Valve stops players from trading container keys to prevent money laundering activities

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is a popular video game published by a Seattle-based company called Valve. Player in game can choose from two factions that is terrorists and counter-terrorist fighters. Players who choose to be terrorists can plant bombs and hold hostages whereas the counter-terrorists take on the bad guys. The Valve decided to step up against criminals by not allowing the players to trade using container keys. It is basically used to obtain in-game items like rare knives, guns, and limited edition stickers. The fraudulent networks that function around the world shifted its operations to use CS: GO keys to liquidate their income. Valve stated that every key traded within the game is fraud-sourced. The valve is one of the largest video games company, and this admission in regards to money laundering has left many startled. Kayla Izenman, a research analyst at RUSI stated that. “It was shocking to me to see the language they were using,” Criminals are misusing the online marketplace and this is happening from more than a decade. Fraudsters are known to sell items at a discounted price to unwitting gamers.

The virtual item has become big business so the fraudsters are targeting it. The data given to these platforms is so massive that sometimes it doesn’t require a player account to trade digital assets.