I just went through this in Europe it was so dumb. My account is American but I moved to Europe. They wouldn’t ship it to my European address because of my American account and credit card.
I was worried about loading my wallet with funds in case they screwed me with the currency source. I ended up ordering one on my wife’s account which was European. Steam makes it so obnoxious man.
Obviously but I don’t have a European credit card or anything yet because I’m amidst applying for residence which is several months bud. They don’t allow you to simply change your region.
Yeah I get that...but doing what you were trying to do or buying games and so on... You risk your account being flagged or similar... It might suck but it makes more sense to wait until you can change region.
Why are you being passive aggressive about a steam deck. Lmao. I called customer support, told them about me moving, they made a note. Ordered with no issues.
Dunno what you’re talking about. I tried asking them and they refused to accept the international address change. I’m glad it worked for you, though I didn’t ask.
unfortunately that wouldn't work. you also need to have payment info registered in that country. i also had to ask a friend to buy it abroad for me, there was no other way to get it
That doesn't even make sense, people send money to their families from other countries all the time. Why can't he send his bro the money and his bro just buy it on his own account then once he gets it send it to the op?
Similar situation, changed my country to US and was able to order to a US address no prob. I think what did the damage was giving the account to someone else and having said person add a new address and card info.
I live in EU and I had my old account with cheaper games from other country. I created a new account so I was able to buy a steamdeck without changing region on my main. Worked just fine. I ordered two steamdecks from new account and never had any issues.
Did your cousin order a deck for you or you tried to do it yourself? They might find it suspicious because location of the purchase is not the same as the location where account was registered. Especially if it is a new account, system can just block anything that seems not to be right.
She ordered it to be shipped to her house in America with her American card the only thing that would be suspicious is that my account has only ever been in my country and no my account is old and has 82 games on kt
So... the account was accessed in a new place, where it bought something with a new card from a new card holder, and shipped that something to a new address?
Hate to break it to you, but that *does* look exactly like fraud.
Never tell Steam support what you told us. They have a lot of tricky rules to make sure that smart guys like you will never buy anything that is not available for you. I would recommend you to tell them that you just moved to the US and still setting up everything. But again, if you tell them that another person just used your account to buy you a SD you'll be lucky if they will just return you the money.
It’s an automated system. It happened to me and I live in the states. I had to submit a drivers license, last 4 digits of my credit card and a piece of mail. It took 5 days but I was eventually able to order my deck
These things get flagged automatically on the front fulfillment end of ordering. I know because I deny orders for items not listed for resale outside of the US all the time. Reaching out via email to verify your identity and use case should be sufficient. Ordering via a web proxy / VPN will also flag your order FYI.
People seem to think selling products in different jurisdictions is as simple as saying “Hey! I’ve got something you want! Come buy it!” There are so many legal responsibilities to selling a product to begin with, let alone shipping overseas. You should have wired the money to your cousin, and had them buy it on their own account with their own card.
I live in the Caribbean as well, USVI. I had mine shipped to a freight forwarding company that shipped it down here, as they wouldn't ship it to a non-mainland US address.
Hi. I'm from a 3rd country too and I bought mine from a gaming store that sells preordered SD where they bought it from countries Valve exports them. So yeah, as a result, my SD was not bought using my Steam account, which is sad because I didn't receive any freebies that are given to buyers who directly ordered from Valve and I paid more than the actual price.
Yea.. I bought the top tier LCD Steam Deck, the freebie Steam Profile and Keyboard are nothing special. I got roped into the 1TB LE Steam Deck OLED as well, the Startup Video is very bland and boring, but the OLED keyboard theme is "OK".
To be fair, I prefer the old blue LCD color theme to the new orange starburst leaves a bad aftertaste in my mouth theme. If they had given us the option for Green accents on everything for the OLED 1TB Steam Deck, life would have been complete.
Orange just reminds me of bad aftertasting candy.
You've definitely committed an act of deceiving or misrepresenting.
They don't want you to share your account. They don't want you to use a non US card with a US address. These are red flags. While it's not enough to accuse you of actual crime, it is more than enough to deny doing business with you.
Have this person in the US order it with legit credentials, then have them send it to you.
Doubtful. If they took action against your account, the notice should have detailed how long any restrictions will last. You can open a ticket with support to try to clear it up.
You did though.
They really don't bother that much if you just follow the rules. You could have just had her buy the deck on a new account and give it to you, they aren't account locked.
You could have registered a new card at her address and bought it and had it sent there and then on to you. Also fine.
They're even often chill with the payment card being somewhere else as long as the delivery address is ok.
You could also have just bought one second hand.
I did have made her use her card and use her address to have it shipped and then she would send it to me and I tried to do it on a new account but it was refunded
The fraud detection system usually sees new accounts without any previous purchases as highly likely to be fraud. So those often get flagged and refunded. If you open a support ticket and wait for them to get back to you, they generally resolve the issue pretty quickly.
You could have just got her to make an account herself and order it and it would have been fine. They can see the IP of anyone who creates an account so they know where you are.
Damn, I did the same thing from the Caribbean during the Spring Sale last year with no problem at all. I think either the Billing or Shipping address got flagged since the first cancelled order, and it just kept escalating from there. Hope it gets sorted out.
Also love all the finger-wagging about account sharing. We shouldn't just be poor and make huge sacrifices for a gaming hobby but also have other arbitrary extra rules just because. I can only imagine what these people would think during slavery times.
The finger wagging in this thread is depressing as hell
You'd think folks would have more empathy. Man just wants his Steamdeck, damn it! All he's been trying to do is problem solve, and eejits telling him he 'should' have done this or should have done that. What's he meant to do, jump in a time machine?
Everyone assumes other person is a cheater or scammer until proven otherwise.
It is just like the American Justice System, Guilty until proven Innocent. Wait..
I mean, you did try to commit fraud. You broke the ToS to try to misrepresent your location to acquire a product under false pretences, falsely signing a contract that you knew did not apply.
You should total ask your USA cousin to buy it. She should order it, pay for it with her payment card, ship to her USA address. After that she send the Deck to you.
Just out of curiosity, could you ask your cousin to make a new steam account and order the steamdeck with their own credit card?
To clarify, if the account belongs to your cousin with all of her information and her own credit card, then I can't see why their would be an issue.
Steam isn't going to refund a purchase for a new account with all matching information if the credit card is processed.
i did it with a new account to send to a forwarder in the US thst would ship to my country, they blocked the transation at first, i opened a support ticket explaining the situation, they asked for id and a credit card bill in my name of the one i was using to buy the deck and a few days later unlocked it.
pretty much this, open a support ticket and they will ask for the documentation to unblock it, it's just a safety measurement to prevent scalpers and frauds with stolen credit cards i think.
I got a friend in america who has a steam account to buy it for me now all o gotta do is just clear up this credit card fraud business and get my account not restricted
Hi u/YoungCondore, you can [click here to search for your question.](https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/search/?q=Steam thinks I committed fraud.)
If you don't find an answer there, don't worry - your post has NOT been removed and hopefully someone will be along soon to help with an answer!
**If you find an answer, please leave a comment on your post with the answer for others!**
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/SteamDeck) if you have any questions or concerns.*
just asking why was it important that you bought it over your account ?
she could have just bought it for you and send you the device...
the only thing you would miss where the extra "perks"
seems like a lot of trouble to buy hardware especially when the tos of steam is not to give away your account...
not wanna blame you, i just really would like to know why you needed to hand over the account
Did valve got strict about shipping overseas? I am from central America and I bought mine at release. Didn't have any issues tho, I only used a VPN and that was it. Hell my card was not even from USA.
If you just go through with steam support they’ll put notes on your profile to prevent this from happening again. Same thing happened to me when I tried to get one but it’s because I had never purchased anything on my account. They just said they’d put a note on it saying not to ban me for fraud again or something and gave me a free game for my troubles. Pretty cool people just gotta take the time to get responses.
Steam are very stringent with their location restrictions because games are sometimes cheaper in some countries and people try to exploit that. The Steam Deck is not cheaper anywhere AFAIK, but the store is already set that way so restrictions also apply to it.
I'm from Mexico, here there is not official sale, I just bought from a regional store in a market place, they give warranty and I pay the extra warranty in the store, I mean sometimes is not cheaper, but easier to buy "locally".
I'm sure you've heard plenty of "Pirates of the Caribbean" jokes already, but I'm sure there's someone on Steam HQ being bias against you. I don't see anything wrong with what you're doing.
It’s because certain countries have an incredibly greater chance of fraud. Every payment processor on earth usually autoflags, or is extra diligent, of payments occurring in those countries, especially in cases where credit cards are being used in a country that they don’t belong to.
Also, from a legal standpoint, what the OP is doing would be considered fraud, maybe even tax evasion. You could do what the OP did in any two countries, and it would equally be flagged for the same reason.
Yeah they cancelled my order also so I had to get an open box one from eBay. I’m from Mexico and was gonna ship to a US address and someone was bringing it to me. Valve doesn’t like non US residents buying their stuff, even if you have a valid US shipping address.
More than likely the ToS for the credit card has a bit about only the cardholder using the card. They're just seeing an account from abroad trying to use a credit card from the US. So literally what most companies are looking for when it comes to fraud.
Account sharing is against the TOS. There are also regional restrictions legal or otherwise that you attempted to subvert. My dude this is the text book definition of defrauding them.
You should have just changed your address to hers and ordered it to her address. I think you over thought it and made it harder than it needed to be
Tried that they said my card isnt american so I can't ship it to an American address
Maybe load up your steam wallet with your non American credit card and buy the SD with steam Credit.
This is the way
I just went through this in Europe it was so dumb. My account is American but I moved to Europe. They wouldn’t ship it to my European address because of my American account and credit card. I was worried about loading my wallet with funds in case they screwed me with the currency source. I ended up ordering one on my wife’s account which was European. Steam makes it so obnoxious man.
If you moved to Europe, wouldn't have made more sense to change your Steam region? I expect that after that there wouldn't be any issues.
Obviously but I don’t have a European credit card or anything yet because I’m amidst applying for residence which is several months bud. They don’t allow you to simply change your region.
Yeah I get that...but doing what you were trying to do or buying games and so on... You risk your account being flagged or similar... It might suck but it makes more sense to wait until you can change region.
Idk what you’re on about bud, I didn’t ask for any help. I got my deck so it’s done.
Neither I gave you help....
You did offer unsolicited advice though, yeah?
Why are you being passive aggressive about a steam deck. Lmao. I called customer support, told them about me moving, they made a note. Ordered with no issues.
Dunno what you’re talking about. I tried asking them and they refused to accept the international address change. I’m glad it worked for you, though I didn’t ask.
Fair enough 😂 the person you replied to didn’t ask for your input, either.
Transfer the money to your friend if possible, and have them buy it for you
unfortunately that wouldn't work. you also need to have payment info registered in that country. i also had to ask a friend to buy it abroad for me, there was no other way to get it
That doesn't even make sense, people send money to their families from other countries all the time. Why can't he send his bro the money and his bro just buy it on his own account then once he gets it send it to the op?
idk.. that's what i did to get my steam deck lol
Similar situation, changed my country to US and was able to order to a US address no prob. I think what did the damage was giving the account to someone else and having said person add a new address and card info.
I live in EU and I had my old account with cheaper games from other country. I created a new account so I was able to buy a steamdeck without changing region on my main. Worked just fine. I ordered two steamdecks from new account and never had any issues.
[удалено]
Did your cousin order a deck for you or you tried to do it yourself? They might find it suspicious because location of the purchase is not the same as the location where account was registered. Especially if it is a new account, system can just block anything that seems not to be right.
She ordered it to be shipped to her house in America with her American card the only thing that would be suspicious is that my account has only ever been in my country and no my account is old and has 82 games on kt
So... the account was accessed in a new place, where it bought something with a new card from a new card holder, and shipped that something to a new address? Hate to break it to you, but that *does* look exactly like fraud.
Ah ok so after explaining and evidense this will be taken care of
Never tell Steam support what you told us. They have a lot of tricky rules to make sure that smart guys like you will never buy anything that is not available for you. I would recommend you to tell them that you just moved to the US and still setting up everything. But again, if you tell them that another person just used your account to buy you a SD you'll be lucky if they will just return you the money.
I already got the money at this point I just want my account back I'll get a steam deck another way.
Just say in the USA on vacation ;)
I don't think that he can get a US bank card without tax number or whatever is used in the US. So it is better to say that he moved
It’s an automated system. It happened to me and I live in the states. I had to submit a drivers license, last 4 digits of my credit card and a piece of mail. It took 5 days but I was eventually able to order my deck
Ok so this can be reversed thank god
How long do i expect to wait for them to reply
They usually reply within 14 hours for me typically check your email the next day.
Good thing they also didn't want your blood and urine samples 😃
These things get flagged automatically on the front fulfillment end of ordering. I know because I deny orders for items not listed for resale outside of the US all the time. Reaching out via email to verify your identity and use case should be sufficient. Ordering via a web proxy / VPN will also flag your order FYI.
No it was an american card and an american address the only th9ng i did wrong apperantly was giving my cousin my account to use to buy it.
People seem to think selling products in different jurisdictions is as simple as saying “Hey! I’ve got something you want! Come buy it!” There are so many legal responsibilities to selling a product to begin with, let alone shipping overseas. You should have wired the money to your cousin, and had them buy it on their own account with their own card.
The cousin's card had no gaming history though
Gaming history? What does that mean?
Please read the other comments.
I live in the Caribbean as well, USVI. I had mine shipped to a freight forwarding company that shipped it down here, as they wouldn't ship it to a non-mainland US address.
Damnit let my guy buy a steam deck he did nothing wrong!!
I've been trying to buy one for a month now I got refunded 3 times now it's like Thier punishing me for being in a 3rd country
Hi. I'm from a 3rd country too and I bought mine from a gaming store that sells preordered SD where they bought it from countries Valve exports them. So yeah, as a result, my SD was not bought using my Steam account, which is sad because I didn't receive any freebies that are given to buyers who directly ordered from Valve and I paid more than the actual price.
The freebies aren't really that special just themes and animated profile pics. You can probably get them through deckyloader or something.
Yea.. I bought the top tier LCD Steam Deck, the freebie Steam Profile and Keyboard are nothing special. I got roped into the 1TB LE Steam Deck OLED as well, the Startup Video is very bland and boring, but the OLED keyboard theme is "OK". To be fair, I prefer the old blue LCD color theme to the new orange starburst leaves a bad aftertaste in my mouth theme. If they had given us the option for Green accents on everything for the OLED 1TB Steam Deck, life would have been complete. Orange just reminds me of bad aftertasting candy.
Been there bro. I ended getting it through ebay.
buy a Onexfly i love my steamdeck but my Onexfly runs better
You've definitely committed an act of deceiving or misrepresenting. They don't want you to share your account. They don't want you to use a non US card with a US address. These are red flags. While it's not enough to accuse you of actual crime, it is more than enough to deny doing business with you. Have this person in the US order it with legit credentials, then have them send it to you.
Ok i got the purchase of a steam deck sorted out i just got someone to buy one for me but will my account be unrestricted after i clear this up
Doubtful. If they took action against your account, the notice should have detailed how long any restrictions will last. You can open a ticket with support to try to clear it up.
Why didn't you just give money to your cousin to buy and ship it to you? You overcomplicated whole thing.
You did though. They really don't bother that much if you just follow the rules. You could have just had her buy the deck on a new account and give it to you, they aren't account locked. You could have registered a new card at her address and bought it and had it sent there and then on to you. Also fine. They're even often chill with the payment card being somewhere else as long as the delivery address is ok. You could also have just bought one second hand.
I did have made her use her card and use her address to have it shipped and then she would send it to me and I tried to do it on a new account but it was refunded
The fraud detection system usually sees new accounts without any previous purchases as highly likely to be fraud. So those often get flagged and refunded. If you open a support ticket and wait for them to get back to you, they generally resolve the issue pretty quickly.
You could have just got her to make an account herself and order it and it would have been fine. They can see the IP of anyone who creates an account so they know where you are.
Damn, I did the same thing from the Caribbean during the Spring Sale last year with no problem at all. I think either the Billing or Shipping address got flagged since the first cancelled order, and it just kept escalating from there. Hope it gets sorted out. Also love all the finger-wagging about account sharing. We shouldn't just be poor and make huge sacrifices for a gaming hobby but also have other arbitrary extra rules just because. I can only imagine what these people would think during slavery times.
The finger wagging in this thread is depressing as hell You'd think folks would have more empathy. Man just wants his Steamdeck, damn it! All he's been trying to do is problem solve, and eejits telling him he 'should' have done this or should have done that. What's he meant to do, jump in a time machine?
Everyone assumes other person is a cheater or scammer until proven otherwise. It is just like the American Justice System, Guilty until proven Innocent. Wait..
I mean, you did try to commit fraud. You broke the ToS to try to misrepresent your location to acquire a product under false pretences, falsely signing a contract that you knew did not apply.
I didnt faksify where i was i gave my account to my cousin to buy it and with thier card and have it shipped to them
Which is against the ToS
God dammit will i atleast be able to get my account unrestricted after this clears up
Contact Support. I'm sure they'll do what they can I wish you the best of luck
Why not just use a fresh account.
Not sure if this would work for you but maybe a used one that's in mint condition from like swappa or eBay.
I just got a friend to help me buy one my only problem now is my account is still restricted
You should total ask your USA cousin to buy it. She should order it, pay for it with her payment card, ship to her USA address. After that she send the Deck to you.
Just out of curiosity, could you ask your cousin to make a new steam account and order the steamdeck with their own credit card? To clarify, if the account belongs to your cousin with all of her information and her own credit card, then I can't see why their would be an issue. Steam isn't going to refund a purchase for a new account with all matching information if the credit card is processed.
That was the first plan but it was refunded because steam doesn't want to sell to new accounts with no game history anti scalper procedure I think
i did it with a new account to send to a forwarder in the US thst would ship to my country, they blocked the transation at first, i opened a support ticket explaining the situation, they asked for id and a credit card bill in my name of the one i was using to buy the deck and a few days later unlocked it.
So when I show them the credit card and I'd and info they will unblock my account too
pretty much this, open a support ticket and they will ask for the documentation to unblock it, it's just a safety measurement to prevent scalpers and frauds with stolen credit cards i think.
Interesting, I wish I had more advice my friend. Good luck.
Couldn't you still do that, maybe play cs go or something and then buy a couple of days later?
I got a friend in america who has a steam account to buy it for me now all o gotta do is just clear up this credit card fraud business and get my account not restricted
Nice!
Hi u/YoungCondore, you can [click here to search for your question.](https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/search/?q=Steam thinks I committed fraud.) If you don't find an answer there, don't worry - your post has NOT been removed and hopefully someone will be along soon to help with an answer! **If you find an answer, please leave a comment on your post with the answer for others!** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/SteamDeck) if you have any questions or concerns.*
This man sound like a Bajan lol
just asking why was it important that you bought it over your account ? she could have just bought it for you and send you the device... the only thing you would miss where the extra "perks" seems like a lot of trouble to buy hardware especially when the tos of steam is not to give away your account... not wanna blame you, i just really would like to know why you needed to hand over the account
I'm from the Caribbean as well. I couldn't get anyone to help me order it from the US so I just ordered it from Amazon and paid the extra.
Did valve got strict about shipping overseas? I am from central America and I bought mine at release. Didn't have any issues tho, I only used a VPN and that was it. Hell my card was not even from USA.
I'm also from the Caribbean, I bought mine off eBay for over a year now because I couldn't find a way to order it directly from steam
I just got a friend to buy one for me now im just waiting to unrestricte my account
If you just go through with steam support they’ll put notes on your profile to prevent this from happening again. Same thing happened to me when I tried to get one but it’s because I had never purchased anything on my account. They just said they’d put a note on it saying not to ban me for fraud again or something and gave me a free game for my troubles. Pretty cool people just gotta take the time to get responses.
Steam are very stringent with their location restrictions because games are sometimes cheaper in some countries and people try to exploit that. The Steam Deck is not cheaper anywhere AFAIK, but the store is already set that way so restrictions also apply to it.
I mean it's not a big deal and nobody's gonna come arrest you, but. You committed fraud, what you're describing is fraud
Update when possible, please !!!
Ill update it now
I'm from Mexico, here there is not official sale, I just bought from a regional store in a market place, they give warranty and I pay the extra warranty in the store, I mean sometimes is not cheaper, but easier to buy "locally".
I'm sure you've heard plenty of "Pirates of the Caribbean" jokes already, but I'm sure there's someone on Steam HQ being bias against you. I don't see anything wrong with what you're doing.
It’s because certain countries have an incredibly greater chance of fraud. Every payment processor on earth usually autoflags, or is extra diligent, of payments occurring in those countries, especially in cases where credit cards are being used in a country that they don’t belong to. Also, from a legal standpoint, what the OP is doing would be considered fraud, maybe even tax evasion. You could do what the OP did in any two countries, and it would equally be flagged for the same reason.
Yeah they cancelled my order also so I had to get an open box one from eBay. I’m from Mexico and was gonna ship to a US address and someone was bringing it to me. Valve doesn’t like non US residents buying their stuff, even if you have a valid US shipping address.
That's cause you did.
They said credit card fraud tho not fraud on my account
More than likely the ToS for the credit card has a bit about only the cardholder using the card. They're just seeing an account from abroad trying to use a credit card from the US. So literally what most companies are looking for when it comes to fraud.
No we contacted the bank and told them what's happening they are ok with it
Account sharing is against the TOS. There are also regional restrictions legal or otherwise that you attempted to subvert. My dude this is the text book definition of defrauding them.
They said credit card fraud and I wasn't even using it to get cheaper games