Hello, I applied for one giveaway and I "won" it. The user that created that giveaway sent me in the first place a CD key via email but in reality it was a "duplicated code". At first it didn't bother me he was a russian user but then when Steam said to me that it was a "duplicated code" it made me think that I should be careful with these types of keys and users.
Some time later he replied to my email where I said it was a "duplicated code" and he gave to me another CD key. This time the key worked but it wasn't for the game I won that was Men of War: Red Tide, instead it was a CD key simply for Men of War.
Anyway I obviously didn't use any illegal method to activate the key. I obviously didn't use a VPN/proxy method because I knew that it would get my account banned. I simply activated with Steam with the menu option "Activate a Product on Steam" and it worked with no problems. The game key was recognized by Steam as "Men of War retail" with English, French, Italian, Spanish and Russian languages so I don't think it's a region locked or specifically "russian" key.
I even checked online on Steamrep the user background and it was OK so I didn't think it would be a problem.

So, what do you think about this? Will my account be banned for activating this key? This is the first time I win a key on Steamgifts and I don't want to lose my account for this.

Thank you for your replies. : )

EDIT: An important addiction to my post: The guy bought the game on a russian key reseller site called WMcentre.net.
I before activating the key, searched on the internet about the site but I found only a few mentions on some sites like non-english forums about Steam.

11 years ago*

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Not if you don't use VPN. No VPN = no region restriction.

11 years ago
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this.

11 years ago
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+1.

11 years ago
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Steam deleted the Russian Black Ops 2 key from my account a week after I activated it(I didn't even played it XD). They also said that If I keep violating their rules they will have to disable my steam account... :P
So yeah, do it only if you don't believe me...

EDIT: At least I got a full refund from the shop I bought it :)

11 years ago
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Did you VPNed that to activate that game? Your lucky you only get warned

11 years ago
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BO2 keys aren't region free, he must've used a VPN.

11 years ago
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Hmm, I didn't get this? I bought a sleeping dogs key from a russian store before and it was region free.

Are you specifically talking about BO2?

11 years ago
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Oop, my bad. Should've worded it better. I was talking about B02 specifically.

11 years ago
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Keys in general are region free.

Edit: Never mind, then. See the comment below.

11 years ago
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Forgot to type that I was talking specfically about BO2 lol.

11 years ago
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It wasn't region-free, I had to use a russian VPN and from what I saw it needed all sorts of patches to play the game... At least they where generous enough to give me a voucher code so i can buy the worldwide version :)

11 years ago
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That's pretty awesome lol. Most sites would probably just feign ignorance and tell you you're SOL.

11 years ago
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Better use a Dedicated VPN next time.

11 years ago
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*VPS
Makes sense... It's cheaper to buy game for higher price in your region.

11 years ago
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Did you get any message, that game was deleted? I heard if it's activated by key, you will not even know when it disappeared...

11 years ago
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I got the giant red message :(
Anyways, I did use a VPS(Virtual private Server) but I turned the connections of it to VPN and I used that so it would be pretty difficult for them to see the difference but unfortunately it seems that they keep logs which they check every once in a while.

EDIT: I did had this message before and it was when I used these exploited keys for Dead Island.

11 years ago
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Men of War: Red Tide is a bundle game from Indie Gala, and shouldn't be region locked.

11 years ago
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The guy said he bought the key from a site called WMcentre.net that I never heard about.

11 years ago
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I wonder how much he paid. Indie Gala had that and 8 other games for $5

11 years ago
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in russia a lot of people cant use paypal or similar to buy bundles, they use qiwi or webmoney to buy stuff, but bundles are not sold with those, so u can buy from others on that wmcentre site and similar :)

11 years ago
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True.

11 years ago
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Men of war games are like 90% cheaper in russia than anywhere else. check it on steamprices.

11 years ago
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Not a bad deal. Luckily I am in the US and could buy the latest Indie Gala through Paypal, and get a lot of other great games for less than a buck a piece.

11 years ago
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  1. Your prejudice towards Russians is disturbing.

  2. If you didn't have any trouble activating the key, then it's obviously not region restricted. I can't think of any situation where you'd get banned or even get in any trouble for activating a key without VPN. Even if you activate exploited keys, they just get removed from your account without notice or any kind of warning.

Edit: I meant that the key's activation is not region restricted. It could still not let you install it in your region, but that still doesn't put your account in any danger.

11 years ago
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Where is the prejudice in the original statement?

11 years ago
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"At first it didn't bother me he was a russian user but then when Steam said to me that it was a "duplicated code" it made me think that I should be careful with these types of keys and users."

11 years ago
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What's the prejudice there? Everyone knows that many games have region restrictions in Russia and it's possible that Russian people give region restricted games.

11 years ago
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He won a gift. A free game. The error he got was duplicate key. He even had the key replaced. In neither activation was there any implication of region restrictions. And yet he jumped to the conclusion that the other person was not trustworthy simply for being Russian.

This becomes pretty obvious when you consider that both keys were almost certainly from the Indie Gala, and thus him being Russian had no relevance at all.

11 years ago
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I clearly said in the first place that at first it didn't bother me it was Russian (so that phrase must make you think that I haven't a prejudice against russians.) then when he give me a "duplicated code" I remembered that there are on the internet several scammers or trolls and it doesn't matter the ethnicity but I recon and remember that Russian key are spoken on the internet so I made a little thinking about it and started to bother about it.

And by the way I'm not "american" or something like "russiaphobic". I'm italian and I appreciate some aspects of the russian culture like traditional art, romantic and social realist painting, the photos of Maksim Gorky and the books of Lev Tolstoy. The music of Tchaikovsky and the books of Bakunin. The music of Arkona and the pagan religion. The hand of god, the traditional deities and some other aspects too. I even can read the cyrillic alphabet and talk a little russian so don't think I have prejudice against russians.

I simply don't trust most of the people on the internet and I think it's a good abit.

11 years ago
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Ah, alright. Reading through your opening post, it sounded like getting a duplicate key made you distrust Russians specifically.

I still don't get why you'd be bothered so much about this at all though. You won a gift, you didn't trade for or buy anything. The worst that could have happened was not receiving what you supposedly won. The overreaction about region restricted keys seemed completely uncalled for from my perspective.

11 years ago
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Didn't see the "and users." My apologies.

11 years ago
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That could apply to users that don't warn about it possibly being region restricted so still no prejudice

11 years ago
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We're talking about a free gift here. Even if they don't mention (or even don't know) that it's region restricted, it will become obvious when the winner tries to activate it. Giveaway reported and deleted or negative feedback left, and then it's up to the winner to either give away the key or be honourable about it and tell the gifter that the key is unused and he can give it to someone from his own region.

In any case, being 'careful with these people' is uncalled for.

11 years ago
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I agree. If the color of someone skin was mentioned it would have people reporting him left and right. Nationality should be no different.

11 years ago
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Can you start the game? When it is region retricted you shouldn't be able to start the game. You shouldn't have problems when you can start it but anyway don't mark the giveaway as recieved because you didn't get the game that the giveaway was for.

11 years ago
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No, I didn't marked the giveaway key as received obviously. : P

11 years ago
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If you can start the game then there shouldn't be any problem with that. It's CD key - maybe he got it from a bundle or something. Don't worry about shit you don't have to worry about.

11 years ago
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But it's not the game yovu won, better contact support before a ban/suspension.

11 years ago
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Who would get banned/suspended in this case, and why?

11 years ago
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Why would they ban me? I did nothing bad. He give me the key via email so it's like he gived it away to a person he know in real life.

11 years ago
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I just assumed the part "I applied to a giveaway and won it" was related to this site...

11 years ago
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No the key I activated wasn't the key I applied for the giveaway so in theory I don't need to renounce it I think. I'm a right?

I've not received the key for the game I "won". I didn't receive a Red Tide key.

11 years ago
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11 years ago
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That's why he will mark it as not received when he doesn't get the key after seven days. Everything is fine as long as he doesn't mark it as received.

11 years ago
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I can't click "No" it's greyed out. I don't have it in my inventory because he sent me the key via email. But it was a Men of War classic key not a Red Tide one. So even willing to I can't click "No" and mark it as "not received".

Please help me out so I can mark it as "not received". Thank you.

Anyway I didn't mark it as "received".

11 years ago
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Wait 7 days, then you will be able to mark it as not received. Also try to contact the creator and talk to him to see if he can give you a Red Tide one.

And you can fill a support ticket stating your case, but I think every thing would be ok

11 years ago
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expect chuck norris in front of your house door within 2hrs.

nah everything should be ok dont worry. just contact support here cause the key wasn't for the same game the giveaway was for. and enjoy ur new game

11 years ago
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There's actually no reason to bother support about it. As the game that was given away was not delivered, the obvious course of action is to mark it as not received. Support have more than enough real issues to deal with.

Although, Bluewave might want to contact the gifter about it and tell him it was a key for the wrong game, if he hasn't done so already.

11 years ago
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He gave himself to me the second key and he also said to me in the emails we wrote that he would buy another Red Tide key from that WMcentre.net key reselling site and give it to me this day but I didnt receive any key from that message.

11 years ago
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According to the site rules, the gifter has 7 days to deliver the game, from the end of the giveaway. If he still hasn't sent you the right one after 7 days, just mark it as not received. Contacting support is not required in this case. And even after 7 days, you can change the received/not received status of a giveaway at any time, so he might decide to give you the game weeks or months from now, to remove the negative feedback from his profile.

11 years ago
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Why must I contact the support? And of which site? Steamgifts or Steam proper? Why must I renounce my extra "won" key? It was his fault for not being careful in handling his keys? I'm a right?

11 years ago
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By the way what this WMcentre.net site?

Is it a risky site?

11 years ago
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WMcentre isnt risky site, its trustable and safe
But i dont really know anything about activating russia cd-keys from another countries

11 years ago
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Regional restrictions is big dissapintment for me,cos I want to play COD BO II 95% of яussiaи пublic seрvers will be occupied by scholota

11 years ago
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It's addition not addiction. Unless you print out the text, shred the paper, cook it on a spoon...and yeah...not very likely :-D

But you should be fine. I wouldn't worry too much.

11 years ago
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11 years ago
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Dear Kaitlyn,

please read what he wrote, I quote: "Anyway I obviously didn't use any illegal method to activate the key. I obviously didn't use a VPN/proxy method because I knew that it would get my account banned. I simply activated with Steam with the menu option "Activate a Product on Steam" and it worked with no problems."

He should be fine.

11 years ago
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The key that he received wasn't for the game that the giveaway was for so technically Kaitlyn is correct in saying "Mark the gift as not received"

11 years ago
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I can't.. "No" is greyed out. How can I? Can you help me?

11 years ago
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One has to wait 1 week after the giveaway ended to be able to tick the 'no' box.

11 years ago
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This guy knows what he's talking about.

11 years ago
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No, really it seems that I didnt clear myself...
I repeat.:

I applied for the "Men of War Red Tide" giveaway.
Didnt receive Red Tide key but only "Men of War classic" not "Red Tide" but Classic/the first/Men of War 1, understand?
I activated "men of war classic/1/the first" and not "Red Tide"
I didnt mark the giveaway as "received" go check. I didnt clicked on "Yes" nor clicked on "No" because it's greyed out.
Now I'll sync my Steam account with Steamgifts to let you see it's "Men of War classic/1/the first" and not "Red Tide" that I have in my Steam account.

11 years ago
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Yes, we understand. The option to mark not received is not available until the week grace period is up. That's coded into the site. The point is: don't mark as received something you haven't actually received. It can lead to trouble. Mark it as not received when the week is up. If the creator gets you the correct game in the meantime, you can mark it as received. Otherwise, you'll just have to be patient.

11 years ago
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We all understand. Like has already been said, the "No" box is greyed out for 7 days for ALL giveaways. That's because every winner is supposed to give the gifter 7 days to deliver the game.

Kaitlyn's comment referred to marking as not received after the 7 day period, not right now.

Edit: wbarton beat me to it.

11 years ago
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Ok now I understand. Thank you for your patience. : )

11 years ago
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try it and find out!

11 years ago
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11 years ago
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Closed 11 years ago by Bluewave256.