Yeah just a waiting game for me an 7500+ others right now that have been hit with this scam/hijacking tool.

As i said i hope i do not lose the games on here that i got from linking my steam account. Since this is proably the only place i have games right now to play :(
For someone that suffers from high anxiety/stress and panic attacks and am on tablets for it, it certainly does not help matters :(

It's usually ONLY people with that much money or on the complete other end of the spectrum (no money due to no job or retired/disability like me) who have the time to play. I have been gaming nearly full time since becoming disabled Nov 24, 1999. I'm not rich.. but I have a family that is... not wealthy but upper middle class... that for some reason has made is so I own probably that much worth of games (haven't ever calculated it).

Somewhat tangential: How can clicking on a link (produced by someone else) cause account hacking?

Only ways I can see this happening is:

a) Browser being vulnerable and user/browser got hacked.

b) Steam system is screwed up and has security hole.

If its b then Steam is responsible and can probably be sued (including for any in-game items etc) for damages? Or do I miss something here?

Oh it was probably just TinyE

Holy F*cking sheet dude did you give them your home address as well?

Dude HOW COULD YOU BE SO STUPID?

He gave that data to Steam support to verify that he owns the account : )

Okay just as long as he didn't give it to those hackers!

You know how there's the concept of "security by obscurity"?

I think that applies well here.

So what scam was that? No need to provide any links to click or anything, I have merely academic or at least proletariaty interest in how such scam works, ie. how can merely clicking one link get your Steam account hijacked.

Sounds rocket science to me, but then man has already gone to moon so I guess anything is possible. Except the impossible, of course.

You shouldn;t lose the games since the steam connect only checks if they are on your account at the time they are added. Steam Connect doesn't do anything else. GOG will not revoke your games because they have nothing to do with Steam. DRM free is DRM free.
Yep. I have a few Steam friends. VERY few.

OP said "worth around £20k GBP", not that they paid that much. If you spend $10 on the lowest tier of 10 Humble bundles, you probably already have 30 games 'worth around $300' or so.

ok just got my steam account back. so far over 8000 accounts hacked with it from just yesterday.

and all it takes is to click a link (usually sent from someone you know and who was hacked) and then message were sent to everyone on their friends list.

As soon as you do that and put in your authenticator code (whether it be steam guard mobile or the one you buy) makes no differance. Those would be removed from your steam account, any phone numbers would be removed, both password and e-mail would be changed.

Luckily i had made purchase's in steam with my current CC card and had to prove i was the owner with that.

Anyways 15/16 hrs of worry and stress and anxiety over this. I still say those that did this need to be publicly executed!

Good that you got your account back.

But did you download all your games and back them up somewhere. So that you can still play them in case that happens again?

...oh right. Steam.

That's more than clicking a link. That's following a link and putting sensitive data into an untrusted site.

It is not just clicking on a link.
It is:
- Someone from your friendlist sends you a lame message with a link and information about free game
(Usually single short english message without any further comment)

Something like:
"1 free game for new users!
take the game you want!
Here is the Scam Link click on it"

If you click on the link:
- The site wants you to connect your Steam account or sign in through Steam
(Legit sites that use Steam API ask the same)

If you click on Sign in through Steam:
- It gives you a fake Steam Login page which mimics steamcommunity login page
(Legit sites that use Steam API redirect you to steamcommunity login page)

- You give your username, password, authentication and you fucked.

- Your account became infected and sends the same spam msg to all of your friends. Usually resend it in every hour.

Best way to avoid this:
- Don't click on random links
- If a friend sends it, ask him wtf is that first
- If your russian friend, starts to talk english in the chat, start to be suspicious
- If a site wants you to sign in through Steam and ask your login information.
Always go manually to steamcommunity.com and login in there.
If the site doesn't recognize you are already logged in and still ask your information, that is a fake site.