Cybercriminals are using a new scam on Steam to steal in-game items…
Cybercriminals are using a new scam on Steam to steal in-game items by impersonating Valve's support team, tricking users into transferring their skins to fake accounts and then locking them out by changing their account status to 'child' within Steam Families. Victims lost hundreds of thousands of rubles worth of items.
Consensus
- Mothers are impersonating Valve's customer support on Steam.
- Scammers claim there is a hacking attempt on the user's account and use real profile data to appear legitimate.
- Victims are tricked into transferring their in-game skins under the pretense of 'saving' their inventory.
- The scam involves redirecting users to phishing links instead of genuine transfer processes.
- After the transfer, scammers add victims to Steam Families, change their status to 'child', and restrict access to account functions.
- Victims lose control over their items, which are then sold on third-party platforms.
- Users who contacted Steam support were informed that official communications only come through the website, not via private messages.
- Experts advise users not to click links in messages and to verify information through the official Steam site.
Points of divergence
- The victims' accounts are modified so that they lose part of their account functions, allowing full control by scammers over the inventory. — riamo
- Victims were told by Steam support after contacting them that employees do not communicate via private messages — only through official website sections. — tg_bazabazon
Coverage (2 sources)
- New type of fraud in Steam: victims are deprived of access to the account and skins are sold — РИАМО
- Scammers turn Steam account owners into 'children' and sell their skins for hundreds of thousands of rubles — Baza