hey, don't do this.

i've had to help recover a steam account before and your purchase history is one of their forms of account ownership verification.

August 15, 2025 - 15:19 UTC

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New fad going around?
Facebook ass energy?
Its putting account security at risk?
Wow!!!
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as someone who frequently assists people in steam account recovery/security, this is not considered proof for recovery in any way. valve would want information such as card/bank info, simply going "hey i purchased x/y thing" won't help at all
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Yeah, same. Though, I used the first game I purchased for my account, and gave the key for the game for the support. Lucky me, I still have it, since it was physical purchase like 15 years ago.
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Ooof, that’s scary! Went and deleted my version of this post.
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Some people seem to immediately flip over to "THIS MUST HAVE BEEN MALICIOUS" despite the clarifications provided in follow up text...
I just disagree with such sentiment. It was a fun trend at first glance. And I'm willing to bet original post didn't mean it.
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Seems like a poor method, many wouldn’t remember it
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Yeah, I sure don't remember mine
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bsky.app/profile/morfed.bsky.social/post/3lwheqnpy7s2x
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Name, credit card, and billing address? Three pieces of PII famously never found together in data breaches. Nothing to worry about.
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thanks for the reminder, wasnt aware of this!
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how does showing your purchase history leak account ownership?
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Thanks for the heads up!
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damn my dumbass actually forgot the basics of infosec, thanks for the reminder
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There's absolutely no reason for me to think that five games I purchased in 2008, which I absolutely had no memory of before this meme, would have been usable to steal my account.

I'm glad to learn about it, but I think that's not my infosec fault, that's bad infosec by Valve if it really happens.
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@wickbrstm.bsky.social Since you also did this
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looked into it and i don't believe this would actually be enough information for someone to get into my account + already have 2FA on but i'll get rid of it anyways
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okay let me clarify a couple things:

1. this isn't a common method, but it is a valid one
2. op almost certainly meant no harm

people are more likely than ever to have accounts linked, and it doesn't take a bad actor long to find your social media and trawl it for your info.

just post smart.
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So what you're saying is: It's a good screenshot to have, just don't post it.
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if you wanted to still do the trend but avoid the doxxable info like... just post the cover art of your last 4 game purchases or smthin
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okay last thought before i mute this:

there's a weirdly large amount of contempt for people who participated, but they're just doing it for fun.

please don't be a jerk about this. just educate people and move on. there's no reason to bring any sort of negativity to this conversation.
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aw fuck thanks for the headsup
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Oof.
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idk, any time i’ve had to do this kind of verification it’s been most recent purchases, not earliest. not saying that they couldn’t get this to work but it’s kind of a long shot
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It used to be "give us your first key" a long while back, but people have mentioned that recent purchases or a physical CD key printed on a piece of paper, with your username, from a recent activation will also work!

I keep a very specific game box in a safe place for that purpose.
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(still probably better to be safe than sorry)
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That being said
Hell of a purchase history
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Thanks for the warning.
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This is the kinda shit SEGA needed for my SMT Dx2 account.
Did they care I remembered my UNIQUE username and Facebook linking code? No.
They wanted the last 5 demons, the last special summons, etc. to prove it's me.
I hadn't played in 3 years. Try to REMEMBER that.
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Honestly I feel that a screenshot of the years of service badge on someone's public profile would have worked fine for this anyhow?
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Just says "Deleted"

What's the "this" we're not supposed to be doing?
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"show your first steam purchases"
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implying that I'll remember my first 5 purchases if I lose access to my account
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This really feels like making a mountain out of a molehill. Steam games are already public, it takes a very small amount of effort to find out which five someone purchased first using public information. A hacker isn't going to steal your account because he knows you downloaded Fnaf six years ago.
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Ah cripes. Thank you for the warning.
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fun quiz for nerds!!! 🤪
1. your mother's maiden name
2. the name of the elementary school you went to
3. the name of your first pet
let bsky judge you!
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uh yeah my mom's name is joe, i went to foqawf elementary and my first pets name was bastard
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what's your silly duck name?
first name: credit card number
middle name: expiration date
last name: those three wacky numbers on the back
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-Mom

-School that treated autistic kids poorly

-Cat
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Uh, Mario.
Mario 2.
The... other Mario 2.
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Don't forget the last 4 of your ssn
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arent those commonly stated security questions websites give out
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I always just put an alphanumeric password as answers to those...
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Most internet trends like this are made by hackers trying to create catalogs of possible security question answers
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Thank you for putting the word out. Much appreciated.
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WHY HAS NO ONE ELSE SAID THIS, THIS IS LIKE ONE OF THOSE FUCKING FACEBOOK PHISHING POSTS, DONT LEAK YOUR FUCKING SALES HISTORY
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what about the most played games?
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I thought it was the top 5 most *recent* purchases?

Or is it literally any five consecutive ones?
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varies, depends on the support tech. can be most recent 5, earliest 5, more, less, etc

makes it harder for people to pin down, and thus harder to steal accounts
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Isn't like, every single trend of "share this fact about your life!" a form of social engineering for identity theft? I always assume they get started for that reason
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On places that ARENT facebook or instagram, I think it’s just folks genuinely expressing interest in others.
At least that’s how I read it.
But yeah anytime these are on apps where a good chunk of the user base is tech illiterate, like FB/insta, the more likely these are to be social engineering 🫤
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100%. I dont know why people have been doing this lately. Bsky should be smarter than this
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Whenever I see an art trend of “hey, share your art of x thing” I assume it’s someone collecting images to feed into the AI machine as well. The technological hellscape we live in really turns us against one another. Thanks capitalism.
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i think automatically assuming something is done in bad faith is kind of cynical. trends are fun and conversation starters for most people.

but regardless of the original intent, your social media presence is a very easy way to gain information about you that can be used against you.
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And if not, it's cheap engagement baiting that tends to Facebook-ify places over time. I've seen it happen in real time with reddit.
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Yea I saw that & it set off a "this feels like a security question" kinda alarm in my head
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Except, of course, if you can't get into your account, then you wouldn't be able to post the oldest games in your history!
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I literally had to do this exact thing to recover my account once, so it's very much the case, for anyone wondering.
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How did you get to the list of your 5 oldest games, without access to your account?
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Urgh.

It’s a sad fact, but as I get older I seem to be falling for these.

I’m going to have a think as to why.
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I can’t remember my recent purchases let alone my original purchases this is ridiculous
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People 'join the flock' and 'get internet points' but yeah, may as well give the name of your first pet, mother' smaiden name, make of your first car, what profession you wanted to be as a kid, name of the street you grew up on, name of your childhood friend, and childhood nickname.
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Especially don't do this if your unique unchangeable steam account name is known, or you shared it as well.
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Real ones activated steam with their retail copy of HL2 and no I won't tell you the next 4
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*chuckles* you mean the orange box?
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magic the gathering online did something similar to help me recover my account by asking if I had any assortment of cards in my collection that are particularly unique
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Well now I'm glad the fourth thing i bought was like 6-7 games at once so I couldn't fit into the "first 5 games" concept and decided it was too much trouble
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