Phishing scams have been around since the dawn of the internet. In one way or another, there’s always been that one asshat making up new ways to get your personal information by hook or by crook. From something as innocuous as twitter info to bigger game like presidential election fraud, this has been a part of internet life since its conception.

Even the mighty Blizzard can’t protect their players all the time against these types of scams. If there was ever anything that was somewhat immune to the poisons of phishing, it would have been Steam. Steam accounts enjoy some of the most hardcore security that a company could ever provide. But it isn’t at all infallible. 77 thousand Steam accounts get hacked everyday and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Most of the time, however, the problem with a hacked Steam account is due to the neglect of the owner.

Steam Account Danger: Phishing!

Phishing scams will foll you into thinking tthat there’s something good at the end of that tunnel and you’ll be throwing your personal info to them. A good example of the most common kind of Steam account Phishing is the offer of free games. They’ll randomly send emails something like “Valve has given you a gift subscription to the game Dark Souls� 3 on Steam, the leading digital distribution platform for PC games,” making it sound as legitimate as possible. Clicking on their link will send you to their fake Steam site that looks so much like the real one, expect for the unusually shady address. Completing your “transaction” (after you get scammed lol) tosses you to the main Steam website so that you think it’s just some glitch or something.

But it’s too late; they know your email is tied to a Steam account and will be attempting to crack your password with different kinds of 3rd party programs. If you’ve ever fallen for one of these or accidentally fall for them, you can still salvage what you can by using Steam’s awesomely awesome security options like the SMS validation code system. It also goes without saying that you should change your password IMMEDIATELY and use a password that isn’t stupidly simple like pashword.

Always check the URLs you go to and the original senders of random emails. Never open or click on anything that isn’t directly from Steam or you stand to lose, not just your Steam Accounts, but all your bought games as well.

Before you know it, you’ll want to buy Steam Accounts to salvage something as close as possible to the one you used to have. Be careful out there and only shop somewhere legit.