It is a windows exploit. After the .scr file runs it downloads malware in the background and infects your computer.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
It's Been One Week Since My Steam Account Got Hacked, And Valve Has Done Nothing
- Thread starter SOLDIER
- Start date
It is a windows exploit. After the .scr file runs it downloads malware in the background and infects your computer.
They've gone too far. That sucks though, Valve really needs to step up their customer service. They're really starting to go downhill
Palculator
Unconfirmed Member
I just want to point out that the one time I had an issue and took it up with CS was resolved within a day. And we're talking about a full refund for a game. I'm just assuming the amount of "My account got hacked because I was irresponsible with it" requests are so huge that they're basically auto-ignored.
Also, nothing personal and I'm not saying they have great CS, just that it's also not 100% shit or non-existent either.
Seraph_Nicholas
Member
A week sucks, sure, but I can't think of a single game company CS interaction I've had that took less than that.
No, wait. Blizzard is insanely prompt.
Worst was Nexon by far, though. Left a character of mine glitched into uselessness for six months and three failed attempts to fix.
No, wait. Blizzard is insanely prompt.
Worst was Nexon by far, though. Left a character of mine glitched into uselessness for six months and three failed attempts to fix.
Angelus Errare
Banned
Square took like 5 days to respond to me when I had a FFXI issue saying my account didn't exist.
Oh I agree, Valve ain't shit and their CS is absolutely horrendous.
Oh I agree, Valve ain't shit and their CS is absolutely horrendous.
Amusingly enough, customer support is Valve's largest department. The employee handbook that leaked back in 2012 stated that there was to be a hiring push for support staff, but evidently Steam's growth meant that the increase in people power was rendered moot and so from the outside looking in it appeared as though nothing had changed. Steam is simply too popular a service for Valve, in its current state, to handle support at a level most would deem satisfactory -- it needs to either to make a big push to increase its support staff, which means breaking down the barrier of its famously strict hiring policy, or go the outsourcing route (at least to some extent).
deltatheta
Member
I guess I can't really blame someone for opening a .scr file. Windows has so many executable formats.
It would be easy if you just had to tell people not to open .exe files, but they also have to know not to open .ad, .adp, .asp, .bas, .bat, .chm, .cmd, .com, .cpl, .crt, .hlp, .hta, .inf, .ins, .isp, .js, .jse, .lnk, .mdb, .mde, .msc, .msi, .msp, .mst, .pcd, .pif, .reg, .scr, .sct, .shb, .shs, .url, .vb, .vbe, .vbs, .vsd, .vss, .vst, .vsw, .ws, .wsc, .wsf, or .wsh files.
It would be easy if you just had to tell people not to open .exe files, but they also have to know not to open .ad, .adp, .asp, .bas, .bat, .chm, .cmd, .com, .cpl, .crt, .hlp, .hta, .inf, .ins, .isp, .js, .jse, .lnk, .mdb, .mde, .msc, .msi, .msp, .mst, .pcd, .pif, .reg, .scr, .sct, .shb, .shs, .url, .vb, .vbe, .vbs, .vsd, .vss, .vst, .vsw, .ws, .wsc, .wsf, or .wsh files.
finalflame
Member
And that's great that you had a good experience, but if they have a large backlog of people writing in about hacking/hijackings, then they should probably expand, better train, and create more resources to handle those situations. People on Steam are still paying customers on a platform.
Just saying. If they're like any other customer support channel, they likely have a Tier 1 group that takes care of things that are easy/trivial, but I'm sure there is a specialized team for these kinds of issues. If it is prominent, the team needs to grow, or better training/resources need to be given. It is not acceptable in ANY line of customer service to have ANY customer, much less a bunch of customers, wait over a week to even get a first response. It is textbook poor customer service, no matter how you slice it.
Also not personal, nor am I directing any attack at you, I just find it appalling that a company as large and successful as Valve can be so dismissive of their customers.
Palculator
Unconfirmed Member
I get the point you're trying to make, but why have a blacklist of bad extensions when you should just have the whitelist of .jpg, .png, .gif, .bmp that are usually "safe" (I am aware of bufferoverflow exploits and such.). OP was linked to an image and those are the common image extensions. And images are usually not downloaded but just shown in the browser.
Leafhopper
Banned
That sucks OP. Yeah you gotta be real careful. I almost got phished awhile back but it was luckly to that dumb steam website that ends in .tk.
Hopefully you get your account back.
True but, I do check every file type before clicking on it, that's just me.
Hopefully you get your account back.
True but, I do check every file type before clicking on it, that's just me.
Karak
Member
Agreed. They are simply one of the worst companies I have ever had the displeasure of dealing with when it comes to customer support.
OP hope it gets fixed man
Damn, dude. I really hope you end up getting your stuff back.
I was always under the impression that Steam wouldn't do jack if your account got hacked or stuff got stolen. It made me get in the routine of changing my password at randomly and enabling that steam guard thingy (I don't even really know what it does).
It's good to see that some people here eventually got some help, and I hope the help you need finds you soon, as well along with all your stuff.
I was always under the impression that Steam wouldn't do jack if your account got hacked or stuff got stolen. It made me get in the routine of changing my password at randomly and enabling that steam guard thingy (I don't even really know what it does).
It's good to see that some people here eventually got some help, and I hope the help you need finds you soon, as well along with all your stuff.
Ploid 3.0
Member
Everytime I needed to communicate with Origin CS I came out a winner. They are almost as awesome as Amazon's from my experience. I made a mistake and put a extra $40 in my steam wallet because the first one didn't seem to go through (lag, frose loading, something). Tried to communicate with Valve CS and my ticket might as well have not existed. I have avoided spending directly on steam since.
GillianSeed79
Member
When it comes to theft, Steam kind of sucks tbqh. Don't feel too bad OP. Last year I let a woman spend a few days at my place because she convinced me she had cancer and couldn't pay her heating bills during the east coast artic blast last winter. She stole my PS4, PS3 and Asus gaming laptop. Spent weeks explaining to the police and Valve that all they had to do was find the IP address where my steam account was on because the thief had no idea that steam automatically opened on my old computer and everytime they went online it showed on my steam activity page. They did nothing. Said fuck it just collected my property insurance check. come to think of it, Steam customer support in general kind of sucks balls.
outunderthestars
Banned
Origin helped me out in less than 4 hours when I had an issue.
HP_Wuvcraft
Banned
More people probably work on Greenlight than Customer Service.
They are quick, but I haven't had the best experiences with them actually doing what I asked.
Corronchilejano
Member
I haven't had my account stolen, but the few times I've needed CS from Valve they take a couple of days to answer at most, so I can't say it's good but it's not abysmal.
Shining Sunshine
Banned
All of the money is spent on Gaben's wallet and his future robot army to take over Microsoft.
theusedversion
Member
Steam has the worst customer support, possibly in the entire industry. It pisses me off to no end considering how much money they make. Greedy scumbags. If this was EA, you would have had it fixed the same day. Their online chat is fantastic. I wish gamers would try to make Valve change but they really don't care for some reason.
MegaKungFuRadio
Member
For all the shit people give EA and Origin, the one time I had to deal with their CS, it was prompt and responsive. The rep I dealt with was infuriatingly clueless, but he responded when I yelled at him through e-mail, bless his heart.
It seems that the two most beloved DD services (Steam and GOG) have some of the worst customer support.
Steam are cheap and have the biggest selection. Same reason places like Walmart get a pass on shitty practices: if they're convenient enough people will put up with stuff like awful customer service.
Hero_of_the_Day
Member
Sorry, OP, there are sales to be cooked up right now. Check back in 2015.
lifeexpectancy
Member
I thought people had learned a long time ago not to click random links in random messages/emails? Hope you get your stuff back, but being a computer literate person (assuming sine you use Steam), you really should've known better.
Also, hacking and phishing are note the same thing. Title is misleading.
Also, hacking and phishing are note the same thing. Title is misleading.
I don't know what most of those are. But I know enough that if I'm going to be looking at an image, none of those are image extensions I know of. If someone sends me a file and it ends in something I've never seen before, no way I'm clicking on it. And neither should 100% of people when receiving a file with an extension they've never seen. There are search engines for a reason.
Fragamemnon
Member
Valve's problem is that they are too cheap to staff out a support experience like one would expect given the size and scope of their service, but as JaseC hinted earlier in the thread, to do so would more or less be hiring people into Valve to do a lot of non-creative,somewhat menial work. That's not the way Valve's culture works, Valve doesn't want to have positions in their company where that is the primary role of the employee.
They could outsource it, but then they would lose control over a customer facing part of the Steam experience and that probably is even less appealing than breaking their corporate culture.
The answer is, of course, to put your paying customers's satisfaction as a priority and then let your corporate culture elevate the support staff to think and act bigger than just helping deal with account violations and refunds.I don't see why that's so hard and as long as they hired talented people for the support positions it would happen more or less without much intervention from them.
They could outsource it, but then they would lose control over a customer facing part of the Steam experience and that probably is even less appealing than breaking their corporate culture.
The answer is, of course, to put your paying customers's satisfaction as a priority and then let your corporate culture elevate the support staff to think and act bigger than just helping deal with account violations and refunds.I don't see why that's so hard and as long as they hired talented people for the support positions it would happen more or less without much intervention from them.
CuckFupertino
Banned
Oh give me a fucking break. Can you imagine if every tech company bore the responsibility of tracking down its customers stolen merchandise? Apple would have a million employees doing just that. Furthermore, companies don't provide that kind of information to consumers ever, so blame the police. Likely if law enforcement contacted Valve they'd have provided some information - but certainly not to you, the consumer. Can you imagine the potential for misuse if Valve did hand that information out to consumers?
Leafhopper
Banned
A chunk of those files he listed don't have native Windows programs to run them anyway, not without some finagling. You are 100% right though, look at your stuff.
I came here to make this joke.
Wolf Akela
Member
Yeah, Steam CS is pretty slow now. Sometimes I wonder if they even bother comprehending the ticket.
Imagine how annoying it is to buy a game that disappears from my inventory, then waiting for a week just to get instructions on how to check if a game is in my inventory.
They used to be much faster. I asked them if using a certain mod can get me VAC banned and I got a reply the next day. It was Christmas eve.
As for OP though... did you not suspect anything? Does your friend always link screenshots using Google drive? For my case it's always either through Steam or Imgur.
Imagine how annoying it is to buy a game that disappears from my inventory, then waiting for a week just to get instructions on how to check if a game is in my inventory.
They used to be much faster. I asked them if using a certain mod can get me VAC banned and I got a reply the next day. It was Christmas eve.
As for OP though... did you not suspect anything? Does your friend always link screenshots using Google drive? For my case it's always either through Steam or Imgur.
Ovek
7Member7
What is it with people opening attachments from people they don't know, it boggles the mind it really does.
Do you go through your email spam folder opening every attachment you see as well?
Oh and Neogaf's "Holy Grail" of PC gaming has the worst customer support I have ever seen and that's if they even bother to reply to you, but is OK you can buy cheap games from Russia and Brazil... oh wait.
Do you go through your email spam folder opening every attachment you see as well?
Oh and Neogaf's "Holy Grail" of PC gaming has the worst customer support I have ever seen and that's if they even bother to reply to you, but is OK you can buy cheap games from Russia and Brazil... oh wait.
I started emphasising that I already read the parts of the FAQ that I expected them to quote me. It doesn't actually make a difference so I stopped bothering and just expect the first email to be useless no matter what.
Yeah, Steam CS is pretty slow now. Sometimes I wonder if they even bother comprehending the ticket.
I'm convinced that the way Valve's support system works is that when a new ticket lands on the desk of someone they issue a predetermined response based on the issue type selected and certain key words; it's not until the ticket is bumped by the user that it's actually read in full. I remember Stump once saying that he submitted a ticket asking for his received gift history, categorically stating that he wasn't interested in sent gift history, the latter of which you can get to from your inventory page. Can you guess which of the two the first response pertained to?
Not quite ...
... and so on.
I completely agree. This should be in the OP to clarify what actually happened. Regardless, I have heard Valve have sorted out issues such as this after months of waiting but contact within the week, so I can imagine you will be going through a hit and miss affair. Good luck
Saintguine
Member
Whilst I am sorry that you got scammed and lost your stuff and I wish you the best. You won't get any more exposure by posting on GAF and Valve is notoriously horrible when it comes to customer support, the most you'd probably get from Valve is a unhelpful pre-made message asking you if the computer is turned on or whatever.
Like it has honestly gotten to the point where I will wholeheartedly agree with anyone that fucking Electronic Arts has infinitely better customer support with Origin.
Like it has honestly gotten to the point where I will wholeheartedly agree with anyone that fucking Electronic Arts has infinitely better customer support with Origin.
CambriaRising
Member
Valve CS is garbage. I hope everything gets sorted out for you OP, but I wouldn't get my hopes up.
Memorabilia
Member
My Valve account was hacked by a Russian located in Moscow about a year ago. It was only through my personal efforts this situation was "sorted" out. Needless to say that particular hacker wont be screwing with any other Steam accounts again. No thanks to Steam doing virtually nothing aside from asking me if I could verify owning a game code or two. Unfortunately, Steam's follow-up customer service has been even worse. My Steam account is still using Rubles as its default currency, and for some bizarre reason its impossible to change it back to US dollars without jumping through hoops for Steam. No word on just how it was possible to change it from Dollars to Rubles in the first place. Not only is Steam CS mostly useless, but they seem to actively make things more difficult on legitimate users than hackers, which is bizarre to say the least. I love Steam for their sales, but if this company had to survive based on CS it would've died a long time ago. Amazing that Gaben hasn't yet cleaned this up yet and implemented policies and personnel who are better equipped to help people.
Bomber Bob
Banned
awful costumer services.
Always has been, Steams okay as a platform but the way people praise it is beyond silly considering how draconian they are with their customer service and refund policy.
I certainly accept that with the volume of people saying so, it is more than likely terrible customer service - however, my personal experience has been quite different. Responses have always been given within 2 days, and I have even received refunds on 2 occasions and an exchange regarding two versions of a game. Bear in mind though, my last time through Steam CS was 2013, so I'm sure thing have changed since steam grows ever larger