- Valve will soon be putting an end to physical gift cards
- It has effectively been forced to end physical gift cards due to scammers' adaptations
- Once stock runs out across retailers there will be no more physical gift cards
Valve will be putting an end to physical Steam gift cards once stock runs dry across retailers.
As reported by Destructoid, this move is due to scammers using the service to take advantage of consumers.
Steam scams aren't new by any means, with many of them leading to stolen Steam accounts via scammers reaching out to users on Discord acting as Valve employees. It's also reminiscent of reports that suggest Apple's physical gift card scams cost buyers millions of dollars, as 9to5Mac highlighted.
Valve notes on Steam support FAQ page that these physical gift card cases involve scammers posing as official agencies, and contacting consumers over the phone to coerce them to purchase gift cards to cover for taxes, bills, or other debts.
Comment from r/technology
The latter doesn't sound too far off of scams for digital gift cards or Steam account theft, and this has been an ongoing battle for Valve, with the help of law enforcement and retailers, but pulling the plug appears to be the best solution.
"As we have continued to put more and more restrictions in place, scammers have adapted," Valve says. "They continue to have an impact on Steam customers and other unsuspecting individuals.
"So we've made the difficult decision to end the Steam Gift Card program at retail stores. As Steam Gift Cards run out of stock at retail locations, we will not be restocking them."
Unsurprisingly, it has left multiple Steam users frustrated, notably on Reddit, with one in particular stating: "Great job scammers, first you trick people out of their money, then you ruin gift cards for everyone."
Those frustrations are warranted as consumers will now only be able to purchase gift cards digitally, and with scammers easily adapting to changes, it's not impossible for future changes from Valve that would dramatically adjust digital gift cards. We can only hope that Valve won't ever have to go that far.
