Account got restricted, and steam support asked me to provide information on PAYPAL that i've never used

[Captain Toad]

I created an alt account last year to buy steam deck since my current account was not in an available country.

Earlier this week, i received the reservation email and completed the purchase. But shortly after, my account got restricted saying that it had fraud activity. I contacted steam support, and they asked me to provide information for the most recently used PayPal account.

The thing is, I've never used Paypal in that account. All i used is wallet balance, which is from gift cards and selling items on steam market. Since it's a new account, there're few transactions. And i'm uploading my purchase history here for reference. https://imgur.com/a/Z2kd5lb

But the steam support said they can not provide any more assistance if they dont receive information they required, even though i told them i literally had never used one.

Could anyone help me with this issue? Much appreciated in advance.

Update: After two weeks of arguing with steam support that i've never used paypal before, they finally unlocked my account. However, they still haven't explained why they were asking me for my paypal details lmao.

[Carlos100]

If you created an account to bypass your region restriction you will be in trouble

[Captain Toad]

Originally posted by Carlos100:

If you created an account to bypass your region restriction you will be in trouble

yeah ur right but that's nothing to do with steam support asking for information that doesnt exist in the first place

[Carlos100]

Did you use paypal on your real account?

[Captain Toad]

Originally posted by Carlos100:

Did you use paypal on your real account?

yes but its almost 2 yrs ago

[crunchyfrog]

Well here's the thing.

If this is true on this account, then you can provide evidence for the purcahses you believe you did make.

Either way, whether you used Paypal or not, if you can't do that, you ain't getting your account back./

[Captain Toad]

Thank you for your reply.

Originally posted by Snakub Plissken:

It's possible that Valve is aware that the locked account is an alt account, and know what your real account is hence the request for information they know you have IE you have used PayPal on a related Steam account. And your reservation in supplying your paypal account is that it will simply expose/confirm the fraud. And there's possible the impasse, you want to treat the alt account as an isolated entity removed from your main account and pretend "what paypal?" and Valve may not be playing that game, and has you trapped.

The following is the message sent by steam support.

Hello,

Our fraud protection system detected an unusual purchase on this account. Your Steam account is locked while we investigate this activity.

Please review your recent purchase activity here:
https://help.steampowered.com/en/wizard/HelpWithPurchase

After reviewing your purchase activity, please provide the following information for the most recently used PayPal account:

-Complete PayPal account holder billing information (name and billing address):
-The 16-19 digit Invoice ID or Order Number associated with a purchase on the account:

Please attach an image of your driver's license, ID card, or an official document that matches the name and billing address used on this PayPal account. You can attach or drop the image in the box below where you type your response.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

They didn't mention anything like alt account or main account. So i assumed they were requesting the information on the restricted account. But you could be right, i'll ask them if it's the paypal used in the main account they wanted.

Originally posted by Snakub Plissken:

It's also possible if they know you've engaged in some fraud, asking you for information they know you can't provide is simply a way to disable the account and handcuff you from wasting their time arguing or bargaining with them. And they're not worried about your opinions or feelings on the matter, or even a lawsuit because they would be able to demonstrate the fraud and that the account was legitimately restricted and your feelings on the details of how that was handled would be moot.

I would be so pissed off if its the case. I mean i could understand steam restricted me for trying to bypass the region lock or something. But c'mon, refusing to communicate is totally unfair. What kind of fraud could it be if im using only steam wallet balance. Maybe the gift card was a stolen one. Maybe i sold a stolen item on steam market. But at least let me know why my account is banned. I'm so confused rn.

[Callahan420]

Looks like you are transferring money from one account to the other using the marketplace. This is a no no, as far as I know.

Also you are screwed for bypassing region restrictions. Have fun trying to get that deck shipped to china. Better get ready to supply a US address and payment method.

[Muppet among Puppets]

Originally posted by Snakub Plissken:

It's some pretty wild speculation on my part. But the fraud would be trying to bypass region restrictions/availability. While I (we) don't know all the circumstances and details, the way you phrased it.

"I created an alt account last year to buy steam deck since my current account was not in an available country."

This theory does not make sense if you talk about a physical product that needs an address. It does not get send to an account, but an address.

[Muppet among Puppets]

Originally posted by Snakub Plissken:

Originally posted by Muppet among Puppets:

This theory does not make sense if you talk about a physical product that needs an address. It does not get send to an account, but an address.

I'm not confused about that. You might be confused about the situation and what OP has done though.

OP couldn't get a Steam Deck with the main account, and has done a bunch of things to get around that. So I'm not sure if you've missed it, or lack imagination, or what?

Maybe you want to clarify why you think it doesn't make sense, when nominally an account is associated with a country and that will sometimes create barriers. And one can't just buy something with a U.S. based account and have it shipped to Hong Kong in a situation like this. Not directly anyway.

So I suspect that OP has someone he could ship it to domestically, and then will ship it to him internationally.

Like I'm not seeing a specific problem or mystery in what OP has done.

I said, that the restriction of a physical product would be based on the address it gets send to.

[Joke]

Looking at OPs purchase history, I'm quite sure Snakub Plissken nailed it when he said it's about the transfer of funds between the two accounts.

Aug 7, 2022 - buys something from market for $0.03
Aug 16, 2022 - sells something on market for $649.00

My guess is that this is the same item, as there are no other transactions between those dates.

This should have triggered a closer look by steam. I'm not sure if it's outright forbidden to transfer funds like this, but it's highly suspicious.
Edit:
It could be that support want to verify that the two accounts are actually owned by the same person. Selling Steam wallet funds to others is probably against the rules.

That the OP has an account in the US is probably not something Steam would make a fuss about in this case, since it's about a piece of hardware and not about buying cheaper games.
Valve will of course only ship to the OPs US address.

[Muppet among Puppets]

Originally posted by Snakub Plissken:

I'm not clear how that theory doesn't make sense, or why you're so convinced stating the obvious has any value to the topic.

Originally posted by Joke:

Valve will of course only ship to the OPs US address.

Thats what i meant

[C²C^Guyver |NZB|]

Originally posted by Captain Toad:

Originally posted by Carlos100:

If you created an account to bypass your region restriction you will be in trouble

yeah ur right but that's nothing to do with steam support asking for information that doesnt exist in the first place

It certainly does Valve can terminate your accounts.

[Kargor]

Are you even sure you've been talking to Steam support?

Last time I went to support (to get rid of the phone number, without access to the phone), they also asked me for PayPal details -- but they were specifically asking me for the PayPal information about a specific purchase that they pointed out, not just "any purchase".

[Callahan420]

Originally posted by Joke:

Looking at OPs purchase history, I'm quite sure Snakub Plissken nailed it when he said it's about the transfer of funds between the two accounts.

Aug 7, 2022 - buys something from market for $0.03
Aug 16, 2022 - sells something on market for $649.00

My guess is that this is the same item, as there are no other transactions between those dates.

This should have triggered a closer look by steam. I'm not sure if it's outright forbidden to transfer funds like this, but it's highly suspicious.
Edit:
It could be that support want to verify that the two accounts are actually owned by the same person. Selling Steam wallet funds to others is probably against the rules.

That the OP has an account in the US is probably not something Steam would make a fuss about in this case, since it's about a piece of hardware and not about buying cheaper games.
Valve will of course only ship to the OPs US address.

I brought it up in the post above theirs but don't know if they seen it or just noticed the same thing and ran with it.
Post # 8
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/3439081454530356625/?tscn=1661116529#c3439081454530975056

[Muppet among Puppets]

There is a news that the item can be gotten in hong kong now