Hey,
I made some giveaways for Humble Bundle games via gift link. The winners reported to me that the keys were already redeemed. As that can't be correct I contacted Humble Bundle support. This is the answer I got:

Hi there,

Thanks for getting back in touch and providing that information to me!

Unfortunately, based on the information you have provided, it has become apparent you are an active key trader/reseller. Please be aware that purchases made through Humble Bundle are meant for personal use only. We do not support the exchanging of Steam keys or the trading of games. Additionally, we in no way support the trading or reselling of games purchased through Humble Bundle as this is a violation of our Terms of Service.

It should be noted that both trading and reselling keys on the “grey market” affects the industry’s ability to flourish and support our awesome developers and marketplaces like Humble Bundle, as noted in this article here. While the practice of reselling damages trust from developers, it should also be noted that a majority of resold/obtained games in this arena are purchased with stolen personal information. Ultimately, this practice negatively impacts the developers, Humble Bundle, and gamers all at once when these titles are found to be fraudulent purchases.

We highly recommend against this practice for a number of reasons and have explained in detail why this practice is dangerous for all involved in a blog post.

At this time, we will not be able to reset your keys or assist with any future requests for key resets.


What's the point in creating a GIFT-link if I'm not allowed to gift it.
Humble Bundle doesn't allow Giveaways?
Or what's the problem here?

thanks for reading

6 years ago

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What's the point in creating a GIFT-link if I'm not allowed to gift it.

Tell them that.

6 years ago
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6 years ago
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I guess so you can gift them to family and friends, not random people you see on the street.

6 years ago
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Luckily for us, we're not in the streets :P

6 years ago
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Come on, I bought the game, I give to whoever I want.

6 years ago
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who you gift a key to is your business - irrespective of what they say; in Europe at any rate what you do with your keys is your business - I would suggest that you make a claim against them with whoever you purchased the keys with (paypal for instance) and inform them that you are well within your rights to purchase a product and pass that product onto whomever you so wish - if this were not the case, then none of us would be able to buy gifts for people at Christmas now would we ?? At least in the eyes of humble at any rate
This is their stock response at any rate, and in Europe is against consumer laws - as far as I am aware

6 years ago
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Filing a claim through Paypal will ultimately lead to Humble banning the account which may well then result in you losing access to everything you've bought.

6 years ago
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so get all your keys off first :) - and then get a new account - no need to have your steam attached to humble these days - and if they have a longstanding problem that they know about - which most people indicate they do in threads here - then they are commiting a fraud through their own negligence (which should never be accepted)

6 years ago
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People have more than keys there. Music, comics/books, drm free games etc.

6 years ago
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and so they should accept that Humble are ignoring an known issue with their key gifting system then? - well, I know I wouldn't - but that is their choice I guess - I merely provided another option that they are free to take - I am not forcing them to do it :) - also, so do I - but I have downloaded everything :) if you haven't then you are clearly more trusting than me - if you have a better idea for this issue then feel free to jump in with your suggestions :)

6 years ago
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I might add that "losing everything you've bought" is also against the law, at least in europe, unless you're refunded.

6 years ago
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yeah - the closure of accounts is a whole level of mess when purchased goods are on file - even steam has issues when banning people in the EU and has to enact methods to access existing purchases even if they cannot use steam to purchase more goods and services - well at least before they finally find the loophole and confiscate your account for fraud or something like that :)

6 years ago
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haha yeah.
I've had a problem with steam before, where I received a superduper-game-key from the developer of a game I've beta-tested (which included all current and future content for that game), but I already had that game, pre-purchased by myself from the steam store many months before release and before I was asked to be part of the testing team, and the developer itself did whatever he could to make Valve change my game from "normal" to that full-version and they couldn't. I even wrote my consent to remove (or move it to my brother's account, with which I share the same credit card) my current key so that I could redeem that new one, but because of european laws about credit cards, they couldn't (but imo, they simply didn't want to because that could have led them to face possible problems in the future), and so I ended up redeeming it on my brother's account.
If they can't even do something little like that with the purchaser's consent, I'm pretty sure they will never completely close anyone's account, unless, as you said, it's for something really bad, like terrorism or other crimes.

6 years ago
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I think there's some point here where if you buy something as a 'bundle', then you own it as a 'bundle', and perhaps these individual keys wouldn't be yours to resell.

e.g. Buying the bundle for $12 and selling it to someone else for $20 -- they can say what they want in their ToS, but if someone contested them on this, they'd lose. However, buying some bundle for $12, and giving away or selling part A, B, C, D, E as separate units, may not be so kosher. Maybe makes some of their ToS hold a bit more water, dunno.

EU law for individual keys at least is clear cut:

https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2012-07/cp120094en.pdf (not to be confused with some later rulings, where people claimed they were within their rights to sell entire steam accts etc)

US law, I don't know as much about.

6 years ago
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as far as I am aware, when you purchase something in europe you are covered and free to do with it as you wish - it is yours at the point of purchase - irrespective of if it were in a bundle or not - now if I were a reseller, then perhaps we could go down the argument of the multipack of coke being sold as an individual can by a corner shop being somewhat problematic - but this is not coke and semantics is a mess at best that leads to a dead end - the courts have decided that I have the right to sell on a product - especially a product that I have yet to use in any form and have not even redeemed it myself :) -- this whole argument from humble is against EU law in its broadest sense (but in america I believe they are free to get shafted by humble like this :) - according to some courts

6 years ago
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They asume giving it away here is making "business" with their keys, I think. At least Is what I remember from a similar thread long ago. I think they think you are reselling them.

6 years ago
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Send them an email to explain that I'm not a reseller. Let's see what they will do.

6 years ago
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A lot of people have had this problem (myself included). They have some kind of problem with gift links, but they don't want to acknowledge it for whatever reason (it's been like this for years already). So, don't generate gift links until the last moment, when you're going to send them. If you generate a link and try to use it after a few days, chances are that the link will be already used (if it's because someone actually got access to the link somehow, or because of a bug in their system that incorrectly marks gift links as used, I don't know).

6 years ago
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Correct. This is also what i do to get around Humble's gifting "bug"

6 years ago
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I recall someone contacting Humble regarding this security issue (gift link urls can be discovered by brute force) and them calling that person a reseller and not addressing the problem at all, just ignoring him.

It's the same for "download" links (the one you receive when you claim a gift link, https://www.humblebundle.com/downloads?key=blablabla), they can be found by brute force. It's really stupid because when you claim a gift link the game should be linked to your Humble account (they force you to verify the gift claimed via e-mail), and the "download" link containing the Steam key should be only visible to you when you're logged with your account (the account that claimed the gift link).

Apparently, Humble does not like active key traders/resellers but they don't care about people hacking (cracking?) into our accounts.

6 years ago
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This is almost certainly what's going on. They now require a password that's send along with the humble gift link. Hopefully that closes this vulnerability.

6 years ago
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Great advice oginer. I've had the same problem in the past. If the links are over a day old then they end up being used. I don't know why. There's either a vulnerability here or at Humble Bundle.

These days I either make giveaways super short (an hour) or I only generate the gift links when a winner has been chosen.

6 years ago
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I think you should tell them you gift a game to your friend.

but, it's too late i guess

6 years ago
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they don't get how this site works, so they assume you're trading them.

6 years ago
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+1

6 years ago
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6 years ago
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I never use gift links myself - I just reveal the key and send the key. I've given away dozens of games off humble and never had an issue.

I don't actually get why people would add in this extra step and generate gift links. Why not just send the key?

6 years ago
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+1

6 years ago
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+1

6 years ago
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I almost always just do the code, though I've sometimes wished I did a gift link because HB keys constantly "bug out" which ones have been activated? I'll often have to reclick on the code a few times/refresh before it disappears from the "not redeemed" keys area. And even then a year later it'll sometimes randomly tell me to reveal the code when I know I've given it away before. Where when you gift them there's no confusion, it's always shown as sent. I hope that made sense.

I guess the alternative is writing down which keys I've given away, especially when it's to friends off Steamgifts. Instead I've just given them away on the leftover keys thread or to a friend on the off chance it works, but feel like I'm disappointing them if it's already used. ;_;

6 years ago
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It bugs out with gift links as well. To make sure, don't use the "Hide Redeemed Keys" feature, check the bundles themselves.

6 years ago
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Oh really? I guess I just got lucky with the handful I did as gift links. I'll try checking out the bundles, thanks for the tip. :)

6 years ago
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That I can see happening, and I understand why you'd want a layer of certainty. My only method to help with this is just giving things away immediately and not waiting (I love me my flash GAs for this reason). I don't hve keys floating around because either I give it away immediately or redeem it immediately.

6 years ago
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It helps me keep track of the games on there. I gift link anything that's a gift, and reveal anything that's for me.

There's no extra step, either. It's either click button A or button B - the amount of effort required is the same.

6 years ago
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I guess extra step in the fact you then have to email the link to the winner rather than just send it on the site, but that's a good system you have

6 years ago
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You can send the gift link on SG as well where the code usually goes.

6 years ago
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6 years ago
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You could also just keep stuff unrevealed until you need them, whether to activate on your steam account or to give them away.

6 years ago
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the key only provides access to the game on steam. the gift link often also includes drm-free download access and maybe a soundtrack download. i'd rather get a humble gift link than a key, but all the same i'd probably only use the key from it.

6 years ago
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does this still works? like revealing the key instead of using the gift link? i have doubts before for gifting friends lmao

6 years ago
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Yes, it works! Though there's a difference: this is just clicking 'reveal key' and not 'redeem on steam'.

Redeeming on steam puts it directly into your steam account from the humble site, but revealing the key literally just reveals the key to you for you to do what you want with, whether that's redeem it on steam yourself or give it to a friend or put it on steamgifts.

6 years ago
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In the answere from Humble Bundle I found no information about gifting, they only talk about trading and selling. Gifting games should be no problem, otherwise creating giftlinks doesn't make sense at all.

6 years ago
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6 years ago
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that's an interesting idea, jims, really curious if someone has done/will do this.

people here maybe don't know that after the recent changes they made, if they "know", from Steam linked account, you already have that game, the only option left is the dumb Gift Link ("only for personal use"...).

Next step for me is revealing all the keys left in my account, and simply paste them in notepad :D

6 years ago
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How recent are those changes? I've been giving away some of the Care Package games a week ago and I haven't had any trouble with getting the keys, even though I've already had a couple of games in my Steam library.

6 years ago
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i've noted this a few weeks ago (but not more than a month), don't know if they changed it again, tho.

btw, i also revealed keys of games that have on Steam but not detected by Humble. Does those games have the blue check/link? if so, they could have changed it... (i don't want to think it's a per-account system, tho, cause i also got my account flagged, two months ago...)

6 years ago
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Yes, those games were blued and the site asked mi whether I was sure, but after clicking "yes" it revealed the key.

6 years ago
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I also got that question, but "Yes" was greyed out. This should be a good news, so. Thank you Radvvan.

6 years ago
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It hasn't ever been greyed out for me either.

6 years ago
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now i'm really curious... hope somebody else noticed that

6 years ago
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Never used the gift-link because of that risk.

6 years ago
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For a site that started off about charity, they seem really against people being charitable.

6 years ago
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You are wrong read what they said. They are against selling and trading their games. Meaning they are not against being charitable(gifting) the problem is they don't look deep enough at steamgifts to see that it is gifting and not selling/trading

6 years ago
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I agree with this. Whenever I'm trying to get support I've just said I was trying to send it to a friend and I haven't had problems so far. Plus, we're kind of all friends here... Ish? I guess?

6 years ago
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Exactly. Most people talk too much and overexplain things with details that customer service doesn't need to know. Then when their request is rejected, they wonder why. Low level customer service people need to be told as little as possible, because the minute you mention anything outside of what they are trained to understand, it's considerd a violation. They don't know, don't care, and will never grasp what SG is. Any mention of SG will result in it being conflated with selling or trading. Do NOT ever mention SG when asking for support. Every support request should be framed as being a problem with you sending a gift to a friend. Period.

6 years ago
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Every support request should be framed as being a problem with you sending a gift to a friend. Period.

+1

6 years ago
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I have same problem with them. Now I only buy usual bundles from them and all money goes to charity and developers. No tips, no monthlies, no buying from store.

6 years ago
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reveal the key and send it
seems like the most problem-free way

6 years ago
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i believe they thought you traded keys via steamtrades or something. Point them to steamgift website, tell them that you actually gave it away.

But thats not the point, if you have a non redeemed key as a for of link, why would it be a used key in the first place ? i mean u payed for something that you didn't get yet. Tell them that.

6 years ago
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6 years ago
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I always imaged gift links shift the responsibility to ask for new key etc to the gift recipient, making them much better than the extracted key. But if they only cause more hassle with no benefit, not going to use any moire.

6 years ago
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there's a bug on HB that hides recently revealed keys or gifts links making you think that they are unused. are you sure you haven't used those links before?
ps
double refreshing the key section fixes this problem.

Good luck

6 years ago
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Yeah, this is so annoying. It's a known problem for quite a long time now. No idea why they haven't fixed this yet.

6 years ago
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I bought the Bundle just this month and created the gift-links a few days before I made the GA. Also I don't have those games in my steam library.

6 years ago
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Do you use two pass authentication?

6 years ago
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In a recent trade, my trader got into the same issue with gift link already redeemed. Not sure how, but he got some key for me, probably from a different copy.

6 years ago
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6 years ago
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Just so you are aware it doesn't matter if you use keys or if you use links. HB doesn't want you using either of them on SG or Steamtrades.

6 years ago*
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6 years ago
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if you create a gift link when you're ready to trade it, you will probably never have a problem. if someone doesn't use the gift link for a few weeks, maybe it would somehow become used.

6 years ago
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Yeah they're clearly referring to grey market stuff. G2A. That sort of rubbish.

6 years ago
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I remember making a series of giveaways of games I had already bought some time earlier, and it was the same story. In the end I just bit the bullet and bought new keys and sent those as GA prize.

Not saying that you should. Contact them and explain what is the purpose of this website.

6 years ago
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At this point you have to assume they're doing it on purpose. It's a policy decision.
They can't possibly actually not understand what SteamGifts is.

6 years ago
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6 years ago
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those low lvls GAs cause headaches

6 years ago
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It seems to be entirely the fault of the Humble Bundle gift-link system.
Not sure why people always try to throw shade onto people with low levels on here.

6 years ago
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experience. i believe something like 6 out of my first 10 GAs, lvl 0 probably, were unactivated wins. no this doesnt mean all lvl 0 people are terrible people, its just where the majority of the leeches tend to live. excuses for being lvl 0 include "ive got no money to buy games to give away" but youve got $100 in unbundled games to sign up for the site? hmmmm, youve got a computer though? hmmmm, and internet? hmmm, and power? hmm hmm hmm. next excuse, "this site is called steamGIFTS not steamTRADES!", so gimmie gimmie gimmie and nothing for you because you know, why would i? (everyones got that one friend you treat to dinner 100 times but would never consider doing the same)

i mean its cool n all people would give to others who havent or wouldnt give back but i dont believe in that sort of thing, if youve got time to play games youve got time to earn a buck, its as easy as "watching" videos on TG, redeeming a game for free and then sharing it, but that would require a bit of selflessness. id love to hear a dispute against that that made sense. maybe i havent considered something

6 years ago
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Just to be sure: Are you saying you paid for games and they didn't deliver working keys at all?
If so, that sounds like HB is committing theft.

6 years ago
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Gift links can be brute forced, it has happened numerous times before, happened to me too. Lost ~ 20 games that were made into gift links, but all my unrevealed keys were fine, as I found out later. HB support said that my account was probably compromised, which obviously wasn't the case. At least they restored all my games a day later, didn't mention anything about steamgifts to them that time, thankfully.

6 years ago
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So any games that are turned into gift links need to be used right away or have a high risk being stolen?

6 years ago
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Pretty much. Although people should just not make them into gift links in the first place.

6 years ago
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they cant be brute forced, do you know the probability to brute force even just one? they were leaked not brute force

that's like saying steam keys can be brute force, how many steam keys do you think get brute forced per day

6 years ago
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You can try around 240, 10 failed tries gives 1h ban.

6 years ago*
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and they are like what 62^16 possibilities , probably even more since some keys arent 16 characters long

6 years ago
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But you only need to try the working ones, not all, so you save time.

6 years ago
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They can be, nothing prevents you from running through the links, there is no lock down.

6 years ago
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so you think a website would let you run through thousands of links per second? like i said do you have any idea the probability to brute force a 16 alpha numeric code?

6 years ago
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  1. No need to do it from a single IP or device. And I'm fairly sure people have done it to get the lowest BTA in bundles.
  2. No reason to presume they are randomly generated, someone might have just cracked their algorithm or figured how to predict them based on someone's past giftlinks.

It's happened to many people, including myself, so feel free to provide an alternative explanation that would explain why created giftlinks were vulnerable but not revealed nor unrevealed keys.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

6 years ago
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What, are you assuming they're starting from 0 or something?
Heck, just toss in any combination of random characters that seem to align with what the common extension of a gift link url is and good luck man.

6 years ago
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The level of cynicism of HB is extraordinary as well as the contradictions "Neanderthal level" that they make all around trying to defend that they don't actually get "maybe" most of their income from re-sellers/SG givers,etc. That double speech is annoying.

6 years ago
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I just had a situation where some links from ~4 months ago showed redeemed. The purchaser was kind enough to write support to re-issue the links. Humble did. One link was already revealed, but all of them worked. I used them in giveaways, successfully.

I guess it comes down to what you said in the first email. The less, probably the better.
And the key, I believe, is that the buyer has to request the re-issued link, not the traded/trader

6 years ago*
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Sorry, they didnt mention they blocked your giftlinks...

And theyr telling only about reselling, not giving it away to other users....

Probably they guy who won this giveaway just fk u up :D cause u cant check WHO get the game from link, he maybe gave it to friend or activate on alt

6 years ago*
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