Desperate Dad - Please help

[Brad]

Hi

In need of a little advice please.

My lad's account got hacked yesterday and he has opened a 'help request' to report this. This was more than 24 hours ago and he has had no response or even confirmation that the ticket has even being received. The hacker still has his account and, most alarmingly, my lad is also now being contacted by other people via Discord now saying he owes them money for things supposedly purchased by his Steam account!

We have tried to open another 'help request' to report again and to understand what is going on but all we get is, 'An open help request already exists for this email address. A duplicate request cannot be created.' !!!

We are desperate to ensure no wrong doing is going on by these... I'll be polite... hackers and for him to get access to his account again.

Please can someone advise as to what we can do next and how long we should wait.

Extremely concerning all round and feel utterly helpless.

Thank You

[Aluvard]

Nope, his account was hijacked - usually via malware or phishing. If you still have access to that account:

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)

Regarding items:
https://help.steampowered.com/faqs/view/3B6E-B322-2400-8D24

If not:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1126288560

What counts as viable proof of ownership:
https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/40A0-8B4B-B54B-C51A

Those people on Discord are most likely scammers. Block, report and ignore.

[Brad]

Thanks Aluvard but that's not of any help really.

- He doesn't have access to his account as the login details have been changed -

To respond directly to your suggestions (the standard Steam suggestions which have been of no use here)

1. Computer has been scanned and came up clean.
2. Email on the account has been changed by the hacker/hijacker. We cannot access the account at all now....

which puts an end to 3,4,5

What now?
Has Steam got his help request?
How long does he have to wait?

What if no response from Steam, how can he get his account back (unharmed)?

There's no help at all from Steam about this.

Thanks

...and "Those people on Discord are most likely scammers. Block, report and ignore." - Yep, he's aware of that but it's still concerning what's happening, until confirmed by Steam.

[Aluvard]

Originally posted by Bud:

-snip-

I've linked guide for account recovery in my previous post. If he has already done it, all that remains is to wait for Support to contact him.

Your son leaked his own login information somehow; he need to identify how he did that.

[nullable]

Originally posted by Bud:

Extremely concerning all round and feel utterly helpless.

Thank You

Side note, you guys should probably learn a bit more about account security. "Hackers" aren't l33t h4x0r'ing Steam accounts, but users are reckless, careless and vulnerable to all sorts of scams. The only long term protection is some education, and no one is going to force you, gotta do it yourself.

This is a case where an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Good luck. Follow the guide above. Cooperate with support, don't ad lib or take shortcuts. Lots of people get their accounts hijacked, and most of them can recover them.

[Satou]

I have been in a similar situation where I as a kid lost my account and couldn't get back but the reason was I didn't know english and didn't know I could open a ticket. If above methods don't work I would say wait for them to answer your ticket. They're gonna ask you information about the details of your account and answer them as best as possible. I know this because I tried getting my account almost 5-6 years later and that's what they did for me. Although I didn't remember my details and couldn't get my account, there is a good chance you can if you know which card you used to buy games or just steam credit (just filling your steam wallet), your current email address, current username, current password and any old password or username or email if you changed them at anytime helps. I just wanted say this to give you some hope. I don't know if there is any better method and I don't know what you would do in a case of late answer but my answer came to me more than 24 hours later.

EDIT: they may not be asking for billing info but some kind of receipt and you can access receipts if you from your email if I remember right. also they may not ask for password I thought it would help and told them anyway but for sake of safety i suggest that you do not share current password (before hackers changed it) if they don't ask. other than that it is safe to share others.

[nullable]

Originally posted by Bud:

What if no response from Steam, how can he get his account back (unharmed)?

No guarantees. Any consequences/penalties that accrue against the account will not be removed. One of the incentives to keeping your account secure.

Originally posted by Bud:

There's no help at all from Steam about this.

An account being hijacked is frustrating and streesful, but it doesn't bump you up to first in the support queue. Lots of other people shoot themselves in the foot and have account issues/hijacks or otherwise need support too. You'll just have to be patient.

Originally posted by Bud:

...and "Those people on Discord are most likely scammers. Block, report and ignore." - Yep, he's aware of that but it's still concerning what's happening, until confirmed by Steam.

Valve can't confirm what's happening on Discord. All they can tell you is, "Those people on Discord are most likely scammers. Block, report and ignore."

[Brad]

Thanks for the replies and your helpful one Satou. I can confirm that Steam support were excellent some time ago when there a was separate issue (and did indeed need all those details - no problem). At that time though he received an acknowledgement almost immediately (auto?) which hasn't happened this time so we're not sure Steam even received it, hence the concern.


With regards to Discord - Do Steam admin use Discord to contact Steam members directly and can someone from Steam officially confirm this one way or the other?

[KalGimpa]

Originally posted by Brad:

Thanks for the replies and your helpful one Satou. I can confirm that Steam support were excellent some time ago when there a was separate issue (and did indeed need all those details - no problem). At that time though he received an acknowledgement almost immediately (auto?) which hasn't happened this time so we're not sure Steam even received it, hence the concern.


With regards to Discord - Do Steam admin use Discord to contact Steam members directly and can someone from Steam officially confirm this one way or the other?

sorry it happened, partner

steam will not contact anyone through discord

that is the start of many scams to scare people into giving up info

your son really need sto figure out where it is that he gave his info away

any site that wants your steam info is going to be a possibility

trading sites

get a skin for free

vote for my team

and then the discord scams like

i accidentally reported you

or someone acting like a steam mod

all designed to get into peoples accounts

[Dan5000]

Why would Steam use Discord? They don't even use their own chat for that. The only way you get in contact with steam is through the supportpage and only through your own doing.

You will NEVER get contacted by anyone from steam anywhere. There is no reason to.

[Brad]

KalCuey and Dan5000

Thank You :D

My thoughts exactly, but I am obviously new to this (and had to register an account simply to ask these questions as my lad couldn't even login to read the forum)! I think a part of the problem is that Steam and Discord are so integrated within his game playing that it's easy for him to not distinguish one from the other at times.

He's having a tough time just a the moment but you can rest assured we will cover the lessons to be learned from this.

Great to have it confirmed that Steam DO NOT use Discord - Thank you.

Just waiting patiently now for Steam support response... Sounds like they'll get it sorted in due course.

[Aluvard]

Originally posted by Brad:

Thanks for the replies and your helpful one Satou. I can confirm that Steam support were excellent some time ago when there a was separate issue (and did indeed need all those details - no problem). At that time though he received an acknowledgement almost immediately (auto?) which hasn't happened this time so we're not sure Steam even received it, hence the concern.


With regards to Discord - Do Steam admin use Discord to contact Steam members directly and can someone from Steam officially confirm this one way or the other?

They don't. Why should they?

Here you have Support article with a official disclaimer.
https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/4F62-35F9-F395-5C23

[Brad]

@Aluvard - That's Brilliant!

Exactly the confirmation I was looking for and my apologies that I didn't find that myself.

Really appreciated - Thank you :D

[miamew3]

While your waiting for steam to respond, it may be worth reading up on some of the different ways on how accounts are hijacked, so you and your son can protect his account better in the future.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=784477482

[Brad]

@miamew3

Great guide there - Thanks

[Satoru]

Originally posted by Brad:

@miamew3

Great guide there - Thanks

Note that the front end scam structures change constantly. But they all follow the same base premise of "give me your credentials". They can't do anything unless you explicitly give out your credentials.