# PhishDestroy threat dossier — help.appealvalve.com ================================================================ Fetched: 2026-04-21 21:33:39 UTC Canonical: https://phishdestroy.io/domain/help.appealvalve.com/ ## VERDICT ---------------------------------------------------------------- TAKEN DOWN (neutralised) Composite threat score: 71/100 (PhishDestroy scoring — see methodology below) ## DETECTION EVIDENCE ---------------------------------------------------------------- VirusTotal: 6/94 security vendors flagged this domain Flagging vendors: CRDF, Fortinet, G-Data, Gridinsoft, SOCRadar, Webroot ## INFRASTRUCTURE ---------------------------------------------------------------- IP address: 185.139.215.162 (NL, Amsterdam) ASN: AS200019 ALEXHOST SRL Hosting org: Alexhost SRL Registrar: CNOBIN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LIMITED Nameservers: ["dave.ns.cloudflare.com", "wren.ns.cloudflare.com"] Registered: 2026-04-14 Page title: Steam Support HTTP response: 404 ## TLS CERTIFICATE ---------------------------------------------------------------- Issuer: Let's Encrypt / R12 Expires: 2026-07-06 Status: INVALID chain Fingerprint: 5f1460c3353010c38b5455022c149fb6965385a8a3872df8c62afdcc213a2b87 Subject Alternative Names (related infrastructure — often same operator): - support.appealvalve.com ## ABUSE-REPORT HISTORY (evidence of registrar non-response) ---------------------------------------------------------------- Status: CLOSED — no report required. This domain was neutralised before the abuse-report cycle could be dispatched — either the hosting provider / registrar suspended it on their own, the DNS went dead, or the operator abandoned the infrastructure. PhishDestroy keeps the evidence bundle on file for audit but no formal notice was sent. ## TIMELINE ---------------------------------------------------------------- Domain registered: 2026-04-14 (per WHOIS / CT — may reflect a renewal or transfer date, not first-ever registration) First detected: 2026-04-14 17:27:28 UTC (by PhishDestroy tracker) Last verified: 2026-04-21 16:10:56 UTC Neutralised: 2026-04-14 20:04:41 UTC Current status: taken down (registrar suspended or DNS dead) ## EXTERNAL CORROBORATION (third-party evidence) ---------------------------------------------------------------- URLScan.io: https://urlscan.io/result/019d8c62-4b35-702f-ba8d-2586d75cf903/ Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/*/help.appealvalve.com crt.sh CT logs: https://crt.sh/?q=%25.help.appealvalve.com Google transparency: https://transparencyreport.google.com/safe-browsing/search?url=help.appealvalve.com AlienVault OTX: https://otx.alienvault.com/indicator/domain/help.appealvalve.com URLhaus: https://urlhaus.abuse.ch/host/help.appealvalve.com/ ## ANALYST NARRATIVE ---------------------------------------------------------------- [Generated: 2026-04-14 17:28:43 UTC — narrative may predate facts above. Treat fields in TIMELINE / DETECTION EVIDENCE / INFRASTRUCTURE as authoritative if they differ from the prose below.] PhishDestroy identifies the active Steam-themed phishing campaign hosted at help.appealvalve.com as a generic phishing lure impersonating Steam Support. The domain employs a decoy login page titled 'Steam Support' to harvest Steam account credentials. Technical analysis indicates no custom drainer kit is deployed; instead, the page captures entered credentials and exfiltrates them to an attacker-controlled collection endpoint. The campaign targets Steam users by exploiting brand trust and urgency cues commonly associated with official support interactions. help.appealvalve.com exhibits the following confirmed technical indicators: VirusTotal detection score of 0/95 engines, registered through CNOBIN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LIMITED, resolving to IP address 185.139.215.162, domain creation date April 07, 2026, SSL certificate issued by Let's Encrypt, and currently not flagged on Google Safe Browsing. The domain remains unlisted on major threat blocklists, indicating a newly active threat with minimal prior exposure. This domain is currently ACTIVE and under investigation. Immediate mitigation includes network-level blocking of 185.139.215.162 and DNS blacklisting of help.appealvalve.com. Steam users should verify all support links via the official Steam client or website and enable Steam Guard for two-factor authentication. Remaining risk is assessed as high due to the active campaign, lack of detection, and direct impersonation of a widely used platform. Ongoing monitoring is critical to prevent credential theft and potential account takeovers. [Updates since narrative was generated:] - VirusTotal detections: now 6/94 (narrative was written when count was lower) ## EVIDENCE HASHES ---------------------------------------------------------------- Favicon MD5: 231913fdebabcbe65f4b0052372bde56 TLS cert SHA-256: 5f1460c3353010c38b5455022c149fb6965385a8a3872df8c62afdcc213a2b87 ## SCORING METHODOLOGY ---------------------------------------------------------------- Composite score is NOT derived from VirusTotal alone. PhishDestroy aggregates: - VirusTotal positive ratio - Public blocklist consensus (MetaMask, ScamSniffer, OpenPhish, PhishTank, URLhaus, CryptoFirewall, SEAL, Polkadot, Enkrypt, Phishunt, DiscordPhishing, PhishingDB) - Cloaking detection (HTTP 666 or rendering delta between bot and real visitor) - DNS-filter consensus (Quad9, CleanBrowsing, NextDNS, AdGuard, Cloudflare, etc.) - AlienVault OTX pulses + Cloudflare Radar + Google Safe Browsing - URLScan / URLQuery verdicts - Brand-impersonation heuristics (DOM analysis of forms, logos, wording) - Known phishing-kit fingerprinting (favicon hash, JS obfuscation signatures) - Wallet-drainer family classification (Angel, MS, Rainbow, Pink, Inferno, ...) - Free-TLS vs paid-cert ratio (throwaway infrastructure signal) - Registrar/hosting abuse history (this registrar's track record) - Human researcher sign-off (volunteer takedown team) A domain present in our database is ALREADY flagged. A low VT count by itself does NOT mean the domain is safe — new scam domains routinely show 0/95 VT for their first 7–30 days while actively draining wallets. Always cross-reference the composite score and the individual indicators above, not just VT. ## CORRECTIONS / APPEALS ---------------------------------------------------------------- Full HTML report: https://phishdestroy.io/domain/help.appealvalve.com/ JSON API: https://api.destroy.tools/v1/check?domain=help.appealvalve.com Appeal a flag: https://phishdestroy.io/appeals/ (responded to within 48 hours, FP rate <0.01%) Submit a report: https://t.me/PhishDestroy_bot About PhishDestroy: volunteer-driven open-source threat-intelligence platform. Tracked: 131,000+ phishing domains. Confirmed takedowns: 91,000+. Site: https://phishdestroy.io