Which: Valve
March 3, 2024 at 11:30 a.m. – After several fraudulent fake developers defrauded various Steam users of their money in February 2024, Valve has now taken concrete measures. Accounts were banned and refunds issued.
Fraudsters looking to make a quick buck are developing increasingly creative methods to scam their victims out of money. In February 2024, scammers flooded the gaming platform Steam with fake shop pages to lure gaming fans with supposedly great discounts on popular releases. Now Valve, as the responsible Steam operator, has reacted.
Helldivers 2 is particularly affected by fake offers
Particularly affected by fake offers was the surprise hit Helldivers 2, which became Sony's most successful Steam release after its release on February 8, 2024. Fraudsters copied the shooter's official shop page several times and lured people with offers such as 50 percent or even 75 percent off the original price of Helldivers 2.
A player affected by the scam contacted Valve and received a response from the company in which Valve officially confirmed that there appeared to be several of these fake offers. According to the message the player posted on Reddit, Valve automatically refunded him for the purchase and banned the company that uploaded the fake offer from Steam.
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Meanwhile, the Reddit community fears far-reaching consequences for Steam: Some users point out that although the fraudsters do not receive any money from Valve for their fakes, they could easily slip malware onto unsuspecting buyers instead. Although there is no evidence that malware was used in the case of the Helldivers 2 fakes, such a scenario is certainly conceivable.
We don't yet know whether Valve will take further measures to protect Steam users from such fraudulent shop pages in the future. However, you would do well to exercise caution when purchasing a game on Steam in the future and not to be lured by deals that seem too good to be true.
Quelle: Dexerto