Steam says I'm in a different place on steam guard?

[Se7en]

Just as the title says, when I authorise on steam guard that it is me logging in, it says I'm in a whole different part of my country, but when I log in on my phone it says I'm where I should be? It also makes me worried since somehow someone has been messaging my friends scam links even though I've changed both email and passwords so many times before, it happened two days ago even though I changed them before that. The messages from me (which I didn't send) were also sent the week prior... to which I used a new email and password, but it happened again this week

Any help would be greatly appreciated

[miamew3]

Your account is compromised, do the following steps to secure it and advice any friends to not click any of the links your account has sent out. If they have already clicked them, get them to follow these steps too.


1. Scan for malware https://www.malwarebytes.com/
2. Check that the email and phone number on the Steam account are still yours.
3. Deauthorize all other devices https://store.steampowered.com/twofactor/manage
4. Change passwords from a trusted/clean device.
5. Generate new backup codes for your Mobile App https://store.steampowered.com/twofactor/manage
6. Revoke the API key https://steamcommunity.com/dev/apikey (there should be nothing in the APIKEY)

[Ogami]

For the login location,that can be pretty normal especially in countries that use dynamic IP like pretty much all countries in Europe.
I am from Germany and my Steam Guard login location is usually not even close to my real location and usually between 20 and 200 km away.
Just today it showed my login to be from Munich/Baveria when i am near Duesseldorf in
North Rhine-Westphalia a few hundred kilometers farther north.
It just depends which internet distribution center currently provides your IP in your network.

Its not really something to be concerned about. If you get logins from other countries then you can start to worry.


As for the scam links stuff, that is more serious and can point at a compromised account. Definitely go through the list provided above my post.

[J4MESOX4D]

Geolocation data is never accurate. The important thing is that it is YOU attempting to login and not an entry attempt out of nowhere.

[ْSmoke™]

same for me, but it's not hack or anything. i think its related where like are the data centers are, or something like that as far as ik.

[Se7en]

Originally posted by Ogami:

For the login location,that can be pretty normal especially in countries that use dynamic IP like pretty much all countries in Europe.
I am from Germany and my Steam Guard login location is usually not even close to my real location and usually between 20 and 200 km away.
Just today it showed my login to be from Munich/Baveria when i am near Duesseldorf in
North Rhine-Westphalia a few hundred kilometers farther north.
It just depends which internet distribution center currently provides your IP in your network.

Its not really something to be concerned about. If you get logins from other countries then you can start to worry.


As for the scam links stuff, that is more serious and can point at a compromised account. Definitely go through the list provided above my post.

I live in Denmark so this could be the case definitely, it's just been saying the same location when I log on my pc for a while even though my phone says something different consistently

[Se7en]

Originally posted by miamew3:

Your account is compromised, do the following steps to secure it and advice any friends to not click any of the links your account has sent out. If they have already clicked them, get them to follow these steps too.


1. Scan for malware https://www.malwarebytes.com/
2. Check that the email and phone number on the Steam account are still yours.
3. Deauthorize all other devices https://store.steampowered.com/twofactor/manage
4. Change passwords from a trusted/clean device.
5. Generate new backup codes for your Mobile App https://store.steampowered.com/twofactor/manage
6. Revoke the API key https://steamcommunity.com/dev/apikey (there should be nothing in the APIKEY)

I've revoked my api, changed passwords on my phone to my current one and I've changed emails to one I haven't used for anything yet. I've also deatuhourized an so on. Tbh I'm not sure what to do, I've done all of what the list says except create new backup codes

[Ogami]

If you done everything your account should be secured again. As for new backup codes, those can be created on the Steam App on your phone.
Basically they are 1 time use login codes that override everything so you can access your account in case of a highjacking or emergency.
Sadly many users dont write those codes down when Steam explicitly tells you to do that when activating Steam Guard.

[Satoru]

Note that geolocations are based on how the IP is registered by the ISP. It generally will show only that its 'generally' in the same area. Depending on how you exit the internet it might not even be in the same city. Many times ISP's congregate exit nodes into one location. Another possibility is that the ISP registers their entire IP domain to their headquarters. So no matter where you are, it will show up as "random city" due to this.

For example if you're in a Starbucks, your IPs generally will show up as being in Seattle WA. If you're in an Apple store, your exit node is almost always Cupertino CA.