The fastest way to hit your quota in Scam With Your Friends is to build caller trust before you ask for anything, stack two scams into one call, and use the apps with the best payout-to-cost ratio. As of update 0.1.90 (October 25), that means the free Credit Card app ($200), Gift Cards ($400 payout for a $150 app) and the crash-timed investment rounds worth up to $700. The game is a $9.99 Early Access co-op comedy on Windows PC only, with no Xbox or PS5 version announced.
All numbers below come from the developers’ Steam patch notes and store page, checked October 25, 2026 at 22:00 UTC. Early Access balance changes almost daily, so the patch version is listed next to each figure.
Table of Contents
Quick answer: Scam With Your Friends tips
- Watch the Caller Trust meter. Talk about the caller’s problem first and ask for payment last; asking too early is the most common way calls fail, according to player guides.
- Open with a name and a company. Callers often ask who you are; having the answer ready keeps trust from collapsing.
- Chain scams. A caller who just handed over a card number will often accept a “discount” that needs a gift card too.
- Cash out investments early. Bitcoin and Meme Coin values climb toward a crash at a random time, and waiting too long forfeits the round (0.1.73).
- Type if your mic struggles. Speech recognition is the shakiest system; typed replies always work.
- Turn off “Allow mid-day joins” if randoms keep wrecking your shift in public lobbies (0.1.90).
A trusting caller, a +$250 payout and the Personal, Team and Quota counters in the HUD (pre-release build). Image: Jatater Worldwide
How to play Scam With Your Friends
You and up to seven friends (lobbies hold 1 to 8 players since Hotfix 2) work a fictional call center under an abusive boss. Each workday, fictional AI callers phone in, you talk to them by voice or text, and you use desktop apps to turn the conversation into money. The Steam store page describes it as run-based: every day you survive unlocks more scams, and missing the daily quota at the end-of-day performance review gets you fired.
The official screenshots show the loop clearly. The bottom-right HUD lists your personal earnings, the team total against the quota, and a countdown to the performance review. The phone window shows the current caller and a Caller Trust bar that swings between Trusting and Angry as you talk.
Along the way the office throws problems at you. The store page lists computer viruses, police raids and air strikes, plus “scambaiters” who try to infect your PC. Update 0.1.90 cut how often virus pop-ups appear and gave the in-game Malwarebits app a one-click Remove virus button, so clean infections straight away instead of working around them.
Best scams to hit your quota (payouts by patch)
Not every scam pays the same, and some cost money to unlock in the in-game app store. These are the figures the developers have published:
| Scam | Unlocks | App cost | Payout | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Credit Card | Day 1 (community guide) | Free | $200 | 0.1.90 |
| Gift Cards | Day 1 (community guide) | $150 | $400 | 0.1.90 |
| Bitcoin / Meme Coin | Not published | Not published | Up to $700 per round | 0.1.73 |
| Lottery Prize | Not published | Not published | $0, $200, $500 or $1,000 (5% jackpot chance) | 0.1.73; amounts updated in 0.1.90 |
| IP Geolocation | Day 6 | Not published | Up to $800 for an accurate guess | 0.1.84 |
| Money Mule | Day 11 | Not published | Not published | 0.1.84 |
The trade-off is clear. Credit Card costs nothing and pays $200, so it is the default opener. Gift Cards pays twice as much but needs a $150 app first, so it pays off from the first use and every use after that is profit. IP Geolocation has the highest published ceiling, but you have to keep the caller convinced while you take readings on the globe, so it suits a player who is comfortable stalling.
For the other scams, a Steam community guide dated October 21 lists these unlock days: Romance (Day 2), Tech Support (Day 4), Password Recovery and Police Impersonation (Day 5), Car Extended Warranty (Day 6), Ransom (Day 9) and Timeshare (Day 12). Treat those days as approximate, because updates keep shifting the lineup. Password Recovery, for example, was pulled from the app store in 0.1.73.
Investment scams: when to cash out
Since 0.1.73, Bitcoin and Meme Coin are live rounds. You pitch the coin, get the caller to invest, then pick your moment to cash out. The value rises toward a market crash at a random time. Reassuring the caller can delay their withdrawal, but it cannot stop the crash. You can still cash out what’s left during the crash, but getting caught, losing the caller or waiting too long forfeits the unpaid earnings. With the quota at stake, a guaranteed mid-sized cash-out beats chasing the $700 top.
Scams that need a code from the caller
Several scams only pay once you type in a number the caller reads out. Police Impersonation needs the fine payment confirmation number and the Investment scam needs the invoice number (both 0.1.73). Since 0.1.90, Lottery Prize has you talk the caller into entering the Texas lottery, get their lottery number over the phone and enter it to unlock the scratch card. If a caller drifts off topic, remind them what they agreed to. The Oct 21 community guide notes that callers often “forget” a deal they made a few lines earlier.
Remote access needs the one-time code the caller reads aloud; the trust bar here has dropped to Angry. Image: Jatater Worldwide
How to keep caller trust high
The AI callers react to what you say in real time, so these tips are about conversation, not button presses. Players who have written Steam guides converge on the same habits:
- Introduce yourself with a name and a company. The author of the “My go to guide to scamming” guide says callers kept asking who they were and which company they worked for, and trust was gone by the time they answered.
- Solve the problem before you mention money. The same guide suggests talking through the fix (sending a technician, when they arrive) and asking for payment only after that.
- Don’t over-explain. The Oct 21 guide warns that long backstories give the caller more contradictions to catch. Keep cover stories short.
- Play to the character. Many default callers are parodies of familiar personalities, and staying consistent with their “lore” keeps them engaged.
- Stack a second scam. One player suggests following a credit card payment with a “gift card promotion” for a discount, which turns one call into two payouts.
- If a call is lost, hang up. Since the Oct 15 hot fix there is a five-second minimum break between calls, so a dead call costs little time compared with arguing with an angry caller.
All of this applies only to the game’s fictional AI callers. Real scam tactics hurt real people, and the game is satire of them, not a manual.
Co-op tips: lobbies, joins and roles
The game supports single-player, friends-only and public lobbies. A few settings added in recent patches make co-op much smoother:
| Setting or feature | What it does | Added |
|---|---|---|
| Lobby size 1-8 | Limits are now enforced correctly | Hotfix 2 (Oct 16) |
| Join by Code | Accepts lobby codes and Steam invite links | Hotfix 2; clearer instructions in 0.1.83 |
| Allow mid-day joins | Turn off so new players only join between shifts | 0.1.90 |
| Public lobby filters | Filter by mode, day, player count and country | Oct 15 hot fix; expanded in 0.1.90 |
| Streamer Mode | Disables the browser and hides other players’ screens and screen shares | 0.1.90 |
| Family Friendly mode | Tones down caller conversations, blocks the in-game browser, hides private caller photos | Strengthened in 0.1.82 |
The game has no formal class system, but splitting the work helps. Since everyone’s earnings feed one team total, let your strongest talker take the long investment and geolocation calls while others farm quick Credit Card and Gift Card payouts. Make sure everyone is on the same game version too. Hotfix 3 added a version-mismatch screen because players on different builds can’t join each other.
Co-op players crowding one desk while a caller's trust sits at 5% Angry. Image: Jatater Worldwide
Fix voice and AI problems
Speech recognition and AI voices were the biggest launch complaint, and the developers acknowledged it in their launch announcement. What the patches changed:
- Speech recognition: Whisper is the default. Moonshine is the fallback for PCs without AVX2, and the game now switches to it on its own if Whisper fails (0.1.82). Deepgram support was removed in 0.1.84.
- Caller voices: Qwen3 TTS gives higher-quality voices but needs a compatible GPU (6 GB of VRAM is supported since 0.1.83). It turns itself off if speech takes more than five seconds to start, so disable it on weaker PCs. Non-English players should let the Qwen3 download finish on the main menu.
- Microphone: automatic mic leveling is on by default. Turn it off in General settings to set the phone mic manually from 50% to 200%.
- Typing always works: the game warns when your PC can’t run speech recognition, and you can still type to callers.
Saves, achievements and prestige
Since 0.1.83 the game has 26 Steam achievements and Steam Cloud saves for progress, cosmetics, prestige and permanent app purchases. Update 0.1.84 added three save files, with day and prestige previews when you switch. Lifetime achievements and stats survive save resets and prestige. The RESET SAVE option in settings erases progress, cosmetics and permanent app purchases, so don’t use it unless you want a full restart. Since 0.1.90, new recordings and photos are stored on your PC rather than in Steam Cloud.
Price, platforms and Early Access
| Detail | Status (checked Oct 25, 2026) |
|---|---|
| Price | $9.99; $8.99 launch discount until October 29 |
| Released | October 15, 2026 (Early Access) |
| Platforms | Windows 10/11 PC (Steam) only |
| Mac, Linux, Proton | Not supported, per Hotfix 3 |
| Xbox, PS5, mobile | Not announced |
| Full release | Targeted for mid-December 2026 |
| Steam reviews | Very Positive (83% of 2,280 English reviews) |
| Minimum PC | Core i5-8400 or Ryzen 5 2600, 3 GB RAM, GTX 1060 6 GB or RX 580, 5 GB storage, broadband |
The developers, JakeHub and Metater (publishing as Jatater Worldwide), say they expect the price to stay the same through Early Access and at full release. They also plan more scams, callers and co-op improvements before then. A new host mode called Frenzy appears on the 0.1.90 mode screen as “Coming really soon” but isn’t playable yet.
For more co-op games to play with friends, see our Moon Sweepers beginner guide, another indie co-op game in the Steam top sellers, and our list of the best cozy co-op games on Steam, Switch and PS5. Our Steam Next Fest October 2026 demo picks cover more indie games from this month.
FAQ
Is Scam With Your Friends on Xbox or PS5?
No. As of October 25, 2026 it is only on Steam for Windows PC, and neither the store page nor the publisher’s site mentions a console version. It does support controllers, including DualShock and DualSense.
Is Scam With Your Friends on mobile?
No mobile version has been announced. The only official listing is the Steam page.
Can you play Scam With Your Friends solo?
Yes. Steam lists single-player alongside online co-op, and lobbies can be set to one player.
How do you get early access to Scam With Your Friends?
You don’t need a playtest key anymore. The Early Access version went on sale on Steam on October 15, 2026, so buying it gets you the current build.
Does Scam With Your Friends work on Steam Deck?
Not officially. Hotfix 3 says Linux, Wine and Proton setups are unsupported, so expect problems on Steam Deck.
Sources: Steam store page and Early Access FAQ; developer patch notes (Hot Fixes through 0.1.90); Jatater Worldwide; Steam community guides “Scamming for dummies” and “My go to guide to scamming”.
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Featured image: AI-generated illustration
