A Virus Named Tom keys shouldn't cause any problems as the keys themselves are legit, just acquired by exploiting poor web coding. It should only concern the gifter breaking Steamgifts' rules, but you wouldn't break any Steam rules by activating them, as the keys are officially issued. If it were A Valley Without Wind key, that might cause problems for you if you activated it. So yeah, you could've saved yourself the trouble, but you didn't know.
You can contact the gifter and ask them to send you a screenshot of an email in which they got that key if they still have it. This should work as the proof Valve is asking for. I don't think Valve cares about the actual giveaway you won it from.
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Problem might be if the gifter had scammed an unlimited IGN Prime trial, or used a false credit card, etc.
An IGN Prime key would normally be ok. There is an annual fee of around $30 (from memory that figure included a discount) which buys you an indie game every month. These aren't freebies per se.
Sorry for your experience. Sounds like Steam have this very badly wrong :(
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There is nothing wrong with keys per se. As long as you get a legit key, there's no concern on your part. Altough I'm curious about the deletion of the giveaway.
You're gonna have to wait for support to get back to you on why the giveaway got deleted.
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the other option would have been to stay silent and hope nothing wrong is ever detected about the key. Would have been quite valid too. It just did not feel right to stay silent about this. The whole timeline really suggested that this might be an actually exploited key.
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I'm a certain amount certain (let's say... 75%) that the keys are considered exploited in the sense that people were claiming more than they should rather than in the sense of the keys being illegitimate. If so, you're likely 100% a-ok. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong... I often am.
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aye i agree, the term exploited key in itself is weird. Should be "keys gained by an exploit". Whether that would be generating never issued keys, or exploiting some service in order to generate legitimate keys would not change that the key itself was acquired fraudulently.
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If you see a significant increase in giveaways of the same game, check if there's a cheap bundle or ask on the forums if those are legit or exploited/generated.
Valve has a zero tolerance policy if it comes down to piracy. They don't care that you didn't know about those exploited keys. For Valve that's exactly same with "hey i got VAC banned, but it was my little brother" you know..
It is really sad, people are not just trying to raise the contributor value by submitting those illegal keys but also jeopardize other's accounts with that dick move.
Good luck anyway.
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I'm pretty sure in the case of A Virus Named Tom, the term "exploited key" means they're considered exploited here on Steam Gifts, not on Steam in general (unless something has happened recently that I'm unaware of - the last I heard about them being considered exploited here was people getting them free from IGN Prime and giving them away). There's nothing wrong with the key or activating it, it just shouldn't have been given away in the first place.
Not Steam's problem.
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As I stated, they were/are considered exploited here on Steam Gifts. The reason for that is the fact they can easily be obtained for free/in large numbers and therefore they're not supposed to be given away. They're suspending people and deleting the giveaways because of that, not because of something being wrong with the keys themselves.
It has nothing to do with Steam since there's nothing wrong with the keys themselves. The fact that they're considered exploited is a rule of Steam Gifts, not Steam.
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Personally I don't always agree with it - as you said, they were obtained legally and everything. The fact that they're free shouldn't automatically make them inelegible to be given away in my opinion. However, I'm not the one who chooses what does and doesn't count as exploited and yes, they do often put keys on the exploited list for being available for free in large numbers (Eets, World of Goo, and Puzzle Agent for example).
Although the FAQ says IGN Prime keys are allowed, a lot of people disagree and think they should be considered exploited for those same reasons (being available for free and in large numbers).
None of that is the point though. The point is Steam Gifts rules and politics aren't Steam's problem since there's not actually anything wrong with the keys themselves. Getting Steam support involved is pointless.
As I said before, maybe something I don't know about has happened recently with AVNT keys that's making them illegitimate. However, if that's not the case, everything I said still stands.
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Presumably the key was given via chat rather than through an email which could be forwarded, header info intact, to Steam?
It's a shame the Steam client doesn't have a txt file chat log like MSN etc, for situations like this :(
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It was even worse, the gifter posted the key as commect on my steam profile which triggered my ninja "Omg fast activate the gift before it is stole" instinct. Of course right after that my suspicions began... cause if he is this careless with keys he would have to have a way to gain more keys in case it got stolen before i can activate it.
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The thing is, why you even contact Steam support if you already activated it. They won't ban you if they find you activated that key, the worst thing that could happen is to get the game deleted from your library, nothing more.
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there are several instances of people getting their accounts suspended for accepting fraudulent gifts (yeah not always keys, but also gifts :-/)
I would not want to login one day to see my account suspended. the stress that would follow then would be undoubtably higher than the one I have now. (unless steam support is really tyrannical and calls down the inquisition on me now)
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Nah, I don't think they are as tyrannical as you think. As long as you have proof of purchase of previous games, and in your case, screens of the key you won it should be all fine.
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Just don't take keys from anyone except the developers.
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good luck with that, do not know if it is better to report it or just let it be. There is a belief here in the forum that the worst that can happen is a chancelation of the game subscription by steam. When googling 'steam fraudulent gift' though it kinda suggests that people got their whole accounts suspended. Good luck in deciding, not an easy choice.
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I think I've got same problem with Trine. It has disapear from my win-list.
And I don't have remark it before I've seen this topic.... Trine was not a know game with key problem in FAQ ; And I remember it was part of a Humble Bundle (correct me if I'm wrong)
I don't know why we're not allow to view those "deleted" steamgifts; BTW, something like a warning about an eventual fraudulent gift should be cool, coz I don't go to my profile each day/week/month.
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Thanks for the information. I will have a look on it.
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https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=5406-WFZC-5519
Makes a fun read.
"This includes using an unauthorized ("hacked") Steam client to access Steam, attempting to register fake CD Keys or attempting to register a CD Key which has been published on the internet."
Soo.... Don't try those ninja-keys around ;D
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I often refuse to take Cd-key gifts; Way too many horror stories. Same thing goes for Cd-key websites.
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Well here is the gist:
-I won a game
-Received and activated gift
-Gifter got suspended (likely for gifting the type of game which i received, not an exploited key though)
-Reported the whole thing to Steam in order to be safe (remember the fraudulent gifts section in the terms of steam?)
-Steam requests confirmation about the acquisition of the key
-Tried to make screenshots of the giveaway and me as winner but the giveaway was deleted (so my suspicions were correct :-/)
.............................................................
Well the whole thing is a mess :-/
the deletion of the giveaway robs me of a way to show i won the key. Now i have no way to prove I am not the exploiter myself.
....................................
Edit: this caused me so much trouble and time already that I wished i had not won the giveaway, oh wells lets see how it works out
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