Buying stolen property isn’t innocent and can take the matter up with the person that sold it to them.
Comment on The terrible tragedy of a stolen Steam Deck
Dashmezzo@lemm.ee 4 weeks agoI have mixed feelings about this. Steam could make a lock that is more like the IMEI or android and iPhone lock that means it is far less valuable to steal and easier to track and lock. But by reporting it you remove THEIR obligation to provide warranty to someone that innocently buys a used steam deck that is still within its warranty period but that doesn’t hurt the person who stole it only another innocent party in the ordeal. Now if they gave you $25 off another steam deck or something I would see the point.
Not saying don’t do it. Just that it seems a little redundant now.
lightnsfw@reddthat.com 4 weeks ago
Dashmezzo@lemm.ee 4 weeks ago
Buying stolen property unknowingly is innocent. A steam deck can end up on eBay or Facebook marketplace place or even in second hand stores like CEX etc without being tagged as stolen.
If you buy something and a few months later it dies from a recognised fault, it sucks for the person who bought it in good faith. They have no recourse and the only person gaining anything from it is Steam.
hedgehog@ttrpg.network 4 weeks ago
They have no recourse
They can do all of the following:
- Report the seller to the platform for selling stolen goods.
- Return the stolen goods to the rightful owner, if they’re able to get their information, or if not, to Valve or even just the police department.
- File a suit in small claims court against the seller for damages (the amount they paid + any other expenses they’ve incurred, like the cost to mail it to the rightful owner, including legal fees) or, if the platform won’t provide the seller’s information, against the platform itself.
xavier666@lemm.ee 4 weeks ago
It should teach the person never to buy stuff without an original invoice. The buyer should understand it’s a stolen product when they opened it and saw that there is an active account associated with it AND the charger is not included.
Dashmezzo@lemm.ee 4 weeks ago
Ah you sweet child. Go to any legit second hand store and ask for the original receipt for the item. Nope. A charger may well have been changed or another similar one given after all it’s only USBC.
There are a plethora of reasons why a legitimate seller may have a non standard charger and when I sell an old phone or a laptop on a market place there is an expectation the item isn’t stolen. It’s called good faith in contract law and why you can’t be guilty of handling stolen goods if you have no knowledge or expectation of it being stolen. For example if you buy it in a pub with a dog and 2 kilos of meat all for £50, then there is a reasonable expectation it is stolen, but buying from a second hand electronics store or eBay, there is an expectation it is not stolen.
As for someone else’s login, well if you wipe the drive or factory restore it, it no longer has anything on it and can have no such identifiers. This is why I stated that Steam can and I believe should do more to make the device lock down, but they have no incentive as it costs them money to implement and manage but with little to gain for them.