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Shadoeken May 5, 2014 @ 4:07pm
Free steam wallet cards...harmful or just a traffic scam?
I've seen a number of people post about this site "steam wallet cards" which promises free cards if you get enough people to click a link made for you. I've done some research around about it and most people are calling it out as a scam, which makes sense. What I'm curious about is is this just a scam to bring traffic to a site or is there something more harmful at work?

TL;DR Is clicking on these links potentially harmful beyond being made to look like an idiot?
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Showing 1-15 of 15 comments
Black Blade May 5, 2014 @ 4:11pm 
If you just go there i think you will be ok.. but i heard someone that say that one of these sites when you done getting what they ask (lets say 20) then it gives you a servery so they earn cash on you there.. and then they also ask you to login to Steam, that is fake and steal your account
If these is true or not i really do not know.. but it give sense.. as it gives a reason for the sites to do it... as they get spread out all the time and will fall on some guy that dose not know the risk... and as they need to invite 20 each it will grow very fast to many many users
Last edited by Black Blade; May 5, 2014 @ 4:12pm
FFL2and3rocks May 5, 2014 @ 4:15pm 
It could be harmful. If they're going to make money by tricking people into spamming everywhere, then they're probably not against tricking people into downloading adware either.

There have been some threads posted here from users asking why ads suddenly appeared in their Steam client. I wonder if there's a connection... :batsilo:
Shadoeken May 5, 2014 @ 4:18pm 
That's kind of what I figured it was. I hope a few other people who've run in to it post here so we can be sure. I've started to see it pop up on some of my friend's FB pages and I want to be able to warn them off with more than just heresay. Or at least with a lot of heresay.
Black Blade May 5, 2014 @ 4:21pm 
Originally posted by Shadoeken:
That's kind of what I figured it was. I hope a few other people who've run in to it post here so we can be sure. I've started to see it pop up on some of my friend's FB pages and I want to be able to warn them off with more than just heresay. Or at least with a lot of heresay.
Well in what ever the case is.. there is no point going to these sites.. 99% there fake.. if there is even a 1% off
Silicon Vampire May 5, 2014 @ 4:56pm 
common referral scam we ban for if posted... any variation of it.
Last edited by Silicon Vampire; May 5, 2014 @ 4:57pm
FroBlock May 5, 2014 @ 5:27pm 
This is starting to get widespread throughout the internet... Steam should make an official post about this or something because there is nothing on Steam that even mentions the "Steam Wallet Card Madness," only that particular site/link.
Shadoeken May 5, 2014 @ 6:08pm 
The site at least covers its legal end by saying it isnt connected to Steam or its affiliates.
Spawn of Totoro May 5, 2014 @ 6:16pm 
Originally posted by FroBlock:
This is starting to get widespread throughout the internet... Steam should make an official post about this or something because there is nothing on Steam that even mentions the "Steam Wallet Card Madness," only that particular site/link.

There is. The rules have always said they are not allowed. What people do out side of Steam, Steam has no control over.

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Elastic_Plastic May 5, 2014 @ 10:06pm 
Originally posted by Shadoeken:
The site at least covers its legal end by saying it isnt connected to Steam or its affiliates.
Umm except they use the steam logo on the site itself, which without Valves permission can get them in some hot water :D
Deady May 5, 2014 @ 10:13pm 
Just report the website to valve about illegal use of their trademark. Who knows, Valve may reimburse you for helping lol
Black Blade May 5, 2014 @ 10:39pm 
Originally posted by Deady:
Just report the website to valve about illegal use of their trademark. Who knows, Valve may reimburse you for helping lol
Well seeing how many like that there are i cant really see that happening.... as its not worth for Valve the work to take the site down just for a second site to pop up
Azza ☠ May 6, 2014 @ 12:24am 
1) Is to drive traffic, you do all this work for them and get all your friends to join in as well
2) Is to perform survey scams on as many of them as possible, looping if possible.
3) Is to leech off their social networks in which they shared upon.
4) Is to hijack or snoop the steam account.

They could give you a fake error, a loop to attempt to get that code over and over, a fake code, a already used code, illegally purchased code, or simply revoke the code at a later date on you. Normally they would say something like 'Authorisation Error' and try get you to do a humanity check 'to ensure that your not a bot' on your steam account or something similar, when really just gathering your personal details.

After all the effort of getting the clicks - the person is more likely to do the survey.

After all the effort on doing the annoying survey - the person is more likely to repeat the cycle if said it simply failed or leak personal details/logins if asked to confirm the account.

I've scanned one not so long ago for my own amusement (not actually visited) and tracking back the owner to a Go-Daddy account created just 3 days ago:

The download.php webpage in leads you after the 20 click/invites, has the following:
MD5: ECF0EDDC5AB5C85F1F816B0923380B61
Threat: Mal/FBScam-A

Mal/FBScam-A is javascript malware which forces survey scams and then attempts to steal your social network logins, etc.
Last edited by Azza ☠; May 6, 2014 @ 12:31am
Littlefoot May 6, 2014 @ 12:57am 
Seems like a scam to me. I'll buy my steam wallet cards legimately.
Pyramid schemes are scams, aren't they?
JubJub Gookie May 6, 2014 @ 2:05am 
guys its a scam (or at least very very likely).
I loaded up someones link from Facebook and it shows up as a "Reported Phishing Website Ahead!".
According to the text, phishing is when another website IMPERSONATES another to try and trick you into giving your login given this with the reports of several players having sudden ads pop up in their steam browser and the fact that it ask you for your credentials, this is probs what it is.
Also this also links to your social media accounts so if youve been facebooking it ... yea ... good luck with that.
Im use goog chrome. Heres the link to the pic of the screen so you can read for yourself: http://i.imgur.com/W5ArlIX.png
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Date Posted: May 5, 2014 @ 4:07pm
Posts: 15