“Free $20 Steam codes” offer leads to online surveys

Users of Steam, Valve Corporation’s popular gaming platform, are the targets of a new survey scam that dangles the opportunity to get $20 Steam codes for free in front of them, warns Malwarebytes’ Chris Boyd.

The message that lures them in comes either via Facebook or Twitter, or is posted in comments on Youtube and Steam-themed forums, and the link leads to Steamcode(dot)com.

The site requires the visitor to “reserve” a code and spam out the same message to 15 people in 45 minutes in order to “unlock” and redeem the code:

What the site doesn’t tell you outright is that you will also be asked to complete “two quick surveys” in order to get the code.

Whether you receive the code in the end or not, you will have to part with some of your personal information first, and agree that that information can be shared with marketing partners.

You might not think that your personal information is worth much, but it’s obviously worth something to companies and advertisers, effectively making this transaction a lie: you don’t get the code for free.

As I write this, the site is still up.