long time ago i activated a key of Bioshock Infinite i got from a trader.

i played it, finished it and it stayed there more then a month fo sure.

but now i cant find it in my steam library again. i didnt get any notification it has been diactivated or something.

i alerted steam support already but they didnt answer yet. what should i do??

11 years ago*

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So you got an exploited key? At least ya finished it

11 years ago
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+

11 years ago
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+1 - exploited/stolen key used, payment failed or attempt to refund probably.

11 years ago
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my arma 2 combined operations (row) is also gone, i wait for support since 2 days. dissapeared................

11 years ago
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how can payment fail...yet you still get the game? that doesnt make sense.... thats like if i went ot the store and gave the guy at the register invisible money and he said have a nice day an bagged my stuff, then later having them call me and say they didnt get any money from me...

how can you get the key even tho the payment failed?

11 years ago
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People can use for example Paypal, get the game, then request a refund within a few days (<30 days). Paypal 99% of the time will then honor that refund request, leaving the pay to bounce or be withdrawn back. Same can happpen with a stolen credit card and the original owner requests a refund. People can even request a refund through steam itself. Steam will then resolve this by simply removing your game or closing the steam account (if detected as stolen). However, if they have already traded on the game to someone else, then it's that someone else which the game disappears from. Steam doesn't care or consider stolen trades. The scammed victim still loses.

11 years ago
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buy yourself a new one :D

11 years ago
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They coulda reclaimed it maybe or something similar to that.

11 years ago
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stolen key :D the joy of scammers

11 years ago
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How do you steal keys for a game? I'm honestly just not sure how that is even possible.

11 years ago
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Purchase with stolen credit card, that's just one possibility, there are more. I remember like a year ago whole truck with UbiSoft's games stolen... Was it Holland?

11 years ago
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*the netherlands... hmm maybe but what has that to do with bioshock infinte?

11 years ago
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My apologies, my mistake.

The person above asked how could you steal game keys so I recalled event from the past when someone stole whole truck with physical copies (therefore with activation keys). Rather unheard of but could happen. Just like other kinds of thievery (like employee taking games from storehouse etc).

11 years ago
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Only in that case it where special editions, and if I remember correctly, all those keys were being revoked. Worked at a customer support for an online retailer back then, some customers just couldn't understand there order was canceled, simple because there just was no collectors edition anymore. As all had been stolen.

11 years ago
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Sometimes I take a used cd key, switch the letters and numbers around until i get one that works. its really not that hard, i've gottena few games that way.

11 years ago
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11 years ago
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It is, although he's probably just trolling. Even if he's not, once some of those keys are legitimately claimed Valve catches on and bans the account.

11 years ago
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Just one of many examples: Company stores keys in a txt file on a server. Hacker gets access to those keys and sells them. Later, the keys get sent out by the company (with hardcopies, online stores, whatever). Legit buyers will try to activate those keys now but it's not possible because keys already got activated by people who bought from the hacker. Legit buyers send in proof that they bought the game to Steam and will get the key activated for their account. Person who bought earlier from hacker will get game removed, if not even account banned.

11 years ago
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i got once flagged like this because i had "stolen" game. had to agree that game will be removed and next time I get ban...funny thing is, no game was removed...idk if valve was drunk or something

11 years ago
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Just asking, was he a highly Rep. trader ?

11 years ago
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yes he was

11 years ago
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Was the real one? May be impersonated.

11 years ago
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means nothing, high rep trades with new scammer account, and there you go

11 years ago
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When you got the vicim of a trader who sells stolen keys you get casually a notification from steam that the publisher has banned your key due to forbidden activities or stuff.

11 years ago
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didnt get that

11 years ago
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Ask Steam. They once deleted three games from my account. The games, I've bought on Steam(!). After I've mailed them, they gave it back.

11 years ago
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Interesting. About a year ago, Dead Island (a game I traded for) was removed from my account. I never complained, and ended up buying the game anyway.

Sounds like it might be worth a try for the OP.

11 years ago
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11 years ago
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Haha! How bizarre...

Funnily enough, even when it was removed from my library, I could still play it from the exe file in the Dead Island directory...

I just felt uneasy about not owning it legitimately, so stumped up for another copy next time it was on sale...

OP, have you tried running Bioshock from the .exe file?

11 years ago
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Hmm I just checked my Dead Island game. I got a key from a trader as well. And now it's gone. Oh well I didn't like that game much anyway. But I gave a legit game to that guy so it's pretty annoying.

EDIT: I just went to the Dead Island store page, it said I already own it (even though it wasn't showing up in my library), so I hit the "play now" button and it is now installing it again! Maybe you can try that with your game?

11 years ago
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Or force install through Steam protocol. steam://install/8870 or whatever B:I steam id is

11 years ago
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Samething happened to me, got an exploited key without knowing it was not legit from a group chat giveaway, activated the key, 3 weeks later got a notification saying the key i used wasn't legit, so they removed the game from my account.

Year and half or so later i noticed that i had dead island on my library again after buying a copy on sale last christmas, funny thing it was a GOTY version too. I don't know what the hell happened, i tried to activate my bought copy and it said i couldn't activate a game i already own (which is when i noticed that i already had the game).

Weird stuff isn't it? So i ended up trading it away on steamtrades... Oh well.

11 years ago
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It reminds me that user who did cities in motion 2 giveaway here and then he was selling keys for it. Like 15 people including me got their game removed :|

11 years ago
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you marked as not received right?

11 years ago
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I didnt win a giveaway, I saw description that he has more keys for trading

11 years ago
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I am in the same boat. :( Got my CIM2 removed too that I received from him via trading.

11 years ago
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Yeah it happen to me as well. I trade it for Spore complete pack and steam didn't even take the effort to inform me that the CIM 2 was exploited or stolen or something, just removed it from library. I think they could at least let you know that, it happens. And they don't do anything to get the traded game back. It is very disappointing.

11 years ago
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that's sad to hear! I remember that guy doing tons of CiM2 giveaways shortly after the game got released. It already smelled quite fishy back then!

11 years ago
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framko right? I guess that guy used exploit keys from a generator

11 years ago
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:s Now I've noticed my Bioshock Infinite is gone as well, I, too got it in a trade, with someone of high +rep on steamtrades. Oi, at least I did complete it once, but I wanted to still do 1999 mode :/

11 years ago
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11 years ago
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neither do humans; you ever tried to pick one up?

11 years ago
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11 years ago
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11 years ago
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Lol, looks like Steam is taking care of exploit keys.

11 years ago
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One of my Steam friend also got his BI disappeared from his library. Have you tried InvisStalker method?

EDIT: I still can see Bioshock Infinite on his profile games list.

11 years ago
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I tried that, it did not work for me, can't say for the OP though.

11 years ago
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And that is exactly why I don't trade.

11 years ago
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I traded on SteamTrades for my key, fortunately the guy set it up so i got my key straight from the GFX card company giving them away, so i guess i'm pretty safe.

11 years ago
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Never traded, I don't trust it. I'm always scared something like this will happen to me, strangely enough magicka disappeared from my account a while back after I got it. Still not quite sure where that went!

11 years ago
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go to its page?

11 years ago
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Was a game I won elsewhere, says I need to buy it lol.

11 years ago
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When you discovered it, were you... SHOCKED?

11 years ago
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He were BIOSHOCKED

11 years ago
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INFINITELY so, presumably?

11 years ago
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claps

11 years ago
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Cool chat... Cool story...

11 years ago
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badum-tshhh.

11 years ago
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yeee, that gotta suck. Hopefully that doesn't happen to me. For now, I guess I'm just gonna trust the 120+rep and 200+rep of the Russian friend that I always ask of he can sell me a game for a much lower price :P

11 years ago
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Make sure you have your library set to show all games rather than just Installed or Favorites.

11 years ago
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Well... at least now I know I'm waiting for a 75% off sale for Infinite on gmg, or a price drop + 75% off on steam.

11 years ago
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the key was stolen, or obtained with stolen funds. steam took it back to give to the true owner(or if bought with stolen money just took it back).
you didn't get to keep it for the same reason you don't get to keep anything else you buy that happens to have been stolen by somebody else.

At least you got to play though

report the guy who traded it to you
(if he didn't steal it maybe he traded with somebody who may have been shady, or at least will report whoever sent it to him and that guy either deserves it or knows the next link in the chain ect)

11 years ago
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checks my library for BS:I

11 years ago
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I did the same :D

11 years ago
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doesnt have BS:I xD

11 years ago
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I just checked, and my 100% achievements has gone down to 83%. Bloody DLC, I don't even own it! T.T

11 years ago
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There is no DLC out yet, just placeholders for achievements, that happened a few months back.

11 years ago
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You can own it with the season pass but I don't have that so, yeah.

11 years ago
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It's their cunning plan to make you buy the DLC ;)

11 years ago
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Looks like someone gave you a key from the AMD promo and then used the physical copy as a proof to claim it for himself.

11 years ago
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Just checked and same as you. Trade with trader from Korea.

11 years ago
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i think steam is being a douche atm

11 years ago
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Closed 11 years ago by roi5432.