What are your thoughts on steam key sites? have you even bought a key from sites like g2a? are they a scam or are they cool, also do you have a story to share about steam keys.

i was planning on getting a mystery pack from g2a or whatever its called but im not sure if its a scam or not.

  • gk99@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    G2A sells sketchy stolen keys, so does Kinguin. I’ve never had an issue buying from them, but plenty of other people have.

    There are plenty of reputable sites though. When I’m looking for a game on sale, I go to IsThereAnyDeal.com and all the sites they list are legit.

      • Kanzar@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Stolen credit cards, buy legit keys, owner of card does chargeback, actual retailer is now out money and a key and can get penalised for the chargeback.

        Might as well pirate it instead because the devs definitely don’t get the money.

        • lazynooblet@lazysoci.al
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          1 year ago

          It feels like an easily solvable problem. Every key is unique. It can be centrally tracked from it’s origin to the buyer. Steam should allow the easy revocation of keys if reported as bought with fraudulent means.

          • Katana314@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            The reason keys aren’t revoked more often is because it results in negative press. If you bought a Plony GameStation 6, you’re very clearly not a Sony customer. But if you buy what looks like a Steam key, you enter it on Steam, you play it on Steam, and then days later get invalidated, usually the customer frustration is towards Steam. Most people looking for cheap games don’t follow the chain of causality to see who’s at fault.

          • spaceout@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            It does. That’s why sometimes you’ll buy a game on g2a, it’ll work for a while, and suddenly be inactivated. (Because it was bought with fraudulent means)

            • ours@lemmy.film
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              1 year ago

              And even if the keys don’t become invalid and were initially purchased with a non-stolen credit card, it may be part of a money laundering operation and therefore facilitating some shady crap.

        • Harpuajim@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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          1 year ago

          I used to say this same thing parroted over and over again on reddit when in reality it’s not even an issue. Every time you ask for examples they link the same incident that happened in like 2015 where some keys got stolen and sold on the site. It was a sliver of overall business they do yet redditors ran with it as if fraudulent key sales made up 50% of their business. It would be like saying Craigslist or Ebay aren’t legitimate sites because there can be stolen good found on them from time to time when that’s just the nature of an open marketplace.