It’s a classic case of bad actors ruining a great convenience for regular consumers. Physical gift cards were the perfect cash to digital bridge for privacy conscious users and people without traditional bank accounts. Unfortunately, the scale of refund fraud and elder scams involving these cards has gotten so massive that tech companies are realizing the retail footprint just isn’t worth the liability anymore.
Comment on Valve to no longer offer physical gift cards due to scammers
VitoRobles@lemmy.today 1 day ago
This sucks. I was reading how about fraudsters buy counterstrike items to launder money and it’s crazy. They must have found steam cards are a huge part of the operation too.
I just want an alternative to the whole VISA/Mastercard BS and this one was the easiest.
Absolute_Slayer@lemmy.world 23 hours ago
Bruhh@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
Could just use amex
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
Does Discover still exist?
Bruhh@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
Sure does but they recently got bought out by capital one. No one knows if this is good or bad
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
It’s definitely bad for the consumer
meowcar42O@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
you can use paysafecard or a service like bitrefill, if youre into crypto
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 1 day ago
From what I can tell from Kitboga videos, all retail gift cards are a lucrative way to launder proceeds from scams. Valve was probably just more tired of dealing with it.
atrielienz@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I actually think this might also potentially have something to do with the lawsuit regarding potential gambling on the platform.
Because children absolutely could buy gift cards and use them to open loot boxes etc. Not positive but just throwing that out there.
I absolutely could be completely wrong about this.
Anivia@feddit.org 13 hours ago
Yes, they aren’t doing it out of the goodness of their heart. They are doing it to avoid liability
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 12 hours ago
gift cards doesnt require you to be an adult or ID to purchase as well. i remember i bought it a few visa gift cards for various games, since i dint have a CC at the time.
Katana314@lemmy.world 1 day ago
This kinda tracks. One time someone I knew bought a series of games on Steam at once, and his bank blocked them. In calling them, he learned that (in addition to some other circumstantial clue) their pattern recognition picks up on game purchases, since that’s an excellent target for someone who just stole a credit card. Scammers can often resell the games in some way, through some anonymity.