Steam Account Hijacked

[thatmariolover]

So my Steam account was hijacked. It actually happened ages ago, and I had filled out one of Valves (retarded) account recovery requests but never heard back. I included the photo of my HL2 collectors edition CD case (with CD key) to prove I was the owner and all of the other things they require.

I received an automated notification that my request had been received and then never heard ANYTHING back. And the fact that Valve has no phone number to call and complain about the situation really bothers me.

Ultimately I bought the Orange Box when it came out and started playing again. But I added my old account as a buddy on Steam to monitor activity. For quite a while nobody had accessed it, which I found odd. But more recently I picked the game up again, and now somebody is using the account and has changed their nickname to 'Alex'.

I'm considering opening another petition to recover the account but don't hold any real hope for it. Does anybody have any suggestions or personal experiences with Valve's account recovery?

[manasecret]

Wow, how did that happen? Was your password really easy to guess or something?

[thatmariolover]

I assume there was a keylogger on one of the computers I logged onto. I used to play it occassionally at LAN parties and such.

[KillerGremlin]

I've never had an account hacked. One day I got a message from a "ValveStafff" or something saying they needed my name and password or my account would be disabled in 24 hours. So I ended up toying around with them in chat for a little and told them to fuck off.

I've heard horror stories about people having difficulties recovering their accounts. It's not just Valve though, this is a problem with all online accounts.

Back in the pre-STEAM days you used to be able to get CD keys and Passwords from the good ol' Window's Registry. That's as far as my "hacking" knowledge goes. I'm not a script kiddy and I don't know much about key loggers.

Rather than filling out Valve's bullshit account recovery form, maybe try posting on their forum? There have been some interesting occurrences of people posting complaints on the Valve forum and getting a response (or ban/moderation).

[Angrist]

I've seen a lot of WoW guildies lose their accounts because of key loggers.

I once almost fell for this stupid thing: A website where they offer to show you who blocks you on your instant messenger (MSN in this case). All you needed to do was log in on the site. Before I hit enter, I realized what I was doing. I was giving away my account.

[fray14843]

what i did is say somehting was wrong and i took pic of cd key and they gave me the account pass and account name and shit u need to register in help fourms on steampowered.com

[Bube]

I've seen a lot of WoW guildies lose their accounts because of key loggers.

I once almost fell for this stupid thing: A website where they offer to show you who blocks you on your instant messenger (MSN in this case). All you needed to do was log in on the site. Before I hit enter, I realized what I was doing. I was giving away my account.
I used one of those sites a few times a while back, nothing happened though. I don't know why I trusted them, but I didn't run into any problems.

I had deleted a lot of people from my list and the site helped me find the deleted contacts.

You could always change your password right after you use the site if you don't trust them.

[Angrist]

Yeah that's what I read in the disclaimer. But they use your account to send advertizing to members in your list.
It's not that bad, but still. :)