"Why does it matter if it's fake? Not like you earned those points!"

The reason I feel fake giveaways are a problem, is if someone beats the odds and wins, how shitty is it that they are super excited about winning and then later find out that there was no prize and they get nothing.

Lets do some math! At a rate of 5% cost : points, you'd need a $20 game to get 1 point. So in order to get a free 'entry' into a $10 game, you'd need to create $200 worth of fake giveaways.
If fake giveaways were being used to game the system, you'd see FAR more fake entries being created than the few that pop up from new users thinking they GET the game. Even if it was being used to 'top up' so the main account could get enough points to enter one more giveaway (lets say, 35pts) you'd need about $60100 in giveaways, which again is more than most people make from what I've seen -- and what I've seen is typically 12 games totaling $2040 as an average netting a whopping 2 points.

If you believe it's fake, MAKE A SUPPORT TICKET. If it is it will GET DELETED and the points will be REMOVED from everyone's account.

It's not that much of an insult to the gifter, but it can be disheartening when the first 20 comments you see in your very first giveaway is "FAKE" "omgz faek!" "thanks for skyrim, haha not it fake lololol" (yes this was an exaggeration, but the point is still the same).

The feeling you get when you are trying to do something nice but instead get accused of just trying to abuse the system / being stupid / being fake, yeah, exactly what I want new gifters to feel

copypasta

The thing about trying to create fake giveaways for points is that:
A: The person creating them doesn't get any,
B: Making an alt account requires you to have at least $50 of games on the Steam account it's made with, and
C: The account spamming fake giveaways will almost certainly be banned.
Consequently, it will basically cost about $50 a pop for every one-time point boost, and every single time makes it that much more likely your main account is found and banned as well, so the system isn't very abusable in that regard.

Many points have been adressed already, but I can share my experiences here. When I joined on this site I think it was that day I made my first giveaway. Well I'm glad everything turned alright and quite surprisingly no one asked anything, with hidden inventory and not one comment/description on the giveaway. I can't say how it could have turned, but after I felt like giving more. In my case I guess it'd have been fair if someone had asked politely wether I do or not know the giveaway rules of the site. Although I must say I can easily imagine a person who that could be insulting and just thinking of some cultures I wouldn't be surprised at all. Feedback often defines if it was a good experience, giving away stuff to strangers, which then might lead to new giveaways.

In case you don't know this I must point out, concerning how fast will false giveaway makers be removed from the site, that the giveaway feedback counter works so that it counts 3 "received" giveaways for the user, wether she/he is a new or old user. If you make a giveaway which leaves you a marking "not received", you will have 75% of your giveaways as "received", except it doesn't show like that in your profile. You will get yourself banned or suspended (don't know exactly) if you have under 75% as "received".

Point abuse by alt account creation doesn't happen. Also, we've been thinking for several weeks about a sort of policy on restricting users publicly calling out submitters if they believe the giveaway is fake, similar to our forum policy. In the past, we've told the community time and time again to click Report and move on or submit a support ticket.

With less people reporting and more people commenting, we have been giving this more thought. I've made announcements in the past to encourage members to use the Report button instead of demanding proof, but it hasn't been working out. We're usually hesitant on creating these sort of policies, and I hope the community can appreciate the reasons why.

I appreciate the discussion. Please do not let this thread get out of hand.