Beware of scam Steam Deck and Steam Account stores (updated)

It came to my attention recently that there's a website out there selling different models of the Steam Deck, at a discount, along with Steam Accounts. Don't fall for the trap like accessory maker JSAUX did.

This SteamDeck.info (it's not a link on purpose) website popped up on my feeds recently, and it was raising some clear red flags. Made even worse today, because accessory maker JSAUX partnered up with this "company" to authorise them to sell JSAUX products. JSAUX clearly not doing any basic background checks here before announcing anything.

Quite a number of issues appear even on a very basic 2 minute check of this Steam Deck and Steam game store. For starters, it's only existed since October. They sell Steam Accounts with games and Steam Gifts (where you need to add them as a friend on Steam) — both of which are expressly forbidden by Valve and can get you completely banned on Steam. It comes across as an official company store using the Steam Deck name (trademarked by Valve) but there's no company number, their registered address is incomplete pointing to a luxury apartment complex, they have a discount on the Steam Deck that Valve don't even have, they listed out of stock "Limited Edition" models (no such thing exists) and so on. How do they do it? If you read carefully, they claim they buy it all with their own Steam account — I don't think I need to explain how bad this is.

More in the video below:

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You might think this is obvious and no PSA (public service announcement) is needed, but other consoles can be easily purchased officially online from a great many places. It's easy to see why some might fall for this, especially with even a very small discount to entice people in. There's nothing wrong with reselling if it's clear, but everything else is incredibly shady.

Update 31/12/2022: the steamdeck . info store sent a defamation complaint to YouTube, so my video on it is currently blocked in the UK (mirrored on TILVids). I am currently fighting to get it restored. They've also begun wiping any trace of some of the more dubious things they were selling on the store like Steam Accounts as they're trying to hide it.

Update 02/01/2023: YouTube denied the request to have it put back, so my video is staying blocked in the UK. The story on this store only gets weirder too and more suspect. In an email to me, the store claimed they purchased Steam Decks with local Gift Cards but on their own Reddit account they linked to screenshots (#1, #2) of their Steam purchase history showing they actually buy a bunch of USD gifts. According to Valve's own details, accounts are supposed to be locked to the local currency.