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If you ever wondered why you have such a hard time trading items, it’s because Steam has around 77,000 accounts hijacked monthly. That is why Valve believes that they are forced to add additional steps before users complete a transaction of items.
This is the price of the Steam market becoming an actual thriving economy. While it started out with modest trades, now there are mountains of expensive items to sell and buy. It has evolved along the years. One user account can now have hundreds of digital games stored in their library, and hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars put up directly on Steam.
CS:GO is a huge target
This makes them viable targets to begin with. But now, games such as CounterStrike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) have grown into an actual business. They offer various ‘skins’ for weapons within the game that are purely aesthetic but nonetheless desired. There are hundreds of variations, and Valve adds a minimum of twenty of them every other month.
It has grown into a vast collection, with players willing to offer up to $400 for just one. That means that CS:GO gamers can easily have items worth thousands of dollars on their account. It’s a remarkable feat that Valve achieved, and that’s just from one game. However, when it becomes an actual profitable business, it turns into a target for hackers. One could gain a good chunk of money from hijacking accounts and selling its items to a third party.
No one is safe
And, in consequence, there are around 77,000 Steam accounts hacked every month, drained of their money and expensive items. According to Valve, these are not “new or naive users”. They are veterans to Steam, be it professional players, Reddit contributors, or item traders. Whether they are cherry picked individually or selected as a whole group, “all Steam accounts are now targets”.
Thus, the need for better security to protect their clients’ inventory. Valve introduced a new trading system that would hopefully cut hackers at the source or at least give users more time to report their stolen items.
Steam Guard Mobile
Every user will now need to have Steam Guard Mobile activated on their account for at least a week, with trade confirmations turned on if they want instant trades. If not, they will have to wait 3 days before the transaction is completed. If you have their new feature enabled though, everything will happen as quickly as ever.
The only exception is between longtime friends. If the accounts have been friends for at least one year, then the users will have to wait just 1 day before the transaction is complete, even without Steam Guard Mobile. This will confirm that the users have known each other for a while, and all trades are legit. That is why all should also be wary about accepting friend invitations from just anyone.
According to Valve, they understand that the added steps will cause frustration among users. They are aware that it makes it more difficult to use their products. However, it’s a necessary step for avoiding hijacked accounts, and enhance user protection.
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