How to permanently disable someone's Steam account

[baronjohn]

Gift them a game bought with a stolen CC

Steam shutdown my account after I accepted a gift from an account using a stolen credit card. Over $500 of games gone just like that. Thankfully many of my games had the serial numbers saved in the registry. So I was able to salvage half of my games by installing torrented software and using the old registry files.

That's what you get for using Valve's awesome renting system, you fuckin pleb.

http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments ... he/c1ovgqb

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Well that's god damn ridiculous. Hopefully Valve cuts that out.

 

[DragoFireheart]

More pirates will be born I suppose.

 

[Xor]

Why would you accept a gift like that from an account you don't know?

 

[Gragt]

That's not really new.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Why would you accept a gift like that from an account you don't know?

To be fair when someone offers me a present I wouldn't really be thinking "This could fuck up my Steam account".

 

[Xor]

Well, I wouldn't either (at least before reading this), but I would at least contact them first to make sure they didn't gift me by mistake or something.

 

[Metro]

Why would you accept a gift like that from an account you don't know?

 

[Overweight Manatee]

I foresee the cheapest game on steam suddenly getting 100k sales out of nowhere...

 

[20 Eyes]

Somebody tell me their Steam account, I want to try something.

 

[MikeJahn]

This opens up so many new options.....

 

[Metro]

Like what? Trying to get someone to take the bait to close their account? You realize complicit in that is your use of a stolen credit card, right? Not exactly a lightweight misdemeanor.

 

[MikeJahn]

Like what? Trying to get someone to take the bait to close their account? You realize complicit in that is your use of a stolen credit card, right? Not exactly a lightweight misdemeanor.

You know that you're just looking like an ass don't you? What makes you think I was being serious? You think if I had any motives to try this id voice it? That's just stupid.

 

[Metro]

You know that you're just looking like an ass don't you? What makes you think I was being serious? You think if I had any motives to try this id voice it? That's just stupid.

Easy there, Francis, I'm not with the FBI.

 

[DragoFireheart]

You know that you're just looking like an ass don't you? What makes you think I was being serious? You think if I had any motives to try this id voice it? That's just stupid.

Easy there, Francis, I'm not with the FBI.

The Enclave got rid of their FBI division?

 

[Yeesh]

More pirates will be born I suppose.

Finally an excuse to pirate!

EDIT: I thought about this on the walk to the kitchen and back, which is about 14 steps for me, and I've decided I don't even believe it. I don't know shit about Steam, but it seems very unlikely that you could get your account shut down by innocently accepting a gift from a stranger. Look whose side of the story we're hearing.

 

[Overweight Manatee]

Like what? Trying to get someone to take the bait to close their account? You realize complicit in that is your use of a stolen credit card, right? Not exactly a lightweight misdemeanor.

You can issue a chargeback for many reasons, theft of the credit card being only one of them. Valve has almost exactly 0% chance to successfully dispute it and they will not see the money (as well as face a hefty fee I believe) just the same either way.

 

[Metro]

Well, chargebacks are a different matter. I've seen people get their accounts suspended because of a gift being chargedbacked but ultimately restored. Also as Yeesh notes we're probably only getting limited facts. Of course there is no doubt Valve holds total control over your entire account and can most likely suspend for any reason at all even if dreamed up on a whim. Would they do so? Probably not as ultimately it is bad publicity and bad for business so they have a monetary interest in not being dicks.

Tangentially, the number of these Steam horror stories I've read about seem as few and far between as airline crashes yet I still fly regularly and there is a lot more at stake if something goes wrong there. Purchasing games on Steam is always a calculated risk. People just have to know what they are getting into (and exercise a modicum of common sense like not buying games/keys off of ebay or accepting gifts from total strangers).

 

[Overweight Manatee]

Well, chargebacks are a different matter. I've seen people get their accounts suspended because of a gift being chargedbacked but ultimately restored. Also as Yeesh notes we're probably only getting limited facts.

AFAIK, a chargeback is a chargeback. I can't see why Valve would handle it differently. That said, the reason this guy is not getting his account back probably has more to do with him being dumb about it or being conspicuously related to whomever made the purchase in the first place. Or whoever was at valve in customer support for him was having a bad day.

Of course there is no doubt Valve holds total control over your entire account and can most likely suspend for any reason at all even if dreamed up on a whim. Would they do so? Probably not as ultimately it is bad publicity and bad for business so they have a monetary interest in not being dicks.

This is true. Sadly, there aren't many companies you can actually trust not to be dicks. Valve is pretty high on that list, it probably has a lot to do with being smart enough to stay self owned instead of becoming a thrall of Activision or EA.

 

[Trash]

I smell bull and so does my Nigerian neighbour.

 

[catfood]

But, but, but... but I thought Steam was the best thing since sliced bread and cured cancer. How could such an intrusive DRM ever cause problems?

 

[User was nabbed fit]

Smells like bullshit. All the anti-Steam folks will lap it up as usual though.

Slightly more likely story: he knew it was stolen/bought it from one of those third party websites which sell games/serials really cheap. Now you know why.

Anyone with half a brain would not accept a random gift, or at the very least they would contact Steam who would then reverse the ban (once they investigated and found out it truly wasn't linked to any kind of third party seller).

 

[el Supremo]

Anyone with half a brain would not accept a random gift

Huh?
Anyone with half a brain accepts a gift without second thought. Anything else is rude. I mean, c'mon, if I give somebody a present, and as a reaction I get the question: "you haven't stolen it, have you?", it would have been the last friendly gesture towards that person, ever.

 

[Xor]

A man in a brown trenchcoat standing on the side of the road offers you a car stereo for free. Do you take the stereo without a second thought or do you ask questions?

 

[Gord]

Just as likely that it came from some old buddy who used a stolen credit card.
Maybe he knew it, maybe he didn't.

I can even see some logic behind Valve blocking his entire account, fucked up as it might be.