#csgoblog

[lootbear]

How to avoid being SCAMMED on Steam.

Ask anyone in the online world today and if they haven’t fallen victim to a scam then they surely know someone who has. Unfortunately we live in a world full of dishonest people who are prepared to go to whatever lengths necessary to take what does not belong to them.

The internet has proven to be the perfect place for this cancer to grow and multiply - Access to millions of people, anonymity and countless creative ways to steal your information or belongings. The internet is not a safe place - And I’m not just talking about Nigerian princes trying to unload millions of dollars on your Auntie.

Couple the above combination with the naivety of the young, impressionable and hopeful audience surrounding video games and you have a recipe to make a tonne of money - If you’re a scumbag scammer that is. Due to the incredible number of people out there actively trying to trick and steal from you, it should be a priority of each of us to understand how these predators (not the Dateline NBC type) catch their prey and how to avoid it.

Being a business operating in the world of virtual skins we are no stranger to these people. And over the course of operating we have experienced our fair share of unsavory behavior. We are here today to share our knowledge with you in hopes of helping you avoid the heart-sinking feeling of falling victim to scams. In this blog post we are going to go over the following - 

The types of scams that are in operation right now.

How to safeguard your Steam account against scams.

How to safely use websites such as our own.

What is phishing, and how to avoid falling victim to it

What to do if you do become a victim.

Types of Scams

There are a multitude of ways that you can find yourself the victim of a scam in the world of Steam. Here are a few - 

Impersonation - Probably the most basic of scams, this is where someone will pose as a figure of trust or status within the community. This could be a famous influencer or even just someone you know. They will often try to send you to a phishing website, or convince you to trade them something. The best way to avoid this is by always double checking the identity of the person you are speaking to against their Steam page (their level, friends, comments on Steam wall). When in doubt it’s safe to say that MojoOnPC or Sparkles PROBABLY isn’t writing manually on your wall to invite you to ‘THIS AWESOME NEW SITE’. Be smart.

API Key’s - An API key basically allows a 3rd party website or person access to your Steam account remotely. You can go to this link - https://steamcommunity.com/dev/apikey to check if you have any open API’s. If the page shows that there are some and you do not remember giving access to the platform or person, it’s probably best to revoke access by clicking the button. This access is usually obtained via untrustworthy websites.

Phishing -  Phishing is a phrase used to define the action of ‘fishing’ for someone’s personal information (email address, names, login information, credit card details etc). This is usually achieved by creating a fake website posing as a well known or trustworthy one. The creator will try their best to make the website look as close to the original as possible, even down to the URL. The best way to avoid this is to always double check the URL (Example - app.Lootbear.com is legit, applootbear.com is NOT) and be aware that if the website is offering you something that sounds too good to be true, it probably is. 

Malware - There is also a possibility that your PC itself has been compromised and may have malicious software installed with the goal of stealing your information. It is vitally important that you run quality anti-virus software on your PC to avoid this happening and be sure to run regular virus scans. 

Here is a video that goes into detail regarding some of the scamming techniques laid out above -

There are many ways that you can protect yourself from scams online and the trustworthy websites out there will always do their best to help safeguard your account. Here at Lootbear we are very careful when it comes to unsavory behavior and we give comprehensive instructions to all users that attempt to trade with us. 

What to do if you your steam account has been hacked or compromised

If you believe your account may already have been compromised after following the above steps then please visit this link https://store.steampowered.com/twofactor/manage and click on "De-authorize all other devices". This will log you out of all devices, except the one you clicked on the button with. You should then also change your steam and email passwords, as there is a high probability that these have been compromised as well.

How to use LootBear safely

First of all, please always read any popup messages that LootBear sends you. We do our best to inform you of the necessary actions required to maintain your safety while using our platform.

After you do this, Lootbear will give you the creation date of the bot you are about to trade with in a window that looks like this:

Please copy the creation date into the test field to show that you understand. Then, be sure to check the creation date of the bot you are about to trade with. If it matches the one given to you before the trade you should be able to accept the trade safely.

If it does not, please decline the trade, then go to the link provided earlier to check if there's an API key for your account and change your password on steam and email.

Please do not hesitate to contact support for additional information, or if you feel your steam account has been compromised.

Ultimately the safety of your Steam account is in your own hands and this information is yours to do with as you wish. We do our best to ensure the safety of our user base but the final responsibility lies with you. We hope that this information has helped you understand the risks and measures you can take to lessen them. 

[lootbear]

Will CS:GO ever die? Will CSGO skins ever lose their value?

Many years ago, when LootBear was just a cub being taught to fish by his mother; The first installment of the soon-to-be world renowned game series ‘Counter-Strike’ was released (way back in 1999!).

From it’s early days as a simple mod to the already popular game Half-Life, Counter-Strike was a hit. People loved it and it was soon developed into its very own stand-alone game.

But we aren’t here for a history lesson. We are here to understand how and why the game has remained so popular after 21 long years. Of course, the game that we play now looks and plays a bit differently to its 21 year old predecessor but the essence of the game is very much the same - Terrorists try to plant the bomb and Counter-Terrorists try to defuse the bomb.

The gaming industry is a very fast paced environment, new games are being released almost every day and many great games simply burn up and fade into nothingness very quickly. So what has kept this 21 year old dinosaur of a concept alive for so long? How many more years are we going to rush B? How many more cases are we going to open?

We believe that the game has lasted so long, and will continue to last because of 3 very simple but very powerful things:

It’s simple, yet infinitely deep - It’s a very simple game to understand at a basic level, much like Football. It’s not hard to grasp the basic concept, no difficult techniques need to be learned in order to play a ‘Proper’ game of CS:GO. But the skill ceiling is incredibly high. It’s in the seemingly small things that the depth of this game really becomes apparent. Learning insane smokes to cover your team, learning the angles to hold that give you the largest chance to win, perfecting your aim to pop heads like ScreaM and the execution of complex team strategies to win the game. It is this depth coupled with its core simplicity that makes CS:GO so fun to play and why a seemingly stale game (same maps, same guns over and over for years) has withstood the test of time and will continue to do so.

The professional scene - In the previous point, I compared the game’s simplicity to football and it follows suit here too. Counter Strike is quite simply just a fantastic, exciting game to watch at a pro level. The opportunity for any player to go huge and make a game winning play is thrilling. Many other games don’t allow for this. The entertainment value from the game and the number of eyes each major tournament attracts means that the game will also continue to attract money from sponsors. As long as the professional scene remains popular and exciting, more and more money will be pumped into the industry which in turn helps to keep it alive.

 The skins industry - No game before it had ever seen the level of success CS:GO did with its in-game microtransactions. Valve’s addition of a simple case unboxing system has spawned a monster of an industry estimated to be worth over $1billion USD a few years ago. It’s value now is much higher. With skins comes collectors and the dopamine rush from unboxing something awesome (or the debt from unboxing continuous trash, Gaben why have you forsaken me?). These collectors coupled with the average kid that just wants to flex to his friends with a cool knife sparked the beginning of a snowball that would lead us to a moment where it is possible to build an entire business around these virtual items. People are truly passionate about skins and it is this passion that paved the way for platforms like us to be created. As long as this passion for skins exists, the game will not only survive, but it will thrive.

So what’s next?

In 2 months, CS:GO will have been released for 8 years. Not many games go on to have a life span of 8 years. Look at Call Of Duty for example - They have to repackage, rebrand and re-release the same game every year in order to stay relevant (stop making kids buy the same game for $50 every year, Activision!). But how does the future look for our beloved game?

This is a graph showing the evolution of the player base over the years since CS:GO’s birth in 2012. Over the past few years I have heard people around me say ‘CSGO is dead!’ or ‘It’s dying’ and until I saw this graph - I could have believed it!

It’s easy to mistake a personal loss of interest in a game as an actual issue. But for every player who has burned out from playing dust_2 six thousand times, a few other new players are experiencing getting wall-banged for the first time. 

The game is STILL growing, not only that but it’s growing FAST. Competitors come and go (cough, Valorant, cough) but CS:GO always remained. Propped up on its pedestal balancing on the 3 core pillars of simplicity, watchability and skins; CS:GO will continue to be a legendary game for years to come.