You have all probably seen this group "network" at some point. They send out invites to everyone. They giveaway bundle games here in mass quantities as part of their recruitment. They also advertise giving away AAA titles to whoever invites the most people to their groups. Sadly those giveaways are rigged, as they are not done on SteamGifts, but rather in his group's forum, and no winners are chosen truly at random as the system here allows.

But that's not what I'm here to tell you about.

First, let me show you exactly what I am talking about, in case you are unfamiliar with the OTG Network.

Original Traders Group
Original Curators Group
Original Giveaway Group
German Giveaway Community
Original Society Club
Duck Society

The above 6 groups are what's known as the 'Original Network'. It originally started as just the top group. It's recently expanded unnecessarily into the other groups. You can do everything the 4 groups do with one group, after all. The groups are also all populated by the same people, so don't let the numbers fool you. The Original Society Club is for the most loyal of his followers, where he supposedly does non-bundle game giveaways. Duck Society is...I don't even.

They are all run by a lovely fellow named SalzStange. His username here on SteamGifts is AngryErpel.
Confirmed with SteamGifts Support that this is not calling out..

SalzStange was recently outted on Twitter for trying to blackmail a developer for a free Steam Key. This kind of activity has been known to occur in this "network" but was covered up by his loyalists. When things like this happened in the past, or someone wrote a negative review for a game SalzStange obtained keys for, he would ask his loyalists to downrate the hell out of the review, which they sadly did. According to other 'victims', his loyalists were also asked to harass people that did not agree with SalzStange's methods or people who called him out on his bullshit. It's safe to say some are blindly following him in the hopes of free games. This is, of course, unacceptable, and since this was brought public, some of his loyalists left the group. Namely a few (most) of his admins and even a co-founder. He now has a new set of followers and Admins/Mods, and they are still up to the same routine.

SalzStange thinks giving away games is charity, and refers to his groups as "the biggest charity groups on Steam".
Charity is helping people who are less fortunate (IE Homeless, starving, etc), donating clothes and food to homeless people, or volunteering at a shelter....things of that nature. Not giving away games to privileged people on SteamGifts. He lists hundreds of giveaways for bundle games and games he's received from devs here on SteamGifts. The bundle games he asks members to donate to him so he can give them away here or in his group's chat (this has been confirmed by many former members). Either way, he is unfairly benefiting from contributor value here on SteamGifts because of this. He is currently a LV 9 contributor here on SteamGifts.

There is a reddit thread where a lot of people have come forward to share their experiences with SalzStange and his groups. and there is also a NEOGAF thread.

Proof, evidence, chatlogs, examples of his behavior and other things.
Take a look at these and find out for yourself what kind of person SalzStange is. Don't listen to his long-winded excuses or lies he's posted here and elsewhere.

2706 line OTG Group Chat Log
Full email conversation - This is the 'unedited' screenshot SalzStange provided that he claims absolves him of all accusations. It, in fact, makes him look worse.
My experience with SalzStange and his group
Chat harassment
SalzStange's SteamRep Report
SalzStange's "apology" to the dev he blackmailed
SalzStange thinks there's no proof
Valve is at least aware of this situation
SalzStange thinks those "against" him are all trolls
SalzStange denies allegations concerning his rigged giveaways, which were already confirmed as true
SalzStange's official statement after he was caught
Former Mod's response to his 'official statement'
SalzStange's post history on the Steam forums. A great example of his attitude and how he talks to developers
OTG Head Admin is okay with SalzStange's actions.
SalzStange has been permanently banned from SteamCompanion.
SalzStange calls those who caught him and spread awareness of his lies 'troll' and 'haters'..
SteamCompanion Group Chatlog where SalzStange was invited to discuss his ban

If you are still a part of this "network" I advise you all to leave to avoid being dragged down with him. It will happen eventually. WGN got shut down for doing less than this.

If you would like to combat this network and it's practices, there are a number of things you can do.
If you are a member of any of their groups, or any of the groups that SalzStange associates with (Such as Hookups where he is an Admin), simply leave them. You can also share this thread with people on your friendslists who are members of these groups and advise them to leave as well.

TL;DR:

SalzStange threatened a dev, got caught, and is still trying to lie and cover up the facts, acting like he did nothing wrong.

He claims to be an adult, but is refusing to own up to his actions. Everything we do in life has consequences. It's time he faces them.

View attached image.
9 years ago*

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8 years ago
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Celebrating the close-down of gleam.io spam giveaways and another route for these groups to promote themselves, have a bump.

8 years ago
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Here here! It might mean that we get less free games, but it does mean less abuse.

8 years ago
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Bump

8 years ago
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bump

8 years ago
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Hey what's up guys, it's scarce here.

8 years ago
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Now that gleam.io has mostly banned giveaways by third-parties like this, there's much less controversy, so I don't know why the two previous posters felt the need to bump the thread.

8 years ago*
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Yeah but I'm sure they find other ways to do shady shit

8 years ago
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It has been some time since the last random bump.

8 years ago
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New review system sort of makes this moot, no?

8 years ago
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We'll see. Not just reviews can be a driving force on sales, seeing that a game is owned by tens of thousands can also make one wonder if they should try it.
Plus card money farming can still be a thing.

You can still troll review a game if they don't send free keys by buying it, playing it for 5 minutes, leave a review, then refund it. With this many people, you can even set up rotation groups so individuals won't be flagged by Steam for suspicious behaviour on refunds.

8 years ago
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thats what ppl do ^^ buy game, leave a review, make refund, activate a developers key-for-positive-review

8 years ago
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This could really use a bump.
Also if anyone has anything new to add, or any advice for cleaning this up for it to be clearer or make more sense, please let me know.

8 years ago
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Do you have something new about this case?

7 years ago
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Heads up: Salzstange aka AngryErpel is doing some giveaways again. If you have any kind of values, please refrain from entering them. Thank you.

8 years ago
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Figures.
Since his Gleam spam is no longer allowed, it was only a matter of time before he reverted to doing things the old-fashioned way.

8 years ago
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Shit, I saw this last post in the thread today, AFTER I won the game and I already activated it.

8 years ago
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Don't worry about it. You winning one of his giveaways won't do him any real good. It's mostly things that inflates the size of his groups that help him.

8 years ago
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I recently saw a thread that talked about OGG and realized I was still subscribed! I rectified that immediately :-) Just saying that many of us may not realize we're "supporting" this cretin.... so it pys to double check what groups you're in.

8 years ago
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Thank you very much for pointing out this issue!
But not only that. Thank you so much for posting straight facts, not just insulting or hating, and providing transparent evidence for everything. It is, believe me, truely appreciated!

8 years ago
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Gump

8 years ago
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View attached image.
8 years ago
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View attached image.
7 years ago
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Bump

7 years ago
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Watch it: AngryErpel aka SalzStange is doing giveaways again

7 years ago
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Huh. Been 3 Weeks.
Time to bump this back for Awareness.

7 years ago
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Bump!

7 years ago
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Just wanted to add that in such cases Steam Direct will be a bless. 95% of these GAs were first "vote on GreenLight for keys" and later on when Steam banned voting for keys they were "hey, we have few thousands of this shovelware keys, we will use it to make countless number of 50-copies GA to promote other shovelware shite which we try to push through Greenlight, vote for our new game / game from our partner!". It was pretty rare to have GAs for game XYZ just for sake of promoting game XYZ. Noiw with no more Greenlight and just paying registration fee for every new game devs will no longer be forced to push their new shite projects through GL, because there is no more voting. If no need for votes they will no longer contact shady "networks" to help them push their shite through GL, if they will no longer contact such "networks" these networks run out of clients and hopefully will finally die.

7 years ago
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they'll find a new scam though, they always do :/

7 years ago
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They will start to eat their own members to stay alive.

Duck-nnibalism.

7 years ago
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Thank you for this thread. It is very informative and I'm leaving said groups.

7 years ago
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Bump to keep spreading the truth!

7 years ago
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What a ****lord. I will be sure to spread the word.

7 years ago
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bump, more people needs to know this

7 years ago
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Bump

7 years ago
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.

7 years ago
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wow, I'm surprised it's almost 2 years old thread and I only find out about it now...

7 years ago
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I was just reminded of this little debacle. Time to bump it for good measure.

7 years ago
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Closed 6 years ago by Khalaq.