"This account has violated the Steam Terms of Service Agreement"

[Karl Kurwa]

Got this today.
I dont do any trading / buying / selling on steam or other platforms, so I find this a bit weird.
They provided me with no "evidence" at all, just banned the account.

Steam keeps deleting my support tickets, so I guess this is the final stop.

Any suggestions on how to manage this?

My account is 13-14 years old with multiple game purchases, two-step-authorization through my phone, thousands of hours played, no complaints on my profile (since I do not do trading / selling / buying), many hundreds of dollars spent on games, no traiding offers other than an USP-S skin I won from a CSGO ladder.

All signs points to an unjustified ban with no evidence at all.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Something that hasn't been mentioned here yet (I think?) is that another way this sort of hijacking takes place these days is when your friend (actually your friend's hijacked account) sends you a message asking you to vote for their team on some esports site. That site then contains a fake "sign in through Steam" page, which is designed to look like the real thing inside a fake browser window.

Ways to spot the fake:
1. Keep a Steam login on your external browser. It's better to browse Steam on your own browser for multiple reasons, and this is one of them. Real "sign in through Steam" pages will be one-click passthrough pages; fake ones will ask you for your login.
2. Real "sign in through Steam" pages generally open in the same window, rather than a new window. If it opens in a new window, that's a big warning sign.
3. Customize your OS and browser appearance. This can help you spot fake browser windows, since they'll often not match the appearance of your real browser windows.

If you encounter a friend asking you to do this, report that friend's profile as having been hijacked, ASAP.

And obviously, do NOT actually attempt a login on such a site.

And if you're not sure whether a site is legit or not, just don't try it anyway.

[zephyr]

they stole everything from me

[my new friend]

VAC/Banned の投稿を引用：

they stole everything from me

Secure your account.
Follow all the steps.

Deauthorize all devices https://store.steampowered.com/twofactor/manage
Change your password on a secure device.
Generate new back up codes. https://store.steampowered.com/twofactor/manage
Revoke the api key https://steamcommunity.com/dev/apikey

[Monytor]

Hey guys, I have the same issue. Except it happened when I just finished playing a game so I changed my password within minutes. Out of nowhere my profile name changed, my profile picture was deleted and in my account description appeared the scam message. It took me a while to change my password, I was logged out of my steam account on chrome a couple times. I'm running a scan on my main PC and writing this on my laptop, is there anything else (except for what was already said here) I can do to make sure this or anything similar doesn't happen to me again?

[J4MESOX4D]

Monytor の投稿を引用：

Hey guys, I have the same issue. Except it happened when I just finished playing a game so I changed my password within minutes. Out of nowhere my profile name changed, my profile picture was deleted and in my account description appeared the scam message. It took me a while to change my password, I was logged out of my steam account on chrome a couple times. I'm running a scan on my main PC and writing this on my laptop, is there anything else (except for what was already said here) I can do to make sure this or anything similar doesn't happen to me again?

Do a full scan and then the 4 steps in order provided in the post above yours.

[Monytor]

Quint the Alligator Snapper の投稿を引用：

Something that hasn't been mentioned here yet (I think?) is that another way this sort of hijacking takes place these days is when your friend (actually your friend's hijacked account) sends you a message asking you to vote for their team on some esports site. That site then contains a fake "sign in through Steam" page, which is designed to look like the real thing inside a fake browser window.

Ways to spot the fake:
1. Keep a Steam login on your external browser. It's better to browse Steam on your own browser for multiple reasons, and this is one of them. Real "sign in through Steam" pages will be one-click passthrough pages; fake ones will ask you for your login.
2. Real "sign in through Steam" pages generally open in the same window, rather than a new window. If it opens in a new window, that's a big warning sign.
3. Customize your OS and browser appearance. This can help you spot fake browser windows, since they'll often not match the appearance of your real browser windows.

If you encounter a friend asking you to do this, report that friend's profile as having been hijacked, ASAP.

And obviously, do NOT actually attempt a login on such a site.

And if you're not sure whether a site is legit or not, just don't try it anyway.

I guess this might be the thing. It just was my friend asking me whether I wanted to play a tournament with him. The site then broke down. But that was a week ago.

[Wolf Knight]

Monytor の投稿を引用：

Quint the Alligator Snapper の投稿を引用：

Something that hasn't been mentioned here yet (I think?) is that another way this sort of hijacking takes place these days is when your friend (actually your friend's hijacked account) sends you a message asking you to vote for their team on some esports site. That site then contains a fake "sign in through Steam" page, which is designed to look like the real thing inside a fake browser window.

Ways to spot the fake:
1. Keep a Steam login on your external browser. It's better to browse Steam on your own browser for multiple reasons, and this is one of them. Real "sign in through Steam" pages will be one-click passthrough pages; fake ones will ask you for your login.
2. Real "sign in through Steam" pages generally open in the same window, rather than a new window. If it opens in a new window, that's a big warning sign.
3. Customize your OS and browser appearance. This can help you spot fake browser windows, since they'll often not match the appearance of your real browser windows.

If you encounter a friend asking you to do this, report that friend's profile as having been hijacked, ASAP.

And obviously, do NOT actually attempt a login on such a site.

And if you're not sure whether a site is legit or not, just don't try it anyway.

I guess this might be the thing. It just was my friend asking me whether I wanted to play a tournament with him. The site then broke down. But that was a week ago.

do you know this "Friend" in real life? if not, report their account as compromised

[J4MESOX4D]

Monytor の投稿を引用：

Quint the Alligator Snapper の投稿を引用：

Something that hasn't been mentioned here yet (I think?) is that another way this sort of hijacking takes place these days is when your friend (actually your friend's hijacked account) sends you a message asking you to vote for their team on some esports site. That site then contains a fake "sign in through Steam" page, which is designed to look like the real thing inside a fake browser window.

Ways to spot the fake:
1. Keep a Steam login on your external browser. It's better to browse Steam on your own browser for multiple reasons, and this is one of them. Real "sign in through Steam" pages will be one-click passthrough pages; fake ones will ask you for your login.
2. Real "sign in through Steam" pages generally open in the same window, rather than a new window. If it opens in a new window, that's a big warning sign.
3. Customize your OS and browser appearance. This can help you spot fake browser windows, since they'll often not match the appearance of your real browser windows.

If you encounter a friend asking you to do this, report that friend's profile as having been hijacked, ASAP.

And obviously, do NOT actually attempt a login on such a site.

And if you're not sure whether a site is legit or not, just don't try it anyway.

I guess this might be the thing. It just was my friend asking me whether I wanted to play a tournament with him. The site then broke down. But that was a week ago.

All tournament sites where you give your credentials to them are phishing scams.

[my new friend]

Please stop posting malicious links on the forums.

[J4MESOX4D]

Monytor の投稿を引用：

Wolf Knight の投稿を引用：

do you know this "Friend" in real life? if not, report their account as compromised

Yep I do know him. I just talked to him and he doesn't remember sending me anything like that. I was also blocked on his account, so his account must have been compromised somehow too

Remove the phishing site link you've posted before a Valve mod sees it. Your friend was compromised, you were then compromised and your friends list were probably targeted too. It's a classic chain scam.

[Bllasae]

inspanlOl~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ の投稿を引用：

We allowed you to send value skins to a friend or a storage account within 24 hours.
More info on this topic is available here: Steam Terms of Service Agreement."

This is really the grammar that they're using in the ticket?

[davidb11]

Bllasae の投稿を引用：

inspanlOl~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ の投稿を引用：

We allowed you to send value skins to a friend or a storage account within 24 hours.
More info on this topic is available here: Steam Terms of Service Agreement."

This is really the grammar that they're using in the ticket?

And people fall for it.
Which honestly, is because people are gullible.
And if you don't believe me on that, I have a nice bridge in Brooklyn, New York for you to buy.
Only $10 Million!

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

davidb11 の投稿を引用：

Bllasae の投稿を引用：

This is really the grammar that they're using in the ticket?

And people fall for it.
Which honestly, is because people are gullible.
And if you don't believe me on that, I have a nice bridge in Brooklyn, New York for you to buy.
Only $10 Million!

I think it's quite likely that such a scam preys on people whose grasp of English isn't great.

The grammar is glaringly bad, to anyone who's fluent in English, but to others who English not very good, not very obvious this is scam.

[davidb11]

Yeah. That's also a good point.

[crunchyfrog]

Quint the Alligator Snapper の投稿を引用：

davidb11 の投稿を引用：

And people fall for it.
Which honestly, is because people are gullible.
And if you don't believe me on that, I have a nice bridge in Brooklyn, New York for you to buy.
Only $10 Million!

I think it's quite likely that such a scam preys on people whose grasp of English isn't great.

The grammar is glaringly bad, to anyone who's fluent in English, but to others who English not very good, not very obvious this is scam.

That's indeed a fair point and something I hadn't considered.