. It's best not to give them any attention. Delete the comments, report them, and block them.


Here is a list of some common ways to identify a scammer based on their profile. Also, I will note to pay attention to other details such as when they joined steam if they have a steam tenure badge or not, if they only own F2P games or play the same 1-3 games, etc. Also, do note that just because they worked on their profile to make it look good either with profile artwork/background, custom fonts, etc. that doesn't mean they aren't a scammer. Scammers have


Obviously avoid level 0s like a plague. Next, I would say levels 0 to 3 could be a giveaway for a scammer or bot as they're also either new or haven't spent much time gaming on Steam. Surprisingly, there is an influx of scammers and bots around the levels of 10 to 15 so I would also be careful of those users.

The most important thing to do here is that if you don't recognize them then just ignore the request. Another thing is if you don't have mutual friends and haven't came across them in your games, then chances are they are a scammer too or trying to target your inventory or account.


A user's activity is another giveaway on whether or not they are a bot. Take a look at the image above, can you see what's wrong with this? Setting aside the multiple accounts with similar hours played, these users are averaging over 120 hours per two weeks. That's 8 hours per day across two weeks - a full-time job. Furthermore, these users have the same common games of scammers and bots - free-to-play games such as CS, PUBG, Dota, etc.

Now that you know how to identify your average scammer or malicious user, I will condense and recap the information followed by providing some tips and tricks to prevent these malicious users.

• Watch out for levels 0, 1-3 or 1-5, and also 10-15
  
• People commenting "+rep" or asking you to add them are to be avoided
  
• Check their profile for typical botted or F2P games
  
• Check their activity to see if they've played an unrealistic amount of hours

• Avoid people you don't recognize (no mutual friends and not played with recently)
  
• Avoid comments from strangers saying "+rep", or asking you to add them to play, talk, or trade
  
• Avoid users with lower levels ranging from 0-5, and be cautious of users at levels 10-15
  
• Be cautious of people with a profile description asking you to add them
  
• Avoid people with >120 hours played in 2 weeks
  
• Avoid people with only F2P games played and especially CS, Dota, PUBG, and even TF2
  
• Avoid people with nothing in their inventory as they are probably offloading it to their main account
  
• Avoid people asking to play/make friends but with not many friends themselves and little to no comments on their profile
  
  
  

This is not 100% guaranteed but this may help you even further, especially if you have a CS inventory with even as low as $10.

It's rumored that these scammers and bots target people with a public inventory particularly in Counter Strike. They look to see if you have any skins worth money so that they could either scam you or rip you off. You could prevent them from seeing your inventory in the first place and avoid placing a target on your back. Here are the steps to hide your inventory:

1. Go to your profile
   
2. Hit Edit Profile or visit https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/id/me/edit/info
   
3. Click on the Privacy Settings tab on the menu to the left
   
4. Change your Inventory settings to be either Friends Only or Private

I hope this guide helps you stay safe both on Steam and Counter Strike, and also reduces the headache you get from these random scammers and bots trying to take your account or your inventory. If I helped you in any way, please take 10 seconds out of your day by either leaving a comment, rating the guide, or giving this guide an award. Doing so also helps boost it up the guide page so that more people can stay safe and avoid these scammers to begin with.

If you need any help or have any suggestions or new methods people use to scam, please comment below so that I can add it to the guide and to let other people be aware of what is going on.