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Steam getting rid of Retail Gift Cards

Seems like they've been hard to find at retailers for 3+ years now. They used to be everywhere and I'd pick them up at grocery stores for Bdays and Xmas; but for a while now they've only been at Best Buy and maybe Gamestop.
 
I didn't even know those were a thing. Guess it was USA only?
 
I hate when most points to GC sites don't even have Steam listed for digital GCs.
 
sad that it's going away...just like 4K Blu-rays have disappeared from Best Buy and Target
 
What kind of scams/fraud is committed with these? I think I received one of these over a decade ago, but still a shame to see it go. One less option for younger kids to buy games on Steam if they lack a credit card/PayPal/whatever but had cash. It is quite rare but some stores would also have discounts, like 10-15% off. Whenever they did that they would go out of stock locally.
 
Flogger23m said:
What kind of scams/fraud is committed with these?
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Same ol shit. Help, I'm your relative trapped in jail, I need iTunes/Amazon/Steam cards to pay bail. Or this is the FBI, we're gonna come to your house and arrest you for overdue taxes/immigration fraud if you don't give us giftcards. You turn money into gift cards and on the other end they turn gift cards into money.

I always like the idea of giving cash and claiming its a gift card to the federal reserve. Or, it's even better if we can agree to mutually assured lack of gifts.
 
I use to buy this all the time but I rarely use my steam wallet for anything but DLC since I'd rather buy new games from a key site than direct from steam.

I just looked today at a store and saw the steam cards but they only had $20 cards. They use to be in 100/50/20/10 denominations, but now it's only 20. I remember at walmart when I bought 4 cards like a year or more ago they had to be done in 2 transactions, and I asked why and they said something about not letting people buy more than 2 during holidays or something and I said that sounds kind of dumb because games are $60 pre-tax and if you only have $20 cards you need 4 just to cover 1 new game and they should get the $50 back in stock lol. Going to miss them though I thought it would have been the best way to not use my CC when buying games and DLC on steam since I bought the cards with cash.
 
Why these cards when scammers can ask for 100 different stores cards, is it simply because Steam is a worldwide platform?
 
HeavensCloud said:
Why these cards when scammers can ask for 100 different stores cards, is it simply because Steam is a worldwide platform?
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Just like with apple iTunes cards, the user base is large and they're easy to sell for closer to face value for scammers.
 
GoldenTiger said:
Just like with apple iTunes cards, the user base is large and they're easy to sell for closer to face value for scammers.
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I feel like this is an excuse then. Why is only Steam doing this? And why are they doing it when they know scammers will just use something else, actual company morality?
 
HeavensCloud said:
I feel like this is an excuse then. Why is only Steam doing this? And why are they doing it when they know scammers will just use something else, actual company morality?
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Steam is probably tired of being a money laundering platform for scammers. Scammers will find something else, but I don't think you can expect GabeN to go full beekeeper on scammers cause he's tired of them using his gift cards.
 
I'm going to work today Walmart I'll buy some. There are sites out there that offer Digital Gift Cards but what is the point if you can just use Steam? This site it looks pretty legit they probably make money buying in different countires.


https://www.steamcarddelivery.com/
 
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toast0 said:
Same ol shit. Help, I'm your relative trapped in jail, I need iTunes/Amazon/Steam cards to pay bail. Or this is the FBI, we're gonna come to your house and arrest you for overdue taxes/immigration fraud if you don't give us giftcards. You turn money into gift cards and on the other end they turn gift cards into money.

I always like the idea of giving cash and claiming its a gift card to the federal reserve. Or, it's even better if we can agree to mutually assured lack of gifts.
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The store that my brother worked at had people getting scammed at a Bitcoin ATM. The employees (starting by my brother) would do what they could to talk people out of money, but you can suspect how that went. One was even so pissed he pushed past my brother knocking him back. He suspects that the scammers just asked people to go to a different bitcoin ATM. The police asked about a 2,500 deposit and took a picture of the sign posted above the ATM warning of scams. They believe someone put in $35,000 by adding the paper bands that hold large stacks of money one was labeled 25,000 and the other 10,000. There was finally a state senator that got involved and changed the law limiting the max you can withdraw.
 
Gift cards...
If anyone is ever in a position to get me a gift card please do us both a favor and just venmo me 80% or whatever you were going to spend on a gift card. Waste of paper, plastic, one more thing to lose and now I have to figure out what to buy and to remember to use up thst last $2.37
 
scammers still getting victims to buy gift cards?...why don't they just move to crypto?
 
I don't know if Steam was affected, but I remember multiple stores being affected where your purchased giftcard would be immediately emptied upon activation. People were running into this when buying cards from Costo. They would go to use the card they just bought and it would already show funds redeemed. I had this happen with an Outback Gift Card. I bought a $100 pack of giftcards at Costco since they sell them for $80 and when I went to use the first giftcard the restaurant said nothing was on it. I had only just opened the pack that day and nothing was scratched off.

This is definitely annoying because my nephew usually asks for money for PC games so usually someone just gives him a Steam gift card.
 
brennok said:
I don't know if Steam was affected, but I remember multiple stores being affected where your purchased giftcard would be immediately emptied upon activation. People were running into this when buying cards from Costo. They would go to use the card they just bought and it would already show funds redeemed. I had this happen with an Outback Gift Card. I bought a $100 pack of giftcards at Costco since they sell them for $80 and when I went to use the first giftcard the restaurant said nothing was on it. I had only just opened the pack that day and nothing was scratched off.

This is definitely annoying because my nephew usually asks for money for PC games so usually someone just gives him a Steam gift card.
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There are a ton of things people have done to steal gift cards. There have been hacks on the systems they use to activate them at the store. The most common is thieves get them before they're even stocked the shelves at the store or during shipment. They get the codes then repackage them, sometimes even putting the scratch stuff back on. Then once someone actually buys them and they get activated at the store the crooks can redeem them. I'm sure it's happened with Steam gift cards, it happens with all of them.
 
I tried buying two 30.00 Cards on break the system kicked me out from buying them will wait for the morning self checkout crew. I should have enough in my Steam Wallet for next 3-4 years. The Cards are no longer in electronics but by regular Gift card display.
 
IMG_20260612_073926.jpg

Only let's you buy two at a time per transaction. Walmart has about 100 cards left in the gift card section up front.
 
Comixbooks said:
View attachment 808712

Only let's you buy two at a time per transaction. Walmart has about 100 cards left in the gift card section up front.
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My advice to anyone buying giftcards for yourself is redeem them ASAP. The scammers typically only try to redeem them once a day or so to try to avoid triggering anti-fraud measures from blocking the codes.
 
Flogger23m said:
Isn't uncommon for a store to do a discount just to get things off shelves and out of inventory quickly.
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the cards arent worth anything until activated and i dont think there is a cost to the stores other than floor space. they will be filed under g.
 
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