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Joystiq

PSA: Steam did not just gift you Far Cry 2

by David Hinkle on Feb 20th 2009 10:02AM

Multiple members of Team Joystiq received a weird email this morning, which stated that Valve, the beloved developers behind PC's great platform, Steam, had gifted us Far Cry 2. With an email address originating from the Steam URL, you could imagine how (almost) convinced we were. Turns out it was all a hoax.

The activation link in the very convincing email (seriously, it looks legit!) goes to a third-party site. We can only imagine the malice awaiting us on the other side of that link, so if you were also the recipient of this email, know that IT'S A TRAP!

Tags: far-cry-2, hoax, pc, phisher, scam, steam, ubisoft, valve, valve-software

Reader Comments (23)

Why didn't you link it to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNLuq0lW50k

OR http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckhasegf2wA&feature=related

I just got this and it was legit. The game hasn't appeared in my account yet but the Nigerian assured me it will be soon.

haha, love it!

You cut me deep, you cut me real deep just now.

You sure it's a Nigerian prince? If it's just some random Nigerian and not a member of the royal family, you got scammed. Ask for a picture. If he doesn't look like Eddie Murphy in a fast food uniform, change your password immediately!

This isn't the first time this has happened. You guys ran an article about a month to 6 weeks ago on this right?

Can you post a pic of the email? Would love to see how close it is to the real thing.

Ask and ye shall receive:

http://media.blogsmith.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2009/02/farcry2steamscams.png

Thanks! That does in fact look really legit. It seems that the quality of phishing emails has really gone up in the last couple of years.

That does look legit. This is why it's important to always check the links in any email you receive, especially if it's something like this that you weren't expecting or seems too good to be true.

Thanks for the heads up, Joystiq.

Yeah, it looks really good, although hovering over the second link (game activation) shows the true URL, which leads to the third party site in question.

IT'S A TRAP!

http://downlode.org/Creative/Writing/Notebook/Illustrations/itsatrap.jpg

Someone had to post it, right?

The part about "if you're new to Steam" and needing to install the Steam Client first sends up a big red warning flag in my mind. If I wasn't part of Steam, and didn't even have the Client installed yet, how would Valve know who I was to "gift" me?

You're right. I didn't really think of that. Then again, if I got that email I would just log on to steam to see if it was in my list, cause you know... that is how gifting works in steam.

I thought you could gift people with just an email address.

*Googles* Yes, apparently you can, and if they don't have a Steam account, they can click the link in the email to make one.

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=6262-QXCN-0755

Zertoss

Yes, you can gift someone as long as you have an email address.

My point was, if I wasn't already a Steam member, how would they have my email address in the first place? This wasn't a "gift" from a friend of mine, it was a "gift" that was supposedly from Valve.

Ah, I see what you're saying. I guess I misunderstood your first post.

Nigerian scammers and Far Cry 2 are both based in Africa.

Coincidence? I think not.

I bet you there will be some unfortunate person who happens to be gifted Far Cry 2 for real today, but deletes and and blocks the email assuming it's the scam :p

Just buy it. Its awesome.

It's TOTALLY Jack Thompson seeking vengeance for his disbarment. Duh.

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Breaking News

PSA: Steam did not just gift you Far Cry 2

Reader Comments (23)

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 10:05AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 10:07AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 10:13AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 10:34AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 12:01PM Nigeria said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 12:33PM LaughingTarget said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 10:15AM MarkHawk said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 10:21AM Courtney said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 10:37AM Dave Hinkle said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 10:49AM Courtney said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 10:57AM Zertoss said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 11:25AM Dave Hinkle said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 10:30AM RyogaVee said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 11:07AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 10:55AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 11:21AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 11:34AM Zertoss said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 12:57PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 2:08PM Zertoss said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 10:56AM darkinchworm said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 11:32AM GenBanks said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 2:30PM ScottG13 said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 4:36PM MrHashbrown said

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