There is a new scam circulating around the Steam Family feature, which is currently in beta. One of the most notable additions to this feature is the parental control system. Accounts within a Steam family can now be assigned roles, such as an adult and a child. An adult account has full control over the child account in the same family group, allowing them to restrict access to games, monitor playtime, and control the time of day spent playing. These features are useful for managing a real family, but the way Steam families are being used now is different.
Many Steam families are made up of friends or even random people joining a Steam family just to share games across a single library. This allows members to access games owned by others in the same family group. Scammers often target unsuspecting users by offering them access to paid games they want to play, but can’t afford. They lure victims into joining a family as a child account.
The catch here is that a child account cannot leave the family on its own. Only an adult account can remove a child account from the family. Once added, the scammers can lock the victim’s account by blocking access to the games in their library. This effectively traps the victim within the family, and without the ability to leave, they may face a ransom demand to regain control of their account. The payment can be in the form of cryptocurrency or Steam inventory items, effectively holding the victim’s account hostage.
While it’s unclear whether scammers can steal your account entirely, the parental control features do list a password reset option. However, this typically requires access to the email associated with the child account. If you find yourself in such a situation and the scammers refuse to release your account, your best option is to contact Steam support.
Head over to the Steam support section on their website to explain your situation. In most cases, they can remove you from the family. However, if you’ve lost access to your account, you’ll first need to restore access by following the instructions in the support section.