Be aware of new account phising scam!

[Hyllested]

I am not currently aware of how this takes place, but recently multiple people I know have gotten their accounts compromised.

The compromised account will be messaging your friends with your standard bot message asking "are you busy at the moment?". If you answer someone will take over the conversation with the bot and ask you to "Vote for their team" in a competition.

All of my friends who had their account comprised due to this had not responded to any spam messages, all had mobile authenticator, and had no notifications on their email notifying them of new location logins.

It doesn't appear that the password of your account will be changed immediatly, but to avoid you discovering it, the people behind the account theft will block your friends, so you don't get notifications when they message you.

There's a chance your account is already compromised without you knowing, so please check your friends' profiles and check if any of them have been blocked, additionally you can check your messages with your friends.

Anyways, please take care out there.

[Levi]

This is not new in any way.

[Supafly]

Not new. It's been in use for years.

Mobile authenticator is not a magical make account immune to compromise. It's an extra key. If a user gives the standard key/password along with the extra/guard key away to strangers the extra key like the other is key is worthless.

This is usually done when users login on dodgy phishing sites giving hijackers access to their accounts. various things can happen from this point. The weak link was the user and no extra security would change that.

Users need to STOP by greedy, stupid and naive. They should learn that Steam guard/authenticator is nothing more than an extra key and they should check sites BEFORE they enter credentials on them. That goes for both Steam related and any other.

EDIT: Try a search for 'new scam vote for team' and look at all the other treads about this old scam

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/search/?gidforum=882959061466924237&include_deleted=1&q=new+scam+vote+for+team

[J4MESOX4D]

This 'new' type of scam is old.

[Muppet among Puppets]

If the hijack worked without userinteraction, they would not ask to vote for the team and not having a fake login.

[crunchyfrog]

Ah it's Saturday again I see!

Joking aside, no this isn't remotely new. It's the most old and common scam on Steam.

Don't take this the wrong way OP, but you need to apprecaite we see posts exactly like yours day in day out on here. Here's the problem - whilst you are being nice and altruistic, you're preaching to the choir. It serves no purpose.

The simple reason being that these forums are used by a tiny percentage of a tiny percentage of users, many of whom just do not read. Not that I'm taking the piss or anything as we ALL do it to various extents. YOU did, otherwise you would have notice the many such posts the same as yours (and the official notices from Valve too).

So yeah, sorry, not even closely new, nor does posting here serve anything.

[Hyllested]

Ah, my apologies, I see what you all mean now. Should have looked around a bit, I guess I assumed it was new because a lot of people in my friendcircle suddenly was caught up in it at the same time, even though a lot of them did not know eachother.

[Supafly]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Enjov:

Ah, my apologies, I see what you all mean now. Should have looked around a bit, I guess I assumed it was new because a lot of people in my friendcircle suddenly was caught up in it at the same time, even though a lot of them did not know eachother.

No worries. We just wanted to explain it. These sort of things can also happen via text message, Instant message apps like What's App and email. That's why you should never blindly trust links from people even if you know them and definitely enter any sensitive data IF you do follow a link

[crunchyfrog]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Enjov:

Ah, my apologies, I see what you all mean now. Should have looked around a bit, I guess I assumed it was new because a lot of people in my friendcircle suddenly was caught up in it at the same time, even though a lot of them did not know eachother.

Not a problem at all. Thank you for being mature about it.

Far too man get butthurt when we explain it, thinking we're having a go at them.

We're all unfamiliar or new to certain things on here, so it's perfectly understandable.

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

There long post I made, but anyways nearly daily people fall victim to basic scams, by believing they get something for free, by believing they were talking to support because they claim to be one, and so on. There videos that show examples of type of scams as well.
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/3118150513194609531/#c3118150513194894458


Scammers goal are simple.
- They con you into giving them money, items, or private info, via chat, VoIP, phishing website, or etc...

- They use your private info against you to try take ownership of the account, and any other service using the same email/username, and password to hijack anything else you have, and steal from you.

- To repeat scam with your friends list, and saved contacts.

Pretty straight forward, and that's kind of all there is to it really. The more aware you become, and think more logically, the less likely to getting tricked, or scammed by others.

[Supafly]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von crunchyfrog:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Enjov:

Ah, my apologies, I see what you all mean now. Should have looked around a bit, I guess I assumed it was new because a lot of people in my friendcircle suddenly was caught up in it at the same time, even though a lot of them did not know eachother.

Not a problem at all. Thank you for being mature about it.

Far too man get butthurt when we explain it, thinking we're having a go at them.

We're all unfamiliar or new to certain things on here, so it's perfectly understandable.

There's even a term for that phenomenon, Baader-Meinhof phenomenon. Remember looking it up years ago after I kept seeing cars I just purchased everywhere. Even when I rarely remember seeing them anywhere before the purchase even though I would spend 8 hours a day on public roads for a living

[crunchyfrog]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Monkey:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von crunchyfrog:

Not a problem at all. Thank you for being mature about it.

Far too man get butthurt when we explain it, thinking we're having a go at them.

We're all unfamiliar or new to certain things on here, so it's perfectly understandable.

There's even a term for that phenomenon, Baader-Meinhof phenomenon. Remember looking it up years ago after I kept seeing cars I just purchased everywhere. Even when I rarely remember seeing them anywhere before the purchase even though I would spend 8 hours a day on public roads for a living

Wow, the Baader-Meinhof gang. That's a group I haven't heard about in decades!

Yup, it's an interesting phenomenon. I remember first being aware of it when |I used to go car spotting on long journeys as a kid. I thought that once we changed our car, we'd see everyone seemingly had the same car.

Human nature is something I love looking into.

[Supafly]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von crunchyfrog:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Monkey:

There's even a term for that phenomenon, Baader-Meinhof phenomenon. Remember looking it up years ago after I kept seeing cars I just purchased everywhere. Even when I rarely remember seeing them anywhere before the purchase even though I would spend 8 hours a day on public roads for a living

Wow, the Baader-Meinhof gang. That's a group I haven't heard about in decades!

Yup, it's an interesting phenomenon. I remember first being aware of it when |I used to go car spotting on long journeys as a kid. I thought that once we changed our car, we'd see everyone seemingly had the same car.

Human nature is something I love looking into.

Was a thread I saw and commented in yesterday or day before that reminded me of it so it was still in my forgetful head

Car wise I only seem to notice it with cars with the same colour as the one I get. It's usual why I go for the car in that colour because I don't see it often then get disappointed when I see it everywhere.

Wanted my current Civic in Orange but wasn't prepared to pay the premium for it in Orange as it was rare so I got the vibrant Blue..... don't see the same car in this blue everywhere but enough. Had it 6 years and I can say I could count on 1 hand how many times I've seen that car in Orange on the road. Which is saying something when for the first 4 years I'd be on the road for an 8 hour shift plus 30-60 minutes commute 5-6 days a week.

Makes me wish I sent the extra to get it in Orange lol

[Muppet among Puppets]

I am not sure i understand the phenomenon by that name.
If that name pops up in a news, it is likely to pop up somewhere else as well.
As its a news.

[crunchyfrog]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Monkey:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von crunchyfrog:

Wow, the Baader-Meinhof gang. That's a group I haven't heard about in decades!

Yup, it's an interesting phenomenon. I remember first being aware of it when |I used to go car spotting on long journeys as a kid. I thought that once we changed our car, we'd see everyone seemingly had the same car.

Human nature is something I love looking into.

Was a thread I saw and commented in yesterday or day before that reminded me of it so it was still in my forgetful head

Car wise I only seem to notice it with cars with the same colour as the one I get. It's usual why I go for the car in that colour because I don't see it often then get disappointed when I see it everywhere.

Wanted my current Civic in Orange but wasn't prepared to pay the premium for it in Orange as it was rare so I got the vibrant Blue..... don't see the same car in this blue everywhere but enough. Had it 6 years and I can say I could count on 1 hand how many times I've seen that car in Orange on the road. Which is saying something when for the first 4 years I'd be on the road for an 8 hour shift plus 30-60 minutes commute 5-6 days a week.

Makes me wish I sent the extra to get it in Orange lol

I tend to do things weirdly myself, and I think this is partly why I find many human nature things fascinating as they're somewhat alien to me.

In the idea of cars, for example, I get to lease a new car every three years under Motability (a British scheme for disabled users where we get a car kind of for free). Even so, whenever I choose a new car (which I absolutely hate - car shopping and suffering salesmen are the worst), colour doesn't even factor.

I often use it as a tester to see how good the salesman is - they will often ask about colour pretty early on in the conversation and I simply say "i don't care. I'm sat in it so won't see it most of the time". I watch their response and see if the facade cracks at all.

As I say, I'm odd but if I'm going to suffer annoying salesmen, I have to get a bit of fun somehow :)

[Supafly]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Muppet among Puppets:

I am not sure i understand the phenomenon by that name.
If that name pops up in a news, it is likely to pop up somewhere else as well.
As its a news.

Not likely to be in the news as it's not news really. Been known about for decades. I had completely forgot about it till the other day made me think of it. I did have to google it to find the name again.

EDIT: Name used/linked to bad gangs/groups in history so thought I'd link to the actual phenomenon in case you actually want to read about it
https://www.healthline.com/health/baader-meinhof-phenomenon