'Nearly All' Counter-Strike Microtransactions Are Being Used for Money Laundering (vice.com) 34
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players will no longer be able to trade container keys between accounts because the trade was part of a massive worldwide fraud network. From a report: Players earned cases in Counter-Strike containing weapons and cosmetic upgrades, but had to purchase the keys to open the boxes. Developer Valve runs an internal marketplace on Steam where it allowed players to trade the boxes and the keys. Valve patched the game on October 28 and explained the problem in its patch notes. "In the past, most key trades we observed were between legitimate customers," the statement said. "However, worldwide fraud networks have recently shifted to using CS:GO keys to liquidate their gains. At this point, nearly all key purchases that end up being traded or sold on the marketplace are believed to be fraud-sourced."
As a long-time Counter-Strike player.. (Score:5, Insightful)
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This is nothing short of new.
wrong phrase.
Fine. This is nothing long of new.
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This is nothing short of new.
wrong phrase.
Fine. This is nothing long of new.
This is something new of short.
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Oh, look. One of those people who try to make every conversation into a political debate because that isn't tiresome and boring at all. /s
How does the laundering work? (Score:2)
Unless you can sell the contents or keys for actual cash I don't see how this works for either illicit payment or money laundering. That is someone has to buy what you are trading and then what do they do with it? Can they sell it back to valve for cash? If not can they sell it to some other legit player? if so then all these transactions must terminate on a legit transaction, making the statement about no legit transactions dubious.
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Unless you can sell the contents or keys for actual cash I don't see how this works for either illicit payment or money laundering. That is someone has to buy what you are trading and then what do they do with it? Can they sell it back to valve for cash? If not can they sell it to some other legit player? if so then all these transactions must terminate on a legit transaction, making the statement about no legit transactions dubious.
Probably sell things between 2 accounts that you control using fraudulent payment information (ie stolen credit card info). The CS:GO keys are just the vehicle to drive the payments.
Re:How does the laundering work? (Score:4, Informative)
You can sell the keys to other users, or use them to unlock chests whose contents you can also sell to other users, including on 3rd party websites to "cash out" of the Steam ecosystem - google "CS:GO Skin Selling" for (many, many) examples. They've been trying to crack down it for a while, and even had problems with gambling [kotaku.com] connected to all this.
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I send you drugs. I then put up a $5 skin and price it at $500. You then buy the skin. I find a way to cash that money out somehow. Maybe it's buying stuff and selling it to legitimate players, maybe it's a 3rd party store that I transfer the assets to in-game and they cut me a check, depends on the game.
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There are CS:GO item trading websites so yes you can sell those keys for real money. Since those buyers must have Steam & CS:GO accounts to do this it must be pretty obvious to Valve which accounts are 3rd party key buyers and sellers. Gambling, often unregulated and illegal is the other use for CS:GO keys. Valve has been profiting from crime for a long time.
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This is nothing short of new
So, it's very new, then?
How many Steam users (Score:1)
Know what Valve sell?
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This is nothing short of new.
That's what they said. It's new. I assume you made a typo and tried to say it's not new, but then that just means you didn't read the summary which never claimed the practice itself was new.
Or... lost profits (Score:3)
Basically they couldn't keep up with the number of transaction reversals to keep the operation profitable.
On the other hand, microtransactions have always been a dumb money-sucking idea. If you can't play a game without handing over gobs of cash, it's the same mechanics as gambling.
Valve (Score:3, Funny)
Money Laundering is a good way to kill loot boxes! (Score:4, Insightful)
Money Laundering is a good way to kill loot boxes!
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You have a point.
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Starting today, CS:GO container keys purchased in-game can no longer leave the purchasing account. That is, they cannot be sold on the Steam Community Market or traded. Pre-existing CS:GO container keys are unaffected–those keys can still be sold on the Steam Community Market and traded. Why make this change? In the past, most key trades we observed were between legitimate customers. However, worldwide fraud networks have recently shifted to using CS:GO keys to liquidate their gains. At this point, nearly all key purchases that end up being traded or sold on the marketplace are believed to be fraud-sourced. As a result we have decided that newly purchased keys will not be tradeable or marketable.
For the vast majority of CS:GO users who buy keys to open containers, nothing changes; keys can still be purchased to open containers in their inventory. They simply can no longer be traded or transacted on the Steam Community Market.
Unfortunately this change will impact some legitimate users, but combating fraud is something we continue to prioritize across Steam and our products.
If you have feedback or concerns about this change feel free to email us at CSGOTeamFeedback [at] valvesoftware.com with the subject “Key Restriction”.
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With money laundering off the table (Score:2)
Half life 3 confirmed!
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How long before Star Citizen admits this? (Score:1)
This is why we can't have nice things (Score:1)
Where this = abuse that creates too many headaches for the person delivering the good or service
I assume another instance of this is why we have to log into Slashdot to post now. Sigh.
I'm wondering how it was done (Score:2)
If you wanted to launder 1M$, how can you achieve this with Keys and Loot Boxes?
It's not like to can hire hundreds CS:GO player so you can find 1M$ worth of loot boxes.
Unless you can buy and resell the same box/key multiple time? If that's the case it would be easy to detect it so this is clearly a flaw in their system and Steam should be liable.
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If you wanted to launder 1M$, how can you achieve this with Keys and Loot Boxes?
It's not like to can hire hundreds CS:GO player so you can find 1M$ worth of loot boxes.
Unless you can buy and resell the same box/key multiple time? If that's the case it would be easy to detect it so this is clearly a flaw in their system and Steam should be liable.
Create 2 CS:GO accounts. Accumulate items on each account. Steal credit card numbers. Sell items between each account using said stolen credit card numbers. Cash out before the charges can get reversed.
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If you wanted to launder 1M$, how can you achieve this with Keys and Loot Boxes?
I'm not certain how it was done exactly, but my assumption is that people were buying keys for loot boxes with stolen credit cards and then trading or selling those keys below market value to legitimate players who were granted those loot boxes while playing the game. Typically there's no need to purchase keys for real money, because those are occasionally awarded through game play as well, but there will never be enough to open all of the loot boxes you receive.
So from the perspective of the normal play
I don't know why (Score:3)
"Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players will no longer be able to trade container keys between accounts because the trade was part of a massive worldwide fraud network."
I don't know why, but I find this hilarious.
For my fellow traders (Score:4, Informative)
Hello. Owner of Noir Trading. Its a CS:GO Trading server. I'm a high tier trader as well.
This is valve covering their tracks, They are trying to prevent as many kids from gambling as possible while still having a profitable economy.
Their claim that the keys are being used for money laundering proves that they acknowledge cash out sites which are absolutely needed in order to keep the economy afloat.
What the slashdot post fails to mention in its summary is that this only affects any new keys bought from valve, if you are a trader with hundreds or thousands of dollars in keys in your inventory, don't fear, they are still tradable and marketable. (yes such people do exist)
I don't believe this will affect skin prices at all, ever since valves 7 day trade restriction (an update that caused servers like mine to drop in population and caused many to shut down) people have been moving from keys to liquid(term for stable price and constant demand) items in other games that are not affected by the 7 day trade hold in order to use as a currency to trade for skins. Examples of these are TF2 keys for lower tier items and Dota 2 Arcanas for higher tier items. Keeping these things considered, and that key trading has not been that standard of a currency since 2016, this is not going to devastating to the market.
People have acknowledged that the key price on the steam market has gone way up and some have even considered using this as an opportunity to invest, This is NOT a sound investment. the raise of price is caused by people who don't know what they are doing, buying up the market believing it is a worthy investment, not by people raising the price. Since keys are still always available from valve directly at a set price, people who are investing in keys will see their overpriced investment perish as people refuse to buy them for beyond 2.50 USD a key.
If you are part of the crowd who wants to see "loot boxes" disappear, I assure it's not all negative. The skin economy has made players stick to this wonderful game, As I am a major contributor to this community I can confidently say that this community also brings people together. There IS a scummy side to this, an ocean of scammers trying to deceive you any chance they get, but if you know what you are doing, the trading community can be a way to meet friends and make memories.
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Loot box seller scum says "we are not all scum", proceeds to defend lootboxes as "totally not gambling because not everyone values the thing being gambled on".
If you are referring to me you are both wrong and misrepresenting what i said grossly
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Counter-Strike player of 15 years... The loot boxes and skins contribute nothing to the game, and they haven't made me stick to it.
I'd actually rather play CS Source - there are free mods that actually extend the gameplay and kept me a regular player for 7 or 8 years. Skins are not exciting enough to get me to open up CS:GO. I feel like I wasted money paying for CS:GO in the first place - it's nearly identical to CS Source, but with less content.
I'm guessing the current player base in CS:GO consists of youn
All new (Score:2)
"Organized Crime Infiltrates 'Legitimate' Child Gambling Ring, this and a new baby elephant at the zoo, at 11!"