Valve has made changes to Steam gift trading in response to a nasty exploit which allowed users to trade games they do not rightfully own. Users were able to purchase games using false credit card details before trading them for legitimately purchased games. The exploiter was able to keep the fully paid game, while the person on the receiving end of the dodgy trade would find their game inaccessible once the credit card details were found to be fake.
But not any longer. According to Valve’s Tony Paloma, games purchased as a gift will not be tradable for 30 days. “All new games purchased as a gift and placed in the purchaser's inventory will be untradable for 30 days,” Paloma wrote. “The gift may still be gifted at any time. The only change is to trading.
“We've made this change to make trading gifts a better experience for those receiving the gifts. We're hoping this lowers the number of people who trade for a game only to have the game revoked later due to issues with the purchaser's payment method.”
It's a good time to be ironing out these creases: the Steam sale is currently in progress, which means our piles of shame are growing exponentially.
