Sketchy "Steam Support*" account wanted me to verify my account by trading ALL of my CS2 items?

[Sun607]

Ok, I have already typed pretty much all of this out, but accidentally hit a shortcut that caused my browser to close this out. So I'm just going to copy and paste the chat logs to show what happened. I will redact all my personal information. I should also preface this by saying that I am a very cautious person. I don't click any links from anyone I don't know. I don't give out personal information to anyone I havn't had a long friendship with (at least 6 months of constant communication) and for those guys, even then I won't click a link they send if it seems even slightly off. I like my privacy and security, so when I get these messages starting 3 days ago, I was really weirded out. I should also inform you that these messages were popping up in blocks as if copy pasted, which was also really strange.


"[Friday 5:40 AM]
76561199851680093:
This case [1X24-XSA2-19SZ-DDJ8] is in progress
Visit the community while your case is pending!
Your Steam account has been temporarily locked, click the “My Account” tab to view it!

#Your name, avatar and other profile settings have been temporarily removed.
#Your friends have been temporarily blocked.
#Please do not attempt to make changes until the survey is complete, the system will automatically delete your changes.
Dear [Sun607]: Hi, my name is “Sam Mason” and I am an employee at Steam. I work in the Fraud Department at Valve.
It has come to our attention that your account is licensed on a third-party site that uses Steam licenses
Are you the owner of this account?
Is your email ****************** correct?

[Friday 7:35 PM]
Sun607:
uhh yes?
that is my email?
but i guess you guys are probably closed now

Friday, May 2, 2025

[Yesterday, 1:03 AM]
76561199851680093:
Hello, we will now proceed and wait for your response.
Is your email ************ correct?

[Yesterday, 1:16 PM]
Sun607:
1 am is a wild time for steam support to message. is there any way to prove that you are actually steam support? Granted you are not on my friends list, but ive never had steam support message me before, so I wouldn't know the rundown

[Yesterday, 1:24 PM]
Sun607:
i guess if you sent me an email from steam? Because I don't have any emails notifying me of any fraud investigation."


At this point I was weirded out and suspicious. But then ANOTHER steam support chat opened up and things got so much weirder.


"System Notification User: [Steam username]

Investigation [HTMS-4UM1-YL2E-O2DT] Opened

Account ID: [Maybe my ID, but I wouldn't be able to tell] (My email address) has been blocked due to suspicious activity.
Please contact Steam Support for further investigation.
[HTMS-4UM1-YL2E-O2DT]
Account Information:

Account ID: [Again, a number I wouldn't be able to tell is legit]

Account Name: [Steam Username]

Email: "**************"

Attached Phone Number: [not difficult to find last 2 digits of my phone number]

PC Information:

PC Client: [computer name which could be found out externally]

IP Address: [Not my IP address]

Provider: "You may have used an VPN".
Your Steam account has been temporarily blocked due to suspicious activity. To unlock your account, you must continue communicating with official Steam Support in this chat.
The above information pertains to your account and is only accessible to Steam Support.
You may refuse assistance from Steam Support and terminate the investigation, but your account will remain blocked.
A support agent has joined the chat. Please select a communication language:

Chinese

English

[Yesterday, 3:13 PM]
Sun607:
uhhh hi?

[Yesterday, 3:13 PM]
ID #540:
Recent frequent IP address changes have been detected on your account.
Did you use a VPN or accelerator?

[Yesterday, 3:13 PM]
Sun607:
no i did not
but i have gotten a chat saying my account may be linked to some fraudulant activity

[Yesterday, 3:14 PM]
ID #540:
We need to confirm that you are the legitimate owner of the account to assist with unlocking it.
Are you the owner of this account? [what a bizarre way to try to confirm if I'm the owner of this account. If my account was compromised, wouldn't they also be able to respond to these DMs to pretend to be me? I feel like there are a lot of other ways to verify that are not this]

[Yesterday, 3:14 PM]
Sun607:
yes

[Yesterday, 3:14 PM]
ID #540:
Do you have access to the phone registered with Steam Guard? (This is critical for system verification).

[Yesterday, 3:14 PM]
Sun607:
yes i do

[Yesterday, 3:14 PM]
ID #540:
Steam Support has requested automated verification.
Verifying user data... [Literally nothing happens in my steam guard that would help confirm the person "Steam Support" is talking to is actually me]

[Yesterday, 3:15 PM]
Sun607:
how do i find it in my steam guard?

[Yesterday, 3:17 PM]
ID #540:
Steam Cloud system has completed data verification.
The verification process indicates no policy violations on your account. We can proceed with unlocking.
I will provide necessary instructions per Steam rules. Are you ready?

[Yesterday, 3:17 PM]
Sun607:
yes

[Yesterday, 3:17 PM]
ID #540:
1) Exchange all CS2 items in-game with a Steam user. [uhhhhh what the ♥♥♥♥?]
1.1 Use a trusted friend or Steam Cloud as the exchange partner.

2) If you use the Steam Guard Mobile Authenticator, confirm the transaction proposal via the mobile authenticator system.

3) After confirming the trade offer via Steam Guard, the transaction will be automatically canceled.

4) Once the steps are completed, the Steam account unlock process will begin. The entire process will take no more than 10 minutes.
Important Notice
This process is mandatory and takes no longer than 5 minutes. If you do not transfer the items, they will be deleted, and your account will be permanently locked in the trading system.
Your items will remain in your inventory.
Select a transaction option:

Exchange with a Friend

Steam Support

[At this point I am fully on guard. Why would they need all of my CS2 items traded to confirm I am the owner of my account? That is so sketchy and weird. I was in a call with a couple of friends and literally all of them were in agreeance that this seemed sketch as hell. This is a very wack way to confirm anything. So while we were discussing, not even 30 seconds I get hit with]

Choose a response option
Do not ignore Steam Support notifications.

[ok, now this is coming off like a scammer who is desperate to get your ♥♥♥♥ as quick as possible and has 0 patience for waiting. However, while we were discussing this new message, again not even 45 seconds later]

The games on your computer have been deleted for security reasons.

[ok, what the ♥♥♥♥? I check my computer, and my games are still there. I can still see them on my desktop and installed on steam. So that's weird. It was off putting and had all of us calling ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ on this]

[Yesterday, 3:24 PM]
Sun607:
ummmm what?

[Yesterday, 3:24 PM]
ID #540:
Select a transaction option:

Exchange with a Friend

Steam Support

[Yesterday, 3:24 PM]
Sun607:
this is really really odd. im going to call steam support

[Yesterday, 3:24 PM]
ID #540:
I am official Steam Support. Your account will be unlocked after following all provided instructions.
You may refuse to follow instructions, but doing so will prevent your in-game items from being legalized, leading to their deletion.
The information above pertains to your account and is exclusively available to Steam Support.

[Yesterday, 3:25 PM]
Sun607:
yeah, but having me trade CS2 items specifically seams really, really odd
seems really really odd
i don't know what specifically is causing this issue
and It is honestly very concerning
considering i got all of my items from official cases i unlocked in game
not from market or 3rd party
so that being a target is just really strange

[Yesterday, 3:26 PM]
ID #540:
Your items will not be transferred to another profile. We need to make sure that you are the true account owner.

[Yesterday, 3:27 PM]
Sun607:
can you email me?
or confirm via steam guard?

[Yesterday, 3:27 PM]
ID #540:
Select an answer option to continue unblocking.

[Yesterday, 3:27 PM]
Sun607:
because i dont even have an email about this

[Yesterday, 3:27 PM]
ID #540:
You must confirm the transaction so Steam can verify you are the legitimate account owner.
Select a transaction option:

Exchange with a Friend

Steam Support

[Yesterday, 3:27 PM]
Sun607:
steam support

[Yesterday, 3:27 PM]
ID #540:
Steam Cloud has been connected to assist with transaction compilation.

Initializing transaction....
Exchange proposal has been successfully sent!
Open the Steam app on your phone and confirm the trade offer.
Have you completed the confirmation?



[Yesterday, 3:30 PM]
Sun607:
I am very, very cautious about my privacy and security
and this is coming off super super sus
im going to try and get in contact with someone I KNOW is from steam
your account seems correct
but wanting literally all of my cs items in order to keep my games is just not something that seems right

[Yesterday, 3:31 PM]
ID #540:
We understand your situation. We are currently trying to help you unlock your account.

[Yesterday, 3:31 PM]
Sun607:
yes
then please give me some time

[Yesterday, 3:32 PM]
ID #540:
After confirmation, your items will remain in your profile.
Are you ready?

[Yesterday, 3:32 PM]
Sun607:
is there not literally any other way to do this?
confirming through a trade seems to be a really terrible way to do this

[Yesterday, 3:32 PM]
ID #540:
You must confirm the transaction so Steam can verify you are the legitimate account owner.

[Yesterday, 3:33 PM]
Sun607:
how does a trade confirm that?
any more than having me enter my steam guard number

[Yesterday, 3:33 PM]
ID #540:
We are checking your Steam Guard availability

[Yesterday, 3:33 PM]
Sun607:
then you could confirm my steam guard auth number

[Yesterday, 3:34 PM]
ID #540:
Now you need to complete the confirmation. Otherwise, the account blocking process will be resumed.
The games have been deleted from your PC.

[this is going on too long. I do get a pop up asking if steam can make changes to my PC which I deny instantly. I look at my games and slick Bit Burner at random to see if I could launch anything. It boots up as normal and I can play it. It works just fine. But whoever this was was not having it]


Your gaming session was stopped in order to block your account.

[Yesterday, 3:37 PM]
Sun607:
my gaming session was not stopped
my games were not deleted from my system

[Yesterday, 3:37 PM]
ID #540:
Check it again




Select a transaction option:

Exchange with a Friend

Steam Support

[Yesterday, 3:39 PM]
Sun607:
exchange with a friend
this is still weird as all of my games are still here
and i can play them

[at this point, I just went and changed my password because my friends and I agreed that in order to uninstall 3 games, they would have had to have been in my account, but unable to confirm the trade via my phone, so booting them out of my account via password change would have been the best step rn. After doing so, I get this message]

[Yesterday, 3:40 PM]
ID #540:
Your account will be unblocked within 12 hours. Thank you for your cooperation!

[And that was all. no more messages, nothing. It has been almost 24 hours and things are still weird on my account. Some of my friends were blocked, but a lot were not. I had very few games uninstalled. My CS page won't show any of my friends when I try to play. My pfp is still gone. So I am so confused as to what in the hell happened. This whole thing was shady as hell. I have no idea how they would have gotten access to my account, but also why would steam support chose to trade ONLY my cs items as a mean to confirm my identity. It is so weird and backwards. I want to get in touch with someone from steam support to confirm what was going on here, but every time I try to navigate the link tree, it just links me to pages on my own profile. It's really maddening. If anyone has any advice or help, I would REALLY appreciate it.]

[Wolf Knight]

you didnt need to post this, its a very well known scam. nothing strange about the message, the scammers are not typing this stuff out, they use bots or they copy/paste it. all that text makes it hard for people to see what is going on. you have important information being buried and lost in all that text.

changing passwords is not enough, you have to secure the account


your account is compromised
DO NOT TRADE
If you have access to the account

Steps to take NOW to secure the account:
1. Scan for malware https://www.malwarebytes.com/
2. Deauthorize all other devices https://store.steampowered.com/twofactor/manage
3. Change passwords from a clean computer
4. Generate new backup codes for your Mobile App https://store.steampowered.com/twofactor/manage
5. Revoke the API key https://steamcommunity.com/dev/apikey (there should be nothing in the APIKEY)
6. If points were stolen, do a password RESET to cancel the awards/points before they are delivered


Please review how you are logging into Steam, you somehow gave them your log in information. This could of been due to the computer being compromised and redirecting to a fake login, or you using a 3rd party site to login to steam.

[Sun607]

Originally posted by Wolf Knight:

you didnt need to post this, its a very well known scam. nothing strange about the message, the scammers are not typing this stuff out, they use bots or they copy/paste it. all that text makes it hard for people to see what is going on. you have important information being buried and lost in all that text.

changing passwords is not enough, you have to secure the account


your account is compromised
DO NOT TRADE
If you have access to the account

Steps to take NOW to secure the account:
1. Scan for malware https://www.malwarebytes.com/
2. Deauthorize all other devices https://store.steampowered.com/twofactor/manage
3. Change passwords from a clean computer
4. Generate new backup codes for your Mobile App https://store.steampowered.com/twofactor/manage
5. Revoke the API key https://steamcommunity.com/dev/apikey (there should be nothing in the APIKEY)
6. If points were stolen, do a password RESET to cancel the awards/points before they are delivered


Please review how you are logging into Steam, you somehow gave them your log in information. This could of been due to the computer being compromised and redirecting to a fake login, or you using a 3rd party site to login to steam.

I see, I had never seen or heard of this before and I wasn't sure if it was actually a scam or if it was just an employee who was out of control. I couldn't find anything about it online, so its good to know whats what. thank you!

[Lithurge]

Steam has a whole faq dedicated to scams

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

[eririixxq]

Valve employees, Steam Support and Moderator - 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 https://help.steampowered.com/en/ There's no situation in which you'd need to reach out to a Valve or Steam employee directly to resolve an issue.