Steam Account Disabled

Killerkebab · 7 Oct 2008 at 16:47

Recently my Steam account has been disabled, for no reason. It is an account I haven't used since I completed Portal. I had HL1 Generations(bought ages and ages ago, I registered it with Steam once that came out), HL2 (bought on release day over Steam with credit card), and the orange box (I went to the shop and registered it with Steam when I got home).

Before the usual hacks brigade show up, I've not played an online game through Steam since I gave up on CSS two or three years ago, and it has been longer still since I've played the first CS.

I sent them an email through their support system and they want 'proof of purchase for software through Steam'. The only proof I can hand them is proof that I bought the orange box six months ago, since that has a box and a CD key. The HL1 box is gone and the credit card used to buy HL2 has long since been cut up and the owner of the credit card has since died.

Now I know obviously I'll have to hand them what I can but what I wanted to ask is if this has happened to anyone else here? I'd always heard of accounts banned or whatever but for no reason? wtf?

bledd · 7 Oct 2008 at 16:49

how about emails saying you've bought things from steam?

gotta love gmail

platypus · 7 Oct 2008 at 16:51

bledd. said:
how about emails saying you've bought things from steam?

gotta love gmail

Because other email systems don't keep track of emails about purchases?

Killerkebab · 7 Oct 2008 at 16:52

bledd. said:
how about emails saying you've bought things from steam?

gotta love gmail

My hotmail account doesn't have emails from 2004 :/

Eggman · 7 Oct 2008 at 16:55

Surely they have a list of peoples steam accounts and passwords somewhere - esp if its been banned.

What does it actually say when you log in? "You've been banned, sorry"?

moomoomoo · 7 Oct 2008 at 16:59

Seems wierd they would ban your account like that, without any reason. Did you downlaod any games and try to play them illegally over steam. Or does a freind have access to the account and maybe messed with it in some way.

I have e mails from 2005 in my hotmail account still with attachmeants and everything.

But i would be ****ed if they id something like that too me, i've bought a lot of games over steam,

Oh and way would you buy the ornage box and not play tf2 !!!

Killerkebab · 7 Oct 2008 at 18:29

moomoomoo said:
Oh and way would you buy the ornage box and not play tf2 !!!

Not interested really, gave it a go and it was a blast I'll admit, just not quite what I'm into as a regular game experience... not that I can play it now

Eggman said:
Surely they have a list of peoples steam accounts and passwords somewhere - esp if its been banned.

What does it actually say when you log in? "You've been banned, sorry"?

It says:
Your Steam account has been disabled.
Click here to email Steam Support.

moomoomoo said:
Did you downlaod any games and try to play them illegally over steam.

No. CS/CSS was all I cared about back then (only reason I have a copy of HL1/2) and Portal was the only reason I bothered with Orange box.

Secret_Window · 7 Oct 2008 at 19:13

You account was likely hijacked, and due to suspicious acitivity they disabled the account.

bledd · 7 Oct 2008 at 19:48

platypus said:
Because other email systems don't keep track of emails about purchases?

many people use things like outlook, and don't backup their emails
hotmail deletes your emails for you if you don't login in x days

stumpy187 · 8 Oct 2008 at 09:01

Killerkebab said:
My hotmail account doesn't have emails from 2004 :/

Blueyonder ***, got emails from 2001 still in there.

neoboy · 8 Oct 2008 at 09:23

I had the same when I haven't used my account for about a year, I just sent them the picture of a HL2 box and they've unlocked the whole account (I don't think they unlock specific games you provide purchases for).

AtaRo · 8 Oct 2008 at 09:35

just tried to check my 2nd steam account as i have not use it for a few months and it too is disabled.To retrieved it on the log in screen at the bottom click retrieve lost account and it will email you a verification code and your secret question and just follow the instruction.

div0 · 8 Oct 2008 at 09:54

AtaRo said:
just tried to check my 2nd steam account as i have not use it for a few months and it too is disabled.To retrieved it on the log in screen at the bottom click retrieve lost account and it will email you a verification code and your secret question and just follow the instruction.

That's just for if you forgot the pasword and/or username of the account. :confused:

From reading the OP's situation, the account hasn't been banned (VAC banned) for cheats.

As far as I'm aware the account will have been 'disabled' for one of two reasons:

1) The account has been in use by (several) other people on various different IP's across the world. This sort of suspicious activity is monitored for and results in the account being disabled until the genuine owner proves it is their account. So as someone has said, its possible your account info is known to someone else, who has been using the account.

2) Someone else has claimed ownership of a cd-key registered to that account - possibly by sending in proof of purchase.

Its not easy to get a disabled account overturned, but good luck.

bledd · 8 Oct 2008 at 10:03

keep sending emails and link to this thread etc

AtaRo · 8 Oct 2008 at 10:28

div0 said:
That's just for if you forgot the pasword and/or username of the account.

From reading the OP's situation, the account hasn't been banned (VAC banned) for cheats.

As far as I'm aware the account will have been 'disabled' for one of two reasons:

1) The account has been in use by (several) other people on various different IP's across the world. This sort of suspicious activity is monitored for and results in the account being disabled until the genuine owner proves it is their account. So as someone has said, its possible your account info is known to someone else, who has been using the account.

2) Someone else has claimed ownership of a cd-key registered to that account - possibly by sending in proof of purchase.

Its not easy to get a disabled account overturned, but good luck.

no m8 the error says account was disable and i was able to get it back just by using that link.I know my username and pass as i keep several copies of it.

Psyk · 8 Oct 2008 at 10:46

Something like this happened to me. Apparently my account was used in conjunction with a cybercafe Steam account that was known to be a stolen one. Obviously I had nothing to do with this and my account had been hijacked. But they didn't believe me because the hijacker didn't change my password. Steam support were really rude and refused to give details of what had happened to my account, clearly because they thought I had done it myself. I didn't even know what a cybercafe account was but they wouldn't explain it to me. I asked on the forums how Steam works when you use it in a cybercafe(seems like a reasonable question to me) but they banned me from their forums. I had to resort to contacting a cybercafe to even find out what a cybercafe account was.

I never did get my account back. The only reasonable explanation of how someone got into my account was that I must have been using the same email/pass combination on an unsecure website and that got hacked, and for some reason they thought to try it on Steam.

matty114 · 8 Oct 2008 at 14:11

When my account got hacked i sent steam a picture of my HL2 box and cd key, about 3 months after it got hacked. I got it back the next day

Killerkebab · 8 Oct 2008 at 15:39

How do accounts get hijacked? I don't give my password out to anyone and the email address is one which I don't even use to send emails with :/

manic111 · 8 Oct 2008 at 15:42

Killerkebab said:
How do accounts get hijacked? I don't give my password out to anyone and the email address is one which I don't even use to send emails with :/

The same way that people hack anything unfortunately-I don't know how it's done, but it can't be any harder to hack a Steam account than an email account or online banking account I assume...

Just out of interest, I'm off on holiday on Saturday, and was thinking of downloading Steam and a couple of games to my laptop: this wouldn't put me at risk of a ban would it?

Killerkebab · 8 Oct 2008 at 15:43

manic111 said:
Just out of interest, I'm off on holiday on Saturday, and was thinking of downloading Steam and a couple of games to my laptop: this wouldn't put me at risk of a ban would it?

Who the hell knows any more? This magic technology of theirs is going to cost me £70 if I don't get my bloody account back.