Setting up a Steam Account for someone else

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Rainey Dec 19, 2013 @ 10:26am

I'd like to set up a steam account and purchase games on it for a family member as an xmas present. I am assuming I can do that, then just change the email on the account to his on Christmas day. Is this possible, and will doing so look suspicious or get the account banned? I have no intention of playing or downloading any of the games I purchase before giving him the account.

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Showing 1-7 of 7 comments

ZzZzZzz Dec 19, 2013 @ 10:41am

hz(

Shino Dec 19, 2013 @ 10:42am

Bad 💀 Motha Dec 19, 2013 @ 10:53am

Regardless of family member or not, I think that a wise way of going about this would be to simply gift the items u wish to buy for them, u can select to gift them to there email address, regardless of whether or not they already have a Steam account or not. Once gifted however just know they will show up in the persons email, so u might want to time this a certain way if u know what I mean.

When u are gifting a Steam purchase, here is what it looks like when u choose the "Purchase as a Gift" option at checkout...

[ Send it now ]
Email my gift:
Send my friend a gift email msg, including all info they'll need to get up and running on Steam.
Recipient's email address: [ example@email.com ]

[ Send my gift directly through Steam ]
Send my friend a gift message directly to their Steam account.
Note: This option also sends an email message, to be sure your friend sees your gift as soon as possible.

[ Keep it for later ]
Store the gift in my inventory to send later.
Your gift will be kept on your account, to be delivered or traded later.
You can manage gifts in the Steam Client, or by viewing your Steam Inventory on your Profile.

So if you use email option, even though they do not already have a Steam account; as long as that person uses that email address where the gifted purchases were sent to then register a Steam account, then that will be fine. However, if u want to take advantage of Steam Sales going on now and such, then best idea I think would be to keep for later. Then maybe hint to the person to register a Steam account and friend you. Once friended, then trade them the gifted items through Friend Chat/Trade.