CS:GO skins and case openings have been a source of contention, investment and pride for many collectors on the market since the Arms Deal upgrade in 2013. However, due to Steam’s recent crackdown, skin merchants and collectors may be banned.
People will try to scam you out of your CS:GO skins for as long as they are valued. And profile comments on Steam have been a regular avenue of interaction between skin owners and scammers. This is where a scammer might contact you to inquire about your skins.
Steam has recently cracked down on this type of scam. However, it appears that one moderation technique has been to block users who make “suspicious” comments on other people’s profiles.
Gergely Szabo, a skin trader and creator of the CS:GO Trader Extension application, said on Twitter that he was banned from Steam a few minutes after posting on someone’s profile page while trying to trade a skin.
The comment read: “I bought your M9 on gamerpay, your trade link is broken, please fix it”. The seemingly innocent message regarding a trade resulted in the suspension of his account, which had an inventory of $457.00.
This popped up a few minutes after commenting on a guy's profile something like "I bought your m9 on gamerpay, your trade link is broken, please fix". https://t.co/SsJYB4sUcb pic.twitter.com/pC1kWCsP6y
— Gergely Szabo (@gergelyszabo94) April 10, 2023
The ban applies to the entire town. Users will not be able to trade items, purchase items from the market, make changes to their accounts, or play on VAC-secured servers.
However, after contacting Steam Support about the ban, he was unbanned barely a day later. So there is still a chance for those accounts that were banned in error.
Anyone who has received a community ban for commenting on profiles should contact Steam Support to have the ban lifted.
Other CS:GO skin traders responded to his tweet with their own stories of being banned after making similar comments on trading sites. However, similar to the first situation, many more had their accounts unbanned after asking for help.