The following steps do not cover every single scamming / sharking method, however, (if followed correctly) they will hopefully raise a general awareness and therefore protect you from 99% of the scammers out there. If you have any suggestions, feel free to comment them down below and make sure to search for further information on this topic to stay safe!

Empty offers are ALWAYS a risk. Except you´re planning on cashing out via sites such as opskins[opskins.com] or bitskins[bitskins.com] there´s no need to take such an unnecessary risk. It´s your own fault if you send empty offers or accept them, after doing so there´s absolutely nothing anyone, including valve, can do for you.

There´s usually a very good reason for that unfamiliar feeling, whether that reason is reasonable (see what I did there?...) or not is a different story, but yet again: There´s no need to take the risk of ending up in a situation you would have wanted to avoid.

Always ask the following question: Why would someone, voluntarily, make you profit? Oh he´s a mod of a gambling sites and wants to split the profit, well in this case...no ♥♥♥♥ this. People are greedy these days, with only very little exceptions. Particulary offers (of whatever kind) from people who added you for exactly that reason are to be enjoyed with care. People usually seek for their own personal good.

No, some kind guy who has been in your steam friendlist for 4 months is still not someone you know. People change their mentality quite rapidly once money is involved. Do not borrow your items to anyone you wouldn´t trust in real life. They could just take it, run, and probably even get away with it.

Seriously. ALWAYS. double check. I cannot stress this enough. Even if it is 4am and someone sent you a nice offer, take your time and wait for the next morning, or directly check it. Irregardless of which option you´re going to chose, there´s nothing worse than realizing you just accepted an offer with missing or even wrong items in it.

*also: double check floats, patterns, stickers, sticker conditions etc.*

Whether they´re a moderator, admin, youtuber, streamer, pricebot, site owner or what not, there´s no reason to trust these people, some may try to abuse their positions/publicity. Moreover please ensure yourself that you´re not dealing with an impersonator.

Just dont click on any fishy links. No gambling sites, cash out sites, trading sites, raffle sites etc. that you do not know, chances are there´s a very good reason for why you havent heard of them before. In addition to that there are several fake websites pretending to be legit, well known sites (with similar URLs and more tricks), if you want to visit any site, make sure to use google instead of some random link.

Too many people have ignored this tip and ended up with a worthless inventory already. If you are not familiar with an economy of a different game (for instance warframe, tf2 and especially dota2) it might be fairly hard for you to tell the real price and demand of an item since the market prices can be very unreliant or even manipulated at times.

Pressure is your worst enemy, scammers and sharkers will use this tool a lot to make you become a quick and profitable victim. As mentioned previously: If you feel very unsecure, please take your time and rethink the situation to gain a more objective point of view on it.

Oh, did I say pressure is your worst enemy? Pardon, I meant emotions are your worst enemy, particulary greed. Why? Well emotions make you forget about all the previously mentioned rules very quickly. Always think before you act and do not let emotions influence your trading.