Something should be done about Grand Theft Auto V

Not necessary in my opinion. GTA V giveaways usually come in sets of 3 so those people get to promote their amazing YouTube channels exactly once before they run out of slots.

But it's not just GTA V, there are more, and then someone has to monitor each and every single giveaway.

A warning should appear when creating a giveaway for GTA V saying that Steam keys do not exist for it. I'm not sure how easy it would be to do that for only one game though.

but there should be harsher punishments for those who create fake giveaways

how u know its a fake?
For example, u made giveaway for GTAV and u actually could (and want) to buy this game in steam store for giveaway. U set high level, or even use sgtools.. but damn - u see winners profile and u understand that u can't make reroll and u don't want to give this game to this person. Result - +1 not recieved.

Its a fake giveaway?

If somebody wants to create a fake GA and can't do it for GTA V... they'll just pick another game.

When there are stronger punishments people will just create a fake steam profile, link it to SG and create a fake GA to promote whatever they want.

It's not going away.

On the other side of things... What if I want to give away GTA V. Buy it on steam. It activates on Steam, as it's got achievements. So what do I get? Must be a steam key...

banned
perma banning

Ban, definition: To officially prohibit, forbid, or bar.
Suspend, definition: To temporarily delay, block, or hold in place.

Suspensions are temporary (though they may be indefinite, and thus effectively permanent), while Bans are permanent.
This relates to the definitions of the specific words, not any particular usage of SG, though SG does utilize both terms as indicated.
Putting aside the overall quirk of substituting of 'ban' for 'suspension', "perma banning" is an unnecessarily redundant phrase.

When in doubt, suspension is actually the word one should default to.

As far as your arguably less important topic, users already get roughly three strikes on fake giveaways- not just by the initial limit on giveaway slots, but by staff actively eyeing abuse patterns and taking action where they suspect intentional abuse. For games that outright cannot be given away, temporary removal from the giveaway list already exists as an established option, so we don't need to argue over other ways of resolving such issues. However, as GTA V is a game which can be purchased through Steam, it can be given away, so this thread is baseless in its argument. (On that note, how would one even follow-through with the 'manually check ownership' poll option?)

I'd agree to a warning to new users that giveaways may be fake, but past that all we lose is points, and that after conscious decision to do so. More users'd probably favor the chance at GTAV, however unlikely, than have it delisted due to its unlikeliness of being legitimately offered. Any arguments for actions other than those, is just an unnecessary burden on everyone involved. As far as harsher penalties- a one-strike-you're-out system goes against the established leniency of the SG rule-breaking system. The current arrangement for fake giveaways- a 5 day suspension with an eventual risk of a permanent one- is already well-balanced and reliable. Anything stricter than that is based in a personal disdain on the topic, which is silly, given that, again, you don't have to enter such giveaways to begin with.

As Manipulator notes above, those who intentionally are abusing the system would find ways around anything you'd devise, anyway.

It doesn't bother me all that much, but I do agree that I'd like to see harsher punishments for creating fake giveaways, even if you then delete said giveaway.

just buy gta 5, you won't see it again.

I mean if they clarified the "no calling out rule" and made it okay to post comments on a giveaway questioning its legitimacy then this problem would be pretty quickly solved. I understand why we don't want this in the forums and why we want to discourage people from making assumptions about particular users, but the entire community would benefit from being able to ask a simple question of the giveaway creator in the actual comments without risking a suspension.

These people are counting on people subscribing and joining their groups and stuff and then just thinking they didn't win. Nobody goes back and checks on giveaways that have ended so they have absolutely nothing to lose - no bad rep moves over to their promoted channel or group or whatever. If we allowed people to warn each other in the comments of the giveaway then they would risk people actually paying attention and their guides and channels and such would quickly lose their audience.

There are so many threads who ask for harsher punishments for fake giveaways or not activating gifts and even cg already created a poll about it. 1 year later still nothing happened...

If people are being banned just by pointing that out, the mods in this place have really reached the complete bottom. Many people are not aware of these things and it's a good thing to notify them, that is in no way calling out. Multiple times I've seen people give away The Sims 3 here and asked them if the key was really for Steam and not Origin, and all of those times they immediately deleted the giveaway because they were not aware that only Steam keys could be given away.

Saying "this giveaway is fake" is completely different than asking "is this key really for Steam?", and if people are really being banned for the latter as you suggest, the moderation needs a serious intervention.

And I disagree that there should be harsher punishments, they already lose a giveaway slot, and all we lose is points.

There is always the one game like that. GTA V is actually old news now, the new king of mistakenly and purposefully fake giveaways is undoubtedly the king of player base fleecing itself, CAPSLOCKISMYONLYNAME'S LootboxGrounds. So far this year there have been like two actually delivered keys for it out of 20+.

Just wondering, why do Steam Keys not exist for GTAv?

I have been checking my entry history and out of 31 entries for GTA V ... there are currently NO steam keys for GTA V (only for Rockstar club)

Kinda off-topic, but if you knew keys didn't exist, why did you enter 31 times?

Well there's one user who created GAs for 3x GTA, 3x PUBG, and 3x CoD WWII
as well as another GA for PUBG a week ago, and NONE of them have been delivered...
seems suss..

Well, since over 70% is ok with the situation or doesn't care I am closing it up :)