Not to mention offensive to those that follow a faith founded on Karmic laws of Reincarnation.
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I worked for keye.pl and its sister site, go2arena, (+ many of their child sites) back in 2011 . What I can tell you is that there was a lot of shady stuff happening behind the scenes. Not to mention that the majority if not all keys were from RU region. I mean.. they started as a forum with WoW exploits ;>
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I bought Advanced Warfare last week 3 times (for me and 2 friends) for 15€ each!!!
I bought it from a communnity seller with more than 2000 sold keys and 100% rating. And G2A Shield.
I pay for it and then i wait 2 or 3 minutes then i get a Steam Gift from i think a russia guy because the Steam Gift Message was Russia, but its a Global Version i can play with German and England and everybody :)
So I never had Problems with this Site
Edit: I payed with PaySafeCard
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bought today watch dogs uplay from the cheapest seller (chinese guy) with 98% rating and key worked. i payedfor shield. used pay pal. i payed like 26pln (with all fees; withought shield it costed like 19.61pln plus 2.22 fee) while in the shop it costs like 124pln; global key. also if ur buying any uplay game i dont think there is any region lock even if it says RU or so
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shield doesn't mean much. if you're a liability for them, they just cut the contact.
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They only tend to cut of your contact with them, not both ways. If a less credible gray market hub (of which there are many) consider you a competition or liability in any way (that will include those who'd be willing to take legal action to ensure their consumer rights). They might try to obtain as much information on you as possible before blocking of your IP and launching high precision/low detection attacks in the form of port scans and poisoned LAND packets.
Of course, this method is primarily pointless against private users with secure firewalls. But the intent of attacking in this specific way is to crash imaginary competitors' servers as preemptive strikes (or otherwise discourage independent actors on their market).
Please note that I'm writing in general terms based on first hand observations from other sites (such as intrusion detection in firewalls during plausible time lapses) to help raise awareness of the true enemy of community trading (not steam, or individual merchants but the 3rd party gray market controllers that will stop at nothing to exploit traders) and not specifically or explicitly about G2A as a site and reseller.
This is my last post in this thread since I'm increasingly off-topic, but I wish everyone at steamgifts to stay safe throughout the holidays and all the subsequent new years that have yet to come until the moon slips away from our gravitational grasp and we begin wobbling like an intergalactic penguin.
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Dont buy they are unauthorised resellers. Do not. Just buy from steam. Or trade with someone... not buy. Game might get rewoked, not usable, lots of stuff. Poods did bad thing coz he invites lots of ppl to support this illegal stuff.
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And he does this for a price cut from g2a.naaa this is bad...
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i bought alot (maby so 30-50) games on this site and always from lowest seller and deactivated shield .... had never problems
i checked always for seller has more than 1k positiv sells
only shady thing i saw was 1 key i got was a humble key ... but who cares what key it is when i buy the game and at the end i have exact this game in my steam library
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GreenManGaming, HumbleStore, GamersGate and Steamstore are the only authorized merchants that you should ever trust with your personal or financial information. I've had no experience with G2A, but I've seen many instances of legit traders and private steam users describing themselves to have been scammed or "blackmailed" over Paypal disputes by sites such as Kinguin and affiliates under their architecture (G2play, Rhinokeys etc)*.
If a site ever ask a customer (not just you, you might be the lucky one out of a hundred) for a 'Verification' of their purchase by submitting sensitive information that's normally protected by a trusted payment option, you have a strong reason to assert your consumer rights and demand a refund on the transaction.
*Some instances seem to be related to Kinguin's support and policies rather than the business practices of the Affiliates and Merchants themselves.
TL;DR: Don't spend more than you can afford to lose (anything above single copies may provoke scamming) and always look at individual feedback offsite to help you assess the worst case scenario and determine how to decrease your risk.
Edited: Be also very mindful of your email. Typical phishing sites may embed exploits in their Invoices such as hidden RTF-files to infect your PC. While I haven't researched G2A and can't advise on purchasing from their store, there are sites out there with stronger ties to cyber criminality than anyone would ever expect.
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First of all, they're not allegations. But first hand experiences by yours truly a personal friend and feedback on Facebook depicting worse experiences than my own. If you have more confidence in a 3rd party grey market hub than a member of this site then I have no idea of what I'm supposed to do.
It's a long and bothersome story of polite blackmailing after already having sent a valid payment by Paypal through my mail by requesting unreasonable amount of personal information typically used in phishing attempts. Such as utility bills, official letters from employers and a driver's license to among other things establish a standard of living to determine whether phishing would pay off.
At the end of my communication with the support, I had been subjected to two attacks before my IP was blocked off. One over night that included 25 portscans and 12 LANDoS attacks and another shortly after having written my first post on my experiences in this thread with 5 additional portscans and several fragments in a previously spotless IDS.
I admit that the exploited Invoices is only a speculation on typical Phishing and not directly applicable to any site that I've discussed in this thread.
To close with, the only reason I didn't file charges against Kinguin is that I received my full refund in the end and have no full trace-routes of the attacks on my personal hardware that could be associated with their business practices regardless of how questionable they may be.
Edited: You can refer to my 2nd post on how grey market controllers may perceive liabilities to better understand why they presumably attacked in this way. Even though I had already established in the very first support reply that I'm a non-profit trader and don't associate my giveaways as referrals to commercial sites they politely asked me the following in the verification mail:
"Could we please ask you to send us links to your trading offers or to your giveaways?
Please if possible write "for kinguin" on one of them."
Which is completely absurd to me how they could inquisition me on being a merchant not under their control and then ask me to promote them as a non-profit trader while it's against the steamgifts policy.
Edit 2: In retrospect I feel sorry for them, it's equally plausible to throw ockham's razor out the window (and hope it won't hurt someone) and assume that someone have infiltrated Kinguin's support in hopes of exploiting their customers (again, there are many complaints to be found in the form of Facebook feedback if you're willing to look for it outside the official groups. I only began posting in this thread to help others stay safe). If this proves to be the case some time down the road, then I withdraw and apologize for everything even though I find it highly unlikely.
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The definition of allegation is "a claim or assertion that someone has done something illegal or wrong, typically one made without proof", as you had posted no proof in your initial post, it was exactly that. If I had doubted you, I wouldn't have said so, instead I simply asked for more information.
tl;dr - There was absolutely no reason to get upset or defensive over my proper use of the word.
Now let me take a moment to actually read your post!
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You have to take into consideration that I was currently going through the end phase of that experience while writing in this thread and didn't have enough time to replace my assertions with assumptions until recently.
But your comments have allowed me to be more level-headed and considering rather than offended by it all. I am the exception, not the rule of how they treat their customers and all i can do is to be more mindful and say my thanks with the site in question in hopes of never returning to an unauthorized reseller.
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If you would excuse me. I have holiday sales to monitor. But I will do my utmost to reply with any level of composure if you're wondering anything else even though I won't be able to verify much except the emails for the time being (Edited: they are full print-screens so I'll have to edit them first if you'd like to take a look at them).
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I've looked into the RTF-file in a hex editor and was unable to find any malicious code or hidden objects. Only a faulty path directed towards an asset folder within open-office. Why it was hidden or how it was generated I do not know and can't prove to have any correlation with my other experiences.
I'll edit my original post but would still advice on creating rules and exceptions for your inbox to isolate embedded objects such as Invoices while purchasing from unauthorized markets.
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Based on that and everything else you've said, it does certainly sound like an attempt at phishing or social engineering. It's plausible that could have been requesting lots of information in an attempt to discourage you from requesting the refund, but we'd have to ignore everything else that happened. :p
Unfortunately, without more information, we'll never know the truth though! Like you said, it could be someone on support who is being malicious, could be someone external posing as support, could be the entire company that is malicious. The attacks after speaking with support seem very coincidental, but again, unfortunately no real proof.
Thanks for posting the warning though! Glad your issue was resolved without any further issues or frustrations!
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I agree with your call, social engineering is the most perfect term for what I've experienced on their site than I could ever express myself, they treated me like an outsider in a HP Lovecraft novel for God's sake!
But I have to also state that I take my intrusion detection system very seriously as I don't use torrents and other p2p services. I am far more considering of potential harm that may come to my hardware than someone who constantly experience passive 'background internet static' bouncing of their firewall.
I appreciate your input and my hope all along was not to offend anyone, not even the sites mentioned. But to help members of steamgifts to understand the potential risks and reasoning of Phishing and what type of information that unauthorized resellers may demand from you.
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I also heard about this site... shadow of mordor was for 10 bucks only, but I decided not to buy anything.... if there's just one small risk is more then enough for me to look at another site. There's many sites you can get steam keys for cheap, and I think one of the best and most legit ones, it is greenmangaming. Bought from them several times and never had any problems (plus they are 100% legit) and currently they have some insane deals.
Another site I can recommend you but might be problems with region now.. but you still check on it, is nuuvem, it's a br site (so yeah, region could be a problem) but it has very cool deals, and though it will show br coin, during checkout will show your own coin.
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Greenmangaming? Are you kidding? I mean they may have insane deals for english people, but for me, in Hungary, not. They change pounds almost 1:1 with USD, so it's a pretty bad site IMO, but I got Quantum Conundrum + Season Pass for free (GMG credit), which is nice
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Oh noope. I will buy TSW Massive from Steam Store. I was just worrying, cause of the loss of money. Not going to buy from them, especially, when they want 77$ for TSW Massive, which is higher than the base price of the package. So nope, lesson learned :D
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I've used kinguin a few times which is owned by g2a. They are a unauthorized steam key site where anyone can sell their keys but it is kind of a grey market as no one really knows where the keys come from 100% of the time.
It could just be someone like me or you that has some spare keys or bought a couple of steam gifts when on sale to sell, or it could be more sinister and sometimes stolen keys are sold or keys bought through illegitmate means (stolen cards etc). So everytime I use it I am aware that I could be throwing away money and having the game revoked. I also never use their protection thing.
For example if its a brand new game that is $60 on steam and on g2a someone is selling keys for $10, I would avoid as its probably too good to be true but I have found some good deals on their (like all tomb raiders for $10), then I've rebought from the same person once or twice after as they delivered the first time.
Its good to juat know the market in general, for example Mortal Kombat (newest one) was sold for a couple of dollars on a authorized brazilian site so its likely to find cheap MK keys for some time after.
It helps to know what going on in the gaming world a little too. Like when a load of sniper elite keys were stolen and being sold, so still never buy a sniper elite 3 key from anywhere that isn't a authorized steam key seller.
Just bare in mind its always a risk, and if you only save $1-$2 then just use a authorized retailer, for the ease of mind.
ps. I'd never use a credit card there, only paypal.
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What makes you think that Kinguin is owned by G2A?
Afaik Kinguin is owned by 7 entertainment (fast2play, g2play [afaik no relation with g2a] and some other stuff).
Not to mention that G2A already owns a couple of different stores such as go2arena or keye.pl
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bought some everything works fine. recently bought titanfall everything is ok for me !
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I bought Warlords of Draenor for my friend on G2A when it was released. No issues, key received instantly, worked fine, hasn't been revoked after months.
pressstart420 hit the nail on the head though, the issue is with these sites are that they allow anyone to be a seller. If you deal with good sellers, then you'll likely have good experiences and vice versa.
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"the issue is with these sites are that they allow anyone to be a seller."
No, the issue with these sites IS these sites, they are not allowed to sell you anything, they should not exist in the first place. Do you really think that Blizzard, who doesn't sell their games in digital form anywhere else than on battle.net, has given to a site like G2A the official authorization to sell their games ? You can't find a single Blizzard game (in key form) on GMG, GG, Amazon.com/fr/de/es/it/..., Game.co.uk, Nuuvem, gamestop, gamesplanet, getgames, and many more legit and authorized sellers, but you can buy a key on G2A. This isn't an enough big red flag for you ?
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That's what I've said, TWICE: "Blizzard, who doesn't sell their games in digital form anywhere else than on battle.net", "You can't find a single Blizzard game (in key form)"
G2A sold you a PHYSICAL copy ? You've received a box, with a dvd when you've bought the game ? No.
Thanks for being sarcastic, but try to read though.
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I really don't know what you're trying to say nor do I really give a fuck about what you're trying to say.
I also do not understand why you felt the urge to try and force your opinion down my throat. I tried to be nice in my first reply, but clearly that did not work, so let's try this route.
Is your point simply that G2A is not an authorized reseller? Who the fuck cares? You gave +rep on your profile from trading, you're not an authorized reseller, should I be running around warning people about you?
If so, you're a fucking idiot and just fuck off.
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While I don't understand why you two are arguing in the first place as both the site and the merchant can be considered as personal liabilities for a trader that's nonprofitable. But you have to recognize that you have no right to write to him in that manner and should by all right rephrase yourself, if not out of good will then at least out of self-respect.
I do not mean to cause offense as both of you seem to be devoted members of this site.
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Opinions, opinions, that's what this whole discussion/arguement is about, differing opinions!
There are users on SteamGifts and SteamTrades who are scammers, have scammed or attempt to scam. Does that mean SteamGifts and SteamTrades are full of scammers and should be avoided?
If not, then why should we use this exact same mentality on Kinguin and G2A?
If so, then why are we on this site having this conversation?
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You ask good questions, but I don't have any good answers.
I only believe that two headstrong members of this site just lost their conversation/argument due to lack of communication although equally good intentions.
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You belittled me in every post, but never made an outright insult. I call you an "idiot" once and you jump on me and take the "high road" out? If anyone actually reads the back and forth, I'm sure they'll get a laugh out of it as well!
Perhaps calling you an idiot was not the best nicest thing to do, but when you repeatedly present yourself as one, it shouldn't come as a shock when it happens.
I had hoped you actually had a point you were trying to make. Now it seems as though you were just trying to force your opinion onto others. Feel free to actually explain if you'd like, otherwise cheers!
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I want to thank you for your comment on my personal experience, it was the first bad one I've ever had since I started trading and it helped me to take a step back and verify as much as possible. It was a mistake that I hope others can learn from by considering carefully before purchasing from a 3rd party.
But I have to point out that the risk of being scammed by a merchant or treated in an unethical or nonprofessional way is not based on your perception of the individual merchant, but the grey market controller's perception of you.
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You're absolutely correct to say that what happens could be based on the sellers perception of you. I wouldn't think it's uncommon on G2A or Kinguin as they don't have as much information on you, but it certainly happens on Steam.
They'll make a judgement call as to how susceptible the person would be. Someone who has been trading for years likely won't fall for basic scams, but someone who is brand new would be a lot more likely.
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And I believe that you make a very good point. Third party market sites may be more guarded of new customers (and more likely to side with the merchant in the event of a scam-complaint) than steam because they want to assert more control and security in their marketplace, just as they may be out to exploit or deter independent actors that they might consider malicious to their agenda (for good or bad).
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So I was hearing rumors about the shadiness of this site, that it gives wrong keys, or doesn't even deliver keys, and even sold Devolver Digital's game keys unathorizedly, and so on. So my question is, if I buy the key from their selected partner, and pay for the shield (to make sure that it arrives 100%) can I feel myself safe? What are your thoughts? Or just buy the key from the lowest high rated seller, but pay for shield? So what are your thoughts? Please only give opinions, if you have actually purchased from the site. Thanks!
I'd buy it with PayPal, so in worst-case scenario, I would just ask for a refund, right?
EDIT: I placed order on Watch Dogs + Deluxe Content (for the White Hat pack) + Season Pass, got the 2 add-ons, but not he base game. For the Season Pass, I had to contact their support, and they needed me to Screenshare (!!!) my computer with join.me. Then after 3 minutes of waiting, an assistant connected, and told me, that the seller ran out of keys, so I have to rebuy the game. SWEET!
Fortunately I had enough funds (still waiting for the refund btw), so I rebought it from the SAME guy. Okay, THEN it needs phone verification, and says, they didn't get money from Paypal (EVEN BETTER), but the assistant told me, that she'll look at my order number, and got it solved. Finally everything arrived, and she saw, that it was working, and I got like 7 mail from G2A in a 30 minute period. I hope that it WILL arrive before The Secret World Massive goes on sale, otherwise, I won't be able to buy it.
If we are speaking about refund, how fast was it's arrival? 1 day, 2 days, or even more?
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