Fuuuuuuck. Long enough that I might as well have support shut down my giveaways for now?

yeah, same as me ! 2-3 days.

Thanks for the input. I'd hate to have to cancel my giveaways and have that stain on my record but it's probably for the best since based on the feedback so far the process is unpredictable at best.

Mine didn't take that long and I didn't have to prove anything. I'm sure they can see plenty of stuff like IP logins, pw/email changes, and such. Guess it depends how clear the evidence is.

I don't have such a game case but an accepted alternative is the credit card info for a purchase you've made on the account in the past.

As far as "random hacking", it truly must be that because not only have I never shared the password, it's also one I've never used anywhere else and is the most complex of all my passwords. I'm genuinely stumped.

All I have is credit card info for a purchase at least a year ago, and isn't stored on the account. Hoping that will be enough. It's offered as an alternative to a game key.

he bought tf2 items , going to give them to his account, then sell them / keep them

You should get yourself marked as a hijacked account on SteamRep and SteamTrades.

somebody was playing TF2

I have no CD keys myself so I'm really hoping their alternative of offering CC info for an account purchase will do the trick. I feel like this is such a clear case of account theft that that wouldn't even be entirely necessary, though. In 8 years I've never logged into Steam outside of this location, and suddenly my email/password gets changed by somebody who is apparently from Russia? (Just a guess based on the friends they added)

If anything I think the things like CD keys/CC info are just to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt who you are and expedite the recovery process. There's no way that they can see a clear cut case of somebody getting hijacked and not be able to get it taken care of, right? It might take longer but there's no way they'd let it fall through the cracks like that.

(If you guys playing at home can't tell, I'm worrying myself to death here. Severe anxiety does that to you even when it seems obvious a situation will work itself out.)

Let's just say I've already heard my share of earfuls and provided this gets resolved I will swear by Steam Guard starting the moment I log back in.

I have no reason to suspect my email was compromised. It's locked down pretty well and I know from one experience that in the event of an attempted login from a strange place I would be notified.

I truly have no understanding of how this could have happened or what put me on somebody's radar for this sort of thing. I've never shared my password with anyone and the password I did have was not duplicated on any one of my other accounts. So granted my decision regarding Steam Guard was foolish, but I feel like these circumstances were less than expected.

One thing I want to say not quite in my defense, but at least to express some dissatisfaction- I can't believe you can just have your email changed like that. What I received was "Your changes have been confirmed", not "Please confirm your changes". Why didn't I receive an email asking for some confirmation in that process? I thought Steam Guard was extra levels of security, not all of it. I would have never disabled it if somebody said "Alright, well if somebody gets your password they can change it with no verification." I would've said "Holy shit why would I do that?"

Regardless, this was a lesson learned. Unfortunately it was a $50 lesson, but I accept that consequence. I've said it before that I just want my account back.

Screenshots of purchases? Think receipts sent to my email would work?

Lol, that's what happens when people don't care about security.

My gmail was secured. My Steam wasn't. Had I known it would be possible to change my email without confirmation from me, believe me I'd have kept it locked down too. Even you have slip ups, Dexter Morgan.

I never interacted with Origin in any way in the process of buying/activating The Sims 3. I activated it on Steam.

Good to hear. Looks like your games are still in inventory too. Dunno what the TF2 item situation was like before/after.

I lost $45 in steam wallet funds. Currently in the process of finding out what happens to him next, or at least what support is willing to disclose. What he did goes a bit deeper than jacking my wallet funds, and I don't want to put too much of it out there but I'm just hoping that by tipping them off immediately to the activity the last few days I'll avoid getting tied up in any further problems because he did some pretty serious stuff.

Luckily, the dividing line between when I was in control and when he took over is pathetically obvious by the transaction history alone. This guy was a moron who didn't pace himself at all and I think that'll help things work out a lot smoother.