Unknown STEAM charge - check your accts

[gothamhunter]

Hey guys,

I was just doing some balancing and I have a charge from 04/24/13 for a Steam purchase of $29.99 that I did not do (comes across as VALVE SOFTWARE 425-8899642 WA to me). I can tell because it's not listed anywhere under my account's purchase history.

I went to the link below and it looks like a few people have been getting charged this month without doing any of the purchasing
http://www.whatsthatcharge.com/VALVE-SOFTWARE-425-8899642-WA

If you have used Steam at all, check your account for any purchase on/around that date. I sent in a ticket to Valve but I'm not sure what they're able to do. I'm going to talk to my bank tomorrow morning and make sure this gets reversed and account locked down unless it was some sort of error on their part.

DB errors on Valve's part or account hacks? I'm pretty darn secure online so I kind of wish it was Valve...lol.

 

[Anteaus]

Did you buy any MMOs in the past month? I've noticed that some of them state that Steam will collect the money on their behalf starting 30 days from purchase. I believe your story but I just thought I'd ask. Good luck.

 

[gothamhunter]

Did you buy any MMOs in the past month? I've noticed that some of them state that Steam will collect the money on their behalf starting 30 days from purchase. I believe your story but I just thought I'd ask. Good luck.

The last thing I bought was Penny Arcade ep 3 for 99c. There are no MMO purchases.

 

[Anteaus]

Ok. Thanks for the warning. Hopefully it's just a accident and they refund your money quickly.

 

[Tweak155]

Took a look... nothing for me.

 

[gothamhunter]

Valve got back to my phone call today and issued me a refund; getting a new card through the bank. All will be well.

Ironically, I had two fraud purchases and one was auto-found as fraud and refunded.

 

[HelpWithWoL]

They keep making more and more mistakes...

 

[gothamhunter]

They keep making more and more mistakes...

It wasn't Valve's fault.

 

[you2]

What he said; it is more likely that your # leaked and someone else used it to make a steam purchase...

It wasn't Valve's fault.

 

[zerogear]

That's why I use PayPal.

 

[gothamhunter]

That's why I use PayPal.

Yea, because Paypal doesn't steal your money or lock your account & deny you access to your own money or anything.

I use PayPal all the time, and they can encounter the same issues.

 

[Anteaus]

That's why I use PayPal.

Yes, because they've never had issues with handling people's money.

 

[MichaelBarg]

What he said; it is more likely that your # leaked and someone else used it to make a steam purchase...

That's funny, the only two times in the last 10 years that my credit card was declined until I called to confirm that the transaction was legit was the first time I used my Amex on Steam, and the first time I used my Mastercard on Origin. I assumed they were super cautious about new accounts to avoid the kid-who-borrowed-the-parents-card problem. Though I guess if you already used it they would figure it was okay.

A general tip: always check every item on your credit card bill carefully. One of the more recent techniques that the scammers use is to try to slip in a few smaller charges here and there on a lot of different stolen numbers.

 

[gothamhunter]

That's funny, the only two times in the last 10 years that my credit card was declined until I called to confirm that the transaction was legit was the first time I used my Amex on Steam, and the first time I used my Mastercard on Origin. I assumed they were super cautious about new accounts to avoid the kid-who-borrowed-the-parents-card problem. Though I guess if you already used it they would figure it was okay.

A general tip: always check every item on your credit card bill carefully. One of the more recent techniques that the scammers use is to try to slip in a few smaller charges here and there on a lot of different stolen numbers.

You mean balance your statements? Dear Lord I hope people are doing this D:

 

[KaOTiK]

You mean balance your statements? Dear Lord I hope people are doing this D:

You'd be surprised. I have a friend who doesn't even pay attention to the charges on his card because he uses it for everything. I am positive he has been ripped of a few times by now over the years.

 

[blackened23]

Thanks for the heads up, gotham. There are very sophisticated phishing methods out there to obtain your personal information, always keep that in mind. I've started letting Lastpass manage all of my passwords without my knowing what they are to avoid this sort of thing - sharing passwords on multiple websites is often a big culprit. I had my CC phished somehow about a year ago (not steam) and charged for something like 500$.... even though i'm borderline paranoid/OCD about being super careful. I don't even use javascript most of the time, that's how OCD I am about it, lol.

Something to keep in mind! Thanks for the heads up.

 

[JTsyo]

What he said; it is more likely that your # leaked and someone else used it to make a steam purchase...

It doesn't make sense to use steam since it's all electronic, you can't escape with the stolen merchandize. Now steam could just look at which account that game went to.

 

[JamesV]

I have a dedicated credit card for 'usual' online purchases, like Netflix's monthly charge and any games I buy on Steam.

That card only has a $300 credit limit; if I want to buy something expensive, I put it on the card that is NOT used for any recurring charges or 'remembered' for ease of use at any site.

So if someone does get ahold of my CC that is on Steam, they can't do that much damage, nor use it to buy trips to Europe or something. It also makes it really easy to see if anything is out of place, because there are never more than 5-6 transactions on that CC's bill.

 

[NothingParticular]

I had a charge with the same name,
D/C SETTLEMENT
Valve LOC:
425-8899642 WA
or close enough it brought me here an eventually figured out it was a legit charge for Crowns for Elder Scrolls Online that I'd bought. So basically for anyone that doesn't know or didn't figure out, that'd be the premium currency to spend in the cash shop more or less. Hope that helps someone.

 

[nurturedhate]

Holy NECRO batman!

 

[aigomorla]

Locked because its a very old thread....
If you have any new problems feel free to make a new thread however i recommend first getting help via Steam directly as they will offer a solution the quickest.

Moderator Aigo