A Steam user complained about his extremely strange account recovery experience. Despite providing proof of account ownership, customer service still requested evidence that would be nearly impossible to find after 21 years. The user has had this account for over ten years.
According to the player, his account was suddenly locked by the security system due to "unusual activity," although he claims no such activity actually occurred. The account has a large library of games and thousands of hours of playtime. To recover the account, he contacted Steam Support and provided his old email address, previous passwords, the last four digits of his bank card, and his phone number, but these were not enough.
Customer service asked him to provide a photo of the CD key from the original physical box of Half-Life 2 from 2005. Additionally, a note with the customer service ticket number needed to be placed next to the key. The problem is that 21 years have passed since the release of Half-Life 2. The player explained that he bought the game as a child while living with his parents, and the physical box was lost long ago after moving. In today's era of digital distribution, requiring someone to keep game packaging for twenty years is indeed quite unusual.
But the customer service's subsequent response was even more surprising. They told the player that if he couldn't find the old CD key, his account couldn't be recovered. As an alternative, customer service suggested he create a new account for free. Currently, the player is trying to attract Valve's attention and requesting a re-evaluation of his appeal through other channels. This incident remains an isolated case involving a single user, so it would be incorrect to assume that Steam always requires this type of verification based on this alone.