Account gone? Hacked? Stolen?

Qonfused

Qonfused

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What happened to my account? Help!

I started up my computer this morning and went to log into Steam. The username was already there for me so I just entered my password. The window went gray for a second and then an error message popped up.

Login to steam failed.
Either the specified account does not exist, or the password is wrong.
Please check your account name and password and try again.

So, I checked my CAPS Lock and my NUM Lock to make sure if they were off and on, respectively, and tryed again. Same error. And once more. Same error.

Then, I clicked the button that says "Retrieve a lost account..." and went through the "I know my account name" and "I don't know my account name" options which all lead to sending something to your e-mail, weither you gave it your e-mail or the e-mail related to your account name was automatically retrieved.

I have yet to recieve an e-mail from them. It's been about three hours. And I'm kinda worried.
 
Have you recently replied to one of these emails?

"From: "Steam" < [email protected] >
Reply-To: "Steam" < [email protected] >
To:
Subject: Please validate your Steam Account

Dear Steam User,

In order to continue using Steam you must validate your account by
forwarding this message to [email protected].
You must include your account information in this format in the message:
Username: (your Steam username)
E-Mail: (the email you registered your account to.)
Password: (the password you used to log in to your Steam account.)

Our database will be formatted soon, due to some damage caused by some
users. We will need to record our active users and add them to our database
once again.

You must validate your account within 30 days or eles your account will
get closed. Thank you for your co-operation, Best regards, Steam
account Managing Team."
 
Q_onfused said:
II have yet to recieve an e-mail from them. It's been about three hours. And I'm kinda worried.
Click to expand...

Well if it was hijacked, they probably changed the contact address already, so you might be out of luck. Who knows.
 
Gunner said:
Have you recently replied to one of these emails?

"From: "Steam" < [email protected] >
Reply-To: "Steam" < [email protected] >
To:
Subject: Please validate your Steam Account

Dear Steam User,

In order to continue using Steam you must validate your account by
forwarding this message to [email protected].
You must include your account information in this format in the message:
Username: (your Steam username)
E-Mail: (the email you registered your account to.)
Password: (the password you used to log in to your Steam account.)

Our database will be formatted soon, due to some damage caused by some
users. We will need to record our active users and add them to our database
once again.

You must validate your account within 30 days or eles your account will
get closed. Thank you for your co-operation, Best regards, Steam
account Managing Team."
Click to expand...

No. And that's the problem.
 
actually q_onfused, that would be a bad thing if you replied to one of THOSE emails... read it again, its a scam. If you had replaied to one of those, that would have been why you can't log on now.
 
Paintballer said:
actually q_onfused, that would be a bad thing if you replied to one of THOSE emails... read it again, its a scam. If you had replaied to one of those, that would have been why you can't log on now.
Click to expand...

Yep, lots of those fake emails going around trying to scam people into giving their login/pw. Well what else could it be, have you shared your account with a friend/brother?
 
Gunner said:
Yep, lots of those fake emails going around trying to scam people into giving their login/pw. Well what else could it be, have you shared your account with a friend/brother?
Click to expand...

Nope, only me and myself.
 
Oh ****.

I just made a new account using the same e-mail that I used on my first Steam account and went through the e-mail thing. This is what I got.

Dear Steam user,

This is an automated message generated by Steam account administration.
It is being sent in response to a query made by a Steam user to
discover all account names associated with this email address.

Steam account name: ninlover

You can use the above account name to log in to Steam. If you can't
remember your password, click on the "Retrieve lost account" button on the
Steam login screen.

Signed,

The Steam Support Team

To contact us, email [email protected]
 
Same thing has happend to me (not the email that wants your info). I think it has to do with the last update, I set it to remember my password but when the update was aplyed then that login screen came up(and I forgot my password i think AND my awnser to the quesiton)
 
DieHard said:
Same thing has happend to me (not the email that wants your info). I think it has to do with the last update, I set it to remember my password but when the update was aplyed then that login screen came up(and I forgot my password i think AND my awnser to the quesiton)
Click to expand...

Well, I have been able to play since the update, just not from this morning.

UPDATE: I sent an e-mail to them re-stating all the information here in this thread and more.
 
My account was once hijacked and stolen because I was not being smart and accidentally did something I shouldn't have. I then sent an email to Steam telling them my email and some other information which I forget now. Then, in a good week, I recieved an email from Steam saying my account password has been reformatted, so to say, and they gave me a new password. I was so happy when I got my account back since I had all the Steam back catalogue on there minus CZ.
 
This has happened to me too 2 days ago.
Still waiting to hear something from steam.

Really sux!
 
Protecting your steam account starts with a strong password. Use a lot of different characters, like small & big caps, numbers and symbols. Don't use a password that is listed in a dictionary.

Not trying to be smart, but maybe some will read this and act on it.
/yeah right who am I kidding
 
Element Alpha said:
Protecting your steam account starts with a strong password. Use a lot of different characters, like small & big caps, numbers and symbols. Don't use a password that is listed in a dictionary.

Not trying to be smart, but maybe some will read this and act on it.
/yeah right who am I kidding
Click to expand...

Yea mine is. It's like 6etyg235 ... (not my password)
 
Well, it's been 8 days and no reply from Valve.
 
I had the same thing a while ago. I took a few days for them to send me a lost password e-mail. Not 8 days mind you.. that's a little crazy!
 
Well, I sent them another e-mail restating everything in the first and a little bit more. Maybe they didn't recieve it? Error? I dunno, but anyways... I hope I get some results this time. I need my CSS!

:p
 
ive been hijacked before, and i did that steam thing and i got my account back :D
 
yep, mine got hacked when the XPL league site got hacked. lots of people lost their account if they had an old enough steam account that still used an email address instead of a username...and were dumb enough to use the same password for XPL that they used to log in with.

see: lots of us idiots.

so yeah, if you submit an incident report on steam's support site, they should reset your password for you.

personally i sent them everything i had, just copied and pasted my verification email in the report, and included the last 4 digits of the card used to purchase the account with, steamid, username, and email i signed up with. the more solid info you give them up front the faster they can get to it. took me about 3 days to get an email.

Q_onfused said:
Well, I sent them another e-mail restating everything in the first and a little bit more. Maybe they didn't recieve it? Error? I dunno, but anyways... I hope I get some results this time. I need my CSS!

:p
Click to expand...

just read this again, do not send an email. they will probably never answer it.

go to the steam support site and fill out an incident report. scroll down to where you see "ask a question" and provide all the info i described above.

steam support link
 
Fragalishus said:
yep, mine got hacked when the XPL league site got hacked. lots of people lost their account if they had an old enough steam account that still used an email address instead of a username...and were dumb enough to use the same password for XPL that they used to log in with.

see: lots of us idiots.

so yeah, if you submit an incident report on steam's support site, they should reset your password for you.

personally i sent them everything i had, just copied and pasted my verification email in the report, and included the last 4 digits of the card used to purchase the account with, steamid, username, and email i signed up with. the more solid info you give them up front the faster they can get to it. took me about 3 days to get an email.



just read this again, do not send an email. they will probably never answer it.

go to the steam support site and fill out an incident report. scroll down to where you see "ask a question" and provide all the info i described above.

steam support link
Click to expand...


Do you mean to click on "Ask a Question" and then fill that out? A.K.A. "incident report?"
 
yes. yes, again, cuz i guess my reply has to be more than 6 characters.
 
Fragalishus said:
yes. yes, again, cuz i guess my reply has to be more than 6 characters.
Click to expand...

Lawl.

Alright, I did what you said... basically I just copied everything from the e-mail I sent them. Man, I've copied that e-mail 3 times now. Heh.
 
Ah, I'm finally getting results!

I have gotten a quick reply (~6 hours) and the response was about having access to an e-mail account I have never had (i.e. maybe the hackers e-mail? Who knows...). I replied stating that I have never had that e-mail account or even with that e-mail provider (gmail). Hopefully this will turn out good.
 
AH HA!

Yes! I got my accoutn back!! YES! AWESOME! HAHA! WEE! *ahem*

Well, thanks for the suggestions everyone, especially from Fragalishus!

Heh, plus, I've gotten a gmail account outta this... :D
 
Q_onfused said:
AH HA!

Yes! I got my accoutn back!! YES! AWESOME! HAHA! WEE! *ahem*

Well, thanks for the suggestions everyone, especially from Fragalishus!

Heh, plus, I've gotten a gmail account outta this... :D
Click to expand...

I've got 50 more if you want 'em...
 
This happened to my friend too. He didn't get any emails because he didn't use a valid email when he made his account. My other friend heard that steam got hacked by a group of hackers. They stole about 500 accounts. He read this on a hacking forum I would assume, even though he only said "forum".
 
That never happened Warrior, your friend makes up things because his life is too dull to support his big ego, well thats my best guess. (go introduce yourself in newbie central btw!)
 
^ Rofl?

Btw, I completely forgot about this thread.

:p
 
My account name for steam is like from when Steam was born, I got it the second day. It's an email that doesn't exist anymore, so I am never tempted into those silly scams.
 
Qonfused said:
AH HA!

Yes! I got my accoutn back!! YES! AWESOME! HAHA! WEE! *ahem*

Well, thanks for the suggestions everyone, especially from Fragalishus!

Heh, plus, I've gotten a gmail account outta this... :D
Click to expand...

glad to see things worked out for ya :)
i was going to suggest that you send a letter (plus the CD inset cover if you bought retail) to Valve's CD/DVD replacement address explaining what had happened.

i bought a retail version of HL2 and apparently the CD-KEY had already been used and so i used the enclosed CD/DVD replacement address to get help on my problems with installing via the DVD..i got a reply within a week.

anyway, once again good to see another happy ending :D

edit:
CookieCuttah said:
My account name for steam is like from when Steam was born, I got it the second day. It's an email that doesn't exist anymore, so I am never tempted into those silly scams.
Click to expand...

you do know that you can go into the Steam settings and change your contact info to an email account which is valid....some day this could end up helping you save your account from greedy scrubs.
 
My Short Story - Steam Account Hijacked!!

Posted this elsewhere...thought I'd take a shot here...
:bounce:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanksgiving morning I got the dreaded "Your Steam Account Password has been successfully changed. I was amazed because , frankly, I hadn't logged into Steam for over 2 weeks and then it was only to make sure I still had the account. You see I have what many have said is a rare account?yes it's a 4 digit Steam ID number.

While I don't play much I still remember staying up real late to get that ID and using it extensively to play for a few years. While it has no real monetary value to me, except for the games I have registered to the account, it's kinda nice to have such a rare ID. And now it had been stolen.

Here is the thing?I have 4 computers that use in my house?call me crazy but it's true. The one with Steam on it is used for CS and a MMORPG exclusively. No um?shall we say...adult type surfing?no key code generators no nothing. It was very rarely used for anything BUT those two games. Now my password had been hijacked but the person didn't change the e-mail.

Well?I got the account back by working with Steam. When I got in I found that the guy had changed the profile to reflect what I believe to be his real location and uploaded his real picture and perhaps even inputting his real name. (The reason I believe this is that he had several other accounts with the same info with the same friends.) Should I call the police and file a complaint on what could only be called a strange case of identity theft? Do they even bother themselves with this kind of thing? Can the intrinsic value of a 4 digit Steam ID be cause for a bigger charge or...not? I don't know.

However now I am in a quandary. How did my account info get "out"? Since the computer I use for Steam has a very limited vulnerability & use and I can't remember the last time I D/L something to it?how did this happen. Is there a hole in my network? Is there a key logger on the computer from way back that I don't know about? Should I re-format just to be sure that it's "clean?". Should I put on a tin foil hat and throw cookies at the sky and stay inside?

For argument sake, please note, that I run both McAfee Antivirus and Zone alarm and have been doing regular Spybot scans (Yes?paranoia is a reality these days) for more reasons then this...

Could the account info and the password have been stolen some other way? Could they have brute forced the change? Should I default to the most likely answer and assume that I have a virus or other harmful program on that puter and reformat it? How could I tell if it has not spread to the other computers on the network? GAH! This is annoying?NOT looking forward to reinstalling XP on 4 computers.

Advice from those in the know would be much appreciated...
 
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