Not sure if it still works but I made a PayPal account under my mothers name, once I turned 18 I corrected the name 2-3 letters at a time until it morphed from her name to mine. Maybe worth a try?
Some of the rules companies have on account verification are absurd. And some are just idiotic.
My old roommate was trying to port his cell phone to AT&T years ago. They asked for his middle initial and he said “none, I don’t have a middle name” (he is Chinese and wasn’t just messing with them, he really doesn’t have a middle name).
The guy said “I need a middle initial, there is already someone in the system with your name and the computer won’t let me continue without it.” My roommate said “I don’t know what to tell you, I don’t have a middle name so I can’t have a middle initial.”
“I can’t continue without it, sorry.”
“Ok, fine. X. It’s X.”
“Is that your REAL middle initial? I’m not sure I believe you.”
“No, you moron. I told you I don’t have one! Are you fucking kidding me?! Ok, you need to transfer me to your supervisor now, so we can both laugh at you and then I can actually get this done.”
It's common, but not universal. I've known families where every kid had multiple middle names, families where they had no middle names and families where they only had middle initials.
I knew one family who all had the middle name Mike because it was a "good, solid American name" paired with very traditional first names from their parents' home country.
When I registered for international medical insurance, they required an address in my home country (reasonable), the country I will be living in (reasonable), and for some fucking reason an address in a THIRD country.
The conversation went much like yours. I told them I did not have a third residence in a third country (fuck me, right?) and they said they can't sell it to me without it.
So I asked them if they use it for anything, or if they ever mail anything there. No. It just populates a field.
So I gave them an address to some random ass mcdonalds in mexico.
> My old roommate was trying to port his cell phone to AT&T years ago. They asked for his middle initial and he said “none, I don’t have a middle name” (he is Chinese and wasn’t messing them, he really didn’t have a middle name).
George Washington didn't have a middle name either.
paypal will steal money if they disagree with anything that the seller or buyer is working with.
oh you sold world war 2 artefacts that are NOT gun related? thats related to guns since they were used in world war 2...we'll keep your money thanks.
Yeah, their buyer protections are garbage. Ordered a product through them and it showed up as a completely different product and broken, still couldnt get a refund.
I'm always on board for some PayPal hate.
I don't mind using them to send my money somewhere, but I will never use them to hold any money for me or to receive any.
Even more if it was older Steam sales, or some of the early Humble Bundles.
Steam sales are still good but they really felt insanely good 10-ish years ago
My exact thought. I'm still wondering what happened with the account that caused him to need to contact Steam and inform them he is not the owner of the account.
There's no way this is a case imo. No way a dying steam user would give a family member their account without giving them the email associated with the account, knowing what a pain in the ass steam support is.
Unlucky to OP if that's the case tho.
It says they started using it before they could create an account on their own. My guess is that they were given the credentials well before their relative passed, since op couldn’t create their own steam account yet. I don’t think this was someone on their death bed giving their relative access to their account since they won’t be using it anymore.
He said they passed it to him sometime when he was in high school.
What they should have said if this was the case was that "their brother made them the account when they were underage but forgot to get them the email associated with it before passing."
The way OP worded it to steam, there is very little chance they will get the account back. Unless there is some law with estate protecting their brothers account. Not sure digital assets like games/movies/other media can just be passed along after death, legally at least.
Admitting to circumventing age restrictions wouldn't be a viable strategy, either. The brother would still have been the account owner.
I don't know if they do this anymore, but some account recovery involves proving you purchased a product on the account, i.e. taking a picture of a cd-key from a boxed product. I remember reading stories about people digging out their Half-Life 2 DVD boxes to get the info they needed.
One time I had to recover my UPlay (now Ubisoft+) account because I reset my phone without porting over 2FA info. I actually contacted them through support Twitter (you need access to your account to use [Ubisoft.com](https://Ubisoft.com) support, haha) and IIRC they just asked me what the last game I purchased/redeemed on the service was. Maybe they even asked 1 of the last 3 games, not sure. Anyway, the only thing I told them was the snafu with resetting my phone.
I have a copy of the hardbond edition from many years ago. I'm saving it for when my kid gets old enough. Until then, I'll just let them read the paperback version.
Always the police. You'll notice the phrase is "anything you say can be used against you", not "anything you say can be used either for or against you". Nothing you say can benefit you more than saying nothing.
If you read the email he was asking for what email account was associated with the steam account if the deceased person, probably because it popped a 2factor request and they couldn't log in. They disnt just email steam to rub it in...
Sure, because being honest that you used a dear relative's Steam account as a minor and they passed is definitely on OP for being an idiot. Not even a "here are the saves." I have not seen a dumpster fire comments section like this on a relatively benign post in awhile on reddit, wow
The people you're replying to aren't saying the OP is an idiot or that they even did anything wrong. They are simply saying they've learned a lesson in oversharing. OP was betting on the story and hoping sympathy would regain access. When in reality that gave Steam all the information they needed to know it was an access request that went against policy.
I wouldn’t say OP is an idiot but he’s definitely naive. When someone dies and you’re trying to gain access to their online accounts you never admit they’re dead unless it’s a financial institution and your name isn’t on it. You will almost never get access and many times it’ll result in the account being locked or deactivated. If it is a financial institution and your name is on it you drain the account immediately.
To be fair, it’s probably fake. I don’t think steam support are typing out custom emails without them being screened. Usually they’ll have templates they have to send so that reps don’t agree to stuff they shouldn’t.
The grammar and spelling mistakes in this email kinda suggest that either the email was edited, or completely fictional.
I mean... It's not like someone would just lie on a ticket to get access to a steam account. "The original is dead so I can't prove it's mine!" .... Sounds really couldn't.
so steam believes his story and locks the account, we don't believe his story and he doesn't get any karma... this guys having a terrible day
oh yeah and a relative died
It's better than admitting you never owned the account. There was no chance with what OP said, theres at least a small chance some dumb fuck in support believes he lost 2fa email.
I don't have my AOL email anymore that was my 2fa for some stuff
True, I work in cybersecurity & this is pretty much SOP. with the original owner unable to be contacted in any way, there are zero options to verify identity & remove/reset 2fa, as confirmed by op. their hands would be tied even if they did not have this pretty standard policy.
Flipper zero is a hacking multi-tool that can be used to open electronic locks, steal cars, do all sorts of shit. The fact that he also has a "scammer" tag indicates that he's ripped someone off either in that subreddit or elsewhere.
The fact that OP is so active in a hacking community would indicate to me OP probably stole the steam account and is using this reddit post to hope a steam rep reaches out and gives him more complete access to the stolen account after seeing his sob story.
I got this lesson for free fortunately. My father died and I called up our ISP to change the account into my name (wasn't necessary as I was already an admin on the account). They charged me $100+ to do it. I just went full karen called them up abusing them and they eventually waived the fee. Another lesson learned, sometimes you need to go full karen.
"Oysters open completely when the moon is full; and when the crab sees one it throws a piece of stone or seaweed into it and the oyster cannot close again so that it serves the crab for meat. Such is the fate of him who opens his mouth too much and thereby puts himself at the mercy of the listener." - Leonardo DaVinci
Homie. My dude.
It’s like you got pulled over for a tail light being out and decided to crack open a beer while talking to the officer.
Never give a corporation more information than you need to, and always read the TOS before Tekashi69ing yourself.
"Sorry officer, I know I ran that light back there, my friends and I were drinking at his house and we were gonna go to a bar, but I forgot my license at my house so I was just going back to get it"
*Gets pulled over by the police and officer walks up to the car and the driver cranks down the window.*
Driver: "Everything ok officer."
*Cracks a cold one open and starts chugging it down infront of the officer.*
Officer: "Your tail light is out" *The officer stammers out in disbelief*
Driver: "Want one I have loads in the back in the ice box if you want one."
*The officer just nods and the driver hands him a beer*
*The officer then just let's him go and he drives off into the sunset before a add for Non-Alcoholic Beer pops up*
They already have a similar ad to this where the cop approaches the vehicle, the driver indicates that it is a zero alcohol beer, then the cop points that he is actually in a no parking zone.
So yeah, basically done.
Exactly, if some random person did this and got access to their account they would complain about them not being strict enough. It would be a huge breach of security. As soon as you mention “okay, yeah I’m not actually the original owner of the account” no reason you can give would be appropriate for them to let you in. You gotta think about it from the side of the actual owner. If I suddenly lost access to my account and Steam or whatever company said “oh well they gave a sad story about you being dead and it was all so sad and convincing so we just broke protocol and handed it over” I would be mad!
Though I do agree, I feel like there's plenty of ways OP can actually verify he is who he is and that this story makes sense.
Things like address/personal residence information, possibly payment/CC information, certain games that are on it, recent transactions, etc.
I get what you're saying, obviously, but I feel like blanket policies with no flexibility or recourse over mistakes or just shit happens is open to lots of issues in that sense.
And again, I get it's a safety thing and I do understand why they do it. Just saying that it's not necessarily a black and white thing. There's ways they can verify it trust the story and what it's being told.
Maybe I'm jaded, but I 100% would have seen that email as a scam or attempt to steal someone's account. It does seem like an unnecessary twist of the knife to tell OP sorry for their loss in nearly the same sentence they tell them they have been denied access, though.
That’s my thought too…
So if I wanna screw someone up, I can contact steam and say:
“Hey, my buddy died and I’ve been using his account” and boom, he’s account is gone?!
Seems very exploitable…
As much as I use Steam myself, this is one of those things that highlights how we don't own the games we buy on it. Were we talking physical games here, it would be easy to bequeath a collection to someone else. Or take games bought without DRM like through GoG, you could pass a game collection to someone else that way.
But Valve makes it clear that your purchases can't be shared or given to anyone else. Whatever else good Valve has done, this is definitely a downside to buying through them.
It's janky as fuck and constantly drops its memory of the people you're sharing with. Better than nothing, but for such a venerable and feature rich platform it's kind of suss how chronically unreliable this one particular aspect is.
My husband and I both game. Our libraries are shared and we both play games the others purchased all the time. We never buy the game twice (unless we’re playing it together) because that’s just a waste. Neither of us has ever had any issues with shared games.
As far as I know it only works when you aren't using your account. So my daughter can't play a game of mine on her PC if I'm playing a different game. It technically there but it's severely lacking.
Exactly, and it's buggy as hell. Likes to revoke access randomly. And just feels like it was entirely designed to make you not use it while they can still claim that they have it.
This seems like something that could and should change with legislation. As more and more commodities are digital in nature, and as governments catch up, I’ll hold onto some hope that one day my child will get to inherit all the games I bought on sale and never played, so they can never play them too.
> Were we talking physical games here, it would be easy to bequeath a collection to someone else.
Let’s be real here though, you wouldn’t actually own even a tenth of the stuff on steam to physically pass on because
1. It wouldn’t have been like 90% off on sale when you bought it
2. You would have thrown most of them away or traded them in for like 50 cents at GameStop because they were taking up space
I have some.
But it’s like 10-15% of stuff I actually owned.
And the stuff I did keep was mostly because no one wanted it but it felt like a waste to throw it in the trash.
If my steam library was a physical collection I would have had to throw a large chunk away.
Especially since I no longer even have a computer with a disc drive.
>It wouldn’t have been like 90% off on sale when you bought it
Yeah but accounts that buy games at full price doesnt get any preferential treatments.
Also bargain bins exists in game stores. Or sharing physical copies of games with your friends/ family.
Yes you would, because you'd buy them from someone other than the original publisher, because the first sale doctrine applies to real things but not, for some reason, digital things.
As someone who’s bought countless used games from GameStop for less than $10 each, that’s where you’re wrong. And I can resell and gift them afterwards, and they’re not permanently tied to an account I can lose whenever Gabe might die and Steam gets bought out or goes public.
From the site:
The Universal Scammer List is the system supporting a collection of subreddits who agree to work together to limit the impact that those who have scammed or have shown the intention to scam can have on members of Buy/Sell/Trade communities.
r/Borrow mod here.
User took a $40 loan in early 2020 and failed to repay it. They were placed on the UniversalScammerList at that time as a result. The USL is currently showing as a 2022 ban as we migrated to a new bot/system at that time.
It probably is good practice to randomly check on weird posts like this
Especially since, after talking to mods involved with r/UniversalScammerList, they were happy to provide the following:
>The user \[screddachedda\] you're referring to was added to the USL for taking a loan and failing to repay it in early 2020.
In fact, r/borrow mod Dr3wcifer later replied to this thread: [https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/1247hyh/comment/jdz35dl/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/1247hyh/comment/jdz35dl/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
And, just searching "screddachedda" on reddit shows these [two](https://www.reddit.com/r/borrow/comments/f4iik8/late_uscreddachedda_40_18_days_late/) [events](https://www.reddit.com/r/borrow/comments/em1mbc/late_uscreddachedda_90_5_days_late/) in 2020.
UniversalScammerList is NOT a definitive nor trusted source of information.
As you pointed out it does not give context nor does it even say WHY. I could go and create a website out of thin air called "RealUniversalScammerList dot com" and put anyone I disliked on it.
Seriously, whoever made this is an ass.
Dang, something we never think of because physical games just pass onto whoever want them to go to. Now hearing this, makes me think about online games.
I don’t disagree with you. It’s just a logical thing to feel like we own a game after having paid for it. I understand what we are paying for is basically a connection to said account.
But back in my day (lol) at least when I only had access to physical cd or cartridge based games I could do all the sharing and giving away I want to.
I hope my son gets into gaming so I’ve started to buy physical games again. I didn’t even think about something like this happening but I’ll be sure to watch for TOS stuff like this.
Sounds like to me that someone hacked your email and set out to ruin you. They canceled subscriptions, and got you kicked from others. For steam, they even said you were dead and gave the account away to frame you for breaking the TOS.
Lucky for you, they appear to only be blocking the access from the hacked email, so hopefully, you can just use your original email to recover everything. Might be tough to find, but if you email them explaining you lost your old email addresses to hackers and have to start fresh, they will probably help you sort it out.
This is standard.... all online accounts are accounted for in the estate if he/she did it right. Executor ensures the will is carried out. Not a chance in hell steams going to let random people say they inherited gaming accounts. The only person with authority to do this is the executor of the will. This is extremely basic stuff....
You may have some luck pretending to be your deceased relative, asking why the fuck your account was disabled and demanding access to it back. I don't know how much you said or told, but it might be possible?
The email states rather clearly that the account is not disabled, so really, close that ticket and try to do exactly as you say with whatever information they have.
There is no way for them to really verify, im sure people use all kinds of excuses, sure maybe yours is true but from their perspective you're just another one.
Sounds like you need to reach out to whomever is owner of the deceased estate, get them to submit a ticket for access to the account, and then get them to 'give' it to you by sharing their new password.
If it's against their terms, they'll just deny that request.
Sone companies have no plans in place for deceased account holders. People overestimate the reach of POA and estates.
>"Your Account, including any information pertaining to it (e.g.: contact information, billing information, Account history and Subscriptions, etc.), is strictly personal. You may therefore not sell or charge others for the right to use your Account, or otherwise transfer your Account, nor may you sell, charge others for the right to use, or transfer any Subscriptions other than if and as expressly permitted by this Agreement (including any Subscription Terms or Rules of Use) or as otherwise specifically permitted by Valve."
>"In the simplest terms, this means that without express permission from Valve, you can't just give your Steam account to another person. Even if you were to write it into your will that you wanted this to happen, without that permission, it wouldn't hold up upon your death. Earlier this week, I spoke to a lawyer who specialises in the video game industry to confirm that this is, in fact, the case."
Estate/Bemeficiary laws supersede any sort of ToS or T&Cs. Also, the representative that responded to OP literally suggested to connect with the estate, presumably to relinquish access to their estate.
This sucks but it was very stupid of you to volunteer information of any kind to a corporation. Fuck corporations. Honesty is the best policy, unless you're dealing with a money obsessed lizard.
it's not uncommon if english is a second language for the support person. Happens all the time to me whenever I open a chat and it's someone based in India or where ever.
Interesting notion, that steam is getting old enough that people are starting to "inherit" steam accounts... They should address the issue.
Unfortunately, you DO NOT OWN ANYTHING on your steam account, you bought a license that cannot be passed on to another person.
If you die, that license invalidates and your account becomes worthless.
Most licenses cannot be passed on in inheritence
\---
This is a 6 year old article:
[https://www.eurogamer.net/what-happens-to-your-steam-account-when-you-die](https://www.eurogamer.net/what-happens-to-your-steam-account-when-you-die)
\---
A few years and this issue is gonna grab more and more traction
If they just let anyone transfer accounts to new owners because "my brother died can i have now" then there would be a massive opening for people to start hacking accounts that they have no connection to.
It's not cold blooded, it's basic privacy and security. Otherwise we'd have people coming on here posting about how a guy took their account pretending they were dead.
Literally would've been better to just not even say sorry for your loss just don't even acknowledge it
Instead they went tuff shit sucks dawg anyway fuck you bitch
OP needs to try and understand that this story is exactly the kind of thing an account thief would try and use to take over someone's account.
There's no way they could possibly verify that "the dead relative actually wanted me to have this!". The non-transferable policy is there to protect people from getting their account transferred to someone else and to prevent "helpful" customer service people from getting entangled in a scam.
https://www.universalscammerlist.com/?username=screddachedda
Just gonna leave this here
Op is a scammer that has been previously caught and placed on the universal scammer list.
If it walks like a duck...
He sounds young, you almost can’t blame him for not seeing it this way. It’s easy to grasp the full picture after you’ve lost that innocence. I’m sure he will from here on out. (Not saying that should excuse it from their end, but try to be more understanding where he’s coming from) He just learned a valuable lesson.
This is exactly why when I had to contact support for my sons account, I kept that shit simple af.
Dear gaming corp overload,
My son fucked up and forgot his account information. Here is X email it was originally opened with along with receipt number of X purchase made. Just set said X email back to primary email on X account and I will take care of the rest.
Thanks, Dad who absolutely did not create his 11yo an account with a 21yo birthdate
24hrs later kid was back to gaming his little heart out.
Dude this fucking sucks, I’m sorry. Take the lesson and run with it- never tell a company any more than they need to know. They’re not your friends. Sorry again man.
I know it sucks, but it is your fault for admitting that you broke Steam's TOS, now that you told everything to them, good luck on trying to recover it
A last will and testament could bypass this in the UK. The Terms of Service cannot legally override the transfer of a licence. You *own* the licence and thus can transfer said ownership... In fact, you'll find that the terms of service aren't technically legal anyway, as they say they can change them at will even after you agree to it. You know, just like you can change the law after you're arrested...
Terms of Service can be changed at will. You will then be prompted to accept it again. If you don't, you are free to stop using the service.
With that said, lots of things written in Terms of Service aren't legally enforceable. People often forget ToS don't supercede federal law and OP have an easy argument about bad faith on Steam's part since he's been spending money on said account.
ToS are more often than not just covering their own asses and giving people ground rules. They get tossed out of court fairly often.
> Terms of Service can be changed at will. You will then be prompted to accept it again. If you don't, you are free to stop using the service.
Yeah like that alone makes would make it unconscionable for a contract. Like some rules you aren't told about until you buy something, must agree to to use the thing you bought, can be changed unilaterally by the controlling party at any time, and new rules must be agreed to to continue use?
Like just tell me how that isn't this.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/unconscionability
"I was a kid and couldn't make my own" ??? If you were able to use it than you were perfectly fine to create one and on top of that, Steam had no means to check your story and is probably more common for them that this story is made up to gain access to someone else account
And here I thought non transferable meant to other accounts. The game was bought for the account, the account was left to them by the deceased making it their account now... so what exactly are they violating?
Per the email. The account was not deleted, your access was just removed. It still exists. All you would have to do is to contact whomever handled the estate after his passing. And have them send a letter as the estate to Steam to restore access to the estates control.
Even Blizzard lets you merge WoW accounts from someone who died. I merged my dads WoW account with mine when he died a few years ago and only had to provide CD keys from the expansions on his account. A few days later his account was on my Battle.net.
Valve need to work on their customer support a bit, thats pretty big dick move.
yeah, this guy’s kinda dumb for oversharing but what an asshole response from steam…. “sorry for your loss, but also say goodbye to your acc lol” what the hell?
I would've kept the account and share the library to my account, you would have both the games and the account.
It sucks but I wouldn't tell other people that the account I'm currently using isn't mine and the previous owner has died
I mean, if you got this through inheritance, maybe just show them a will or something?
Also, don't overshare information that might incriminate yourself.
So don't lose access to my late wife's account with hundreds of dollars worth of games on it. Got ya
You ARE your late wife now. Also sorry for your loss
I, too, am this guys late wife.
You two would make a great couple…
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Not sure if it still works but I made a PayPal account under my mothers name, once I turned 18 I corrected the name 2-3 letters at a time until it morphed from her name to mine. Maybe worth a try?
Username of Theseus
Username of Theodus
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I had a PayPal account as a minor also under my mother's name. Nothing happened when I turned 18. It was a pretty easy fix though.
Lmfao
Some of the rules companies have on account verification are absurd. And some are just idiotic. My old roommate was trying to port his cell phone to AT&T years ago. They asked for his middle initial and he said “none, I don’t have a middle name” (he is Chinese and wasn’t just messing with them, he really doesn’t have a middle name). The guy said “I need a middle initial, there is already someone in the system with your name and the computer won’t let me continue without it.” My roommate said “I don’t know what to tell you, I don’t have a middle name so I can’t have a middle initial.” “I can’t continue without it, sorry.” “Ok, fine. X. It’s X.” “Is that your REAL middle initial? I’m not sure I believe you.” “No, you moron. I told you I don’t have one! Are you fucking kidding me?! Ok, you need to transfer me to your supervisor now, so we can both laugh at you and then I can actually get this done.”
Serious question: do all Americans have middle names?! Not having a middle name is quite common in Germany
No. It's typical, but not a requirement or anything.
It's common, but not universal. I've known families where every kid had multiple middle names, families where they had no middle names and families where they only had middle initials. I knew one family who all had the middle name Mike because it was a "good, solid American name" paired with very traditional first names from their parents' home country.
That is amazing. Constantina Mike Popadopolis.
When I registered for international medical insurance, they required an address in my home country (reasonable), the country I will be living in (reasonable), and for some fucking reason an address in a THIRD country. The conversation went much like yours. I told them I did not have a third residence in a third country (fuck me, right?) and they said they can't sell it to me without it. So I asked them if they use it for anything, or if they ever mail anything there. No. It just populates a field. So I gave them an address to some random ass mcdonalds in mexico.
> ..transfer me to your supervisor now, so we can both laugh at you.. Love it and I'm stealing it next time I'm on the phone with a moron.
> My old roommate was trying to port his cell phone to AT&T years ago. They asked for his middle initial and he said “none, I don’t have a middle name” (he is Chinese and wasn’t messing them, he really didn’t have a middle name). George Washington didn't have a middle name either.
Sure he did. It was X.
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Have you learned nothing from this post? Stop admitting this stuff lol
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paypal will steal money if they disagree with anything that the seller or buyer is working with. oh you sold world war 2 artefacts that are NOT gun related? thats related to guns since they were used in world war 2...we'll keep your money thanks.
Yeah, their buyer protections are garbage. Ordered a product through them and it showed up as a completely different product and broken, still couldnt get a refund.
I'm always on board for some PayPal hate. I don't mind using them to send my money somewhere, but I will never use them to hold any money for me or to receive any.
Hopefully you changed/claimed all the actual recovery info as your own already. Would've saved OP a lot of trouble.
Damn, whats taking her so long? (I'm sorry for your loss)
hundreds of dollars? so like 4 or 5 games?
Naw just the sims and like half the expansions.
Half the expansions? Was the original owner oil rich?
At Steam sale prices, more like hundreds of games.
Even more if it was older Steam sales, or some of the early Humble Bundles. Steam sales are still good but they really felt insanely good 10-ish years ago
Might be a single Paradox game with half of the DLCs...
Have you bought games on this acount? Why did you need to contact support in the first place?
My exact thought. I'm still wondering what happened with the account that caused him to need to contact Steam and inform them he is not the owner of the account.
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There's no way this is a case imo. No way a dying steam user would give a family member their account without giving them the email associated with the account, knowing what a pain in the ass steam support is. Unlucky to OP if that's the case tho.
It says they started using it before they could create an account on their own. My guess is that they were given the credentials well before their relative passed, since op couldn’t create their own steam account yet. I don’t think this was someone on their death bed giving their relative access to their account since they won’t be using it anymore.
He said they passed it to him sometime when he was in high school. What they should have said if this was the case was that "their brother made them the account when they were underage but forgot to get them the email associated with it before passing." The way OP worded it to steam, there is very little chance they will get the account back. Unless there is some law with estate protecting their brothers account. Not sure digital assets like games/movies/other media can just be passed along after death, legally at least.
Admitting to circumventing age restrictions wouldn't be a viable strategy, either. The brother would still have been the account owner. I don't know if they do this anymore, but some account recovery involves proving you purchased a product on the account, i.e. taking a picture of a cd-key from a boxed product. I remember reading stories about people digging out their Half-Life 2 DVD boxes to get the info they needed. One time I had to recover my UPlay (now Ubisoft+) account because I reset my phone without porting over 2FA info. I actually contacted them through support Twitter (you need access to your account to use [Ubisoft.com](https://Ubisoft.com) support, haha) and IIRC they just asked me what the last game I purchased/redeemed on the service was. Maybe they even asked 1 of the last 3 games, not sure. Anyway, the only thing I told them was the snafu with resetting my phone.
Had to do that with guild wars 2 once. Used my guild ways key to get access to my account.
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OP is tagged as a scammer in other subreddits. He is likely fishing for handouts.
Op just learned a valuable life lesson. Don't overshare information.
To quote Smiley Bone, “never play an ace when a two will do”. Edit: Probably was the Red Dragon, not Smiley.
I thought that was the Red Dragon. Also, YES! SOMEONE ELSE WHO HAS READ "BONE"!
Yeah, probably is the Red Dragon tbh, I’ll edit.
I have a copy of the hardbond edition from many years ago. I'm saving it for when my kid gets old enough. Until then, I'll just let them read the paperback version.
I've got the ghost circles book, I've probably read it dozens of times.
Welp, time to go find an online repository with Bone to rebinge
I'll never forgive Netflix for scrapping the bone series
Remember this lesson when dealing with insurance
And sometimes the police too.
Always the police. You'll notice the phrase is "anything you say can be used against you", not "anything you say can be used either for or against you". Nothing you say can benefit you more than saying nothing.
Lol social media is a gold mine for that shit.
If you read the email he was asking for what email account was associated with the steam account if the deceased person, probably because it popped a 2factor request and they couldn't log in. They disnt just email steam to rub it in...
That's when you lie and say you lost your old email account
Sure, because being honest that you used a dear relative's Steam account as a minor and they passed is definitely on OP for being an idiot. Not even a "here are the saves." I have not seen a dumpster fire comments section like this on a relatively benign post in awhile on reddit, wow
The people you're replying to aren't saying the OP is an idiot or that they even did anything wrong. They are simply saying they've learned a lesson in oversharing. OP was betting on the story and hoping sympathy would regain access. When in reality that gave Steam all the information they needed to know it was an access request that went against policy.
I wouldn’t say OP is an idiot but he’s definitely naive. When someone dies and you’re trying to gain access to their online accounts you never admit they’re dead unless it’s a financial institution and your name isn’t on it. You will almost never get access and many times it’ll result in the account being locked or deactivated. If it is a financial institution and your name is on it you drain the account immediately.
To be fair, it’s probably fake. I don’t think steam support are typing out custom emails without them being screened. Usually they’ll have templates they have to send so that reps don’t agree to stuff they shouldn’t. The grammar and spelling mistakes in this email kinda suggest that either the email was edited, or completely fictional.
I mean... It's not like someone would just lie on a ticket to get access to a steam account. "The original is dead so I can't prove it's mine!" .... Sounds really couldn't.
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so steam believes his story and locks the account, we don't believe his story and he doesn't get any karma... this guys having a terrible day oh yeah and a relative died
This sounds even worse. I'd immediately assume they were trying a social engineering attack.
It's better than admitting you never owned the account. There was no chance with what OP said, theres at least a small chance some dumb fuck in support believes he lost 2fa email. I don't have my AOL email anymore that was my 2fa for some stuff
True, I work in cybersecurity & this is pretty much SOP. with the original owner unable to be contacted in any way, there are zero options to verify identity & remove/reset 2fa, as confirmed by op. their hands would be tied even if they did not have this pretty standard policy.
Yep. Learned this a little too late into my early years in my career. Now I only share info when asked.
But wait, there's more: OP is literally a scammer: [https://i.imgur.com/8BA7o55.png](https://i.imgur.com/8BA7o55.png)
Explain.
Flipper zero is a hacking multi-tool that can be used to open electronic locks, steal cars, do all sorts of shit. The fact that he also has a "scammer" tag indicates that he's ripped someone off either in that subreddit or elsewhere. The fact that OP is so active in a hacking community would indicate to me OP probably stole the steam account and is using this reddit post to hope a steam rep reaches out and gives him more complete access to the stolen account after seeing his sob story.
Whats identifying and applying the scammer flair?
I got this lesson for free fortunately. My father died and I called up our ISP to change the account into my name (wasn't necessary as I was already an admin on the account). They charged me $100+ to do it. I just went full karen called them up abusing them and they eventually waived the fee. Another lesson learned, sometimes you need to go full karen.
Always lie to authority.
"Oysters open completely when the moon is full; and when the crab sees one it throws a piece of stone or seaweed into it and the oyster cannot close again so that it serves the crab for meat. Such is the fate of him who opens his mouth too much and thereby puts himself at the mercy of the listener." - Leonardo DaVinci
Homie. My dude. It’s like you got pulled over for a tail light being out and decided to crack open a beer while talking to the officer. Never give a corporation more information than you need to, and always read the TOS before Tekashi69ing yourself.
"Sorry officer, I know I ran that light back there, my friends and I were drinking at his house and we were gonna go to a bar, but I forgot my license at my house so I was just going back to get it"
"Sorry officer, I didn't see the red light cause I'm high as fuck right now"
You said I ran a red light? Which one was it.. I ran so many
a stop sign you say? well i was picking up my blunt off the floor, so i didn’t see any stop signs
I'm digging this comparison
*Gets pulled over by the police and officer walks up to the car and the driver cranks down the window.* Driver: "Everything ok officer." *Cracks a cold one open and starts chugging it down infront of the officer.* Officer: "Your tail light is out" *The officer stammers out in disbelief* Driver: "Want one I have loads in the back in the ice box if you want one." *The officer just nods and the driver hands him a beer* *The officer then just let's him go and he drives off into the sunset before a add for Non-Alcoholic Beer pops up*
Heneiken 0.0 needs to do this.
They already have a similar ad to this where the cop approaches the vehicle, the driver indicates that it is a zero alcohol beer, then the cop points that he is actually in a no parking zone. So yeah, basically done.
It's was almost perfect except for "a add".
This does suck. But at least it also prevents me from pretending to be another account holders' relative.
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Exactly, if some random person did this and got access to their account they would complain about them not being strict enough. It would be a huge breach of security. As soon as you mention “okay, yeah I’m not actually the original owner of the account” no reason you can give would be appropriate for them to let you in. You gotta think about it from the side of the actual owner. If I suddenly lost access to my account and Steam or whatever company said “oh well they gave a sad story about you being dead and it was all so sad and convincing so we just broke protocol and handed it over” I would be mad!
And people blame businesses for being a cold, souless machine lol.
Yeah. Policies that protect the innocent are only called into question when it inconveniences a loud "innocent" in very niche scenario.
Though I do agree, I feel like there's plenty of ways OP can actually verify he is who he is and that this story makes sense. Things like address/personal residence information, possibly payment/CC information, certain games that are on it, recent transactions, etc. I get what you're saying, obviously, but I feel like blanket policies with no flexibility or recourse over mistakes or just shit happens is open to lots of issues in that sense. And again, I get it's a safety thing and I do understand why they do it. Just saying that it's not necessarily a black and white thing. There's ways they can verify it trust the story and what it's being told.
Hey it's me your brother
Never self snitch
Maybe I'm jaded, but I 100% would have seen that email as a scam or attempt to steal someone's account. It does seem like an unnecessary twist of the knife to tell OP sorry for their loss in nearly the same sentence they tell them they have been denied access, though.
That’s my thought too… So if I wanna screw someone up, I can contact steam and say: “Hey, my buddy died and I’ve been using his account” and boom, he’s account is gone?! Seems very exploitable…
The message says they just locked OP out of the account, not deleted it. Sadly, the exploit may not actually work.
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As much as I use Steam myself, this is one of those things that highlights how we don't own the games we buy on it. Were we talking physical games here, it would be easy to bequeath a collection to someone else. Or take games bought without DRM like through GoG, you could pass a game collection to someone else that way. But Valve makes it clear that your purchases can't be shared or given to anyone else. Whatever else good Valve has done, this is definitely a downside to buying through them.
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you can technically share your library to other accounts
Exactly this. Steam library sharing is a thing, and I don't know how people seem to forget it exists all the time.
It's janky as fuck and constantly drops its memory of the people you're sharing with. Better than nothing, but for such a venerable and feature rich platform it's kind of suss how chronically unreliable this one particular aspect is.
My husband and I both game. Our libraries are shared and we both play games the others purchased all the time. We never buy the game twice (unless we’re playing it together) because that’s just a waste. Neither of us has ever had any issues with shared games.
Never had a problem with it after sharing to different ppl for many years.
Not to be that guy but as the sharer you wouldn't really notice if there was an issue
As far as I know it only works when you aren't using your account. So my daughter can't play a game of mine on her PC if I'm playing a different game. It technically there but it's severely lacking.
The dead relative certainly isn’t going to be using the account so…
Exactly, and it's buggy as hell. Likes to revoke access randomly. And just feels like it was entirely designed to make you not use it while they can still claim that they have it.
This seems like something that could and should change with legislation. As more and more commodities are digital in nature, and as governments catch up, I’ll hold onto some hope that one day my child will get to inherit all the games I bought on sale and never played, so they can never play them too.
> Were we talking physical games here, it would be easy to bequeath a collection to someone else. Let’s be real here though, you wouldn’t actually own even a tenth of the stuff on steam to physically pass on because 1. It wouldn’t have been like 90% off on sale when you bought it 2. You would have thrown most of them away or traded them in for like 50 cents at GameStop because they were taking up space
You don't have a cd case full of all of your old games?
I have some. But it’s like 10-15% of stuff I actually owned. And the stuff I did keep was mostly because no one wanted it but it felt like a waste to throw it in the trash. If my steam library was a physical collection I would have had to throw a large chunk away. Especially since I no longer even have a computer with a disc drive.
>It wouldn’t have been like 90% off on sale when you bought it Yeah but accounts that buy games at full price doesnt get any preferential treatments. Also bargain bins exists in game stores. Or sharing physical copies of games with your friends/ family.
Yes you would, because you'd buy them from someone other than the original publisher, because the first sale doctrine applies to real things but not, for some reason, digital things.
Steam games haven't realistically been 90% off in years. Sure you get the odd game here and there but most games are capping at 40-50% off these days.
As someone who’s bought countless used games from GameStop for less than $10 each, that’s where you’re wrong. And I can resell and gift them afterwards, and they’re not permanently tied to an account I can lose whenever Gabe might die and Steam gets bought out or goes public.
Since most require keys and accounts anyways they still get tied to someone else. This is why I never buy used PC physical games
Amigo, WHY WOULD YOU TELL THEM THAT?
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What is this? How does someone get on this list and is evidence required/available?
From the site: The Universal Scammer List is the system supporting a collection of subreddits who agree to work together to limit the impact that those who have scammed or have shown the intention to scam can have on members of Buy/Sell/Trade communities.
I, too, would like to know more
r/Borrow mod here. User took a $40 loan in early 2020 and failed to repay it. They were placed on the UniversalScammerList at that time as a result. The USL is currently showing as a 2022 ban as we migrated to a new bot/system at that time.
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It probably is good practice to randomly check on weird posts like this Especially since, after talking to mods involved with r/UniversalScammerList, they were happy to provide the following: >The user \[screddachedda\] you're referring to was added to the USL for taking a loan and failing to repay it in early 2020. In fact, r/borrow mod Dr3wcifer later replied to this thread: [https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/1247hyh/comment/jdz35dl/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/1247hyh/comment/jdz35dl/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) And, just searching "screddachedda" on reddit shows these [two](https://www.reddit.com/r/borrow/comments/f4iik8/late_uscreddachedda_40_18_days_late/) [events](https://www.reddit.com/r/borrow/comments/em1mbc/late_uscreddachedda_90_5_days_late/) in 2020.
UniversalScammerList is NOT a definitive nor trusted source of information. As you pointed out it does not give context nor does it even say WHY. I could go and create a website out of thin air called "RealUniversalScammerList dot com" and put anyone I disliked on it. Seriously, whoever made this is an ass.
Dang, something we never think of because physical games just pass onto whoever want them to go to. Now hearing this, makes me think about online games.
GOG is DRM free so I'd look at their policies to see if they'd do the same
GOG is going to have the save rule. It’s not theirs to give out. Even physical games will not avoid this as they would be discussed in a will.
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it's not online games, it's the fact that you don't own them.
I don’t disagree with you. It’s just a logical thing to feel like we own a game after having paid for it. I understand what we are paying for is basically a connection to said account. But back in my day (lol) at least when I only had access to physical cd or cartridge based games I could do all the sharing and giving away I want to. I hope my son gets into gaming so I’ve started to buy physical games again. I didn’t even think about something like this happening but I’ll be sure to watch for TOS stuff like this.
Sounds like to me that someone hacked your email and set out to ruin you. They canceled subscriptions, and got you kicked from others. For steam, they even said you were dead and gave the account away to frame you for breaking the TOS. Lucky for you, they appear to only be blocking the access from the hacked email, so hopefully, you can just use your original email to recover everything. Might be tough to find, but if you email them explaining you lost your old email addresses to hackers and have to start fresh, they will probably help you sort it out.
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lmao
I knew this was fishy. Grammar mistake in the rep response and "\#HelpRequest \_Extendedinfo\_extended\_ bool\_cdkey:" at the top. Sus
^correct response
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Can I see why they were added or do I just have to trust whoever owns that database?
This is standard.... all online accounts are accounted for in the estate if he/she did it right. Executor ensures the will is carried out. Not a chance in hell steams going to let random people say they inherited gaming accounts. The only person with authority to do this is the executor of the will. This is extremely basic stuff....
You may have some luck pretending to be your deceased relative, asking why the fuck your account was disabled and demanding access to it back. I don't know how much you said or told, but it might be possible?
He told them that he originally made the account for himself 🤣
Hey, maybe he can pretend that op's first message was some kindo scammer. idfk
The email states rather clearly that the account is not disabled, so really, close that ticket and try to do exactly as you say with whatever information they have.
There is no way for them to really verify, im sure people use all kinds of excuses, sure maybe yours is true but from their perspective you're just another one.
Sounds like you need to reach out to whomever is owner of the deceased estate, get them to submit a ticket for access to the account, and then get them to 'give' it to you by sharing their new password.
If it's against their terms, they'll just deny that request. Sone companies have no plans in place for deceased account holders. People overestimate the reach of POA and estates. >"Your Account, including any information pertaining to it (e.g.: contact information, billing information, Account history and Subscriptions, etc.), is strictly personal. You may therefore not sell or charge others for the right to use your Account, or otherwise transfer your Account, nor may you sell, charge others for the right to use, or transfer any Subscriptions other than if and as expressly permitted by this Agreement (including any Subscription Terms or Rules of Use) or as otherwise specifically permitted by Valve." >"In the simplest terms, this means that without express permission from Valve, you can't just give your Steam account to another person. Even if you were to write it into your will that you wanted this to happen, without that permission, it wouldn't hold up upon your death. Earlier this week, I spoke to a lawyer who specialises in the video game industry to confirm that this is, in fact, the case."
Estate/Bemeficiary laws supersede any sort of ToS or T&Cs. Also, the representative that responded to OP literally suggested to connect with the estate, presumably to relinquish access to their estate.
Account is a scammer. You can go to their profile and see they did this same thing a year ago, along with other scammy stuff
This sucks but it was very stupid of you to volunteer information of any kind to a corporation. Fuck corporations. Honesty is the best policy, unless you're dealing with a money obsessed lizard.
Well, turns out OP is literally a scammer: [https://i.imgur.com/8BA7o55.png](https://i.imgur.com/8BA7o55.png)
Can you please provide more context than a half a screenshot of things that don't immediately prove a scam?
Why did you openly admit a GD thing? That’s what I’m confused about.
>Since you mentioned that you do not originally created the account hmmm
Always seems sus when the response has a typo
it's not uncommon if english is a second language for the support person. Happens all the time to me whenever I open a chat and it's someone based in India or where ever.
Interesting notion, that steam is getting old enough that people are starting to "inherit" steam accounts... They should address the issue. Unfortunately, you DO NOT OWN ANYTHING on your steam account, you bought a license that cannot be passed on to another person. If you die, that license invalidates and your account becomes worthless. Most licenses cannot be passed on in inheritence \--- This is a 6 year old article: [https://www.eurogamer.net/what-happens-to-your-steam-account-when-you-die](https://www.eurogamer.net/what-happens-to-your-steam-account-when-you-die) \--- A few years and this issue is gonna grab more and more traction
Damn, that is some cold blooded bullshit. They seriously went "Sorry for your loss. You have been denied access. Goodbye."
If they just let anyone transfer accounts to new owners because "my brother died can i have now" then there would be a massive opening for people to start hacking accounts that they have no connection to. It's not cold blooded, it's basic privacy and security. Otherwise we'd have people coming on here posting about how a guy took their account pretending they were dead.
Literally would've been better to just not even say sorry for your loss just don't even acknowledge it Instead they went tuff shit sucks dawg anyway fuck you bitch
"i admitted to being in violation of the TOS and then got mad they enforced their TOS"
OP needs to try and understand that this story is exactly the kind of thing an account thief would try and use to take over someone's account. There's no way they could possibly verify that "the dead relative actually wanted me to have this!". The non-transferable policy is there to protect people from getting their account transferred to someone else and to prevent "helpful" customer service people from getting entangled in a scam.
https://www.universalscammerlist.com/?username=screddachedda Just gonna leave this here Op is a scammer that has been previously caught and placed on the universal scammer list. If it walks like a duck...
This needs to be further up the page. If this is true, then this needs more visibility here.
Never heard of this list before! Interesting tool. Not a lot of data about why someone is or isn’t flagged as a scammer though.
Ooffff
What does this site tell me though? How can we see the evidence that gets someone put on this list?
He sounds young, you almost can’t blame him for not seeing it this way. It’s easy to grasp the full picture after you’ve lost that innocence. I’m sure he will from here on out. (Not saying that should excuse it from their end, but try to be more understanding where he’s coming from) He just learned a valuable lesson.
This is exactly why when I had to contact support for my sons account, I kept that shit simple af. Dear gaming corp overload, My son fucked up and forgot his account information. Here is X email it was originally opened with along with receipt number of X purchase made. Just set said X email back to primary email on X account and I will take care of the rest. Thanks, Dad who absolutely did not create his 11yo an account with a 21yo birthdate 24hrs later kid was back to gaming his little heart out.
I’m more curious of what led to this? Why on this hellscape of a planet would u self snitch. What gave u the idea to attempt this! I’m so so curious.
Dude this fucking sucks, I’m sorry. Take the lesson and run with it- never tell a company any more than they need to know. They’re not your friends. Sorry again man.
I know it sucks, but it is your fault for admitting that you broke Steam's TOS, now that you told everything to them, good luck on trying to recover it
A last will and testament could bypass this in the UK. The Terms of Service cannot legally override the transfer of a licence. You *own* the licence and thus can transfer said ownership... In fact, you'll find that the terms of service aren't technically legal anyway, as they say they can change them at will even after you agree to it. You know, just like you can change the law after you're arrested...
Terms of Service can be changed at will. You will then be prompted to accept it again. If you don't, you are free to stop using the service. With that said, lots of things written in Terms of Service aren't legally enforceable. People often forget ToS don't supercede federal law and OP have an easy argument about bad faith on Steam's part since he's been spending money on said account. ToS are more often than not just covering their own asses and giving people ground rules. They get tossed out of court fairly often.
> Terms of Service can be changed at will. You will then be prompted to accept it again. If you don't, you are free to stop using the service. Yeah like that alone makes would make it unconscionable for a contract. Like some rules you aren't told about until you buy something, must agree to to use the thing you bought, can be changed unilaterally by the controlling party at any time, and new rules must be agreed to to continue use? Like just tell me how that isn't this. https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/unconscionability
"I was a kid and couldn't make my own" ??? If you were able to use it than you were perfectly fine to create one and on top of that, Steam had no means to check your story and is probably more common for them that this story is made up to gain access to someone else account
And here I thought non transferable meant to other accounts. The game was bought for the account, the account was left to them by the deceased making it their account now... so what exactly are they violating?
Here’s his update. https://reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/124c03w/thanks_uwindyandbreezy_your_advice_sort_of_helped/
Per the email. The account was not deleted, your access was just removed. It still exists. All you would have to do is to contact whomever handled the estate after his passing. And have them send a letter as the estate to Steam to restore access to the estates control.
You need to learn when to keep your mouth shut. Believe it or not, there are times in life when you should. This was one of them. Live and learn.
OP is an actual scammer
Honesty is never the best policy, just ask a Politician
Even Blizzard lets you merge WoW accounts from someone who died. I merged my dads WoW account with mine when he died a few years ago and only had to provide CD keys from the expansions on his account. A few days later his account was on my Battle.net. Valve need to work on their customer support a bit, thats pretty big dick move.
"ya'll"? Reddit isn't steam. Reply and let them know this \*is\* your personal account that was created for you as a minor.
yeah, this guy’s kinda dumb for oversharing but what an asshole response from steam…. “sorry for your loss, but also say goodbye to your acc lol” what the hell?
We don't actually own the games we buy on Steam. If we did, we could give them away, freely. Steam is saying that we only rent the games until we die.
I would've kept the account and share the library to my account, you would have both the games and the account. It sucks but I wouldn't tell other people that the account I'm currently using isn't mine and the previous owner has died
Why would you share personal info 😭
I mean, if you got this through inheritance, maybe just show them a will or something? Also, don't overshare information that might incriminate yourself.
Steam's gonna be really confused when I live 500 years.
Sounds like you fucked yourself over.
Georgette is very rough
Idk why people love steam. They're actually pretty anti-consumer.
Georgette is an awful name