Some time after the last steam hack my steam password stopped working and I wasn't able to log in again. I contacted steam support (you have to register a support account that is tied to your main steam account) and they basically told me the same.

I had to either supply payment details regarding one recent steam transaction of my choice (pretty easy if you use paypal) or do the cd key ticket number marker thing with one of my retail games.

At first I ruined my genuine us copy of Half Life 1 just to receive the response of "we do not know this cd key". After that I just pasted paypal payment info for a recent steam purchase and the support supplied me with a new account password and instructions on how to reactivate my account.

The answer rate of the steam support was something around 1 answer per day so it took me 2-3 days until I had access to my steam account again.

I guess in your case something similar happened. For some reason Valve thinks your email change request is fishy and so they require you to prove your account ownership. Maybe your trouble ticket wasn't linked to your original steam account somehow? Anyways it is either payment info or cd key marker photo and just for one of the games in your account.

It's not cool of them to require you to go through all of this but I guess it wouldn't be cool either to lose ones steam account to a scammer.

I know from other companies and state agencies that they have several levels of "suspicion" which the end user/citizen never notices because they all run in the background and are usually dismissed, because they are very easy to trigger. Only when a bunch of those factors sum up, real action is taken and it gets nocticeable.

Maybe you where through some innocent actions marked with some flag that would have resolved itself in time, but by your e-mail change request, you triggered another flag.

Bad timing, bro.

Yeah, right before requesting to change my email address. I changed my password. I also recently switched my internet to save money too.

Dude, we are talking about your account right ;-P

So in steam's eyes, the account switched IP, then the password was changed, and then someone tries to contact support to get the email changed...

That's almost line for line what would happen if your account was hijacked... I wouldn't be surprised if that triggered a flag, even though you didn't really do anything wrong.

The IP changed a month and 20 days before the password was changed and I contacted Steam support about changing my email address. So everything didn't happen back to back. But it is probably like this. IP change = flag level 1 for months, password change when in flag level 1 = flag level 2 etc Bad timing like SimonG said. I'm not mad at Steam anymore and understand why they are treating me like this but I find this level of security extremely annoying. Too much sh*t to deal with that you don't have to deal with when dealing with GOG and Gamersgate.

Now that I think about it I don't think it matters much. It's not like they drove you to prove your ownership. You're the one who contacted support, and when doing that you do need to do that.

The problem is that you weren't able to change your email without contacting support, which really shouldn't have been necessary if you still had access to it.

Why didn't that work btw? You said "Steam won't let me", but what does that mean? Did the Steamguard email never show up?

Hmm, you'd think they'd use a popup like they do when they restrict an account. Hope you get it sorted at least :) (regardless of whether you still plan to use Steam or not afterwards)

See, people, that's why we don't need GOG cash.

But GOG said they are not keeping payment data for privacy reasons. They clearly said that if someone would hack their server there will be nothing to steal because they don't keep those info. So why would they request part of the cc number if they don't have with what to compare it?? And how do they identify users that use Paypal exclusively?

Hm, GOG, did you lied about not keeping cc data?...

They need to keep the last four numbers for legal reasons, as far as I know. Just like any other online store out there that doesn't remember full CC details.

You're not being lied.

>change password on Steam
>forget about it the next day
>type old password and be denied access
>STEAM IS EVIL I'M DONE WITH THEM

Stay classy, folks.

If that's the case, that's basically keeping cc data... so why pretending they don't?

That means every online store that pretends they don't keep cc data is actually lying because they are required to keep the data? I know there are shops that don't actually process cc data because they clearly forward you to the payment server of a certified processer, but GOG is apparently not doing that as the payment information is directly inputted in the order page.

Did you even read the previous posts or just the title of the thread?