I got a ban warning?

[Nonchalant Rat-head]

I dont know if this is real or not. I logged onto my computer on December 3rd to find my account name was changed to a random series of numbers, all my preferences on my profile were set back to default, and that my "description" was changed to the following:

ACCOUNT ALERT - December 3 , 2019
This account has violated the Steam Terms of Service Agreement.
This account has been flagged by ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ for violations of the Terms of Service Agreement. Purchasing, gifting, trading, buying and selling items on the Community Market, and cd-key activation will be disabled. Account functionality will be limited. Ban are permanent, non-negotiable and cannot be removed by ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.
In order to prevent losing valuables skins, we allow you to send them to storage account or friend within 24 hour.
More info on this topic is available here: Steam Terms of Service Agreement.

Now I was worried and didnt know how to contact steam about what I felt was a false ban, my only way was to submit a ticket through steam community help, which has been ignored for two days. After sending this ticket I found my timezone was changed to Pittsburg, and that someone logged in from somewhere in "Russia." Id also like to note that I could still change all my preferences on my steam profile back (as you can see)

Either way I dont know if this was simply a prank hack, or a serious issue. I did nothing considering a ban, but I'm still worried. I feel the couple grammar errors help to make it seem fake, but im still worried. Should I be? Or was I just hacked?

if i was hacked, how could I be? I have steam guard active on my phone (which I recently changed to, meaning I have a 15 day trade ban). Although yes I'm still worried, I recently changed my passwords on everything.

Anything to say?

[Muppet among Puppets]

Your account is accessed by someone who you gave your details


Scan for malware. https://www.malwarebytes.com/

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

[Zekiran]

It is a phishing attempt. Be absolutely sure to do everything Muppet lists. If there is nothing in the APIkey area, that's fine, if there is something there, REMOVE IT, it is supposed to be empty.

Also, stop visiting any 3rd party sites for any trading or 'free' items. That's where your scammers are coming from.

[Nonchalant Rat-head]

Originally posted by Zekiran:

It is a phishing attempt. Be absolutely sure to do everything Muppet lists. If there is nothing in the APIkey area, that's fine, if there is something there, REMOVE IT, it is supposed to be empty.

Also, stop visiting any 3rd party sites for any trading or 'free' items. That's where your scammers are coming from.

Holdon youre speaking moon runes. APIkey? And no I havent been going to third party cites, really never have.

[Muppet among Puppets]

Originally posted by Worm on a String:

Originally posted by Zekiran:

It is a phishing attempt. Be absolutely sure to do everything Muppet lists. If there is nothing in the APIkey area, that's fine, if there is something there, REMOVE IT, it is supposed to be empty.

Also, stop visiting any 3rd party sites for any trading or 'free' items. That's where your scammers are coming from.

Holdon youre speaking moon runes. APIkey? And no I havent been going to third party cites, really never have.

Do what i suggested, then you can argue later while your account is safe.

If you did not leak your details, a device did.

[Nonchalant Rat-head]

Well ive already done everything, I have no viruses, my devices are deauthorized, I have new codes, and ive changed my password. I should be good right?

[Zekiran]

Should be, yes.

But we can, from experience here for quite some time, state: your login credentials were leaked. It might have been in the form of a site that LOOKED like Steam, or a chat conversation, or a 'really it's safe click here'.

The only way that any of this happens, is that those log in creds were placed where they shouldn't have been. Whether it was by you, or someone on your account, physically. Just be aware that trade groups, bots, and off-steam trading are all scams in the end.

[Nonchalant Rat-head]

I think I know a guy who wanted me to review some skins he made, that mighta been it

[The Giving One]

The way it works is, someone uses that fake message to make you afraid of a ban or other account restriction that does not and will not exist. Then, they "suggest" you send the items to a storage account or friend. If you do this, then the trade is canceled and your items are instead sent to the scammer's account, which is made to look almost exactly like the account you intended to send them to.

When your API key is compromised, this allows them to make the changes necessary to create the fake account that looks like the one you want to send the items to, as well as put up that fake message on your profile.

We see this here every day, sadly, and most days, it's more than a few times, too. People sometimes ask here first, which is good, but most of the time, it's too late and they have traded the items out of fear of a ban that will never come anyway.

The first part of the message is a copy of a real account restricted functionality alert message :

Originally posted by Worm on a String:

ACCOUNT ALERT - December 3 , 2019
This account has violated the Steam Terms of Service Agreement.
This account has been flagged by ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ for violations of the Terms of Service Agreement. Purchasing, gifting, trading, buying and selling items on the Community Market, and cd-key activation will be disabled.

EDIT...Well, to be correct, it's almost exactly the same as a real message, that first part.

But the rest is nonsense.

Once the items have left the account, they are gone forever, if the user falls for the scam, as ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ does not restore items that leave an account for any reason whatsoever, so sadly that's one of the reasons that this scam is so effective.

Yes, it's almost always from getting your account login information phished, either giving the details away in the chat with an "official" (fake person) or logging into third party sites and compromising the account that way.

[Nonchalant Rat-head]

Thats unfortunate. Im glad I came here first.

[aloha]

Originally posted by Jazz Rat:

I dont know if this is real or not. I logged onto my computer on December 3rd to find my account name was changed to a random series of numbers, all my preferences on my profile were set back to default, and that my "description" was changed to the following:

ACCOUNT ALERT - December 3 , 2019
This account has violated the Steam Terms of Service Agreement.
This account has been flagged by ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ for violations of the Terms of Service Agreement. Purchasing, gifting, trading, buying and selling items on the Community Market, and cd-key activation will be disabled. Account functionality will be limited. Ban are permanent, non-negotiable and cannot be removed by ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.
In order to prevent losing valuables skins, we allow you to send them to storage account or friend within 24 hour.
More info on this topic is available here: Steam Terms of Service Agreement.

Now I was worried and didnt know how to contact steam about what I felt was a false ban, my only way was to submit a ticket through steam community help, which has been ignored for two days. After sending this ticket I found my timezone was changed to Pittsburg, and that someone logged in from somewhere in "Russia." Id also like to note that I could still change all my preferences on my steam profile back (as you can see)

Either way I dont know if this was simply a prank hack, or a serious issue. I did nothing considering a ban, but I'm still worried. I feel the couple grammar errors help to make it seem fake, but im still worried. Should I be? Or was I just
hacked?

I had just experienced the exact same thing as you but luckily this whole discussion had all the information I needed and now my account is safe from harm and also I had a hacker from Russia and

if i was hacked, how could I be? I have steam guard active on my phone (which I recently changed to, meaning I have a 15 day trade ban). Although yes I'm still worried, I recently changed my passwords on everything.

Anything to say?:roaaar:

Thank you for assisting me. I had the exact same experience but from somewhere in Australia and through this discussion I had enough information to keep my account safe.

[Nonchalant Rat-head]

Yeah no its completely fake. Don't worry about it, ignore it. You should secure your account, change passwords and check your login history.

If it's a real ban, you'll know.

[Kassie]

Originally posted by Jazz Rat:

Yeah no its completely fake. Don't worry about it, ignore it. You should secure your account, change passwords and check your login history.

If it's a real ban, you'll know. :bbtraccoon:

You replied to your own post from 2019! O:

[Zekiran]

Originally posted by Alex:

Originally posted by Jazz Rat:

Yeah no its completely fake. Don't worry about it, ignore it. You should secure your account, change passwords and check your login history.

If it's a real ban, you'll know. :bbtraccoon:

You replied to your own post from 2019! O:

Yes because miracle of miracles, someone actually took the time to READ threads like this, and not get scammed themselves. :)