Steam Account Worth $15,000 and Valve Won't Unlock It
One player recorded a great loss, as Steam blocked his account. To unlock it, he has to provide proof, which few people have.
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Many of us may think that by buying a game on Steam, we will have access to it anytime, anywhere - in other words: nothing will prevent us from playing it anywhere we wish, as long as we have access to a PC. In reality, that's not quite the case, as an unlucky player who was blocked by Valve found out. This wouldn't be a topic worthy of publicity if it weren't for the fact that the user lost a considerable sum in this way, not to mention the games themselves, and in order to unlock it he has to provide proof, which few people have.
Losing big money and hearing absurd demands from Valve
The story described on Reddit indicates that the player had the same Steam account for years, bought games and, by his own admission, traded skins through it, which is, of course, legal. Three months ago he left Germany for the United Arab Emirates, and six weeks ago he went on vacation to Turkey. During this time, he used his Steam account on the same laptop the entire time.
The change of location and the trading of equipment assigned to the Steam account worth about $500 US dollars caused Valve recognized that the account may have been accessed by someone else, and the company blocked it. The situation is unpleasant, although the security system here can be commended for such a decision, because if indeed a third-party takeover of the account had taken place, this move would ensure the account owner's safety.
The problem is that to lift the blockade, Steam requires a code from 2005, which was used to create the said account. One could give up and let it go, but the player had gear with a value of about 15 thousand U.S. dollars assigned to his account.
"I can provide everything from other keys I have digitally obtained over the years, any information associated with my account in the last decade (I lost access to my old email account 10 years ago), details of my payment methods and utility or other bills to Steam Guard, verification by mail or SMS, and even a photo of my ID if needed. I've spent thousands of dollars on games and currently own about $15,000 worth of equipment, so I really need access to my account."
The problem with high-value accounts
Other high-value account owners may have a similar problem (a list of the "richest" ones can be found here), which is related to the tacit changes suggested by the Reddit community to Steam's account policies that have been implemented over the past few years. The trouble can occur not only when changing locations, but also when making certain modifications to one's profile, as professional gamer Bradley Fodor found out. This March he wrote on X/Twitter:
"I changed my number without removing authentication. I tried to contact tech support, but since my account is "high value," they demand the original keys, which were created years ago and I can't find them."
These stories show that it's a good idea to stash the key that was used to activate your Steam account - in fact, few people have it, which can prove to be a source of considerable problems in the future. I myself don't even remember receiving such a thing when setting up my profile, so it wouldn't have occurred to me that such a code might still come in handy someday.
