PSA: Don't buy from or sell to G2A
16Hi, as my last act of goathood, I’d like to pass on a message.
You shouldn’t do business with G2A because they’re a bunch of slimy motherfuckers.
Here is a wonderful post laying out the reasons why: http://www.fortressofdoors.com/g2a-piracy-and-the-four-currencies/
You should read the whole article, because it’s very good, but this bit works as a nice TL;DR:
When you buy a key on G2A, a lot of the time you’re buying a Steam Key
somebody bought with a stolen credit card. When the cardholder
inevitably finds out, they issue a chargeback and the credit card
company refunds them, taking the money from the store (plus a fee),
and giving it to the fraud victim. This means the store (or developer
if they’re selling direct) made negative money on the sale of that
key, as TinyBuild and IndieGameStand have detailed. However, the thief
still got paid. And so did G2A. So they do it again. And Again.When you buy stolen G2A keys, forget “lost future sales” – money is
being taken out of developers’ and publishers’ pockets and given to
literal thieves.And what happens when you buy stolen goods? Sometimes the stores are
able to track which keys have been fraudulently obtained, and they
cancel them. So you just saved $10 by buying a game from G2A, but now
your key’s been revoked and you have nothing. Now G2A has defrauded
you too! And no, they won’t refund your money.…Unless you pay for G2A shield!
G2A knows that some portion of their keys are stolen and that
customers will get scared. So, they offer a guarantee – tack on a
little extra, and if your key gets revoked, we’ll replace it with a
legitimate one. And hey, it’s still cheaper than buying from the
official store, so it’s still a good deal!
Here’s a couple of videos on the topic:
TotalBiscuit’s rant on the topic:
(Jump to the 2:18:28 mark if it starts you at the beginning)
Den of Thieves:
And the original post that started this:
http://tinybuild.com/g2a-sold-450k-worth-of-our-game-keys
- 7 comments, 14 replies
- Comment
Even worse, Steam might lock down your entire account for using a fraudulent key.
This can be said about any place that resells used goods. They can never guarantee 100% of all goods were not obtained illegally. Based on that, steer clear of all pawn shops and thrift stores.
@ohbother
Pawn stores not so much. They’re required to report goods to local police and hold items the pawned or purchased for a time period before reselling. If the item reports as stolen it is on them and insured.
@ohbother Thrift stores not so much either. Thieves want to convert goods to cash, not a tax deduction.
This is also very true of the eBay giftcard market. A lot of giftcards on there were purchased with a stolen credit card. Netflix is a big one.
@Collin1000 this probably should’ve been obvious to me, but it was not. I kept thinking: how are they selling these cards so cheap? The more you know…
@Collin1000 @jennifern That is a great point, but then I always wonder st the people that pay above face value for them. Is there something magical about some gift cards that make it logical to pay more than face value, or do people get caught up in bidding? Either way, now that i too understand the sketchy origins of thise gift cards, i will avoid them.
Its the internet and such so there’s going to be foul play in any reselling market. Same thing happens on Amazon, eBay ect…
I’ve used G2A to buy around 20 games in the past year alone and out of all those 20 games only two came back as obtained from stolen credit cards, and G2A quickly refunded my money so there wasn’t any problem at all. Yes there’s a risk, but they are aware of it as well and offer their shield service which you should always use for sites like that.
Same thing could be said about cdkeys.com as well since they deal the same thing, but DON’T offer a protection plan.
@Chaedog Think about what it says about G2A that offering a protection plan is a good (and profitable!) idea, rather than fixing the problem itself (why are there so many rejected/broken/invalid keys).
@Chaedog So… ten percent of what you bought in a year was obtained illegally, and you don’t consider that ‘any problem at all.’ Hm.
@brhfl They can’t police everything that runs through their site…how would they? If its so rampant as everyone says then 10 percent seems VERY low.
@dashcloud @brhfl
Like @Chaedog says there’s no practical way to prevent it, just like there’s no practical way to prevent stolen or counterfeit goods being sold on eBay. The difference between G2A and eBay is that you get to choose between paying for the protection or not. On eBay it’s just built into their seller fees which the buyer ultimately pays for.
I’ve bought 27 games combined between G2A (10) and Kinguin (17) in the last two years, and many more from other sites. I have had precisely one issue in the entire time I’ve bought keys from ‘unapproved’ sources and it was with a Far Cry 4 key that was invalidated by Ubisoft en masse that was then later revalidated after the outcry from the masses of people affected. (Fraudulent purchase issue, some kind of exploit on EA’s Origin store)
Because it was reactivated I ultimately ended up with two copies as I was given a replacement key for the deactivated one by the site I purchased it from. While the keys can come from questionable sources the fact is that so long as you purchase responsibly you should be fine. Be sure to check things like the number of ratings a seller has (kind of like you do on eBay…) and what those ratings are. I don’t even consider and seller with less than four full stars and a few hundred ratings.
Or simply don’t waste your time on the games in the first place.
The meh forums are a far more productive way to waste time.
(Especially whilst lounging in a chair in Northern Michigan on a holiday weekend with a cold beer in hand.)
@RedOak Indoors or out? I was once kidnapped by mosquitoes while lounging in a hammock in N MI
@compunaut Virtually zero mosquitoes. We camp until we get a cabin built. Our off-grid property is on a semi-wooded ridge. An easy 7 miles from wonderful Lake Michigan. No standing water to breed those critters.
And we have a genset + fogger handy if it were needed.
That Ivation shower gadget we got on meh.com works great!
@RedOak I love the idea of that shower, but it was before my time on meh. Almost bought it from woot once, but decided it would be a waste cuz we’re not doing much camping down here in TX (usually too hot for that activity)
@compunaut yah, sweaty camping is less fun.
It can certainly get hot here as well. But then we go jump in Lake Michigan. Or a closer lake but with less cool beaches.
We actually bought a second one of those shower things the second time they came up here. Seem to run forever on a charge.
… Sitting by a camp fire right now… mind-blowing carpet of stars up here minus light pollution. The milky way looks like milk.
Greetings,
While we do all we can to get the Marketplace rid of products and Sellers of questionable origin, we are aware that there may be such cases there. This is why we offer the additional protection in the form of G2A Shield, which carries more than simple fastest solution available - there are also additional features available for our Shield members. But people without Shield are not left alone - every customer can use our Resolution Center to solve their issues directly with the Sellers! If the case is difficult, our specialists help the parties reach a conclusion, so that the issue is solved as quickly as it is possible.
If you have any further questions, keep in mind that you can always find additional information on G2A’s FAQ page or by contacting us in 8 languages on helpdesk(at)g2a.com. Our consultants are there for you 24/7.
We hope to see you soon again at G2A.COM!
Peter
G2A Team
@G2A_Team lol. You basically added nothing to the discussion.
@G2A_Team I think you’ve basically succeeded in restating points that have already been made while doing nothing to address the core issue mentioned in the original post. Congratulations!
Thank you! I found this information very helpful.