Valve requires old CD key from Half-Life 2 to return the player's old account

A Steam account owner whose account was registered more than a decade ago ran into a lockdown over suspicious activity. To prove ownership, he sent Steam Support old email addresses, past passwords, the last four digits of his card, and his phone number.

That wasn't enough for support. They asked for a photo of a physical CD key from a retail Half-Life 2 box, with the ticket number written next to it on a piece of paper.

The game came out in 2004, and the account owner says the box got lost somewhere along the way during moves. When he explained he couldn't provide the key, support replied:

If you suspect that the key may have been lost and cannot be found, I recommend that you create a new account for free.

Commenters speculated this kind of check ties back to protecting old accounts. One user explained that abandoned profiles with expired email addresses often become targets, with people recreating those old inboxes to gain access to the accounts tied to them.

Such profiles reportedly get flagged internally, after which regular proof like payment history may no longer be enough.

Another commenter claimed old accounts like this get used in the cheating community and can rack up mass reports, which then get them locked out of the Steam community.

The account owner says he can no longer play on VAC-secured servers, his profile is community banned until 2038, and the skins he bought are now inaccessible.

Access to the Steam library itself doesn't appear to be gone, though – one commenter suggested creating a new account and adding it to a Steam family group as a way to keep playing the purchased games.