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My neighbor's kid just got his Steam account stolen over a fake game invite

I was talking to him yesterday and he said he clicked a link in his Discord DMs that looked like a free game code. It asked for his login and he put it in, thinking it was a real Steam page. His account was gone in about five minutes. He told me 'it looked exactly like the real site, even had the green padlock.' That hit different because I've told people about phishing for years, but seeing a smart kid get fooled by a good fake made it real. It's not just about weird emails anymore. Has anyone else seen these fake game or giveaway links popping up in gaming chats?

3 comments

3 Comments

paulw531mo ago

Yeah that "looked exactly like the real site" part is the whole trick. @christopherw34 is right about the address bar, but honestly how many people actually check that? It's bad luck for the kid but it's just an account. Steam support usually gets it back for you if you bother to go through the hassle.

king.eric1mo ago

I get that, but calling it just bad luck feels off. It's a real scam that works because it's made to trick you. Saying it's only an account downplays how violating it feels to get hacked.

christopherw341mo ago

That green padlock thing is a real problem, it makes people think a site is safe when it's not. Did he say what the actual web address was in his browser bar? Sometimes those fake sites have a weird spelling or a different ending you can spot if you know to look.