A young man from Moscow, Imran, who is 20 years old, became a victim of a scam that emptied his Steam account of valuable Counter-Strike: Global Offensive weapon skins worth about 43,000 rubles. This report comes from a Telegram channel known as Baza.
The sequence of events began when one of Imran’s Steam friends invited him to play Counter-Strike. Curious and eager, Imran accepted, but the lobby included unfamiliar players in addition to his trusted friend. Those newcomers suggested moving the chat to a private Discord group, a move that would require Imran to refresh his Steam profile as a preliminary step. The supposed goal was to secure a new, private chat space, but the tactic involved prompting Imran to offer a skin as part of an inventory deal without confirming the transaction. Trusting his friend, Imran attempted to proceed with a deal that he believed was legitimate.
According to Baza, after the page refreshed, Imran discovered that the swap offer had actually been approved by both parties and sent to a fake account rather than his friend. The discrepancy would not have been apparent to him in real time, and by the time he realized something was wrong, the manipulation was already complete.
In the end, Imran lost the entire collection of skins, with a total value estimated at 43,000 rubles. The most valuable item among his possessions was a Falchion skin listed at roughly 28,000 rubles. The loss was significant not only financially but also emotionally, given the effort and time invested in building up a collection in the game.
Following the incident, it was noted that Imran reacted by wiping his computer clean and reinstalling the operating system, effectively deleting all data in an attempt to prevent further damage. There is an implication that he did not reach out to law enforcement or pursue formal channels to recover his losses, a decision that left the incident unresolved in the public record.
In related news, coverage from other outlets has noted high-profile cases where Valve has taken action against players involved in large-scale or high-value skins trading misconduct, underscoring ongoing concerns in the gaming community about account security and marketplace integrity. One such case involved a prominent skin collector whose account balance was substantial enough to attract attention from the platform in response to suspicious activity.
These stories collectively emphasize the ongoing risk of social engineering in online gaming communities. They illustrate how momentum builds when trusted social graphs intersect with private chat spaces and how quickly an attacker can manipulate a victim into approving a trade that looks legitimate at a glance. The episode also highlights the importance of verifying all trade requests through direct, trusted channels and maintaining strict boundaries around profile updates, inventory transfers, and external communications. Experts suggest adopting multi-factor authentication, maintaining separate recovery options, and keeping a cautious eye on any unfamiliar prompts to update profiles or authorize transfers. In practice, players are urged to pause and double-check the identity of anyone requesting access or proposing a private trading arrangement before confirming any exchange.Whenever a trade request appears suspicious, the best course is to halt the process and consult the confirmed contacts in one’s own friend list rather than act on a prompt from an unfamiliar account. The lesson resonates across the gaming community: even a small lapse in verification can lead to a substantial loss of digital valuables and the time needed to recover them, if recovery is possible at all. (Source: Baza Telegram channel)”}