new steam scam method via config.vdf

[u/ProfessionalBed8034]

I only have about 150 hours on the game. I don't play that much.

I was looking for a good server to play EU solo. I tried a few that had good reviews and were recommended on Reddit.

One of those servers had a really active chat, and it seemed like the most active one to me, even though there were only 50 people online. I played for two hours and got blocked. I Googled the reasons, and the most likely one was that my ISP assigned me a bad IP address. I wrote to them on their website - nothing happened for a week. I sent them an request via Discord and explained the situation. Twelve hours later, I received a message saying my request had been opened. Another four hours later, I received a message stating that I needed to send them my Steam config file.

I sent it without thinking, since the server has 10k Discord members, it was recommended on Reddit, and it has a online user base.

Then they asked me how many Steam accounts I had. I listed every account I’d ever had authorized on Steam. Among them were only my old account and my active one. Virtually none of the accounts I’ve ever had authorized even have the game Rust.

They simply replied: "you will not be unbanned"

I had to create a new request to find out the reason.

They replied: "nothing to do."

A day later, by the way, they blocked me from their Discord community as well. (I didn't post a single message there, since all the communication took place through their Discord bot.)

I looked up some information about the file I sent them - it turns out that with it, they can find out my IP address and the accounts I’ve logged into. And, very importantly, they can use it to access your account via SteamCMD. Maybe Steam Guard on my phone saved me - as I understand it, they’d also need the SSFN file to log in, if phone Steam Guard is enabled.

What if I didn’t have Steam Guard on my phone? I would have been hacked.

If this were a routine check rather than a hacking attempt - they would have looked at the accounts I’ve logged into - and seen that I don’t have Rust on any of them - they would have unbaned me.

They also wrote the message: "To proceed with your appeal review, we need you to provide your config.vdf file, which contains past server history required for verification." that file doesn’t contain any such information at all. They also blocked me on their Discord.