Why do we have to pay 5$ to "unlock" a steam account?

[qqqqqq]

So i would like to ask why there is a 5$ "fee" if you want to add friends?
I mean yeah, it's good against scammer which just want to Scam others, but i'm sure there are other things you can do to check if an account is real.
For Example, you could make that you have to have an amount of hours played if you want to add Friends.

[Start_Running]

They tried. This is the most reliable method to weed out scammers and bot accounts. Hard to stop the creation and use, but they can limit what said bot accounts can do. $5 may seem small but if you're creating spam accounts that's $5 out of pocket each time and since your accounts are getting shut down well.. it's no longer economically viable.

Number of hours is absurdly easy to fak. Just grab a game like Adventure Capital or Tap Tap Heroes and let it indle in the background for X hours.

[Spawn of Totoro]

To prevent phishers/scammers/hijackers from having easy access to the our fellow users.

Otherthings have been tried. The $5 one has been the most effective so far.

Hour played is easy to do. Leave a game running on the menu and walk away for a few hours.

[Hextravert]

There is no fee. You are not paying to be able to add friends.

You spend at least $5 on games, and everything else you get is just a bonus.

This is a store—not a charity.

Originally posted by UniqueOck:

So i would like to ask why there is a 5$ "fee" if you want to add friends?
I mean yeah, it's good against scammer which just want to Scam others, but i'm sure there are other things you can do to check if an account is real.
For Example, you could make that you have to have an amount of hours played if you want to add Friends.

[qqqqqq]

Originally posted by Hextravert:

There is no fee. You are not paying to be able to add friends.

You spend at least $5 on games, and everything else you get is just a bonus.

This is a store—not a charity. :DEALWITHIT:

Originally posted by UniqueOck:

So i would like to ask why there is a 5$ "fee" if you want to add friends?
I mean yeah, it's good against scammer which just want to Scam others, but i'm sure there are other things you can do to check if an account is real.
For Example, you could make that you have to have an amount of hours played if you want to add Friends.

Ye sorry my primary language isn't English so i wasn't sure if it was the right word so i added "

[Matt]

Normal people can afford $5. It's more difficult for scammers to spend $5 on 10,000+ accounts. The measure has been very successful so far b

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Originally posted by Matt:

Normal people can afford $5. It's more difficult for scammers to spend $5 on 10,000+ accounts. The measure has been very successful so far b

The most common "legitimate" complaint I've seen with this is for people who are too young to have access to a credit or debit card but also may not live in a place where they can buy Steam Wallet Cards from a meatspace retailer.

For them, there is the slower method of linking a paypal account to a bank account, though I'd generally agree that their parents ought to have say on how they spend their money online.

In any case, do note that the $5 restriction does not apply to actually buying games. You can still buy games, and you can still play multiplayer games with people. That is and should remain the focus of Steam. IIRC you don't even need SteamGuard to do these core functions. The social features are icing on the cake.