New type of Scam

[Liyfii]

Hi guys, this is my first time ever doing a forum page like this, hopefully you guys can see this message and be informed with what im about to say.

My close friend on discord texted me today saying he needed 1000$ to pay to steam to validate his account. He says that his account got locked and had to contact these people etc.

this is the website: https://www.valvesoftware.com/en/about

He had to contact a guy named Mr.matt#6816 on discord as my friend thought he was a dev or support person from steam. We eventually found out now that this was a scam when he told me he sent 2.7k through a crytpto coin so he can get his account back. (he thought he would get refunded after he pays to validate his account).

Please watch out for this scam where, you lost access to your account and someone contacts you saying you need to pay money to unlock your account.

[J4MESOX4D]

'New type of scam' LMAO! This is years old and already outlined in the scam FAQ https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/70E6-991B-233B-A37B

There's probably 5,000 threads on it too. Report, block and move on.

[SniperWolfMGS]

Quick question.

How did any of that not set off any warning bells?

1. Why would a company with its own communications platform use another platform to conduct any business?

2. Why would a well known and well watched company openly commit extortion?

3. Why would a company that makes so much money charge such a high price to press a button?

Did your friend even try to Google if that was a thing? Fools and their money i guess. But he must be loaded if he can just throw away over 2 grand without asking questions.

[nullable]

Originally posted by Liyfii:

Hi guys, this is my first time ever doing a forum page like this, hopefully you guys can see this message and be informed with what im about to say.

My close friend on discord texted me today saying he needed 1000$ to pay to steam to validate his account. He says that his account got locked and had to contact these people etc.

this is the website: https://www.valvesoftware.com/en/about

He had to contact a guy named Mr.matt#6816 on discord as my friend thought he was a dev or support person from steam. We eventually found out now that this was a scam when he told me he sent 2.7k through a crytpto coin so he can get his account back. (he thought he would get refunded after he pays to validate his account).

Please watch out for this scam where, you lost access to your account and someone contacts you saying you need to pay money to unlock your account.

At the end of the day any interactions that you have that rely on fear or greed to motivate you to do something are huge red flags and are tactics used quite universally by scammers. The script of the scam may change, but the tactics are eternal because they work and people don't change.

The claims of "new scams" are pretty typical when the victim doesn't really know that much about scams, especially scams that occur on Steam. Maybe they really believe it's new because they've never seen it before. Or maybe they're subconsciously trying to protect their own egos after being fooled. Probably both.

It's pretty easy to protect yourself from scams if you understand how scams work, why they work, why people are fooled, and accept that you have all the same human weaknesses as everyone else. After you have a handle on that, then the specifics of the scam's script don't matter because the tactics are always the same: Frighten you, or entice you, maybe both.

[The Giving One]

Originally posted by Liyfii:

He had to contact a guy named [REMOVED] on discord as my friend thought he was a dev or support person from steam..

https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/70E6-991B-233B-A37B

Valve employees will never communicate with you about your account using any chat system including Steam Chat and Discord. The only way you can speak with a Steam Support agent about your account is through the Steam Support Help Site. There's no situation in which you'd need to reach out to a Valve or Steam employee directly to resolve an issue.

If someone claims they reported you accidentally or falsely, you do not need to do anything to protect your account. These claims are always fake and only meant scam you. If someone did report your account falsely, you can rest assured that Steam disregards false reports.

Anyone claiming to be a Valve employee, Steam Support representative, or asking to verify your items for an investigation should be immediately reported.

You said this was your first time using the forums, so please feel free to use the forum search and you will find just about anything you can think of.

[Supafly]

New? That's a basic SCAM that's been used for years and by years I mean before Steam to Validate soooooooo many things.

It's NEW to you because you clearly don't use the forum and neither you or your mate has read the scam warnings all over the forum. Scammers use Crypto because it can't be traced. That alone should be a HUGE SCAM SCAM SCAM warning

[The Giving One]

Also, as far as an account being locked as part of the claim in this scam, that is covered here :

https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/01DE-9E83-B094-313B

Not sure what you mean by "validate" the account, but that is yet another red flag. Once they make claims that something needs to be "checked" or "validated" or "security checked" or similar, that is another attempt to create the fear or panic that helps to facilitate this type of scam, and make people lose focus.

Nothing needs to be "validated". Even if the user cannot self-recover the account, they can simply contact Steam Support (the real ones) to help regain access to the account, and that service is free.

[Supafly]

Originally posted by The Giving One:

Not sure what you mean by "validate" the account, but that is yet another red flag. Once they make claims that something needs to be "checked" or "validated" or "security checked" or similar, that is another attempt to create the fear or panic that helps to facilitate this type of scam, and make people lose focus.

Yup, Why would anyone need to pay a company behind an account to validate is beyond me. Steam accounts are free to create. If it needed validating it'd be done at creation. not x time afterwards.

All these scare tactics reminds me of the first scare tactic I ever saw online. The Stupid popups, still around today, that use the scare tactic of "you device is infected with x amount of malware making it slower and stealing your information. " Nice and scary with HUGE RED LETTERS then a polite "Click here to download our software to clean it"

Only takes a moment to strip it apart to identify it as typical scare BS by asking simple questions

If the popup knew your device was infected that means it has access to it, correct? If it has access already why do you need to click anything to download anything? Why can't it clean it without you? Why'd it even bother telling you and not just clean it without even prompting you.

It doesn't have access which is why it wants a person to download something. Furthermore, If it doesn't have access how can it possibly know a persons device is infected? It can't. If it lies about a device being infected from the start all the rest is clearly BS to trick a person into download their ♥♥♥♥

[Muppet among Puppets]

Pattern of scam:

Bait, story, steps

[MoonC A T]

Originally posted by Liyfii:

Please watch out for this scam where, you lost access to your account and someone contacts you saying you need to pay money to unlock your account.

Seriously, how dumb do you have to be to fall for this (yes I am well aware there are that do).

[Elucidator]

Instead of sending scammers 1000 dollars, can't you just buy games for friends or maybe buy me a valve index? (I want to try out vr xd)
I am surprised you don't even feel like you have lost a house and let you question the insane amount of money they ask, which makes me guess you're pretty wealthy.

I could use some ;p
even if I have an index I still need mount points for in the room, so-- its just part of the package I guess.

.... scammers are upsetting, but the foolishness behind just "oh, just 1000 dollars, okay I'll send it." and then only asking "wait, I need to use crypto? why?"
What the heck?

Don't get me wrong here. I am not trying to make you people look dumb, but--... that said there is a lot of common knowledge people expect one to have.
I don't know what it costs to live where you do in a similar low income appartment like the one I have, but where I live... its about 7~8 dollar a day to get food (fresh yes, precut, prepackaged, etc.) (if you want to live lazy I mean.) If you make food from scratch yourself its cheaper. (you can go by with 6 I think? not sure..., depends on how elaborate you go I guess. If it make it a restaurant level taste meal it might still get to 8 dollars).
You can even pay rent with that money (yes... I am not rich no, in fact you could say I am poor, but still. I mean, even with my small one room appartment, I can still pay for rent within that money.) (that said, I would need more for electricity, sewage, etc.)

So, under the circumstances where people know that this is how much 1000 dollars is worth, it makes me wonder if the rich (should they be from my area at least, and have these issues, and don't even question the instane amount of 1000 to check / validate an account or something), if they actually paid for their IQ scores.

1000 is, as I am trying to explain here 'for me' 'a lot'. like...
If I had that I could probably upgrade my 7 year old pc and such...
or buy a valve index. I honestly can't exactly be sure how much food I can buy from that. etc.


When a company ever needs to check if a bank account belongs to a person, they will ask for 1 cent. (I think paypal did this as a check.) That said, I have never heard of Valve using this method. It would likely be stated somewhere in their documents if they did.

There is just too much to mention that could have hinted you its a scam.
the most obvious one: "discord"

[Muppet among Puppets]

Originally posted by Elucidator:

1000 is, as I am trying to explain here 'for me' 'a lot'. like...

Looks like he paid 2,7k and needed 1000 more......

I dont understand the mindset as well. Before i buy a game on sale, i check first reviews.
Why dont people ask somewhere if its right that a random person tells them to pay a lot for "verification" on discord?
That should not be even a question. But better ask it.......