How to protect your child from online gaming scams

Everything parents need to know about scams in gaming and how to avoid them

Financial fraud in video games is called a scam. Scamming involves deceiving or defrauding the victim of their virtual items or money. Virtual items can be objects or cosmetic effects, like skins, that players often purchase for a game.

In some games, it's possible to trade skins or other items with other players. There's often a very active market for trading skins or virtual items, but unfortunately, many children and young people end up getting scammed. Most gamers have either been scammed themselves or know someone who has.

Scamming includes a wide range of fraudulent techniques. Some scams are specific to certain games or platforms. However, the common factor is that they are executed by at least one perpetrator with the intent to steal either money or rare, often expensive, skins or items.

The purpose of the scam is typically to profit from reselling these items. In this way, digital scammers are similar to thieves in the real world. However, the techniques and methods can be difficult for children, teens, and even experienced gamers to recognize.

Scamming is unfortunately very common in the gaming world, and can happen to anyone. So it’s likely that most gamers will experience attempts at scamming them at some point. For this reason, parents need to know how to handle these situations if their child should be unlucky enough to be the victim of a scammer.

Different kinds of scams

There are different kinds of scams that you can run into in the gaming world when it comes to trading. It can be very hard to spot the signs that you are about to be scammed, but knowing about the different kinds of scams and how they are constructed helps a lot.

A rule of thumb is always to be aware whenever you are about to buy, sell, or trade an item with someone you don’t know very well. Your child’s new online friend can pretend to be very nice until they scam them out of their favorite pet, or skin, or never send what was paid for.

It’s a good idea for younger gamers to have adults on the site to help them assess the situation, and your gamer child of any age will benefit from having conversations about scams. Make sure older children are aware of the risks and that they know what to look out for if they are trading skins on their own.

Deceived in trust-based trades

The most common form of scam happening to young gamers is when another player doesn’t follow through on a deal when trading a skin or other item. Maybe you have made a deal to trade a skin with another player, but then they don’t keep their part of the deal.

In games like Roblox and Counter-Strike, many people fall victim to these trust-based trades. Unfortunately, it's quite common for that trust to be broken. Because of this, it's recommended to avoid these types of trades altogether unless you know the person from another setting outside the game, like school, etc.

It can be a great shock to kids to experience that someone who has been nice and made a promise couldn’t be trusted after all. Besides losing their money and a valued pet or skin, kids might also doubt their sense of judgment.

How to avoid trust-based scams

• Take your time and be cautious: Avoid making quick deals, especially if you find one in a Facebook group. Take your time to verify the trader's credibility first, and pay attention to the communication if something is off. When a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is. 
  
  
• Verify the trader’s profile: If you don’t know the trader outside the game, it’s important to assess their profile to check if they seem reliable and if the profile looks legitimate. If the profile was just created recently, there are no friends, and no photos of the person, the profile might have been created with the purpose of scamming.
  
  
• Check their trading history: Look into the trader’s history by searching within the group and scrolling through posts. Check if they have traded before and have good reviews, but also be aware of fake reviews. Are the good reviews from their own Facebook friends or from real buyers that they don’t know?

API scams

An API scam happens when someone unknowingly logs into a fake site using their Steam account. You might think you are logging into a legitimate trading site, while it’s actually a fake site with a slightly different web address created to scam visitors.

These fake sites can look almost identical to the real ones, making it difficult to notice the difference. Scammers are skilled at making these sites appear trustworthy, which is why many people fall for this scam.

When trying to log in, you will unknowingly expose your login information. Scammers are then able to get access and register an API key on your account, which gives them full access to the account and all its virtual items. They will also be able to redirect any future purchases to themselves instead of to your account.

How to avoid API scams

Check the website and web address: Always double-check the website you are visiting for login, purchases, or downloads. Pay attention to small details in the web address and check the site for anything unusual.

Check for stored API keys on your account: Make it a habit once in a while to check if your Steam account has already been targeted by an API scam. It is possible and fairly easy to see if an unauthorized API key has been registered on the profile.

If you don't know how, you can find guides on YouTube showing you how to check this. If one is found, it should be deleted immediately to prevent scammers from redirecting any trades made on the account to themselves.

Third-party scams

Third-party scams can be difficult to spot, and even to understand what happened after the damage is done. First, we need to understand how these scams work to have a chance of avoiding them in the future.

A third-party scam involves at least three people:

• The seller, who is the one offering an item for sale, such as a skin, an account, or another in-game item. The seller is a random, innocent person, needed to make this scam possible.
  
  
• The buyer, who is really the scammer looking to profit from the transaction.
  
  
• The victim, who unknowingly funds the scam, without receiving the item they wanted to buy.
  
  

It typically starts with the seller being contacted by the buyer (the scammer), who agrees to purchase an item they have for sale. After they settle on a price, the scammer gets in touch with the victim pretending to be selling an item the victim wants to buy for the exact amount the scammer agreed to pay the original seller.

When the victim is ready to send the payment to the scammer for the fictional item they pretend to sell, the scammer gives the contact and payment details of the first seller instead of their own. So this way, the victim ends up paying the first seller for the item that the scammer then receives.

The seller has received the payment and is unaware that it came from a different person, and is therefore happy with the trade. They might then block the victim if they complain about not receiving the item that they were expecting.

In the end, the scammer gets the item from the first seller without ever paying for it. They might then sell it for a profit, leaving both the seller and the victim confused about what happened.

The victim will blame the unaware seller for not receiving the item, while the seller will most likely block the victim, suspecting they are trying to scam them or unfairly blame them for not sending the item they bought. The scammer can then block both people and disappear without being suspected by anyone.

How to avoid being involved in a third-party scam

Be cautious when buying something, and be aware that the name of the seller you are communicating with is the same as the name of the person receiving the payment. It can also be a good idea to confirm during the conversation exactly what item you're paying for. This can sometimes alert the seller that the person making the payment might believe they are buying a different item from someone else.

Additionally, make sure not to become an unaware pawn in a scam by checking that you only deal with one person at a time when selling something. If someone wants to buy something from you, and you receive a payment from a person with a different name, consider that a scam might be happening.

General tips on how to avoid being scammed

When it comes to trading, we always have to be aware of a possible scam and teach our kids to do the same. Besides knowing about the most common ways that players are being scammed, there are also general safety precautions to follow in any case of trading, buying, or selling online.

If our kids love gaming online, interacting with other players, and buying virtual items like skins, etc., we must introduce them to this side of the gaming world as well. They should know about the risk there is in trading with other players, and learn to always be aware and skeptical of these interactions.

Here are some tips to have in mind to ensure a safer trading experience.

Understand market prices

Before making a trade, ensure your child has a clear understanding of the market value of the item they want to buy or sell. Researching prices can prevent overpaying or being cheated when selling. Then you will also know when a deal seems too good to be true.

Use search functions within trading groups or check websites specific to the game to look up past sale prices to know the price range.

Be aware of the communication with the buyer or seller

It is wise to observe how the trader communicates. If they push or seem overly eager for an immediate deal, it could be a bad sign. Take your time to assess the conversation and ensure it feels legitimate.

Examine the profile of the other person 

When trading happens in Facebook groups, you can check the other person's Facebook profile to assess if it’s a real account or if it looks suspicious. Sometimes fake Facebook accounts are created only to scam other people. Here are some things to look for:

• Check the profile pictures and other pictures posted on the profile. Are they consistent with pictures of the same person, and do the pictures include other people, and in general, look like normal Facebook posts?
• Is it a new account created recently, or an older account that the owner has had for many years?
• Review the number of friends; significantly fewer friends might be suspicious.
• Look for family members and friends in photos and comments. Genuine profiles usually have visible connections and interactions with other people.
• Verify the amount of information on the profile, such as workplace or school details, which adds credibility. Look for previous activity of posting in other groups or on the wall of other profiles going back a long time can also indicate a real person.
• Know that even a real account and a person who is truthful about who they are can still scam someone and then block them afterwards.
  
  

Understand the risks 

Despite taking precautions, there is always a risk in online trading. Even adults and very experienced gamers get scammed. Ensure that your child does not trade for more than they can afford to lose.

Make sure you talk about the risks of skin trading and set limits on how much they can spend. Hopefully, following these tips will help your child be safe in the world of trading, buying, and selling online.

Support your child if they get scammed 

It's completely natural for a child to be deeply affected by the experience of being scammed. Not only because they didn't receive the item or the compensation they expected, but they might also feel their trust was betrayed and their judgment of the person or relationship was wrong.

When trust is broken, it can be very painful, especially for children. They might feel ashamed for being taken advantage of and for not seeing it coming. They may also feel angry at the unfairness and the other person’s bad behavior, and most of all, deeply upset for not getting what they wanted from the trade.

Most children will be very distressed by such an experience. It's important to listen to your child and support them through their reactions and feelings. You can reassure them that it's not wrong to trust people and to believe in the good in others.

Kids who have been the victim of a scammer need to understand that it’s the other person who did something wrong and shameful, and not them. Unfortunately, many people are scammed like this every day, not just children, but also experienced adult traders.

Kids who fall victim to scammers should know that it can happen to anyone. It will always be difficult to tell if you will be scammed when trading. We can do our best to teach them how to stay safe. However, we should know that there will still be a risk if they choose to trade virtual items. If it happens, it is important as parents to know how to support our child if they get scammed.