No I think this is an awful move. Digital Gift Cards will still be available. And I think for gifting its actually really nice to still have.
this post was submitted on 10 Jun 2026
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Only thing is gullible boomers are way less likely to buy a gift card online. Because they won't be able to figure it out.
Wait that’s still a thing? I haven’t been able to find one in years
Well that sucks, no more paying in cash for physical cards.
Back when I used to work retail all gift cards were inside the registers only allowed to be activated once the registers opened.
This meant it was less likely for someone to either swap gift cards for counterfeit ones, or take pictures of all the cards waiting for someone to activate them and drain the balance.
to either swap gift cards for counterfeit ones
That would show an error on the checkout
or take pictures of all the cards waiting for someone to activate them and drain the balance.
Nowadays they are alls scratch-offs. That was a different time back then
There's a gift card scam in my area on the news. Here is how it works.
Gift card scams typically involve "card draining" or "skimming" at the store level. Fraudsters take cards from display racks, record the numbers and PINs, reseal the packaging, and replace them on the shelves. When you buy and activate the card, the scammer is instantly notified and drains the funds.
How the Scams Work
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The Tamper & Replace: Criminals remove gift cards from in-store racks, open them, and covertly record the barcode and PIN. They often peel off or alter the protective security stickers and hide the scratch-off strip.
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Resealing: The scammers repackage the card so it appears brand new and replace it on the Shoppers sales rack.
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The Activation Trap: Unsuspecting shoppers buy the card and activate it at the checkout, putting funds onto the card. The scammers, monitoring the card numbers remotely, immediately drain the balance.
How to Protect Yourself
Buy from behind the counter: If possible, purchase gift cards that are kept securely behind the cash register rather than those left on open display racks.
If I wanted to talk to ChatGPT, I wouldnt have made the effort of going on Lemmy.
I won't read a wall of text essentially saying the same as the comment I answered.
Great the discounts you get on them at Costco just vanished now, I guess. That sucks.
And it gives those card companies more ability to screw them like they did before.
This was honestly not a very wise decision.
This sucks. I was reading how about fraudsters buy counterstrike items to launder money and it's crazy. They must have found steam cards are a huge part of the operation too.
I just want an alternative to the whole VISA/Mastercard BS and this one was the easiest.
It's a classic case of bad actors ruining a great convenience for regular consumers. Physical gift cards were the perfect cash to digital bridge for privacy conscious users and people without traditional bank accounts. Unfortunately, the scale of refund fraud and elder scams involving these cards has gotten so massive that tech companies are realizing the retail footprint just isn't worth the liability anymore.
you can use paysafecard or a service like bitrefill, if youre into crypto
From what I can tell from Kitboga videos, all retail gift cards are a lucrative way to launder proceeds from scams. Valve was probably just more tired of dealing with it.
I actually think this might also potentially have something to do with the lawsuit regarding potential gambling on the platform.
Because children absolutely could buy gift cards and use them to open loot boxes etc. Not positive but just throwing that out there.
I absolutely could be completely wrong about this.
This kinda tracks. One time someone I knew bought a series of games on Steam at once, and his bank blocked them. In calling them, he learned that (in addition to some other circumstantial clue) their pattern recognition picks up on game purchases, since that's an excellent target for someone who just stole a credit card. Scammers can often resell the games in some way, through some anonymity.
I worked on a retail store for a time, it was sad that a lot of old people spent a lot on money on gift cards, specially Steam and Apple gift cards because they didn't even knew what they were purchasing, and 7/10 times when you warned them about a scam they tell you to eat shit, but it was funny because it was like: An famous singer is contacting me, just to tell me that if I give them a $100 gift card they will send me $100.000.000
And there were some more extreme cases of old people who lived alone and didn't know much about technology, that it was like a rolplay but on real life and the currency to keep rolplaying was the gift cards.
And another thing is that the old (due to the scammers) were the most unbearable people in the world, because the scammers didn't ask, they demanded gift cards, and they were always asking for $100 gc. If the elderly people couldn't get them, they threatened to stop talking to them, so we had to deal with unbearable old people constantly.
Ugh I loved getting these as gifts from non-gamer family. A Visa/MC gift card I'll just spend on necessary things but a Steam gift card was for games.
Shit, there goes another alternative to my VISA card T-T
I was looking for Sream gift cards as birthday presents for some friends 2 months or so ago. No wonder I couldn't find them.
That's probably a big deal in Asia. I get the impression banking is not so smooth an experience out there (most specifically in Japan), and instead most people still work directly with cash; so any gacha game or online store will very much rely on convenience stores to stock their cards.
It's not that banking is difficult in Japan (unless you're a foreigner), it's just culturally a cash-centric economy. There's a whole etiquette about placing your money on a specific plate, making sure the bills are face-side up, paying as close to exact change as possible, etc.
Japanese 7-11's all have an ATM that will accept American debit cards and allow you to withdraw Yen, even handling the conversion fee for you. Cash cards with RFID chips like Suica make subway/train fare super fast and simple. It's not for lack of technology, for sure.
oh, ffs. well, piracy it is then.
Yupp Valve did after all famously say it was due to service issues.
Well, they just made a huge service issue for some people.
That's honestly my only recourse now. Credit cards aren't really a thing in my country (they exist, you just never need them) and I refuse to hand over my shit to data brokers like klarna or paypal.
tbf, i was able to pay with my normal bank account on steam in the past. so its not as bad for me. but i dont trust my bank either tbh.