Thank you. I was going to post this as well (I posted in his SG account just in case he still has access to it).
I have also warned everyone on my friend list via the Activity feed.
I also have another friend that seems to be affected by the same thing, as he had posted the exact same message at least 8 hours beforehand.
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Got the same message from a random steam user and reported them. Maybe they weren't a scammer after all, but a victim! Oh well, let Valve sort it out.
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Normally, I'd do the same, but I'm like 99% sure that it's not actually the owner of the account doing that in this case :)
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That's what I meant, if I realized back then I'd write "probably stolen account, return to owner" instead of "probably a scam" in my report.
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Got the message too couple of mins ago. Hopefully he'll get the account back and the thing sorted out.
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Yes, it's not him. Someone has phished his account I believe. Do not click on the csgo link if he sends it to you.
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thanks a lot for the thread!
I had something like that by clicking a link in a Steam chat, it was like a very old virus that spammed to everyone in my friend's list the same message but fortunately as I said it was old so it only spammed the message, but didn't do anything else (it should have worked by automatically trading all the inventory items to bot accounts as far as I know)..
that was one year ago or more!
unfortunately as I said even that old thing spread since my account sent an automatic message to everyone else, obviously this isn't the SG user but the virus itself so be very aware not to click on anything and warn everyone on the steam feed, i really hope all the users who got affected will get everything back as soon as possible
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I got the same message overnight, by the time I woke up and saw it his account was private and renamed and no longer friends on Steam.
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Don't forget to report STEAM username to Steam support as a compromised account.
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Which option is that? Is it the "They are involved in theft, scamming, fraud, or other malicious activity" option? I didn't see anything about reporting a compromised account.
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Yeah, click that one, then click something along the lines "I believe this account has been compromised" on the next menu.
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1.Go on user profile steam page
2.Click on MORE button on your right side
3.Click on *Report Profile"
4.Click on "They are involved in theft, scamming, fraud or other malicious activity"
5.Click on "Their account seems to have been compromised"
6.Click on Submit this account for review -We'll ask that you provide any relevant details about the account
7.Add some usefull information
Hope this helps! And they get accounts back!
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Thank you for the information. I submitted the report. Now all we can do is wait for mwhyms to contact Steam Support himself. :(
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Hi all... thx for the info... Yes, my account was compromised and I am truly sorry for every spam message that was sent from my account. Please ignore it. I already got back control of my account. Sorry again!
:/
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But how do we know it's really you and not a scammer pretending everything's fine to avoid being reported?
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How do you know you are you and not a figment of my own twisted and deranged imagination?
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Would the hacker even know that he has a SG account?
I am willing to trust that this is indeed him, as mwhyms has already done a complete wipe of the account (friends, games, etc.) and iamaya2 has not.
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Sure, me too, I'm just asking in theory - we can't know for sure.
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mmm.. how indeed... perhaps if I shared a nice cat gif you will trust me?
PS: Yep, this is me... SG was unaffected and I had to a complete recovery of my acc through Steam support
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That person's account is permanently suspended here... Is it because of those messages?
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I think they did that as a precaution from the compromised account using SG as a "gateway" to spread more virus traps. If (when, I hope!) he gets his account back, the suspension will be lifted. He can still communicate with support staff here. It would be different if he was Banned permanently.
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Got the same message from iamaya2, it seems he got is account back thought https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/2JLw2/psa-my-steam-account-was-compromised-but-it-is-back-to-normal-hopefully
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are we allowed to post a steam profile of another user here? i got a friend request from someone a few days ago that i never interacted with before like trading etc and this issue of hacked accounts is scaring me. was thinking of just rejecting and move on but now i wonder if i should report? no proof tho...
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If it's just an invite probably not.
I get like... 5 random invites per month. No clue who, they don't post a comment and I usually just ignore them.
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thanks hassat. guess i'll just ignore then. feel bad about it but rather not chance it
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Just accepting a friend request is not a threat in itself. Theoretically though, that person could potentially change his profile to look like one of your friends and then try to scam you.
What I usually do is, if it's a account with a private profile, I ignore it. If on the other hand the profile of that account is public, I post on it asking what is the reason for them adding me to their friends list (could be some coworker or something in my case). Sometimes they respond and it's someone I know so I add them, most of the time though I get ignored so I also ignore their invite.
One more useful tool that you could use is this site: https://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198085709146
It shows you if the user was banned or reported by other users as scammer. Of course, replace the profile id with the id you want to check instead of mine :P Mind that, if the account is compromised and the hacker/bot is acting quick, they will not be shown on that website, so just because someone looks safe there, doesn't mean he really is. On the other hand, if he has bad rep, then you can be almost sure that they'll try some dirty tricks.
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their profile is public (i think) but no place for me to write comments. the steamrep (thanks for that) shows clean but like you said no guarantee. i feel bad but i'll ignore. better safe than sorry. thanks again.
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Hi,
He is my friend (i live next door to him) and spoke to him (george) and indeed his account was hijacked.... he told me he received a message from someone on his friends list and stupidly (in his words) followed through with it... and now this... he asked me to speak to someone in support to ask them to block his account, but I saw this thread so I am posting it here.
He asked me to say he is sorry if his own account propagates any more of this crap.
He has initiatyed contact with steam to hopefully get his account back, but doesnt know how long that can take.
If you want I can relay a message to him.
Hopefuly he will be able to come back here on his own..... sigh
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This makes me so sad :(
And his ban on steamgifts account has something to do with a hacker too? If so, is there chance to become unbanned?
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It is due to his Steam account being compromised. Once it is returned to him, the suspension will be lifted. He is only suspended, not banned.
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There are few things that piss me off more than stealing someone's identity. One hundred lashes seems like light punishment for such a crime.
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CS:GO. The #1 scam bait in video gaming history since 2013.
Then again, I guess it also explains why I only hear about this stuff, since I avoid the game itself entirely.
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That's true, although I think it's mostly the community market mess behind it that's the actual culprit :P
Actually, that's funny, I installed CS:GO yesterday to give it a try and today got the scam message. The bot probably looks at your friends list and sends it to those who play actively.
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No, i don't play it actively only 1-2x year with my nephews.
The bots are "only" very active the last days.
I got 9 shady chat invites in 4 days :-D.
Soo much canadian females that want to show me ALL .... i was only able to show them how much i liked that in the way that i promoted it to the valve support with a ticket to each of them :-D
Damn, i am such a nice guy
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not quite, I don't even own the game and got that message
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What I mean is, none of this would happen if there was no craze about some stupid CS:GO cosmetic items. People crave those so hard they're willing to bend their rules regarding security to get a chance at getting one of those (completely useless) items.
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I don't own CS:GO, have never owned any kind of CS:GO item or skin (aside from the trading cards), hell I've never even visited one of those sites.
I even state on my steam profile and on tradings sites that I'm not interested in keys or other items... And still I've gotten a few chat messages from non-friend profiles about how I won item such and such on this or that CS:GO gambling site.
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Are you member of any larger giveaway-centric groups? Because it seems to be the more usual common link in people who get these messages, not the game itself. They just go through the member list of those.
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Looks like he's back - steam account public again with apology message from 10 mins ago
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I got two messages from two separate profiles with girls as the icon.
CS:GO + attractive females = easy bait for some people but not I.
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Hello to everyone.
First and foremost I would like to apologize to anyone that received a message from my account.... I fell victim to this (cant believe I fell for that) a literal case of curiosity killed the cat as I wanted to just see what it is - I don't even play cs:go.... sigh - it was well made but I still feel stupid for falling for that... never again.....
Once more I am terribly sorry.....
bastard hijacker deleted my friends.... horrible.... :(
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You can view your old friends at SteamRep, click "historical data"... might not be 100% current, but recent anyway. I've readded you :)
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Got a message, but just deleted it; so no harm done. I've readded you, since your friendlist was purged.
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I am glad to see you back, my friend!:)
At least no permanent damage done, right?
And no need to apologize! It was that piece of shit that sent it out, not you!
And when you're able to, please send me another friend request. I'll gladly accept it!:)
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"a literal case of curiosity killed the cat"
That's why they have 9 lives!
That's impressive you got it resolved so quickly! Welcome back!
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Hi,
to cheer you a bit up i took you into my Whitelist.
The fitting GA's will come tomorrow :o)
Have a good day/evening
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got that message too, I'm glad it's okay now. let's reconnect, since you're gone from my friendslist
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I am very sorry you got it too :(
hijacker removed all my friends.... please go ahead and add me, or I will do later, steam wont let me add more for a bit.... :)
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So it looks like mwhym got his account back. Thanks everyone for the cooperation!
And of course never follow weird links in private Steam messages and remember if something sounds too good to be true, it 99% of the time is a scam.
--- Leaving the original post below as a warning ---
So I just got this private message from mwhym, which is a trusted, veteran user of SG.
https://i.imgur.com/VfwN72U.png
I find it hard to believe that he's sending scummy links knowingly, so it seems that he lost control over his account. Be wary when interacting with him and if you know him IRL let him know about this ASAP. I'll keep the thread up until we can confirm that he got the account back.
And as a reminder, NEVER click links looking like that regardless of who sends them to you. It's almost always a scam and you'll lose your account and/or money. It's not worth it.
Cheers and stay safe.
EDIT: Just to clarify, I did check and it's indeed his Steam account not just an impersonator.
EDIT2: As reported by zelghadis, imaya2 is also affected.EDIT3: If you got a link like this from mwhym or imaya2, you can report their account as compromised. It probably won't hurt to provide the screenshot of conversation or mention the link you've got on chat.
EDIT4: Looks like imaya2 got his account back.
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