"Valve employee" messaging you in private that you need get verified? LOG OFF STEAM ON ALL OF YOUR DEVICES IMMEDIATELY!

[Pinkamen]

It's been a while and I've seen some topics about this.

If a person, that has Steam logo as his profile picture and introduces himself as "Valve employee" messaging you - log off Steam on all of your devices.

You better do that via your phone, where your Steam Guard is linked, so you'll make sure that your Steam Guard is safe and you won't need to log in to check your account data (PC).

Now, when you did that - go and change your Steam password on a safe device ASAP.

After all the things you done - you're relatively safe, and you can read this thread at peace.

My friend recently got scammed by some "Alice Cortes". If you recieve messages from these frauds - DO NOT TRADE!

Originally posted by HikariLight:

Steam supply will only use Steam's internal ticket system to message you.

I did a little research and understood the whole scheme.

Apparently, your Steam session gets hijacked (the fraud gets access to your account, so he changes victims account pfp to blank and sets his status as "This account is being verified by a Valve employee.".

Hijacker adds his account as friend (since you don't need to confirm this through your Steam Guard'ed device) and then the conversation starts.

The most notable things that your account gets blanked (comments are getting deleted, also a friends can be deleted, like any of the stuff that can possible happen without confirmation).
And, when frauds texts you, THE MESSAGES FORMATTING ARE EXTREMELY UNIQUE, LIKE IT HAS NEVER BEEN MENTIONED BY STEAM ANYWHERE.

Extremely trustable and, still, dangerous thing, as long as the fraud has the access to your account.

How does the scam even happens? I'll tell you.

"Alice Cortes" threatens you that your account and your items will be wiped in case of not responding/cooperating. She asks you to continue the "account verification" in a way, that your "items will remain safe", but there's a thing.

As long as you will continue to transfer your items to other account (it could be your friend, your twink (another account), it doesn't matter in that case), you will get scammed.

It doesn't matter, how did you send the trade-offer - through the friends list, through the account page of desirable person, it gets tricky after.

When you send your first trade offer, it gets cancelled by the fraud immedately. Then, the fraud checks, to what account was the trade-offer sent to.

The fraud copies nickname and profile picture from the desirable person (on a fake account, of course), meanwhile cancelling any of the outcoming trade-offers (from a victims account).

Then, when all things are set, the fraud sends trade-offer from a victims account to his own account (with the same profile picture and nickname). Once again, cancelling any outcoming trade-offers, that were sent by a victim to the desirable account.

There's the trick - victim just accepting foreign trade offer. That's it. Items are gone irrevocably.

Please, let's make it not happen to anyone again.

If you want to get more details - feel free to ask.

Tags: Alice Cortes, account verification Steam, Steam account will be wiped, Steam suspicious activity, This account is being verified by a Valve employee. , Steam profile went blank, Steam scam

[Pinkamen]

May edit the post to make it more readable and noticable

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Easier to read the FAQs.

"Scam: I Have Been Reported and Will Be Banned" faq...

https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/3195-9FFB-BA06-F25B

"Steam Scam FAQ"

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

[Pinkamen]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Easier to read the FAQs.

"Scam: I Have Been Reported and Will Be Banned" faq...

https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/3195-9FFB-BA06-F25B

"Steam Scam FAQ"

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

:nkCool:

Thanks for the reply with the helpful links/information.

I started the thread so it's more likely to show up on the Google Search, so people can avoid this and apply actions as soon as they read the very beginning of the thread.

Well, this scam is not just messaging, it's combined scheme, when frauds have the access to your account. I want to make people know, that actions should be immediate and the first thing to do should be is logging off everywhere, except current device.

Frauds, that JUST have access to your account, is already a huge threat, as long as they can change your profile to the type of profile you can be banned for.

If a fraud have the access to your Steam account in the app - this can potentially lead to a multiple game bans/VAC. This is pure evil.

[HikariLight]

Steam supply will only use Steam's internal ticket system to message you.
Any messages from outside of this is someone attempting to scam you.
And Support has no reason to 'verify' you.
If you get banned, you get banned, they will not warn you.

[Pinkamen]

Originally posted by HikariLight:

Steam supply will only use Steam's internal ticket system to message you.
Any messages from outside of this is someone attempting to scam you.
And Support has no reason to 'verify' you.

When you're shocked and don't know what to do you just simply forget about everything in this world. So it's still worth the mention.

Tho, this scheme about logging into your account and sending trade-offers to a fake account, meanwhile using extremely unique formating, that Steam has never mentioned about anywhere is a strong case to mention. Like who th will even be able to write messages like that?

You haven't seen those messages (what I really hope for) so you may not understand what I'm talking about.

[zirka]

Thanks man , i just had to deal with this ♥♥♥♥ and your thread just saved my life. Huge respect

[Pinkamen]

Originally posted by zirka:

Thanks man , i just had to deal with this ♥♥♥♥ and your thread just saved my life. Huge respect

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