It is said that if you already own the game at the key is valid it will say duped, and if it's not you'll get a not-valid message.
I do not really know if this works though.
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Nah, it will say you already own the product and show the install window. Duped would only appear for a game you don't own when the key is valid but already activated.
The invalid product key only appears when the key is non valid.
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There's no way to check them, unless you got all the game from Steam. :-D
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Easily exploitable.
All you'd need to do is use a computer system to check strings of characters changing characters each time until you hit on a valid and not owned key and then activate the keys. At the minute, Steam 'locks' you out after trying 5 invalid keys and anything you try for the next hour (I think) is invalid (even if it actually is valid). So your computer system could only check 5 possible keys an hour. I guess there is also a security system such that if you are constantly trying keys on your account you'll get a ban or something.
If Valve implemented this, they would have to limit the number of keys you could check per hour or w/e. Only way to do this would be to employ a crowd of people at Valve and have them answer an endless river of support tickets from people asking to have their keys manually checked at Valve's end. That automatically limits itself in the response time of a human being so not as exploitable as an automated system...
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You can do the same for the checking - locks you after 5 invalid or 10 invalid tries.
You wouldn't try that many codes in one day normally, would you?
EDIT: plus you know how much time it would take to get a valid string of 12 characters? XXXX-XXXX-XXXX
There is milions of possibilities and with a few invalid ones per day - it's impossible to exploit it
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Nothing's impossible to exploit. And considering Steam accounts are free, an exploiter could just create a new account to bypass the "check code" lockout as proposed. High-end key checkers/exploiters would go so far to buy a $1 game for account unlock if the check was added for only paying accounts. $1 fee to check the validity of 5-10 $60 games? That's a no-brainer. Similar to why gold spambots buy legitimate copies of, say, Guild Wars 2 j to spam for ~5min before they get permabanned. As long as there's viable profit, it'll happen.
And time is never a factor. Scripting a macro to run keys on, say, a Windows 7 rig set to run 4 instances of Steam each on their own core and compensate for the "activation lag" that would likely be added as a second deterrent (I honestly believe the hang that happens during key activation on Steam is a "feature") would take all of 10 minutes (and that's considering coding error-checking, cleanup, network error compensation, and freeze reboot features). Throwaway account creation macros and even services already exist and could feed said macro with fresh accounts as it runs. After that just add in a random alphanum generator or get someone to crack a game's key cipher and you've got countless valid, checked keys until the dev/pub change the key cipher.
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Not if it's a game that's been released since he received his Steam complete pack. o_O
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Seriously? o_O
How many gingers did he have to sacrifice to win this competition? (I wasn't an active Steam user last year)
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look through your friends to see if any ALREADY have the one you are trying, and they could test it with no penalty
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"You already have this game" trumps "Duplicate activation".
If you already have the game, it doesn't bother checking to see if the key has been used.
If you didn't already have the game, and the key has been used, it tells you.
If you didn't already have the game, and the key has not been used, it has now been used by you and you have the game.
There is NO WAY to test keys. There will NEVER be a way to test keys. THIS IS INTENTIONAL.
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Nope, other way around. Will say you already have the game whether the key has been used or not.
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You could only have tested 5 keys max,after that all the keys are invalid.
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Unfortunately there is no way to check whether they has already been used or not. Suggestions as "if you have that game try it" won't help. The game will be reported as already owned and that won't tell you whether they has been used or not.
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ahh, I suppose yes, else the user with the game could be testing generated keys in an attempt to find valid ones.
good point.
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Any time I grab a key from chat that I already have, it tells me I already have that game, and takes me to the "install game" window. If its invalid, it will tell you its invalid.
it the key is already taken, it will say that as well. "Key already redeemed" or something along those lines.
You can sort of check it, just not officially.
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Only way to test a Steam key is to add it on a account without that game. And of course, the key will have been used then. You could either make a giveaway and face the possibility that the giftee won't get the game, or just drop them in the forums to be ninjaed. You could also just give them around to your friends.
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i dont think there's any proper way of testing those steam keys besides adding them to an account.
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I have a few steam keys in txt file. I have name of the game and key, but i don't know are those keys are correct. Is there any way to check this out? I want to make some giveaways.
PS. sorry for my English
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