+Frank B. Subscriber² Posted April 18, 2015 Subscriber² Share Posted April 18, 2015 In fight against spammers, Steam now restricts accounts until users show hard cash In an attempt to combat phishing and spamming, Steam today announced a raft of activity restrictions on accounts that do not show purchase activity. Valve's digital store will no longer provide certain community benefits until a user has spent $5 or added a minimum of $5 to their account. The benefits include sending friend invites, opening a group chat, voting on Greenlight or submitting content on the Steam Workshop. A full list is here. "We've chosen to limit access to these features as a means of protecting our customers from those who abuse Steam for purposes such as spamming and phishing," offered a Steam update. "Malicious users often operate in the community on accounts which have not spent any money, reducing the individual risk of performing the actions they do. "One of the best pieces of information we can compare between regular users and malicious users are their spending habits as typically the accounts being used have no investment in their longevity. Due to this being a common scenario we have decided to restrict certain community features until an account has met or exceeded $5 in Steam." Source: Polygon madd-hatter, Raa and Chicane-UK 3 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MightyJordan Posted April 18, 2015 Share Posted April 18, 2015 Good; that'll hopefully end the dozen-or-so friend requests I've been getting every day for the past few weeks from blank/private level 0 accounts. Aergan 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
compl3x Posted April 18, 2015 Share Posted April 18, 2015 Doesn't seem too unreasonable. +Red King, Raa and theyarecomingforyou 3 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dotdot Posted April 19, 2015 Share Posted April 19, 2015 Good. As above the blatant spam accounts are a pain the ..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MightyJordan Posted April 19, 2015 Share Posted April 19, 2015 I think it's curbed them a bit, but it hasn't eliminated them completely; was pretty quiet for me last night and this morning, but four more friend requests popped up this afternoon, so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spaceelf Posted April 19, 2015 Share Posted April 19, 2015 Do you guys not keep your profiles to friends only or something? I only ever had weird requests when I had foil cards up on the market. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MightyJordan Posted April 19, 2015 Share Posted April 19, 2015 Do you guys not keep your profiles to friends only or something? I only ever had weird requests when I had foil cards up on the market. My inventory is set to friends only, so that makes the spam more infuriating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 19, 2015 Share Posted April 19, 2015 What about all those Dota players? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unobscured Vision Posted April 19, 2015 Share Posted April 19, 2015 Good move on Valve's part. I'm a regular customer, so anything they can do to improve the service is fine with me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tha Bloo Monkee Posted April 19, 2015 Share Posted April 19, 2015 Slight annoyance as I have a friend who I can't add to Steam to play Left 4 Dead 2 cause it's the only game on his account and he got it for free when they were giving it out for Christmas (I think) 2 years ago. As much as it will limit spam and such, I wouldn't be surprised if this also doubles as a way to entice people to spend money on the store. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HawkMan Posted April 19, 2015 Share Posted April 19, 2015 Can't say I get any steam spam. but this will have little effect. just like being a paying users doesn't limit spam in MMO's. Spammers don't pay for their accounts and the stuff they buy anyway. it's all done in some kind of pre-pay then cancel payment type of scam. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooky560 Veteran Posted April 20, 2015 Veteran Share Posted April 20, 2015 Seems like a reasonable policy. Although It's a bit annoying I imagine for people who like physical copies of games they use in steam (it states that these don't remove the limitations) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeChipshop Member Posted April 20, 2015 Member Share Posted April 20, 2015 Good move. Slight annoyance as I have a friend who I can't add to Steam to play Left 4 Dead 2 cause it's the only game on his account and he got it for free when they were giving it out for Christmas (I think) 2 years ago. Get him to add $5 to his account ** Boom ** job done Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raa Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 Can't see anything wrong with this really. If you're getting Steam for a reason, large chance you'll spend at least 5 bucks on it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lassekongo83 Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 What if you buy your Steam games from another source? I recently bought Cities Skylines Steam Download from a large electronic vendor here in Sweden. It was cheaper than Steam store. Do the restrictions apply to anyone who hasn't spent money in Steam? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MightyJordan Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 What if you buy your Steam games from another source? I recently bought Cities Skylines Steam Download from a large electronic vendor here in Sweden. It was cheaper than Steam store. Do the restrictions apply to anyone who hasn't spent money in Steam? Yeah, the restrictions still apply if the games you own were bought elsewhere. The below actions will not remove limited user restrictions: Activating a retail game on Steam Playing free demos Adding a non-Steam game as a shortcut Adding/playing promotional trials like Free Weekends Free to Play games (Examples: Alien Swarm, free versions of Portal and Team Fortress 2) Activating promotional CD Keys from hardware or graphic card manufacturers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MenOfLetters Posted August 7, 2015 Share Posted August 7, 2015 Doesn't seem too unreasonable. Agreed! We have the same thoughts about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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