indicators suggesting fake giveaway:

  • registered less than 2 weeks ago

  • less than 20 games on steam

  • giveaway game on whishlist

  • no games in steam inventory

  • high priced giveaway

  • no description

  • less than one year on steam

  • multiple copies given away

  • game not on sale last few month

  • call of duty

indicators suggesting valid giveaway:

  • has done some giveaways

  • description (first giveaway, promoting something ...)

  • active member for some time

if most of the first list match, but none of the second -> probably fake

if at least one of the second matches -> probably legit

edit: do not call someone out, just because he fits this heuristic, its just probabilities and the giveaway may be legit. it just should help you spread your points where your chances of winning (and recieving) are higher.

10 years ago*

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Not sure what spurred this post, but you might want to remind people not to call out a giveaway as "fake" if it meets criteria on your list because that's against the site rules.

10 years ago
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GUIDE: What to Do With a Fake Giveaway

1) Enter if you wish, knowing you'll get your points back, later.
2) If you absolutely feel you need to "do something" about the fake giveaway then send a ticket to Support.
3) Go about your business without posting anything in comments suggesting the giveaway is "fake."

10 years ago
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Support won't (and shouldn't) do anything about reported fake giveaways, unless it's a case of region locked keys, or the maker clearly stating the giveaway is for something else than advertised, both of which show up in a description. Any other conclusion will have to wait 'till the giveaway is over and done with, which will result in a "not received" for the maker, anyway. You shouldn't be encouraging people to make pointless support tickets.. Y u do dis Khally? :0

10 years ago
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First off, I don't make "pointless support tickets," nor do I encourage others to do so. Second, I don't usually make tickets for "fake" giveaways, although I have occasionally done so after checking thoroughly. Support does check these out when they have reason to do so, and they know better than I. I have even been mistaken on at least one occasion. My "step #2," above, could have been worded more clearly, so I've edited it.

10 years ago
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Also if the user is not a native english speaker, and dont forget the VAC Ban

10 years ago
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You must be from South Park.

10 years ago
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?? All my giveaways are legit, even though I'm not a native.

10 years ago
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so what if the user is not a native english speaker?

10 years ago
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People sometimes make giveaways for games not understanding properly how the site works. I've read an account of someone's friend doing exactly that on the forums before.

They somehow believe that if they create a giveaway then that game will be given by Steamgifts themselves, and that they had a chance to win it, or that if they create a giveaway they will be given the game. This definitely does happen.

People without a very good understanding of English are more prone to do that kind of thing. I am NOT saying that all, most or even many of the people on SG fall into this category, but there is certainly a greater scope for misunderstanding the whole concept of the site if English isn't a person's first language and their English isn't great if all they've heard is that they can get free games here.

I think, or at least I'd hope that a similar point being made rather than Non-native English speakers = bad because that would truly be a crappy thing to say.

10 years ago
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Wow... just wow...

10 years ago
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My giveaways were fake all along. D:

10 years ago
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could not find any correlation on this point.

10 years ago
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3 weeks registered 21 games on steam xD

10 years ago
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i posted because i always see lots of entries on obvious fakes. i cannot write "beware of fake" on a giveaway, so i give general advice here :)

10 years ago
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those are bots

10 years ago
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There's nothing really to lose by entering what could possibly be a fake giveaway, is there?

10 years ago
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you lose precious points !!!

10 years ago
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Although the points regenerate, sometimes you may want / need some more to enter stuff you really wanna win, or you might need a lot of points for a forum or group event with loads of giveaways. Hence, being a little cautious in what you spend your points on is warranted.

10 years ago
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But we get "i didn't got my game what to do" threads and i think support has a lot of these type of tickets to deal with, even though they can't do nothing about it.

10 years ago
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"Can do nothing" or "can't do anything" :P

10 years ago
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er.. according this list, many of today's top contributors' first giveaways were fake.

10 years ago
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if you find a fake giveaway:

  • Don't call out "FAAAAAKE!"
10 years ago
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I always call that a FAAAAKE when i see one.. dunno why ...

10 years ago
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Then you risk being suspended. Calling others out is against the rules, period. Try scrolling down to the bottom of any page on Steamgifts, and on the bottom right, clicking "FAQ" to read the site rules some time. Like maybe right now.

10 years ago
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10 years ago
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Call of Duty :D

10 years ago
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+1 90% of fake GAs ;)

10 years ago
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"Call of duty" priceless.

10 years ago
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Not a terrible guide, but I've seen plenty of new users create multiple, high value giveaways for multiple games just because that's what they're here for. If you ever see me doing that, then fear that I've gone wrong and probably avoid it.

10 years ago
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just hitting a few of those critiria does not indicate for a fake....but if one hits almost all of them, one should be aware.

the new users making multiple high value giveaways do that to promote a game for greenlight or soem youtube channel in the descrition and therefore apply the second list overriding the first list :)

10 years ago
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Suspended (c)

10 years ago
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"call of duty"

LOL

10 years ago
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indeed

10 years ago
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OP > 1 Month registered and Private Profile LOL isnt against the rules have the profile set as private ?

you have so many reasons to talk shit ...

are you a scammer sir ? Why you have your profile set as private ?

10 years ago
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It's not against the rules.

10 years ago
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It's not. The profile only has to be public briefly, for the sync.

10 years ago
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and the autosync ?

but ok its against the rules, but saying all that shit with all of that morality but in the end he has only 1 month of SG and he has a private profile ... right

i bet he mets some of the "requirements" of his own list ;)

10 years ago
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Don't get me wrong, friend. I hate private profiles as much as the next guy (I have my raisins) but you're being a little unnecessarily harsh here. I've already stated this is a questionable, but not terrible guide but imo after stating my piece I've decided it's best to go the other way. My further activity here cannot contribute to the discussion, which is otherwise going well among those interested in participating. Your post, however, is likely to be considered spam or flaming.

I'll be the first to laugh at the notion that the system is perfect, but there will always be those looking for ways around the guidelines if they want something. All we can do is try to enjoy the site for what it is, which is really more than any of us are entitled to.

10 years ago
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steamgifts wants me once a week to go public for the sync.

if you read carefully, i say if one meets most of the first list but none of the second, there is a high likelihood, its fake. its just a heuristic applicable to giveaways to determine a probability for beeing legit - you may use it or ignore it.

for my private profile: i am a bit of a security nerd, keeping most online activity as private as possible, encrypting wherever possible. perhaps beeing a computer science guy with interests in security make one a bit paranoid ;)

10 years ago
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Never bothered me :P

The stuff you really should be paranoid about, should simply never be in any way digital, or be on the internet (including being on a machine connected to the 'net). And anything else like user credentials, which are an inherent part of the digital world, can and should be kept secure in your head, nowhere else. Anything else as far as paranoia and security go should have more to do with securing your machine from malware / intrusions than encrypting or obscuring stuff, as far as I'm concerned.

10 years ago
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Unless you dont want people to see how much game time you have on questionable games ;)

10 years ago
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This makes the owner of this website a scammer...
I KNEW IT!!!

10 years ago
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They just opened a pizzeria named Bolzano near my home, now I look here and I want pizza... and what's wrong with Call of Duty ? ;)

10 years ago
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Asides from obvious reasons, it's because it's a high-priced game that lots of people play, so fake givers know that lots of people will enter it.

10 years ago
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It's not like that, they just don't know how the site works and think that they will get the game instead of giving it.

10 years ago
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Just search for "Call of Duty" "Rust" "DayZ" and other mainstream games.

10 years ago
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I've actually given away a few games that were on my wishlist. While this may sound weird to some I have a small list of games that I would rather win here than actually pay for myself so I can return the favor.

10 years ago
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step 1: enter all the giveaways you like

step 2: get points back if a GA turns out to be fake

..please close, providing such a non-foolproof guide without even hinting to the "do not call out" rule is a bad idea

10 years ago
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I disagree. There is some useful info here to new ga members. I would change the phrasing of the topic, but I think the OP's intent and message is good.

10 years ago
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I don't doubt OP's intent, but there have been numerous cases where people gave away (AAA) games on their first day on here (even from their wishlist). If someone ends up not entering a GA due to this "guide" and it turns out to be real, that's somewhat counterproductive to the sites purpose.
And on top of that, the amount of fake GAs' is so small, that it is not a big deal at all. It's just that everyone should be aware that there are and always will be fake GA's, so to not be overly disappointed in the event you win one of those.

10 years ago
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i never said you can do a 100% classification based on the guide. its just a heuristic you can apply. i never saw a "real" giveaway where almost all of first list and none of second list hit.

the amount of fakes is very low on the low-prices games, but quite high on the high-priced ones. included call of duty, because i observed a very high quota of fakes there - more than half of the call of duty giveaways in the last weeks were fake (either deleted by support or winner did not recieve gift)

10 years ago
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10 years ago
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I was just about to say this :(
Now i'm sad

10 years ago
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for some people is not that obvious

10 years ago
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call of duty :3

10 years ago
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DayZ is a better place for the fake giveaways honor game

10 years ago
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"call of duty" Now that just made me laugh, nice one xD

10 years ago
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Most of your indicators are bullshit, except for the obvious ones (no games on account, game on wishlist and Call of Duty). You're just spreading confusion and misinformation. The only people that fall for fake ga's are those who don't check profiles and dum-dums, anyway.

10 years ago
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every indicator for itself is bullshit - you need the combination to get a useful heuristic.

10 years ago
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some of us enter fakes for fun... too many points on our hands =D

10 years ago
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You should add that calling out a ga is fake will only get your account suspended, been there done that :P

10 years ago
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thx, done :)

10 years ago
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Nice to see you waited 2 weeks after your "registered less than 2 weeks ago" criteria before making this topic.
This must be the truth.

10 years ago
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just needed time to do some obeservations to verify/falsify some assumptions before making the guide.

and if you really read it -> hitting few of the criteria says nothing ;)

but good point, i should adjust this to 4 weeks as soon as i hit 2 month ;)

10 years ago
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and this topic serves what purpose other than eventually encouraging people to call out actually legit GAs? Let me go on my own example by your points:

My first GA was non-bundle puzzle GA for Assasin's Creed Director's Cut Edition.

registered less than 2 weeks ago - when I created this GA I was 2 weeks on SG only

less than 20 games on steam - I had 18 games on steam

giveaway game on whishlist - It was my wishlisted game, I intended to activate it myself that's why I bought it but decided to give it here instead

less than one year on steam - I was only 9 months on Steam

game not on sale last few month - game was not on sale - like I said - I intended to play it myself

So judging by your rules all people should just tell me to fuck off, don't enter my GA and most of all disencourage me to do anything on this site whatsoever? Everyone started some time - some people will start and leave, some people like me will stay around and eventually become one of top contributors. You cannot judge people by some shitty first impressions neither encourage people to do so - if I were to do the same looking at your profile and your own rules I'd call any non-bundle GA you make FAKE as well. All due to your points.

Not to mention points are free, fake GAs are the slightest margin and you want to put all newcomers to the same basket? In my book you're a newcomer as well, so should I put you in as well?

10 years ago
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zelghadis, you fucking hax0r, what the fuck have you done???

10 years ago
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"I intended to activate it myself"

Intended to activate? Sounds like it was in your inventory, which invalidates everything you said.

10 years ago
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A key can be activated as well.

10 years ago
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5 out of 10 is not most of the first list.

i bet you used the comment field on your first giveaway - and therefore fulfilling one point of the second list.

10 years ago
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still someone seeing 5 of 10 points filled (heck, even 1/10) may yhink it's a reason good enough to call out fake GA. and each and every time like this you lose opportunity to get great site member. Potentially loosing great contributor seems much worse than loosing imaginary points you paid nothing for and in case of fake GA getting them all back anyway.

10 years ago
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Seen many people give a description on their first giveaway and even "welcomes" reply the first few "thank you" comments. They ended up "not understanding how SG works". And if I recall, the only indicator of non-delivery was that they were new to SG, small steam library, and no gift in steam inventory. So three from the first category and one from the second.
Did I solve the puzzle?

10 years ago
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I`m waiting for a tutorial how to make a fake giveaway

10 years ago
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  1. Click on the button labeled 'Logout'
  2. Click on the green button labeled 'Sign in through Steam'
  3. Enter the required information
  4. Wait 5 minutes.
  5. Rinse and repeat
10 years ago
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Closed 10 years ago by bolzano.