Key shops selling accounts now ?

[Gérard Fricotin™]

I've been buyings keys from websites like hrk and kinguin for years now, but the keys prices are not worth it anymore, instead they sell steam accounts, which seems even more shady than before, let alone the fact that it is against steam's TOS. Why is that ? Did something happen regarding the keys market that I missed ?

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by Gerard Fricotin:

Key shops selling accounts now ?

I've been buyings keys from websites like hrk and kinguin for years now, but the keys prices are not worth it anymore, instead they sell steam accounts, which seems even more shady than before, let alone the fact that it is against steam's TOS. Why is that ? Did something happen regarding the keys market that I missed ?

This isn't new. They've had 3rd party sellers on their sites selling all sorts of game accounts for over a decade.

[potato]

now? been like that for decades

[Gérard Fricotin™]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Originally posted by Gerard Fricotin:

Key shops selling accounts now ?

I've been buyings keys from websites like hrk and kinguin for years now, but the keys prices are not worth it anymore, instead they sell steam accounts, which seems even more shady than before, let alone the fact that it is against steam's TOS. Why is that ? Did something happen regarding the keys market that I missed ?

This isn't new. They've had 3rd party sellers on their sites selling all sorts of game accounts for over a decade.

:winterbunny2023:

Yes but what is new is the fact that simple keys prices are not worth it anymore and they seem to promote the selling of accounts instead of keys / steam gifts

[potato]

Originally posted by Gerard Fricotin:

Yes but what is new is the fact that simple keys prices are not worth it anymore and they seem to promote the selling of accounts instead of keys / steam gifts

both are garbage and have their own associated risks

[Gérard Fricotin™]

Originally posted by potato:

Originally posted by Gerard Fricotin:

Yes but what is new is the fact that simple keys prices are not worth it anymore and they seem to promote the selling of accounts instead of keys / steam gifts

both are garbage and have their own associated risks

I know that, I've had problems regarding this in the past, I'm just wondering why did it change like that recently

[Froot Loop Lux]

I stopped trusting key sellers after I found out the steam account of a friend of mine that passed away in 2015 got hacked and sold on one of those sites. Just ain't right.

[Gérard Fricotin™]

Originally posted by No Gender Only Bones:

I stopped trusting key sellers after I found out the steam account of a friend of mine that passed away in 2015 got hacked and sold on one of those sites. Just ain't right.

Yes, keys are already quite shady, but these accounts selling is definitely not right, I guess I won't go on any of these websites anymore

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Because obtaining keys to resell is getting harder, gifting using Steam accounts is becoming more strict with Valve having tougher restrictions on gifting using wallet funds, for commercial use and the fact the resellers can yank the account back at any time, basically leaving you with no game and no account with the game on it to play.

[Gérard Fricotin™]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Because obtaining keys to resell is getting harder, gifting using Steam accounts is becoming more strict with Valve having tougher restrictions on gifting using wallet funds, for commercial use and the fact the resellers can yank the account back at any time, basically leaving you with no game and no account with the game on it to play.

:winterbunny2023:

Thank you for the explanations

[IFIYGD]

Originally posted by Gerard Fricotin:

Originally posted by potato:

both are garbage and have their own associated risks

I know that, I've had problems regarding this in the past, I'm just wondering why did it change like that recently

It hasn't changed recently. Like others have said, these "reseller" sites have been doing this for over a decade. It may be that these sites you are looking at are just promoting these types of things more- pushing them to the top of listings.

Originally posted by Gerard Fricotin:

Yes, keys are already quite shady, but these accounts selling is definitely not right, I guess I won't go on any of these websites anymore

And selling accounts has been against the Steam TOS for as long as there have been people trying to sell their VAC-banned or trade-banned accounts, or selling their smurf accounts, then recovering the account and taking it back after they get the money from the greymarket site payment.

You should definitely stop using those sites- the account sales are scams most of the time, and quite often the key sales are too- you buy a key or Steam gift for one game, and you get a 49¢ crap game instead. You've never heard the saying "If it looks too good to be true- it probably isn't true."?

[N3tRunn3r]

i would officially report all stuff who sell steam accounts .. on various platforms

[Satoru]

Originally posted by Gerard Fricotin:

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

This isn't new. They've had 3rd party sellers on their sites selling all sorts of game accounts for over a decade.

:winterbunny2023:

Yes but what is new is the fact that simple keys prices are not worth it anymore and they seem to promote the selling of accounts instead of keys / steam gifts

They have to sell accounts because they were abusing the gifting feature. Once low cost regions were barred from gifting to higher cost regions, the scammers had to sell accounts

Also fun fact, your account can be obliterated when they do a chargeback on the purchase. So they have your money, have their own money back, and you have a suspended account

[H Z H]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Because obtaining keys to resell is getting harder, gifting using Steam accounts is becoming more strict with Valve having tougher restrictions on gifting using wallet funds, for commercial use and the fact the resellers can yank the account back at any time, basically leaving you with no game and no account with the game on it to play.

:winterbunny2023:

where can i read more about restrictions on gifting using wallet funds ?

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by H Z H:

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Because obtaining keys to resell is getting harder, gifting using Steam accounts is becoming more strict with Valve having tougher restrictions on gifting using wallet funds, for commercial use and the fact the resellers can yank the account back at any time, basically leaving you with no game and no account with the game on it to play.

where can i read more about restrictions on gifting using wallet funds ?

The forums are littered with people that have been restricted from using wallet funds to gift games due to them being caught doing so for commercial purposes.

There isn't a KB Article on the subject. It was just a system that was added a few years back to combat this type of thing.

[Gérard Fricotin™]

Thanks everyone for the explanations, as I said above I will stop using any website that promotes account selling, and that means all "non-approved" website (that would leave Humble Bundle and GoG I guess ?) and I was not planning to buy an account, just wanted to know what motivated these websites to apparently drop key selling for mass accounts selling