Valve is removing physical Steam gift cards from retail stores - scammers have been exploiting them for phone fraud schemes targeting people worldwide.

Physical Steam gift cards have been available since 2012, with digital versions following in 2017. Despite multiple countermeasures over the years, fraudsters kept adapting. Valve explains:

We introduced Steam Gift Cards in retail in 2012 and added digital versions in 2017. Unfortunately, scammers use gift cards from major brands like Steam to exploit people worldwide.

Over the years, we’ve taken several customer protection measures to address gift card fraud, including:

• Working with retailers
• Working with law enforcement
• Changes to cards, including adding a prominent fraud warning
• Redemption restricted to your Steam Wallet currency
• Limiting card availability
• Pulling cards from sale when we detect unusual activity

Unfortunately, scammers have adapted to our efforts. They continue to impact Steam customers and other well-meaning people. This is why we’ve made the difficult decision to remove Steam Gift Cards from retail.

Once retail Steam Gift Cards sell through, there will be no restocking. We expect all retailers to be out of stock by end of 2026. Even though we won’t be selling gift cards in retail anymore, you can continue to use your existing gift cards on Steam at any time, subject to applicable laws.

We will continue to offer digital Steam Gift Cards and are continually working on an improved customer experience.

Source: Steam Support