My Steam account was hijacked (or i just forgot the password)!

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3 Apr 2010
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Uh Oh :p

So I recently upgraded from XP to Win7, got round to loading up Steam, asked for the password and I was sat there manically typing any number of possible passwords it could be with no success at all. I went through the security question only to be given "What did customer service reset your password to?".... uhm, they haven't :confused:. So at this point i start typing any of my passwords it could have been. Spent about 10 minutes doing lots of different combinations before i decided to see what other routes I could go down.

A quick google revealed a support ticket with proof of purchases will do the job. Now at this point I can't get any CD Keys, so I booted up my laptop, only to find that steam has the password saved and it logged on just fine :/ this confused me, but I carried on as it allowed me to printscreen some CD keys and a print screen that I was once on the account. I also included in ticket my credit card type, the expiry date, my name, and the last 4 digits. With a nice summary of what had happened with politenesses at start and end.

6 Hours later (which I don't think is too shabby) I get a reply...

"Sorry, you will have to create a new account and re-purchase your games"

lol only joking, this was the real reply

"Hello Doogle, Thank you for contacting Steam Support. It appears as though the account may have been hijacked by another user. Please follow the link below and take the prescribed steps to ensure the security of the account in the future. I have reset the account password and sent the new login information in a separate e-mail. If you do not receive the e-mail and you are running a Spam filter, check and make sure the e-mail is not being filtered as spam. Note: Passwords are all numbers. The new Secret Question will be set to "What did customer service reset your password to?" The answer to the Secret Question is the new password that we have sent to you as mentioned above. Once you login to the Steam Account, please change your password, secret question and validate your email address. Please let us know if we may be of further assistance."

Got the e-mail with the new password, changed to something i will remember and numbers and characters and capitals, changed the security question, and re-verified my e-mail address.

So I was happy with the outcome, however I do find it a bit peculiar that my laptop would login, yet no password I have ever had would work and steam reckons it was hijacked?

Mainly posting this to raise awareness of account security, to show that you can probably always get your account back if you do own it, and to read your theories on what you think happened.
 
You may just find you forgot your password to be honest. I can't think of any other reason why your laptop would log in otherwise. Still at least they reset your password to something for you. Don't forget it this time! ;)
 
Glad you got your account back in a timely manner.

As Insanity said above, maybe you just forgotten the password, it happens to us all at one point or another :)
 
Yeah, probably user error!! There's been times when I've sworn I typed it in right about 5 times over, but it took 6 to actually get capitalisation correct or something. Happens to the best of us (and me).
 
i keep getting emails from steam about me asking for my password to be reset , i have not ever asked this and keep changing my password . why do they try to log in in my name or press forgot password , it's only ever going to go to my email address ?
 
i keep getting emails from steam about me asking for my password to be reset , i have not ever asked this and keep changing my password . why do they try to log in in my name or press forgot password , it's only ever going to go to my email address ?

LOL

Was a happy day when they allowed email verification.
 
Glad you got your account back. I once had my account hijacked also, but I put off investigating it for 5 days as I thought I simply forgot my password and that I'd remember it later. Got the same reply you did, but logged in to find somebody changed my name, completely changed my friends list for another bunch of randoms and played HL2 for 13 hours.

Oh and they made me live in the Netherlands :)

Got it back alright, was worried he gave me a VAC ban for a while.
 
Bit of thread necromancy, but I've just had the same thing happen to me.
The password suddenly 'forgot' itself while I was installing Dark Messiah: HOMM and when I reloaded Steam I found that the password I was sure I had correct was wrong.

Went through the same 'reset your password' process to be greeted with the same 'What did Customer Support reset your passphrase to?" question.
To be honest, that is the most retarded process I have ever seen - they are effectively asking me to answer a question about a question that they have come up with (which I can't possibly do given that it's their question), rather than having any relevance to a question I may have actually made myself in order to prompt my memory. I haven't received any 'answer' about this question, so I can't answer it.
Been longer than 6 hours so far, ticket not yet addressed :(
 
Got an email at last, they reset my password but didn't indicate anything untoward had happened. Have changed all passwords and questions to something meaningful :)
 
Bit of thread necromancy, but I've just had the same thing happen to me.
The password suddenly 'forgot' itself while I was installing Dark Messiah: HOMM and when I reloaded Steam I found that the password I was sure I had correct was wrong.

Went through the same 'reset your password' process to be greeted with the same 'What did Customer Support reset your passphrase to?" question.
To be honest, that is the most retarded process I have ever seen - they are effectively asking me to answer a question about a question that they have come up with (which I can't possibly do given that it's their question), rather than having any relevance to a question I may have actually made myself in order to prompt my memory. I haven't received any 'answer' about this question, so I can't answer it.
Been longer than 6 hours so far, ticket not yet addressed :(

When I restarted steam and it switched to new UI it had forgotten my password and I couldn't remember what I changed it to (to make it more secure pass :rolleyes:).
I tried to reset it and it prompted me for that customer support question. Didn't ever have that done so I tried about 20 combinations of what I thought the proper pass was and got in eventually.
 
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