Thank you support for your help!

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Spatan555 21 hours ago

Thank you support for your help!

On Sunday, July 27th—almost a week ago—I was the target of a phishing scam and unfortunately fell for it. A hacker based in Frankfurt, Germany, sent a link through the Phantasy Star Online 2 voice chat group on Steam, claiming to offer 50 Steam credits. Foolishly, I clicked on it. The link led to a login page that looked legitimate, and after entering my credentials, my account was compromised.

Shortly afterwards, I received an email stating that my authenticator password had been changed, and the associated phone number was removed. Once I realised I could no longer access my account, I calmly reached out to Steam Support. Their response time was roughly 24 hours.

To prove ownership, I submitted screenshots of recent purchases, including those made through third-party sellers like Fanatical and Instant Gaming, along with activation codes and dates. Since I no longer have the original CD key or physical box for Half-Life 2 (which was released 20 years ago), I opted to provide purchase records from the past five years instead. I also shared my original email address and the country in which the account was registered.

Support replied the following day and successfully restored my account. I didn’t get a chance to say thank you at the time, so I’d like to express my gratitude now. I’m truly thankful for their help.

Lesson learned: Never click on links claiming to offer free gifts, especially from unfamiliar users or groups. Stay safe out there.

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Showing 1-11 of 11 comments

CiggerNockerz 4︱3 Ratio 21 hours ago

Good life lesson!

Knee 21 hours ago

"Lesson learned:"
Everyone else who posted the same PSA in the forums:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vGK5IerQNY

Spatan555 21 hours ago

Originally posted by CiggerNockerz 4︱3 Ratio:
Good life lesson!

Yes. Close call. I was panicking like crazy. Just be vigilant.

RPG Gamer Man 21 hours ago

All things thru voice chat tend to be scams. Unless you know the person in real life, and are real life friends, i would not believe them at all. So yea, never trust links in chat. That is your first mistake. Second is trusting someone in actual chat. That is your second mistake.

ꉔꏂ꒐꒒ꇙ 20 hours ago

Originally posted by Spatan555:
Yes. Close call. I was panicking like crazy. Just be vigilant.

"claiming to offer 50 Steam credits"

But also, don't fall for obvious bait, especially when it comes to getting free monies.

I'm glad you got the help you needed and indeed. a good life lesson.

Last edited by ꉔꏂ꒐꒒ꇙ; 20 hours ago

Spatan555 19 hours ago

Originally posted by RPG Gamer Man:
All things thru voice chat tend to be scams. Unless you know the person in real life, and are real life friends, i would not believe them at all. So yea, never trust links in chat. That is your first mistake. Second is trusting someone in actual chat. That is your second mistake.

Lesson learned. Also, when I looked on the scammer profile after I got my account back, he seems to be banned. The Gift avatar on his profile also gave away suspicion.

Spatan555 19 hours ago

Originally posted by ꉔꏂ꒐꒒ꇙ:
Originally posted by Spatan555:
Yes. Close call. I was panicking like crazy. Just be vigilant.

"claiming to offer 50 Steam credits"

But also, don't fall for obvious bait, especially when it comes to getting free monies.

I'm glad you got the help you needed and indeed. a good life lesson.

Yes because my Account was registered 20 years ago and Half-Life 2 was the first game I activated on Steam. These scammers are desperate.

ShelLuser 12 hours ago

I'm happy to hear you got your account back...

Originally posted by Spatan555:
Lesson learned: Never click on links claiming to offer free gifts, especially from unfamiliar users or groups. Stay safe out there.

Actually... clicking on the link doesn't do anything. Trying to log on and thus share all your info otoh... that's the real culprit.

It's actually kinda easy to protect yourself against this. Some "3rd parties" can use your Steam session to authenticate. Meaning that if you're already logged onto Steam then a legitimate use of the Steam API would never ask you for your password: only to confirm that you want to continue with the log in procedure.

So... when in doubt: open a new tab, hop over to Steam and verify that you're logged on. If so then the other website is obviously a scam.

Seriously... this is no different from the rule to never click on a link in an e-mail, even if it's coming from a store or site you trust, because that can also be all fake. Instead.... go there yourself, then look for the "amazing offer".

Frogstophe 12 hours ago

Glad it worked out in the end.

Spatan555 9 hours ago

Originally posted by RPG Gamer Man:
All things thru voice chat tend to be scams. Unless you know the person in real life, and are real life friends, i would not believe them at all. So yea, never trust links in chat. That is your first mistake. Second is trusting someone in actual chat. That is your second mistake.

Agreed. When I realised some people were leaving the chat group, that's when I got suspicious.

#10

Spatan555 8 hours ago

Originally posted by ShelLuser:
I'm happy to hear you got your account back...

Originally posted by Spatan555:
Lesson learned: Never click on links claiming to offer free gifts, especially from unfamiliar users or groups. Stay safe out there.
Actually... clicking on the link doesn't do anything. Trying to log on and thus share all your info otoh... that's the real culprit.

It's actually kinda easy to protect yourself against this. Some "3rd parties" can use your Steam session to authenticate. Meaning that if you're already logged onto Steam then a legitimate use of the Steam API would never ask you for your password: only to confirm that you want to continue with the log in procedure.

So... when in doubt: open a new tab, hop over to Steam and verify that you're logged on. If so then the other website is obviously a scam.

Seriously... this is no different from the rule to never click on a link in an e-mail, even if it's coming from a store or site you trust, because that can also be all fake. Instead.... go there yourself, then look for the "amazing offer".

That's the mistake I made. The link took me to the homepage on the Steam website, and the moment I entered my credentials, that's where my account got compromised. Thank you for the advice on opening a new tab to make sure it's legitimate.

Last edited by Spatan555; 8 hours ago

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Date Posted: 31 Jul @ 6:13pm

Posts: 11

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