Odd empty messages from people I dont know.

[Spidey]

As it says in the title. I recieved a notification from steam that I had an unread chat message. I went to open it and then it tells me the user is 'unknown' and also there was no text/message in the box they had messaged me in. Is this a regular thing on steam ? because I dont trust it atall.

I also managed to check out who sent me the message by hovering over where it said unknown. It then showed me their profile which is here,

http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198080376814

1.9 hrs on record
last played on 20 Jul, 2013

Currently Offline
Last Online: 5 hrs, 43 mins ago

Ok so take note, last played '20th July 2013 last year'.

Last login this year today '5hrs and 43 mins ago'.

Could this be a scammer/hacker ? or has this person been hacked ?

This isnt the first time it has happened ( I just block them straight away )
infact it started to happen when steam was having troubles being taken down
and with all the strange activity happening lately with steam being attacked
I thought it was wise to report other oddities here.

Also the notifications keep telling me it is still 'unread' which is impossible
since there was nothing to read. I logged out several times too and its still there.
Any way to get rid of this notification ? Cleared my notifications on messages aswell.
So what to do ?

[Spidey]

Unread message still showing. Quite annoying.

[TastyToast]

thats weird that after logging out they are still there. no idea. got another computer you can log into to see if that makes it go away?

[Spidey]

well i tried with my phone and it hasnt gone away

[WhereIsBusmin]

Apparently opening http://steamcommunity.com/chat fixes the unread notification (click the link while logged into Steam).

Lettuce know if it works?

[TastyToast]

when i have a similar issue (not from randdom people) but just the notification not going away i log in on my laptop and then log back in on my pc and its gone.

[Spidey]

Aha! thankyou WhereIsBusmin mystery solved
Now I know what to do when it happens again *sighs*
I find it odd though that people are able to send you 'blank' messages
and the person who had sent it probably did so through a games forum chat
yet this person hasnt been online since july 2013 and decides to come on today
to send me a blank message lol why i'm sure something isnt right there.

[WhereIsBusmin]

Originally posted by .:spidereye:. running tests:

Aha! thankyou WhereIsBusmin mystery solved
Now I know what to do when it happens again *sighs*
I find it odd though that people are able to send you 'blank' messages
and the person who had sent it probably did so through a games forum chat
yet this person hasnt been online since july 2013 and decides to come on today
to send me a blank message lol why i'm sure something isnt right there.

You're welcome. I just have no idea what's up with your other mystery.

[Spidey]

I just hope for many of our users sakes that something else wasnt done when STEAM was having the downtime with the DDOS attacks. Its quite possible. A friend reminded me earlier of what happened to the Playstation network when it was taken down by hackers. It started with the DDOS then a total intrusion of accounts details. That wasnt a pretty picture.