Valve has restricted the functionality of Steam accounts with no purchase history in a bid to combat spam and phishing on the platform.

Steam users must now spend the equivalent of US$5 before they can perform actions such as sending friend invites, opening group chat, and more.

That US$5 can be spent on a game or gift, or simply be added to a Steam Wallet.

“Malicious users often operate in the community on accounts which have not spent any money, reducing the individual risk of performing the actions they do” said Valve.

“One of the best pieces of information we can compare between regular users and malicious users are their spending habits as typically the accounts being used have no investment in their longevity.

“Due to this being a common scenario we have decided to restrict certain community features until an account has met or exceeded $5.00 USD in Steam.”

The features that are locked for those who have not spent US$5 include:

◆ Sending friend invites
◆ Opening group chat
◆ Voting on Greenlight, Steam Reviews and Workshop items
◆ Participating in the Steam Market
◆ Posting frequently in the Steam Discussions
◆ Gaining Steam Profile Levels (Locked to level 0) and Trading Cards
◆ Submitting content on the Steam Workshop
◆ Posting in an item's Steam Workshop Discussions
◆ Accessing the Steam Web API
◆ Using browser and mobile chat

Adding non-Steam games to Steam does not count towards the US$5 threshold. Nor does activating a gifted game, or getting a refund to a Steam Wallet.