How to get removed from ZoomInfo or get someone trade banned on Steam and check that it worked
Short answer. How to get removed from ZoomInfo: open the "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information" link in the footer of zoominfo.com, verify your work email with the code it sends, and request deletion. A matched email is usually processed within 24 hours, an unmatched one within 14 days. To get someone trade banned on Steam, use Report Player on their profile; Valve decides, and Steam tells the reporter when it acts.
Filing a report is the easy half. The harder half is knowing whether anything happened, because most desks answer with silence. This guide covers how to get removed from ZoomInfo and how to get someone trade banned on Steam, then works through 28 more report desks, from eBay and Fortnite to Discord, Mastodon and gossip forums. For each one it records two things: what the desk sends back after a report, and the check a reporter can run without waiting for a reply.
That second column matters more than it looks. Valve's profile pages, eBay's request timeline, Mastodon's report screen and ZoomInfo's own search results all show the outcome in public or semi-public form, so a reporter who knows where to look does not need a confirmation email that may never arrive.
What does each desk send back after a report?
Most report desks send back one of three things: a tracked case with deadlines, a one-line acknowledgement, or nothing at all. eBay requests, ZoomInfo opt-outs and Steam scam reports produce a visible result. Discord, Fortnite, Shopify and most forum reports produce none, so the reporter has to check the account, listing or profile directly.
The table below sorts the desks in this guide by what a reporter gets back and by the self-check available when nothing arrives. "Silent" means the platform says, or its help pages imply, that individual outcomes are not shared.
| Desk | What comes back | Self-check without a reply |
|---|---|---|
| ZoomInfo opt-out | Email verification code, then a confirmation | Search the name on ZoomInfo and in Google with site:zoominfo.com |
| Steam scam report | A message in Steam if Valve acts | The profile's ban status, or the Steam Web API's EconomyBan field |
| VAC | Nothing; reports do not trigger VAC | "VAC ban on record" on the profile |
| Fortnite, Call of Duty | Nothing individual | The player disappears from lobbies; no public ban list |
| eBay request | A case with a seller deadline and an "ask eBay to step in" button | The request page in Purchases |
| Poshmark, Vinted, Depop | An order case if opened in the window; profile reports are silent | The closet, member page or shop still loading |
| Temu, OfferUp | Listing reports are silent | The listing link |
| Shopify AUP form | Silent; Shopify cites privacy | The store's .myshopify.com address |
| Discord | Silent for most reports | The server invite link, or the user ID in Developer Mode |
| Mastodon | Your own server's moderators may reply | The account on its home server, if the report was forwarded |
| YouTube ad | An email acknowledging the report | "Your recent ads" in My Ad Center |
| DeviantArt, itch.io, Patreon copyright | Notice handled by email | The deviation, game page or post link |
| TheDirty, Lipstick Alley | No standing removal desk | The post link and Google results for the name |
Two rules follow from the table. Save the fixed link or ID of whatever was reported before filing, because the self-check needs it. And treat silence as normal, not as rejection: Discord's own support staff say its Trust & Safety team does not usually send individual updates, given the volume it handles.
How to get removed from ZoomInfo, and how to confirm it
How to get removed from ZoomInfo is a privacy request, not a report: ZoomInfo is a business-contact database, and its Privacy Center accepts opt-outs from the person listed. Start from "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information" in the zoominfo.com footer, enter the work email ZoomInfo holds, enter the code it sends, and choose deletion.
DeleteMe's opt-out guide reports that ZoomInfo processes a request within 24 hours when the email matches a profile, and forwards it to the privacy team, with processing within 14 days, when it does not. Incogni's guide describes the same flow with a 4-digit code and a CAPTCHA, and warns that profiles can reappear. Both are guides from paid removal services, so treat the timings as their reports rather than as ZoomInfo's promise.
ZoomInfo said its global contact database had grown past 235 million business-to-business professional profiles, more than 145 million of them outside the US.ZoomInfo press release, Business Wire, 4 October 2022
Why a ZoomInfo profile comes back
Knowing how to get removed from ZoomInfo once does not keep a person off it. ZoomInfo builds profiles from company websites, public records and contributed contact data, so a new job, a new work email or a colleague's synced address book can create a fresh record after the old one is deleted. The opt-out covers the profile tied to the verified email. A second work address needs its own request, which is why people who changed employer often find a profile they never knew existed.
The self-check is simple and needs no reply from ZoomInfo: two weeks after the request, search ZoomInfo's public directory for the name and run a Google search with site:zoominfo.com and the name in quotes. Google's cached copy can lag the deletion by weeks; the ZoomInfo page itself is the one that counts.
California's DROP platform adds a second route
For Californians, how to get removed from ZoomInfo has a statutory answer that does not depend on ZoomInfo's form. The California Privacy Protection Agency's Delete Request and Opt-out Platform, called DROP, sends one deletion request to every registered data broker. Since 1 August 2026, registered brokers must check DROP at least once every 45 days and process the deletion requests waiting there, with limited exceptions, according to the agency's data broker page.
DROP only reaches companies on California's data broker registry, so check the registry for any broker before relying on it. For brokers outside California law, the ordinary CCPA deletion request still applies to California residents, and the business has 45 calendar days to respond under the CCPA regulations.
California's DROP platform passed 300,000 sign-ups, with more than 580 data brokers on the state registry.Captain Compliance, reporting California Privacy Protection Agency figures, 2026
How to get someone trade banned on Steam
How to get someone trade banned on Steam comes down to one report and Valve's own check. Open the person's Steam profile, click the "..." menu, choose Report Player, pick the scam or fraud category, and describe the trade. Valve's Scam FAQ says it bans a confirmed scammer from the Steam Community, trading and the Market, with the length set by how serious and how many the scams were.
The practical part of how to get someone trade banned on Steam is evidence. Steam Support states that it does not act unless the reported infraction can be verified against the account's actual use. That rule is why a trade report should quote the trade offer, the date and the items, and include screenshots of the chat with the profile's /profiles/ number visible. Steam's Scam FAQ adds that the reporter is notified with a message in Steam when action is taken, that traded items are not restored, and that all of a scammer's accounts may be banned.
The last step in how to get someone trade banned on Steam is checking, and that check is public. A trade-banned account shows the ban in the ban-status area of its Steam profile, and the Steam Web API's GetPlayerBans method returns an EconomyBan value for any SteamID64. No reply is needed to see whether the report landed.
How to get someone VAC banned: the short answer is that you cannot
People searching how to get someone VAC banned usually assume reports feed VAC. They do not. Valve Anti-Cheat bans are issued when an account runs detected cheat software on a VAC-secured server, and community answers from Steam's forums and Valve's own statements agree that reports alone do not cause a VAC ban. Steam Support also does not remove VAC bans on request.
A reporter who suspects cheating should use the game's own report button, which feeds that game's review system, and leave VAC to its detection. A VAC ban, once issued, appears on the profile as a ban on record, so the self-check is the same as for a trade ban.
How do you report a cheater on CoD or in Fortnite?
To report a cheater on CoD, use the in-game report on the player from the scoreboard or the recent-players list; Activision's security team, RICOCHET, asks players to report "regardless of platform" in-game. For how to report a Fortnite cheater, open the game menu, choose Reporting, then Report a Bug or a Player, and Report Player. Neither publisher tells the reporter what happened.
How to report a cheater on CoD, and why one report is enough
Call of Duty's official account said on 9 November 2023 that the system "only considers the first report" a player files on another, so repeating the report adds nothing. Activision's security policy allows permanent suspension of all of a player's accounts for extreme or repeated cheating, and suspensions for security infractions can apply across the franchise. In July 2024 Activision acknowledged a detection fault that caused a spike in cheater reports, which shows the reports feed an automated pipeline before any human review.
How to report a Fortnite player, a cheater or a suspicious player
Epic's help article sets out the steps for how to report a Fortnite player in a match or lobby: press Esc on PC, Options on PlayStation, Menu on Xbox or + on Switch, open the three-line menu, select Reporting, then Report a Bug or a Player, choose Report Player, pick the reason and the player's name, and accept. The same flow lets the reporter block the player. Profiles of recently met players carry a Report button under More Options.
For how to report a suspicious player in Fortnite who has already left, use that recent-players route rather than waiting for another match. A report on a Fortnite cheater is weighed against Epic's Terms of Service and Code of Conduct, and Epic says only that submissions may help it decide whether action is warranted. Voice chat has its own Report Conversation option in the sidebar.
In Valorant, 97% of players were never reported, and 53% of the cheaters Riot banned had never been reported at all.Riot Games, Valorant developer blog, 31 August 2020
How to report a seller on eBay while the request can still pay
How to report a seller on eBay depends on whether money is at stake. For a missing parcel or an item that is not as described, open a request from Purchases, which starts the seller's response deadline under eBay's Money Back Guarantee. For a listing that breaks eBay's rules, use "Report this item" on the listing. Only the request can return money.
eBay's Money Back Guarantee lets a buyer open a request up to 30 days after the item's actual or latest estimated delivery date. The seller then has 3 business days to resolve it, after which the buyer can press "Ask eBay to step in" and eBay decides. Negative feedback is not a report, as eBay's community mentors repeatedly point out: feedback rates the seller, while the request is what triggers eBay's involvement.
| Problem | Where to file | What it can return |
|---|---|---|
| How to report a seller on eBay for not sending item | "I didn't receive it" request after the latest estimated delivery date | A refund if the seller cannot show delivery |
| How to report a seller on eBay for false advertising | "Item doesn't match description" request, then "Report this item" on the listing | A return and refund; listing review |
| How to report a seller on eBay for not refunding | The open return request, then "Ask eBay to step in" | eBay refunds and recovers from the seller |
| How to report a bad seller on eBay with no order problem | "Report this item", or eBay's contact form for seller conduct | Listing or account review; no money |
Anyone searching how to report a seller on eBay after the 30 days have passed has two routes left: PayPal's own buyer protection, where the payment ran through PayPal, and a chargeback with the card issuer. eBay's community forums also record cases in which eBay sided with a seller on the strength of a tracking number, so the buyer's own photos and the carrier's delivery record belong in the request from the start.
eBay reported about 7.9 million proactive removals of potentially infringing listings in 2025, and about 75,000 rights owners in its VeRO programme.eBay 2025 Global Transparency Report
Depop, Poshmark, Vinted, OfferUp and Temu
On resale apps, the order claim and the profile report are separate buttons with separate results. Poshmark's Posh Protect, Vinted's "I have an issue" and Depop's order help can hold a payment while a short window is open. Reporting the seller's profile or listing is silent, and protects later buyers rather than returning money.
How to report a seller on Poshmark. From the seller's closet, open the Action Menu and choose Report User; for a problem with a purchase, report it from the order within 3 days of delivery, the Posh Protect window. How to report a seller on Vinted. Press "I have an issue" inside the order within 2 days of delivery, then report the member profile; a full walkthrough of which scam desk can return money sits in the companion guide.
How to report a seller on Depop. Tap the three dots on the seller's profile and choose Report user, or on a listing choose Report item; problems with an order go through the order's help options. Third-party guides say Depop takes weeks to answer counterfeit reports. How to report a seller on OfferUp. Use the Report option on the seller's profile or the listing. OfferUp ended its shipping service and Purchase Protection in 2025, so local sales are final and the report adds to the account record only.
How to report a listing on Temu
How to report a listing on Temu, according to the European consumer group BEUC's 2024 analysis of Temu's compliance with the EU Digital Services Act: tap "Report this item" below the product listing, or the "..." next to a review, and give the reason and the exact link. Counterfeit and trademark complaints go through Temu's IP Portal instead; brand-protection firm MARQ Vision notes that IP reports sent through general customer service are not routed to the enforcement team.
Shopify stores, dealerships, Upwork clients, Patreon and itch.io
Store and platform reports go to the company that hosts the seller, not the seller. How to report a Shopify store is Shopify's Acceptable Use Policy form; a car dealer goes to the FTC and the state attorney general; an Upwork client goes through "Flag as inappropriate"; a Patreon creator through the creator page's "..." menu; and an itch.io game through the "Report game" link.
How to report a Shopify store
Confirm the store runs on Shopify first: a "Powered by Shopify" footer or a .myshopify.com address in the checkout link. Shopify staff in its community forums direct reports to the Acceptable Use Policy report form and say Shopify cannot disclose what action follows, for privacy reasons. For non-delivery, Shopify's guidance is to contact the merchant first and then the card issuer, since a store that collects many chargebacks draws a review from Shopify's risk team.
How to report a dealership
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's guidance draws the line: report a problem with the dealership itself to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, and an unresolved problem with an auto lender or a "buy here, pay here" dealer to the CFPB. The state attorney general's consumer protection office and the state's motor vehicle dealer board take complaints too, and are the offices that can act on a dealer licence. The FTC's Combating Auto Retail Scams rule never took effect; the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit vacated it in January 2025.
US consumers filed about 3 million fraud reports with the FTC in 2025, reporting $15.9 billion in losses.Federal Trade Commission, congressional testimony, 25 March 2026
How to report a client on Upwork
How to report a client on Upwork: open the job post, the client's profile or the message, choose "Flag as inappropriate" and pick the reason, such as a request to pay or work outside Upwork. Upwork's Trust & Safety team receives each flag directly. Upwork's payment protection covers only contracts and payments kept on the platform, so a client who moved the work to email is outside it.
How to report a Patreon creator and how to report a game on itch.io
How to report a Patreon creator: sign in, open the creator page, click the "..." icon and choose "Report this creator"; posts and comments use "Report this content". Patreon's help article asks for evidence tied to the person, such as links, screenshots or video timestamps. Copyright notices go to Patreon's copyright address instead.
How to report a game on itch.io: the "Report game" link at the bottom of each game page opens a dialog with reasons including offensive material, uploader not authorised, miscategorised and spam. itch.io moderators have said there is no report button for user profiles, only for games, so a user problem goes to itch.io support by email. A stolen game is a DMCA matter, and itch.io's terms send notices to its support address.
Discord servers, Mastodon users and Tumblr blogs
Community platforms route reports differently. Discord takes server and raid reports through its app and its Trust & Safety form, and rarely replies. Mastodon sends a report to the reporter's own server, which may forward it to the other server. Tumblr reports go to Tumblr's staff from the post or blog menu.
How to report a Discord server on mobile, for botting or for a raid
How to report a Discord server on mobile: open the server, tap its name, and scroll to Report Server, the route a Discord staff member gave on Discord's support forum. On desktop, Discord's Trust & Safety request form takes the report instead. For how to report a Discord server for botting, report the individual messages and accounts and give the form the server ID and user IDs, copied with Developer Mode turned on.
How to report a raid on Discord: in the Trust & Safety form, Discord's support forum gives the path Report abuse or harassment, then the raid option, with message links and the raiders' user IDs. While waiting, server owners commonly turn on maximum slowmode and pause invites. The site's guide to reporting a Discord server or user covers the categories in full.
Discord disabled 35,456,553 accounts for spam and 357,056 accounts for other policy violations in the first half of 2024.Discord Transparency Report, H1 2024
How to report a Mastodon user
How to report a Mastodon user: open the post or profile menu and choose Report, pick the rule broken, and attach posts. Hachyderm's moderation documentation explains that the report goes to the reporter's own server, and that for an account on another server a checkbox decides whether the report is also forwarded to that server's moderators, who otherwise never see it. Mastodon's API sets that forward option to false by default.
Mastodon does not share moderation actions between servers, so the reporter's server may limit or block the account locally while its home server does nothing. The self-check is to open the account on its own home server's address: if it still loads there, only the reporter's server acted.
How to report a Tumblr blog
Readers asking how to report a Tumblr usually mean a blog: use the flag or Report option on a post or the blog's menu, or the impersonation and non-genuine behaviour report page linked from Tumblr's Community Guidelines. Tumblr's DMCA form handles reposted art, and Tumblr forwards the filer's name and email to the blog owner, as covered in the guide to copies rehosted on Imgur and similar hosts.
How to report a YouTube ad
How to report a YouTube ad: select More or the info icon on the ad, then Report ad, and choose the reason. Google's "How to report an ad" help page describes that path for ads in videos. If the ad has gone, My Ad Center's "Your recent ads" list keeps it available to report. Google acknowledges a report by email but does not share the review result.
How to report a YouTube ad as inappropriate uses the same Report ad flag with the reason that fits, such as sexual content, violence or a scam; Google's page also offers a separate form when the ad breaks Google Ads policies in a way the menu does not cover. Note the advertiser name shown in the ad's My Ad Center panel first, because scam advertisers rotate landing pages and the reviewer may see a different one. A copied video rather than an ad goes through YouTube's copyright takedown form.
Google removed 602 million scam ads and suspended 4 million scam-linked advertiser accounts in 2025.Google 2025 Ads Safety Report, via Search Engine Land
Lipstick Alley, TheDirty and stolen art on DeviantArt
Gossip sites rarely remove posts on request. How to get something removed from TheDirty usually means a court order finding the post false, since the site says it has no legal duty to remove third-party posts. Lipstick Alley publishes no copyright or removal desk. DeviantArt, by contrast, runs a standard DMCA process with a three-strike rule.
How to get something removed from TheDirty
In Jones v. Dirty World Entertainment Recordings (6th Cir. 2014), the federal appeals court held that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act protected TheDirty from liability for a user's post. Arizona lawyer Carter Law Firm reports the site's position that it will remove a post when a court order or judgment shows the content is false, and that a police report alone does not qualify. Google's personal-content removal forms can still remove search results that expose doxxing details or intimate images, even while the post stays up.
How to get something removed from Lipstick Alley
How to get something removed from Lipstick Alley starts with the forum's moderators, through a report on the post from a registered account, because no published DMCA agent or removal form was found for the site. The one documented takedown, in October 2012, came from the site's host after a defamation letter, reported by Creative Loafing Atlanta. Where a thread copies a photo or text you own, a notice to the host is the stronger route, as set out in the guide to how far one DMCA notice reaches.
How to remove stolen art from DeviantArt
How to remove stolen art from DeviantArt: file DeviantArt's copyright form, which needs a free account, or email [email protected] with the original's link and the copy's link. DeviantArt's copyright policy says it removes material promptly on a proper notice and terminates repeat infringers under a three-strike rule. The same notice structure works on complaint sites, as shown by the ComplaintsBoard copyright desk.
YouTube's Content ID system made 2,502,941,368 claims in 2025, of which 0.51% were disputed.YouTube copyright transparency data for 2025, reported by TorrentFreak, 6 June 2026
What can no report do?
No report in this guide reveals who runs an account, returns money paid outside a platform's protection, or removes copies on other sites. Learning how to get removed from ZoomInfo does not reach data already sold, a Steam ban does not return items, and a TheDirty post survives most demands short of a court order. Each report removes one thing on one service.
Paid services cannot change those limits. A service promising a guaranteed ban, a VAC ban on demand or removal from a site with no removal desk is describing an outcome no outside party controls. What outside help can do is pick the right desk, keep the evidence consistent, and use copyright, privacy or legal routes where a plain report is too weak; the content removal service states which applies to each link.
Where the problem is a copied identity rather than a single post, the comparison of impersonation reports that actually remove is the next read. Dating-app fakes follow their own categories, set out in reporting a catfish on Grindr, and a thread that repeats the claims on Reddit goes through getting a Reddit thread removed.
This guide describes report processes as published in October 2026 and is not legal advice. Menus move often; where a button named here has changed, the help page linked from the platform's own report screen is the current version.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to get removed from ZoomInfo?
Removal guides from DeleteMe report that ZoomInfo processes an opt-out within 24 hours when the email matches a profile, and within 14 days when the privacy team has to review it. Check two weeks later by searching ZoomInfo for the name, because a second work email can carry a separate profile.
Can I get someone trade banned on Steam by reporting them many times?
No. Steam Support says it acts only when the reported infraction can be verified against the account's actual use, so one report with the trade offer, date, items and chat screenshots does the work. Steam notifies the reporter with a message in Steam when it takes action.
Do reports get someone VAC banned?
No. VAC bans come from Valve's detection of cheat software on VAC-secured servers, not from player reports. Use the game's own report button for a suspected cheater; any VAC ban that follows appears on the player's Steam profile.
What if an eBay seller has not refunded and the 30 days have passed?
eBay's Money Back Guarantee request must open within 30 days of the actual or latest estimated delivery date. After that, the routes left are PayPal's buyer protection if the payment went through PayPal, and a chargeback with the card issuer.
Does Discord tell you the result of a server report?
Usually not. Discord's support staff say its Trust & Safety team does not typically send individual updates on reports. Check whether the server's invite link still works, or whether the reported user ID still resolves.
Will TheDirty remove a post if I ask?
Rarely. The site states it has no legal duty to remove third-party posts, and a federal appeals court upheld its Section 230 protection in 2014. The site's stated exception is a court order or judgment showing the post is false.
Filed the report and heard nothing?
Send the link to what you reported and the date you filed. The review states whether the report landed, which desk can still act, and what no report can remove.