When my friends and family are struggling to find a gift for me, I just tell them to get me a Steam gift card. Because eventually I will use it—my concerning number of Steam games is a living monument to poor impulse control. But soon those friends and family will be struggling to find physical Steam gift cards at retailers.
The reason? Scammers love ’em, so Valve is discontinuing them. That’s according to a new update posted to Valve’s support documentation for the Steam wallet. “Scammers use gift cards from major brands like Steam to take advantage of people all over the world,” reads the updated text, spotted by SteamDB.
“As we have continued to put more and more restrictions in place, scammers have adapted. 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.”
It’s a valid concern. Scammers tell victims to buy gift cards and send them the redemption codes as a means of essentially pre-laundering stolen money. The codes can be swapped online with no documentation, for credit at other stores or just straight currency, with little or no overhead. The US Federal Trade Commission estimates over $100 million in theft is facilitated this way every year. Fortnite and Roblox physical gift cards are also a favorite tool of scammers.
The existing physical Steam cards that are still stocked in retail stores will remain valid, but will not be restocked. That means that pretty soon they’ll just be gone as a purchase option. I’d assume that here in the US, the vast majority will be gone by 2027.
Gift cards will still be available as straight digital purchases, so you’ll still be able to buy Steam credit for your friends and family—they’ll just be a little harder to put in a gift box. Since digital purchases will need to be associated with at least some kind of account, it’ll also make it harder for scammers to pull one over. This is, in fact, why we can’t have nice things.
