CD Key question for those familiar with the account recovery process...

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RiPaCRoMBiE 3 Jan, 2023 @ 9:46am

CD Key question for those familiar with the account recovery process...

Hi all,
I recently went through a situation where my (this) account was stolen and I had to go through several measures with Steam in attempts restore it. Unfortunately, Steam didn't do anything to help me, as the responses (from my research) were very standard "cookie cutter" replies similar users received (see third paragraph for how I recovered it).

However, one of those measures was a rather troublesome task of "what was the original CD key used to register the account with" exercise. Outside of the measure being unrealistic for those of us who didn't have the luxury of "hanging onto their childhood", it appears this is the common denominator of where people fall short. As a bit more ranting about this Steam, not all of us lived in stable homes and were able to carry our belongings with us for 19+ years.

I was lucky enough to have been able to get in contact with the person who stole it, who ended up returning it without any issue. If I "didn't have the physical copy of my cd key", I would have been screwed (which is the current situation for another one of my accounts). This account was never shared, or sold, or anything Steam prohibits. Somebody stole my email(s) and all the accounts attached to it is the tl;dr.

Experiencing this measure firsthand from (several, but not all!) Steam support specialists, only led to me assuming Steam's support is washing their hands with these type of issues. Falling back on a "show us a cd key from 20 years ago or go away"-response is a fail-safe approach to closing out the majority of these inquiries.

Which brings me to my questions (sorry)
1. If you are the account owner AND the original creator (using an HL1 key) AND have access from the original email it was created with, how do you request this information from Steam in order to protect yourself in the future?

I couldn't imagine Steam wouldn't allow you to obtain the very information used to validate ownership of your account ... right?

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Showing 1-14 of 14 comments

cSg|mc-Hotsauce 3 Jan, 2023 @ 9:49am

Originally posted by RiPaCRoMBiE:
Hi all,
I recently went through a situation where my (this) account was stolen and I had to go through several measures with Steam in attempts restore it. Unfortunately, Steam didn't do anything to help me, as the responses (from my research) were very standard "cookie cutter" replies similar users received (see third paragraph for how I recovered it).

However, one of those measures was a rather troublesome task of "what was the original CD key used to register the account with" exercise. Outside of the measure being unrealistic for those of us who didn't have the luxury of "hanging onto their childhood", it appears this is the common denominator of where people fall short. As a bit more ranting about this Steam, not all of us lived in stable homes and were able to carry our belongings with us for 19+ years.

I was lucky enough to have been able to get in contact with the person who stole it, who ended up returning it without any issue. If I "didn't have the physical copy of my cd key", I would have been screwed (which is the current situation for another one of my accounts). This account was never shared, or sold, or anything Steam prohibits. Somebody stole my email(s) and all the accounts attached to it is the tl;dr.

Experiencing this measure firsthand from (several, but not all!) Steam support specialists, only led to me assuming Steam's support is washing their hands with these type of issues. Falling back on a "show us a cd key from 20 years ago or go away"-response is a fail-safe approach to closing out the majority of these inquiries.

Which brings me to my questions (sorry)
1. If you are the account owner AND the original creator (using an HL1 key) AND have access from the original email it was created with, how do you request this information from Steam in order to protect yourself in the future?

I couldn't imagine Steam wouldn't allow you to obtain the very information used to validate ownership of your account ... right?

Support requires multiple instances of proof of ownership and the oldest email, phone number and first key added to their account, near creation date is going to be the best way for support to validate your claim.

They usually don't ask for the original key unless it was already being contested by another person.

Cathulhu 3 Jan, 2023 @ 9:50am

You don't.
Valve will ask for PHYSICAL evidence if available. The older the better.
Which is why Valve asked for that product code to begin with. That would have been physical evidence.

Maze 3 Jan, 2023 @ 9:56am

Same for me, I had to send a picture of a "pfysical game key" I added to my account so I could recover it after hacking.

But I would really like to have a more simple way to recover my account in the future if I have a problem again.
Maybe using Paypal transaction numbers... I don't know...

cSg|mc-Hotsauce 3 Jan, 2023 @ 10:01am

Originally posted by Maze:
Same for me, I had to send a picture of a "pfysical game key" I added to my account so I could recover it after hacking.

But I would really like to have a more simple way to recover my account in the future if I have a problem again.
Maybe using Paypal transaction numbers... I don't know...

First external payment method, first key redeemed, first email used, first phone number attached... All used in conjunction for proof of ownership but the key is by far the hardest to scrape for info regarding it, in case your entire system was compromised and all other information was scraped by a hijacker.

RiPaCRoMBiE 3 Jan, 2023 @ 10:11am

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:
Originally posted by RiPaCRoMBiE:
...

Support requires multiple instances of proof of ownership and the oldest email, phone number and first key added to their account, near creation date is going to be the best way for support to validate your claim.

They usually don't ask for the original key unless it was already being contested by another person.

:qr:

What I learned during this process was the following:
- Steam support provided me with options to validate, not a set of requirements
- I had the following constants that met at least one of those "options": 1. I know when the account was created (had the emails) 2. I knew when the account password was changed/hijacked (had emails). 3. I knew what the original game was that was activated on the account (impossible for anybody to know) 4. I had access to the email the account was created with 5. I don't have any of my old games/boxes for the games
- Steam emphasized that having access to the original email, having knowledge of create-day information on the account, providing screenshots of Steam-sent emails of when the accounts to stolen, was not sufficient.
- If your account was created with a HL1 key, they want the key. If it wasn't, it appears they're open to validate "ownership" through one of those options.

I threw that stuff away during my many moves after I activated them back in 03/04. I could understand that requirements being arguably realistic back in 2010, but it's 2023 and the likelihood of anybody hanging onto that at the same evaluation as your social security card (in the states) is... unlikely.

Most of my accounts from that period of time (Sept 2003 - Dec 2004) were activated with CD keys. 20 years of holding onto a CD key ... CD drives are obsolete and everything is digital, ink fades, people lose things through a variety of life experiences, ...

To be fair, I know this is relative to a "batch of accounts" within Steam. When you email steam support from the email the account name is (ex: email@address.com), and was created with and you know everything about the account on its creation day, but they still tell you that it's not yours because you don't remember a specific fact about it, it's... frustrating.

But, I digress...

RiPaCRoMBiE 3 Jan, 2023 @ 10:14am

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:
Originally posted by RiPaCRoMBiE:
...

Support requires multiple instances of proof of ownership and the oldest email, phone number and first key added to their account, near creation date is going to be the best way for support to validate your claim.

They usually don't ask for the original key unless it was already being contested by another person.

:qr:

Sorry, one thing I forgot to point out in your reply – "already being contested by another person". I can confirm the person who stole it (an old friend), was not contesting it.

Steam support doesn't keep a consistent person throughout your communications. I assume this is a response they regurgitate when "not wanting to deal with it and move on". I'm assuming here though, as I found it common in other threads I found searching around.

shayush°彡 3 Jan, 2023 @ 11:19am

It sounds like you had a really tough time trying to restore your account after it was stolen. I can understand why you would want to request information from Steam about the original CD key used to register your account, in order to protect yourself in the future.

To request this information, you'll need to contact Steam Support and provide proof of ownership of the account. This might include things like the original email address associated with the account, payment information, or proof of purchase. Steam Support may or may not be able to provide this information, especially if the account was created a long time ago, but it's always worth a try. You can reach out to them through the help site or the Steam client.

I hope this helps, and that you're able to keep your account safe going forward.

VX-3000 21 Sep, 2024 @ 2:11am

I'm having the same problem, really glad I found this post (if even just to realize that I'm totally screwed). My situation is that I simply forgot the password to both my email address and the account itself, so while I am able to send a password-change request, I can't access that email account.

It really is frustrating to be expected to still have one's CD key from forever ago. Moreover, the number of dormant accounts sitting useless feels like an obvious waste of digital space.

I think my message in my request was very reasonable as written: "I created this account when I was a child, I simply can't remember the password and would like to secure the account with a current email address so that I can enjoy my favorite games."

The number of people who are experiencing this must be enormous. It's not uncommon to step away from gaming and experience changes in devices/contact method/etc. There should be a better way to regain access in those cases, especially if there hasn't been any disputed activity throughout its history.

ethandow 4 Apr @ 8:44pm

i lost a old steam account i forgot the username or password im rank 11 steam if your hearing this we need to talk because otherwise im going to fight like hell to get my steam account back you can deny me all you want but that dosent mean i dont know all the money spent on the account and the card used i know everything about my old steam account and im gonna press you like hell until i get it back anyways to contact them directly would be awsome please just give me my account back im so tired of not having it i had 70 games on it i just want it back like you can take all my money ill legit buy it back from you hell ill give you money i dont even have like can you please just cantact me and help me

Chika Ogiue 4 Apr @ 9:33pm

Originally posted by ethandow:
i lost a old steam account i forgot the username or password im rank 11 steam if your hearing this we need to talk because otherwise im going to fight like hell to get my steam account back you can deny me all you want but that dosent mean i dont know all the money spent on the account and the card used i know everything about my old steam account and im gonna press you like hell until i get it back anyways to contact them directly would be awsome please just give me my account back im so tired of not having it i had 70 games on it i just want it back like you can take all my money ill legit buy it back from you hell ill give you money i dont even have like can you please just cantact me and help me

Holy run on sentence!

No one from support is reading this forum. You will need to go through the account recovery process and provide the information they ask for. If you cannot provide that information, then you cannot recover the account.

Start here:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1126288560

#10

cSg|mc-Hotsauce 4 Apr @ 9:34pm

Originally posted by ethandow:
i lost a old steam account i forgot the username or password im rank 11 steam if your hearing this we need to talk because otherwise im going to fight like hell to get my steam account back you can deny me all you want but that dosent mean i dont know all the money spent on the account and the card used i know everything about my old steam account and im gonna press you like hell until i get it back anyways to contact them directly would be awsome please just give me my account back im so tired of not having it i had 70 games on it i just want it back like you can take all my money ill legit buy it back from you hell ill give you money i dont even have like can you please just cantact me and help me

No one here is from Steam Support.

#11

76561198407601200 4 Apr @ 11:21pm

Originally posted by ethandow:
i lost a old steam account i forgot the username or password im rank 11 steam if your hearing this we need to talk because otherwise im going to fight like hell to get my steam account back you can deny me all you want but that dosent mean i dont know all the money spent on the account and the card used i know everything about my old steam account and im gonna press you like hell until i get it back anyways to contact them directly would be awsome please just give me my account back im so tired of not having it i had 70 games on it i just want it back like you can take all my money ill legit buy it back from you hell ill give you money i dont even have like can you please just cantact me and help me

You can't even fight like hell reading the replies to the topic, let alone to get possession to an old account.

#12

Erin Esurance 29 Jun @ 5:09pm

Originally posted by ethandow:
i lost a old steam account i forgot the username or password im rank 11 steam if your hearing this we need to talk because otherwise im going to fight like hell to get my steam account back you can deny me all you want but that dosent mean i dont know all the money spent on the account and the card used i know everything about my old steam account and im gonna press you like hell until i get it back anyways to contact them directly would be awsome please just give me my account back im so tired of not having it i had 70 games on it i just want it back like you can take all my money ill legit buy it back from you hell ill give you money i dont even have like can you please just cantact me and help me

Any update?

#13