SCAM WARNING- Accounts being stolen!

[𝕷𝖔𝖚𝖆𝖓𝖊𝖎♥]

I got a weird message a week ago from a guy saying he added me of deviant art but I haven't used my deviant art in like...4 years ontop of the fact it isnt linked anywhere. Then he send a friend request to me on here and I accepted. I got messages like..every 2 days of him spamming 'hey' and 'i really need to talk to you, please dont be mad' which obviously, flared my anxiety up to the max, it didn't help that this dude ignored my every attempt to ask him who he was and replied so infrequently. After like...4 days, he sends a huge string of messages detailing that he accidentally reported my account for theft instead of someone elses and sent quite a realistic looking screenshot of a steam support ticket that was open with a reply from Steam saying that the reported account (MY account) was going to be banned in 12 hours unless proof showing I've not done any of the offenses the guy accused me of was brought forward. It also said that if he needed to contact one of the Steam developers to contact them via the Steam chat or Discord.

SO, I started off like...Geez this guy is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ moron. I got really sad cos like... This my steam account ;_; I've had it ever since I was a kid I don't wanna lose it...I legit bought into his crap and clicked on the link to see the developers but like...I clicked on the profile of the developer it said to contact in the screenshot but there was NO options to message him let alone add him or ANYTHING so I decided to do the discord thing.... Then after like...A MINUTE, but in my panicked state it felt like an hour...I thought to myself, this guy really sucks at replying and he texted me 5 hours ago so I don't have a lot of time left to sort this ♥♥♥♥ out if my account will get banned in 12hrs from the time he sent the screenshot at least. So i took matters into my own hands and decided to contact steam support myself, considering they didnt even give me a headsup about my account getting banned either and i thought it was weird. Then I saw this...

''Steam developers will NOT contact any persons via Discord or Chat''.

That's when it hit me that this was all a scam, I undid my friendship request to the ''developer'' on Discord and unfriended the account that was messaging me on steam. I decided that if I was gonna get banned, then let it happen. I'll contact steam later for a formal investigation cos I know I did nothing wrong.

LONG STORY SHORT - SKIP TO THIS IF YOU CBA TO READ THE BACKSTORY ^^^

There's people out there trynna trick you into thinking your account is going to get banned, it's almost completely believable if you don't remain faithful to the idea that if there's an issue, Valve will contact you before doing ANYTHING super mean so... Yeah. Idk if these guys are trynna steal accounts or money but, just stay careful, okay?

MORAL OF THE STORY?
DEVELOPERS DON'T WANNA TALK TO YOU. B SMORT

[Aachen]

You missed the hundreds of preëxisting variations on this thread archetype, I presume?

[𝕷𝖔𝖚𝖆𝖓𝖊𝖎♥]

tbh...It's my first time in the 'community' section of Steam...I'm too scared of people TuT... I didn't really know what I was doing, I just knew I had to post something so I could warn someone else.

[Aachen]

Originally posted by Louaneii:

tbh...It's my first time in the 'community' section of Steam...I'm too scared of people TuT... I didn't really know what I was doing, I just knew I had to post something so I could warn someone else.

And yet you yourself admit you never checked this section before you were victimized?

Perhaps forum PSAs aren’t all that efffective.

[Tsubame ⭐]

Very very common scam attempt. Lots of people fall for some variation of this every day.

They are trying to steal whatever items of value so they can sell in the marketplace.

Never:

1 - put your Steam credentials in a third-party website; i.e. website for CS:GO item trading. This can lead to phishing.
2 - trust anyone whom you just met - i.e. added friend - saying something happened towards you, like a report, and you need to do something to prevent problems.

If Steam needs to take action against you, they will take it immediately and notify you of the actions taken and steps that can be taken to remedy it through your email, not through Steam chat or Dischord; and definitely will not ask you to give money or trade items.

[𝕷𝖔𝖚𝖆𝖓𝖊𝖎♥]

Actually I did try! But I didn't see any posts that really correlated with my specific situation... Still, I'm technically not a victim, just a target. I figured out that it was a scam via other means which I've pre-disclosed in this discussion X3 Anyway... I've posted it now, so as long as it's not hurting anybody I don't think it's much of an error. c: As long as people can find it... But if this is already a well known issue then I suppose it doesn't really matter whether my post get's seen or not. But I guess, you saw it! So I'll take the 50/50 win there. But since you've mentioned it now, I guess I'll lurk around community discussions a bit to familiarise myself with the place for future reference c:

[nullable]

Unfortunately there's a formula to this

1. Person gets scammed, almost gets scammed, or sees part of a scam.
   
2. Wants to do something about it
   
3. Posts to the forum where anyone who reads it on anything close to a regular basis is well aware of all the scams.
   
4. A bunch of people rain on their parade.
   
5. Person doesn't care, as long as they help just one person out.
   
6. Topic falls into oblivion within a few hours, probably pushed off the front page by the next well intentioned PSA or scam post.

[𝕷𝖔𝖚𝖆𝖓𝖊𝖎♥]

I'm not too sure what you mean Snakub, I think the discussion is going rather well c: I've A. Learnt that there's specific places to post these concerns. B. Got extra information from another awesome comment so whoever else reads this will have that to look to. C. A stranger concerned for the future status of my post. So far it's just drenched in positivity and I couldn't say my first community experience could've gone any better c: I get this post will be drowned out eventually but at least it'll pop up when someones intentionally searching for Scam discussions via the search bar. So don't you worry about that -pat pat-

[Aachen]

Originally posted by Louaneii:

.... Still, I'm technically not a victim, just a target ....

Fair enough!

I did not want to project a dismissive attitude, but mea culpa.

[𝕷𝖔𝖚𝖆𝖓𝖊𝖎♥]

It's all good dude (: If that wasn't your intention then non curarum.

[Judgmental Amaterasu]

You didn't look very hard then because this is scam has been mentioned multiple times. A slight deviation of the starting point doesn't change the fact that it's still a "i accidentally reported you" scam.

[𝕷𝖔𝖚𝖆𝖓𝖊𝖎♥]

No you're right I didn't look super hard haha, this part of steam always intimidates me I think I looked at one page after making my search and then deviated. But oh well, point is I still managed to figure it out before getting ffed over and am wiser now so yippee haha. Anyway I don't really understand your comment haha. I'm just warning other people, I'm not looking for sympathy for my situation x3 cos nothing really happened...

[GoesWellWithNoodle]

o7 Good catch! These people come up with all sort of tricks to get your account into. We're not all lifelong internet users here that has run into this before. Hopefully someone sees this and avoids getting scammed :)

[kitt]

''Steam developers will NOT contact any persons via Discord or Chat''.

That's when it hit me that this was all a scam

ok, good

I decided that if I was gonna get banned, then let it happen. I'll contact steam later for a formal investigation cos I know I did nothing wrong.

so you figured its a scam and nothing will happen because its a SCAM and yet you keep assuming something could happend?



I don't understand.. like seriously

[zaphodikus]

Originally posted by Aachen:

Originally posted by Louaneii:

tbh...It's my first time in the 'community' section of Steam...I'm too scared of people TuT... I didn't really know what I was doing, I just knew I had to post something so I could warn someone else.

:spazdunno: And yet you yourself admit you never checked this section before you were victimized?

Perhaps forum PSAs aren’t all that efffective.

Not useful.
The same kind of thing happens with books and blogs, people say, ah I have nothing to add to this topic, why write a book or blog about topic xyz, it's all been done a million times before. That's not a good place to be at all in our society if we say your own experience cannot possibly be unique and cannot possibly help another person. I know I have myself also railed against this, "yet another hacker thread" nonsense, but I stopped my rage a while ago, when one of the mods reminded me that every hack lesson is important. And putting it on paper is for some a coping mechanism innately built into our survival instinct wiring. (Enjoy the award @Louaneii)

This kind of attitude of "did you not see all the other similar posts" is a lot like the subconscious bias that covers so much of this male dominated ecosystem. It denies the person the experience they just had as being important to them. It bloody well was so important they took the time to make their first post. It's called empathy, and guess what, we can all learn a bit more if it, I'm learning too, it's not easy though.

[Aachen]

Originally posted by zaphodikus:

Not useful.
The same kind of thing happens with books and blogs, people say, ah I have nothing to add to this topic, why write a book or blog about topic xyz, it's all been done a million times before. That's not a good place to be at all in our society if we say your own experience cannot possibly be unique and cannot possibly help another person ....

I think we’re toeing up to strawfolk territory here—of course this thread could help someone. If you’ve been following the last several month this exchange, more-or-less, has occurred. If I may ask, though .... how many PSAs before you see them as driving out other topics?

Anyway, what’s the salience of uniqueness to the subject of a (rather banal) scam?

.... I know I have myself also railed against this, "yet another hacker thread" nonsense, but I stopped my rage a while ago, when one of the mods reminded me that every hack lesson is important. And putting it on paper is for some a coping mechanism innately built into our survival instinct wiring ....

Sure, that social impetus is powerful. However, as the landing page notes, “searching is key” and it’s not as if there aren’t plenty of open threads to which one could contribute.

Glad you’re less distressed these days, AAR.

.... This kind of attitude of "did you not see all the other similar posts" is a lot like the subconscious bias that covers so much of this male dominated ecosystem. It denies the person the experience they just had as being important to them. It bloody well was so important they took the time to make their first post. It's called empathy, and guess what, we can all learn a bit more if it, I'm learning too, it's not easy though.
:flagukraine:

I’m not sure I quite follow your linkage. It’s a contemplative perspective, though.