WishlistSteam key scam checker
Got an email asking for Steam keys? Paste it below, or just the sender's address and the channel they claim. We check whether the channel exists, whether the sender's domain fits who they say they are, and the usual red flags, then tell you if it's likely genuine, worth a manual check, or likely a scam. The reasons are always shown.
Your whole Steam page scored out of 100 across 7 categories, with the top 3 fixes and a rewritten short description, emailed to you.
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See the Deep Audit →Why Steam key scams target indie devs
A Steam key is worth real money on grey-market key sites. Scammers email small studios pretending to be YouTubers, streamers, curators or journalists, collect a handful of keys, and resell them. You lose sales, and you get nothing back: no video, no stream, no review. The bigger the name they pretend to be, the more keys they ask for.
What the checker looks at
- The sender's domain. If the email claims to come from an outlet like IGN or PC Gamer, the address should be at that outlet's domain. A free Gmail or Outlook address, or a lookalike domain, is a clear red flag.
- The channel. Does the YouTube or Twitch channel they link to actually exist? Where we can, we also check its size and age. A channel created last month, or one with a few dozen subscribers claiming a big audience, doesn't add up.
- The channel's business email. Real creators list a business contact. If the channel lists a different address from the one that emailed you, someone may be impersonating them.
- Mass-template wording. "Dear developer", no mention of your game by name, a big subscriber number in the first line, and requests for five or ten keys "for my team" are classic signs of a copy-paste request.
How the verdict works
We're deliberately cautious. Check manually is the default, because most requests can't be proven either way from an email alone. Likely scam only appears when two or more clear red flags show up together, such as a free email address claiming a big outlet and a channel that doesn't exist. Likely genuine needs something positive we could verify, such as the sender's address matching the outlet's domain or the channel's listed business email.
Scammers often pretend to be real creators, so a "Likely scam" result is about the email you received, not about the creator it names. Results are private to you, and we never store the email you paste.
How to check a key request yourself
- Open the channel from a search, not from the link in the email, and check its recent videos have real views and comments.
- Find the business email on the channel's own About page and reply there to confirm the request.
- Send one key, for the platform they actually cover. Real reviewers rarely need more.
- Use a key distribution platform such as Keymailer, Lurkit or Woovit for creator outreach. They verify creators and track who used each key.