If you are the type of person who wants to save a few dollars on a game purchase, maybe you should rethink that decision when you purchase those games from dodgy CD key websites. tinyBuild, the developer of Punch Club, SpeedRunners and Party Hard has written a blog post detailing some of the underhand tactics some third-party sellers will use to steal CD keys.
The problem is a website called G2A. G2A is a website designed to sell CD keys, but not from official sources. Ever wondered where these third-party sellers get the keys from? tinyBuild explains that some third-party CD key sellers purchase large quantities from the developers directly. These sellers place a chargeback on the transaction, reversing the payment after receiving the CD key.
tinyBuild went as far as emailing G2A, explaining the situation to them in hopes that they might do something about it. Using empirical data, tinyBuild asked the CD key sellers where did the keys come from, and can they get compensation for that? Here’s the response they received:
“So the issue you have pointed to is related to keys you have already sold. They are your partners that have sold the keys on G2A, which they purchased directly from you. If anything this should give you an idea on the reach that G2A has, instead of your partners selling here you could do that directly.
I can tell you that no compensation will be given. If you suspect that these codes where all chargebacks aka fraud/stolen credit card purchases I would be happy to look into that however I will say this requires TinyBuild to want to work with G2A. Both in that you need to revoke the keys you will be claiming as stolen from the players who now own them and supply myself with the codes you suspect being a part of this. We will check to see if that is the case but I doubt that codes with such large numbers would be that way.
Honestly I think you will be surprised in that it is not fraud, but your resale partners doing what they do best, selling keys. They just happen to be selling them on G2A. It is also worth pointing out that we do not take a share of these prices, our part comes from the kickback our payment providers.”
Click here to read the entire blog post. Please remember to purchase your games from legitimate sources. You might be saving a couple dollars here and there, but the developer is most likely losing out on a lot of money.
