Due to a few recent incidents, we're posting a reminder to be careful who you trade with.
Off-site trades are almost always risky. There's no way to directly exchange CS things for pets/items/currency on another website, so you have to trust that your trading partner is honest.
If you send your part of the trade first, there is a risk that the other person will accept your trade and then disappear without ever giving you what they promised on another site.
However, you can reduce the chance of being scammed if you are careful about who you trade with.
Tips to avoid scammers
- Never trade with accounts which are less than a month old. - If the account is brand new, they might have been banned recently on a previous account and rejoined just to scam more people. It's very unlikely that a brand new member would be willing to buy something on CS since they barely know the game yet.
- Ask the trader to confirm the trade agreement on both sites, by messaging their intentions to you on CS and on the other website too. That way you have a record of the trade promise which could be reported to admins on both sites, and you confirm that they really own the account they link you to.
- If the trader has a trade topic, check for complaints or suspicious posts by other users - especially posts saying "I'm still waiting for you to send your side of the trade" etc. If the player has a history of breaking their promises with other traders, avoid them.
- If the trader has very few pets on their account, or if you notice that the pets you sent them immediately got moved to a different account, then you may be dealing with a scammer who has multiple accounts
- If the offer seems too good to be true, then it might be a lie!
If you think you have been scammed by someone who promised something they never delivered, please contact us using the help system: http://www.chickensmoothie.com/help/gethelp
