Recently Dota 2 has got an item called the 2015 International Compendium, which is purchasable from the Dota 2 store. Also recently Valve have put in place a set of gift restrictions on Dota 2 items so they can’t be traded, gifted or put into the game’s community market for a week after purchase. This has led to a lot of players who wanted to gift the compendium being forced to wait to do it.

Valve’s Daniel.J took the the Dota 2 subreddit to explain why though, and the answer makes sense: they’re fighting against credit card fraud. The week long period is in place to give Steam and the credit card companies enough time to stem the flow.

Daniel states that Valve are not a fan of having to restrict the gifting of items, but say that as of the moment they don’t have “a better solution” although they’re continuing to think of methods to hinder the problem without having an effect on legitimate buyers and users.

The fraudsters use stolen credit cards to buy the items, then resell them to other players at a discount. By the time the cards are discovered stolen, the items are in the market, the fraudster’s moved onto another account which can be new or stolen off another legitimate user and Valve are left picking up the pieces. It started in 2013 and ballooned during the last year, also leading to an increase in scam-related support requests where players had accounts stolen from them or never received their item. If too much credit card fraud occurs then Valve would be forced to not accept that method of payment anymore either.

It’s a sticky problem, one that Valve seem to be wrestling with. Hopefully the majority understand why this has happened and a better solution can be found soon to allow the gifting to re-commence.