Random Discord message offering wallet code

[Marble]

Just had a message on Discord from someone giving away a "Steam giftcard code".
Their account was created today, so clearly a throwaway account.
When asked why they don't want it, was told they're being nice and "Christmas spirit".
A 15-digit code was given, I have no intention of using it as for all I know it was bought with a stolen card or something and I don't want my account getting in trouble.
Is this a scam? Is there a catch? Never had this particular sort of message before, so just curious what their angle is and if anyone else has had something similar.

[Teksura]

First, report them to discord trust and safety.

I'm assuming you have your Steam account linked to your Discord account.

They might be trying to trick you into using the code, which they will still know, in order to use that code as Proof of Ownership to claim they are the owners of your account. Support wouldn't know the difference until you file a ticket after they gained access to your account, at which point the account is in dispute. you'd win the dispute by being able to provide more, older proof, but for a brief time they would have access to your account and could do a lot of damage.


Honestly, my thought is... Make a brand new Steam account, and see if you can actually redeem it there. The other guy won't know what account you redeemed it on. If the card is even legit, then it goes through. You can sit on it for a few months to see if there is a chargeback. If there is, it's a throwaway account so who cares. If it's still there in a few months, you can just use it to gift your main account something.

But I suspect there is likely more to this than just that. The gift card code may not work at all, and they may try and sucker you into "talking to a Steam Admin" (their alt account on Discord) to resolve the issue, where the scammer will try and get you to give them information they need to hijack your account, all in the name of "verifying" whatever.


Are they giving you a simple code or a URL?

[J4MESOX4D]

Originally posted by Teksura:

They might be trying to trick you into using the code, which they will still know, in order to use that code as Proof of Ownership to claim they are the owners of your account. Support wouldn't know the difference until you file a ticket after they gained access to your account, at which point the account is in dispute. you'd win the dispute by being able to provide more, older proof, but for a brief time they would have access to your account and could do a lot of damage.

That's not true. You can't make a claim and put an account in a lock/dispute status just by having a code.

Proof of ownership challenges require the first code used on the account or one that's significantly historic and accompanied with other sensitive information attributed to the account. Nobody can gain control of a Steam account just by providing Support a code that was recently used on an account.

[Marble]

Originally posted by Teksura:

But I suspect there is likely more to this than just that. The gift card code may not work at all, and they may try and sucker you into "talking to a Steam Admin" (their alt account on Discord) to resolve the issue, where the scammer will try and get you to give them information they need to hijack your account, all in the name of "verifying" whatever.

Oh yeah that might be it, I didn't let the conversation get that far though so who knows. Definitely a possibility.

Originally posted by Teksura:

Are they giving you a simple code or a URL?

It was a code, no URL.

They badgered me for about 10 minutes asking if I'd done it yet before deleting all their messages and blocking me.

[Teksura]

Originally posted by Marble:

They badgered me for about 10 minutes asking if I'd done it yet before deleting all their messages and blocking me.

then it 100% was some kind of scam. They got frustrated when you weren't biting, and eventually gave up.

If someone was actually giving you something, they wouldn't have such urgency to try and get you to use it.

[Marble]

Yeah I was sure there was something up with it from the start, I just wasn't sure what. Like was said before, usually it's the whole "falsely reported your account" line.