--- title: DON'T sell your game for $100! | daily.dev description: A warning to indie game developers about a growing scam where fraudsters offer roughly $100 to buy the rights to a low-selling Steam game, actually targeting... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/don-t-sell-your-game-for-100--ostxjgnvo twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: DON'T sell your game for $100! | daily.dev og:description: A warning to indie game developers about a growing scam where fraudsters offer roughly $100 to buy the rights to a low-selling Steam game, actually targeting... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/don-t-sell-your-game-for-100--ostxjgnvo og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/OstXjGNvo.png og:image:alt: DON'T sell your game for $100! og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # DON'T sell your game for $100! **[Code Monkey](https://daily.dev/sources/codemonkeyunity)** · 6 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A warning to indie game developers about a growing scam where fraudsters offer roughly $100 to buy the rights to a low-selling Steam game, actually targeting its Steam app ID, store page, and existing player base rather than the game itself. Once ownership transfers, the buyer gains update access and can push a malware-laced update to all existing players, who receive it automatically since Steam only reviews the first build. The scam has reportedly grown in recent months and is under FBI investigation tied to crypto theft. Legitimate acquisition offers exist but rarely involve such tiny sums. The video also warns that if this abuse continues, Steam may be forced to add a console-style manual review process for updates, undermining the instant-patch workflow developers currently rely on. The presenter closes by promoting personal game dev courses and a discounted course bundle. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Why would a scammer offer to buy my Steam game for only $100? They are not buying the game itself but the Steam app ID, the published store page, its reviews, and the existing player base who already have it installed. Once ownership transfers, the buyer gets update access and can push a malware-laced update that automatically downloads to every existing owner, infecting them with password or crypto stealers. _daily.dev surfaces security writeups like this so indie developers can spot distribution-based scams before they hit publish._ ### Why does Steam only review a game once instead of every update? Valve reviews a build only at the initial upload before it goes live; after that, developers can push updates instantly without further manual review, unlike consoles which require certification for every update. This lets bugs get hotfixed within minutes, but it also means a malicious owner can push malware to existing players without any review gate. _Developers weighing platform tradeoffs like Steam's review process follow these debates on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Someone built a free-to-keep Steam game tracker, and it has already sent 600k alerts](https://daily.dev/posts/someone-built-a-free-to-keep-steam-game-tracker-and-it-has-already-sent-600k-alerts-hgoiu0vwm) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Steam Quietly Made a Huge Discoverability Change for Indie Games](https://daily.dev/posts/steam-quietly-made-a-huge-discoverability-change-for-indie-games-ilafonjoi) · 80 LEVEL · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#security](https://daily.dev/tags/security), [#game-development](https://daily.dev/tags/game-development), [#malware](https://daily.dev/tags/malware), [#steam](https://daily.dev/tags/steam) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/don-t-sell-your-game-for-100--ostxjgnvo) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"DON'T sell your game for $100!","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/don-t-sell-your-game-for-100--ostxjgnvo","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/don-t-sell-your-game-for-100--ostxjgnvo"},"datePublished":"2026-08-24T15:26:33.602Z","dateModified":"2026-08-24T15:26:55.314Z","description":"A warning to indie game developers about a growing scam where fraudsters offer roughly $100 to buy the rights to a low-selling Steam game, actually targeting...","image":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/XJBrzk7PR4o/sddefault.jpg","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/XJBrzk7PR4o/sddefault.jpg","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Code Monkey","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Code Monkey","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--mgoqDIgw--/f_auto/v1727446687/logos/codemonkeyunity","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/codemonkeyunity"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/don-t-sell-your-game-for-100--ostxjgnvo","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"security,game-development,malware,steam","timeRequired":"PT6M","video":{"@type":"VideoObject","name":"DON'T sell your game for $100!","description":"A warning to indie game developers about a growing scam where fraudsters offer roughly $100 to buy the rights to a low-selling Steam game, actually targeting...","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/XJBrzk7PR4o/sddefault.jpg","uploadDate":"2026-08-24T15:26:33.602Z","duration":"PT6M","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/OstXjGNvo","embedUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/embed/XJBrzk7PR4o"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Code Monkey","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/codemonkeyunity"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"DON'T sell your game for $100!"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/don-t-sell-your-game-for-100--ostxjgnvo#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Why would a scammer offer to buy my Steam game for only $100?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"They are not buying the game itself but the Steam app ID, the published store page, its reviews, and the existing player base who already have it installed. 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