Steam Gifts and Account Safety

TetraNitro · 11-27-2009, 08:29 AM

I know that Steam Gifting is one of the most abused social engineering techniques employed for account hijacking. Not only are promises of free games usually just attempts to steal your account, but even if legit I've heard there might be a way for gifts to compromise your Steam account (i.e. If you are gifted a game, and the person who sent it then reverses the charge on the CC - Steam will close your account if you reverse charges).

Obviously the gifting schema is a legitimate feature Valve has included with Steam, but considering the ease with which it can be abused, how can one be sure of a real gift vs. a fake one? What's the safest way to claim a gift? It's easy enough to spoof emails from someone's friends list, after all. Is it safest just to never claim the gift at all?

11-27-2009, 08:29 AM	#1
TetraNitro Join Date: Oct 2008 Reputation: 187 Posts: 285	Steam Gifts and Account Safety I know that Steam Gifting is one of the most abused social engineering techniques employed for account hijacking. Not only are promises of free games usually just attempts to steal your account, but even if legit I've heard there might be a way for gifts to compromise your Steam account (i.e. If you are gifted a game, and the person who sent it then reverses the charge on the CC - Steam will close your account if you reverse charges). Obviously the gifting schema is a legitimate feature Valve has included with Steam, but considering the ease with which it can be abused, how can one be sure of a real gift vs. a fake one? What's the safest way to claim a gift? It's easy enough to spoof emails from someone's friends list, after all. Is it safest just to never claim the gift at all?

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