NOTE: this article was first written in text-only form for DEBUG Magazine, but I also wanted to make it available for people who readily need the advice. It’s mostly aimed at small gamedev teams who will be flooded with fake code requests from fake creators selling your work of love for the price of a McDonald’s Hamburger.

Congratulations on your upcoming game release! Exciting times are ahead, but before you pop the bottle of rum, brace yourself. Your inbox is about to blow up. Unfortunately, it won’t be Steam offering you a homepage feature or an awards show sending you a shiny new trophy. No, what you’ll be getting instead is a tidal wave of scammers, all trying to snag free game codes.

We’ve had multiple requests to host a list of known scammers, but the problem is: they switch their emails, Twitch handles, YouTube Channel names etc. every couple of months, so it’s much better to train yourself to recognise the patterns.

In this article, we’ll walk you through how to spot these fraudsters, dodge their traps, and keep your hard-earned codes out of the hands of resellers. Let’s ensure your game gets played by real gamers, not con artists.

Navigate to the section you need via this useful index:

• Fake Email
• Fake Steam Curators
• Fake Twitch Streamers
• Fake YouTube Creators
• Fake Instagram influencers

The Fake Email Hustle

One of the oldest tricks in the book: fake emails. Scammers love impersonating well-known outlets, tweaking an email address just enough to make it seem legit. Maybe they’ll swap an “O” for a zero, or sneak in a lowercase “l” where there should be an “i.” Sometimes, they get craftier, rearranging letters like “pireta” instead of “pirate.”

Alternatively, they will impersonate big Press outlets but you’ll catch them using a gmail, hotmail, outlook or other generic email address instead of one from the official domain.

ALWAYS check the sender’s email closely. If a request from “GamesRadar” shows up, It’s not going to come from a random Gmail account, but from a @futurenet.com one.

ALWAYS check the email address. Not just with Press requests, but Twitch & YouTube creators too, find their email via their channel or social media links and check if the email used to request the code, is the same one as the one visible online.

Red Flags:

🚩 Their emails are lazy and sent in bulk, they will rarely bother to mention your game by title or only that, no unique pitch whatsoever.
🚩 They have a similar email address, with some letters swapped or tricky special characters.
🚩 They mail you from a generic email client, instead of the official domain.

Solutions:

✅ Keep a verified list of trusted emails from legit contacts and double-check official emails on their socials or through YouTube’s “reveal email” feature.
✅ When in doubt, you can ask the creator to reply to their own video via a comment or a reply to your comment, that’s something they can never cheat.
✅ Block their emails and flag them as spam so you save yourself time in the future
✅ PRO TIP: were they impersonating a creator or press outlet you’d really want to feature your game? Seize this opportunity and forward the email to the REAL person, informing them of the pretender and maybe you can squeeze in a “but if you do like my game, feel free to request a code” at the end 😉

Steam Curators

Steam has a system that allows developers to give curators direct access to their game, called Curator Connect. Unlike codes, these can’t be traded or sold, as they’re tied to the curator’s Steam account. The problem? Some sneaky “curators” will ask for 2-4 codes through email to “review” your game. But a legit Steam curator doesn’t need codes. Don’t waste your valuable keys on these tricksters. Stick to Steam’s own system and let the backend do the heavy lifting.

Red Flags:

🚩 Their email seems generic and in no way customised for your game other than the title, they send these out in bulk.
🚩 Because they send out in bulk, expect these emails to arrive in droves too. Dozens of them will flood your inbox at the exact same time.
🚩 They’ll usually ask for more than one key. For a 1-paragraph superficial review

Solutions:

✅ Block them and delete their emails, flag them as spam.
✅ Use Curator Connect instead and find the best curators yourself.
✅ Use a trusted list of curators. Recommended: Game Taste has a curated curator list, get in touch with Bram to request the list.

Want to keep reading about Steam Curators? Here is a nice read that goes into even more detail!

Twitch Streamers… or schemers?

At first glance, these accounts might seem legit. They’ll have decent view counts and average-sized followings. But why would a Twitch streamer not have a webcam or a microphone? Also, pay attention to their chat. Notice anything off? Bots commenting the same reactions on every video or oddly repetitive viewer patterns? Red flags aplenty! Luckily, these scammers are greedy. They’ll flood your inbox with similar requests all at once, making them easier to spot.

BEWARE: these accounts are also on key distribution platforms, be sure to flag/report them when you get a request and help make the world a better place.

Examples:

• https://www.twitch.tv/haimstig
• https://www.twitch.tv/diamondstoryazt
• https://www.twitch.tv/elder_expectium
• https://www.twitch.tv/maliciousgamerdan
• https://www.twitch.tv/germangargan
• https://www.twitch.tv/countzagreus
• https://www.twitch.tv/wavesrio
• https://www.twitch.tv/savarsikky
• https://www.twitch.tv/asscendary
• https://www.twitch.tv/kakoyta_tipo4eg
• https://www.twitch.tv/ramilkaa_alimka
• https://www.twitch.tv/zopapefro
• https://www.twitch.tv/pureshka_hs
• … (there are HUNDREDS)

Red Flags:

🚩 No cam or mic
🚩 Fake chat (always the same ‘people’ in chat, look for “ScriptHower” or “NipponSuppa” users on these for example). These comments will not be related to the game and the same replies across multiple channels.
🚩 Usually play a ton of (the same) games in a single stream (because they got keys from keymailer sites and need to fill requirements) – You’ll even see that they all play the same games, or even uploaded the exact same video.
🚩 You’ll see a trend in the follower & viewcount of these channels, as they usually request around the same time. all ~3K followers, 300views for 1h streams (as an example)
🚩 No real engagement with the game in any way, just meaningless numbers. Even if these people WERE real, there would be ZERO benefit of sending them a code.

Solutions:

✅ Train yourself to spot them easily. Look for the no cam/no mic streams, view their previous vids and click to the end so you can scroll through the comments. Noticed how they all request around the same time and have coincidentally played the exact same games?
✅ Flag these accounts on KeyMailer, PressEngine, whatever tool you may be using to distribute keys.

Fake YouTube Creators: Big Numbers, Bad Intentions

They’ll email you, flashing impressive stats like 80K subscribers or 10K views per video. At first glance, you’ll be tempted to think, “Wow, this could be great exposure!” But hang on, let’s dive deeper. Check their content: are the thumbnails weirdly similar across multiple channels? Do you hear the same voices? Do the comments seem like they’re from an entirely different game? This is an entire organisation intent on scamming you out of 1 key at a time, but from dozens of different fake channels.

Red Flags:

🚩 Their @username is fresh or recently changed (they switch channel name, email all the time). I’d give some examples to link to, but they change their channel name every month or so.
🚩 They have no links to social media (which is weird for creators)
🚩 Way too consistent viewcount, getting 10K views for every video
🚩 You’ll recognise their voices + the fact that each channel has 3 different voices. They have an Eastern European accent, despite their channel saying they are from UK, Belgium, Germany, Sweden…
🚩 The comments are all fake, mentioning things that aren’t happening in the video. + every single comment was posted on the day the video went live. You’ll also notice some comments that just seem to cut off mid-sentence. Like they forgot to make their point and… (intentional sudden stop)
🚩 They will email you with a story on how they play games with their friend/sister/partner so they can get more than 1 review key.
🚩 Their emails are all formatted similarly and they will poke you once per week to try and convince you

Solutions:

✅ Use SocialBlade.com to spot sudden drops in view counts from deleted videos, or subscriber growth patterns that look as natural as a boat in the Sahara. Trust your gut—if it feels off, it probably is.
✅ Delete the mail. Block the email address. Flag as spam.
✅ If you encounter them on Key distribution sites, flag them so they get removed from the platform.

Fake Instagram creators: no filter will hide their plans!

I have some reasons to suspect that the same people who own a lot of the YouTube keyscams, are also active on InstaGram, the way their emails are formed just seems too similar. It’s basically a rehash each time of “I’ve got this great proposition for you” but if you read the email, it’s obvious they just replaced the game title and nothing more.

When you see their followers and likes, it seems enticing, but the numbers are mostly fake. You can even tell from the comments that cut off mid-sentence, and if you look closely, you’ll even find examples where they forgot to replace the variables like [insert specific audience]. See this example:

🚩 The follower-count fluctuates heavily, you can sometimes even catch them saying “217K” in their emails, but the actual count is at 210K or lower. Most real creators have a pretty good eye on their live metrics and won’t use wrong numbers
🚩 the email looks like a template where only the game title was replaced.
🚩 The content itself is just a key art with some ChatGPT generated text, no actual screenshots of their own (they didn’t play the game)
🚩 The comments cut off mid-sentence, or they just don’t sound like what an actual human would write

✅ Check their recent posts: do they cover a lot of games or only super high profile ones? what are the odds they’ll actually cover yours?
✅ Check the comments for anything obvious that seems… weird
✅ ignore their emails or put them on a block list so they don’t bother you anymore.

Question Everything (Seriously)

When you’re drowning in code requests, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. But it’s crucial to question every single one. How did this person get your email in the first place? Is it reasonable for them to cover your game? Why would they need multiple codes?

Be selective. Is this creator or reviewer really going to give your game the exposure it deserves? Or are they just in it for a freebie? The truth is, most requests you receive will be fake. But the more you deal with them, the sharper your scam-detecting instincts will become. Don’t let the sea monster snag your codes just to sell them on the grey market…

There’s no magical tool that’ll filter out every scammer. The best way to protect your game is through a manual process. Yes, it’s time-consuming, but going through each request and reviewing their content will save you a ton of headaches (and keys) in the long run.

Hopefully, if we all learn to recognise these scams, they will obtain fewer codes and the practice becomes less lucrative. But the fact that we still get hundreds of fake requests per game we work on as PR means that they are still successful too often and won’t be stopping soon. Let’s change that, together.

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