Lots of people are quoting this article right now, thinking it protects them in the event of fraudulent giveaways:

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=6748-ETSG-5417

"What if a game I received in a trade was purchased with a stolen credit card?

If this happens, the account where the fraud took place will be suspended. Your account will not be suspended, however the game you received will be removed from your account."

People think that if they end up getting duped with a game bought by illegal means, it will only be revoked and their account will be fine. However, this article appears to only apply to Steam Trading, which this site doesn't use at all. Instead, steamgifts uses the traditional email system.

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=5406-WFZC-5519

"Redeeming Fraudulent Gifts

Never accept a gift from an unknown user. Any accounts tied to a redeemed gift from a fraudulent source may be suspended."

Accepting gifts sent through the email gifting system leaves every person on this site who has ever entered a giveaway and won susceptible to having their account disabled, if their gift was sent off by a crook. To prevent this, I think that the post-giveaway setup should be changed to favor Steam's new trading system, which assures winners' safety.

If anything I've said is incorrect, feel free to correct me! It'd be nice to hear I got something wrong on this unsettling issue.

13 years ago*

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I agree with adopting the new Steam trading system. The problem is that the gifters aren't always savvy enough to click the SteamGift user's name and add that person's Steam account, so they are susceptible to impostors posing as the winner.

The Steam trade system could work, if only the gifter would add the winner through Steam Gift's linked profile and not accept any invites around that same time (unless from different/unrelated known users).

13 years ago
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Yeah, last giveaway I did, I contacted the user via email, in order to ensure that I had the right guy on Steam, so I could gift him the game via Steam rather than him activating a key through his email. So long as you ensure it's the right guy, it's playing it safe.

13 years ago
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What happens if you trade items(of tf2) with games bought by an illegal card ? You get the items back right ? If not, steam is bullshit.

13 years ago
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Here's one answer I've seen on this site, from Hikikomori in this thread.

"That is a worry. I think though that the default for giveaways is about a day or something. That would probably give steam time to void that before it would be traded. It also just seems like the antithesis of this community. I don't know what would prevent it, but stealing a bunch of credit cards to ruin people's day on a free site where you get nothing in return for committing fraud that's punishable by time in federal jail doesn't seem like the most lucrative way to use a stolen credit card."

"I'm more worried about it on say r/gameswap because people can just recreate new accounts and flood the market making one sided deals to anyone and then disappearing. The old adage "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is". They of course win that trade because they got something while the other person got nothing. There's no trade going on here so it's a net loss for anyone financially to do it."

Also, this thread and this other thread.

Edit: Note that there is a recent thread about FERMi27 having his account suspended. Though, it looks like he has his account back.

13 years ago
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lokonopa, Y U NO MOD?

13 years ago
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Something I said, mattered! :D

13 years ago
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FERMi27 is the only person I have seen on this forum who posted about losing his account. He did accept a gift however, the gifter's account was not suspended which it would be if the gift was the reason. I am pretty sure it was just coincidence as he most likely was suspended because steam was trying to protect his account. Many people have said that they had problems simply because they logged in to steam on a different ip address.

13 years ago
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So, is there a recommendation for how to confirm the identity of a gifter/recip? Seems like adding to steam friends and chatting with them might be the best bet. Yes/no?

13 years ago
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No. To Steam Imposters you are fresh meat. The best way to confirm the identity of a gifter is to Send the gift to the email given to you by Steamgifts.

If they claim somehow that "email doesn't work" Well too bad.

Next is to click their profile through, http://www.steamgifts.com/manage

Go to the winners name, click through, click again to go to their steam profile. Add that profile and that profile only. Make sure that the profile url is the same. A winner shouldn't add you first, that's badmanners. This 2nd way is still susceptible to scams, if the profile id url is id/SHITHEAD and an imposter changes their custom url to id/SHlTHEAD you may still become a victim. (btw thats an L and an i.) The imposter may try to contact you posing as the winner, with the same Account Icon, info and everything, even making the custom profile url id to look the real winners ID.

13 years ago
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well said

13 years ago
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It simply says "MAY" be suspended. Basically reserving the right to suspend your account if they think your committing a crime. Most likely they don't want you accepting a "not really a gift" from someone overseas to avoid region restrictions or a tax. At least that is what i get out of it. Either way, Steam isn't going to ban you for accepting a gift through that was sent through steam. Think about it, they want people to send gifts because that's a huge income for them. Your only worry on this site would be accepting a gift that is redeemed through a cd key. Steam wants you to be able to gift games to people. But if they see you gifting hundreds of games because your avoiding enough tariffs to make a profit, they gonna come after you lol. Your now taking a cut of their pie.

13 years ago
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"There is a Zero-Tolerance policy for any violations of the Steam Subscriber Agreement and Online Code of Conduct. All accounts in a user's possession for any of the following activities will be suspended:"

says will there

13 years ago
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I actually have a trade ban because an ***** (autocensored, lol) gave me a copy of Killing Floor for tf2 items. Some days later, the Killing Floor gift dissapeared from my inventory and now i have a trade ban. I sent a message to the Steam Support and they banned me because i had a fraudulent trade, but they said: "Don't worry, that's temporal, two weeks later you can trade again."

It have passed three weeks and still having the trade ban, just tried now...

The curious part of this FAQ is this: "Never accept a gift from an unknown user.", well, who one except unknown users will trade with me?

13 years ago
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Closed 13 years ago by Flotilla.