#safe_trading_guide
dreamy marsh
This is a guide on how to stay safe in RL trading - to help you identify common scam methods and how to avoid them.
If you have any questions contact a staff member for further assistance.
GENERAL ADVICE
🚩 Be suspicious of offers that seem too good to be true. More often than not, they actually are, and end up being some form of scam.
🚩 Never allow people to rush or pressure you into making a trade. If someone tries to induce a sense of urgency for you to go forward with a trade, it's often aimed to make you neglect otherwise normal precautions. You should always take your time and make sure everything is correct as per what was agreed upon before you click the "Accept" button.
Use the #user_verification channel to verify if your trade partner is a known scammer.
If in doubt, don't hesitate to ask our staff for assistance or simply a second opinion.
MOST COMMON SCAM METHODS
⚠️ Phishing
Phishing is a scam where your information, such as your username and password, are stolen by getting you to log into a fake website created by the scammer.
These links often look like legitimate services, but the URL usually varies slightly from a legit website.
How to avoid:
Never click any link that anyone sends you during a trade.
Rocket League trading is entirely self-contained, so you won't need to go to any external site for any reason. If you get a message claiming you won a giveaway you never registered for, this is also most likely a phishing scam.
⚠️ Item Swap Scams
Scammers often try to swap expensive paints for non-expensive ones to deceive you into overpaying for an item.
They also do this by swapping certifications, or swapping Items for Blueprints.
✅ How to avoid:
Every time the person you're trading with un-accepts the trade and then re-accepts it, or adds a lot of "waste" items, double check (by pressing "Show Details" in the trade window) that the items, paints, and certifications are the same before accepting.
If the item is certified, make sure they accept, and wait for the certification to cycle back to the paint. If it doesn't, that means the item was replaced with an unpainted item.
⚠️ Cancellation Scams
This method usually involves an individual asking you to put up good items in the trade window for their YouTube thumbnail and promise a reward for doing it. They ask you to accept it and cancel it after 2 seconds. However, this is when they use various methods to prevent you from cancelling it, such as adding you to a group chat and initiating a call (which will tab someone out on Steam), etc.
✅ How to avoid:
Never click the "Accept" button in the trade window unless you actually want to complete the trade.
Don't rely on being able to cancel.
⚠️ Bait Scams
This one can be tricky to spot, as it makes use of common sense and profit trading logic.
A scammer posts a trade where he offers way above market value for a very specifc but usually worthless item. Let's say:
trader 1: [H] 10000 Credits [W] Sniper Cobalt Kablooey
He might add some justification for the price - that he is a collector who needs this to finish his set, and so on.
Shortly after, you see another user offering just exactly that item way above market price, but still much cheaper than what the first trader offered.
trader 2: [H] Sniper Cobalt Kablooey [W] 2000 Credits
Now under normal circumstances, this would be a jackpot - 8000 credits in 5 minutes.
The problem there is that both traders have been working together (or are just alts of the same scammer); the first offer was only to trick people into overpaying dramatically for the item in the second offer. Once you bought the item, the first trader will not want it from you anymore, probably claiming that he just got it elsewhere. In this example, you'd be left 2000 credits short and a worthless item richer.
✅ How to avoid:
Generally avoid trades that are heavily dependent on later follow-up trades to yield profit.
⚠️ Trust Scams / Impersonator Scams
"I'm a Youtuber, can I have your items for my video"
There are a number of scams in which a user tries to convince you into temporarily trusting them with your items. Guess how that turns out? Correct, you won't get them back.
Most commonly, scammers claim that they are popular Youtubers or Streamers who want you and your expensive items to be part of their videos somehow. Either they ask to straight-out borrow your items, to initiate a trade for a thumbnail (see Cancellation Scams), or they invite you to a "game" where you gamble your items for a chance of better items. This is just a way to steal items and you shouldn't trust that.
There are legit major youtubers who do this without scamming, but if you get approached by random users, they are most likely impersonators who copy name and picture of the youtuber to trick you into trusting them.
Some users will also claim that they can duplicate your items if you give them to them for a short time. This is a scam, duplication is not possible in Rocket League. There is also no bug or glitch, unlike often claimed in these scams.
Others will give you great real money offers and suggest to use a specific "trusted" Middleman, who is working together with the trader to scam you. Be also careful of suspiciously good real money offers (paypal, venmo, cashapp, etc) where the other trader offers to go first. Most of these services allow for very easy chargeback and will almost always side with the buyer (scammer) in a dispute.
✅ How to avoid:
Never blindly trust others with your items. There is never a good reason to do that.
Don't go first in trades.