I assume you have send an user report. Should be resolved rather quick.
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Yes on his main account and 61 bots accounts I could find so far.
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Fast user report resolving is a nice dream but not a reality at sg.
The Thread do more visibility and maybe one of the staff reacts -and look then into that specific report-
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+1 I reported guy owning 6 accounts and he's still doing his thing, but 6 and 61-500 is way worse...
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User reports are almost never looked at promptly. Emphatically so, rather. More specifically, despite staff having knocked out the previous backlog a couple of staff rotations ago, I'm already backlogged a year on unaddressed user reports.
As with most time-sensitive things, you'd likely be best off reporting this kind of thing under "Other".
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So all those bot accounts are valued at $100.00 or greater?
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That’s an expensive scam! Unless this person provided a card idling service for some time to get the bot account values up so high.
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Many games were idled from 0.1-10 hours.
So card idling service for last 6 months is a good guess.
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you can get/trade game via the curater system to boost an account
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I can think of another easy way that requires just a time:
Add all F2P games every day, wait for few to turn paid, free value.
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It looks like now to get 100$ worth all you need is 79 free games or maybe some of them are cheap.
It looks like he was preparing all this for last 6 months.
Also he trades keys on Steam Trades...
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Not sure if this is same guy, but one guy was buying hundreds of keys from indie developers few months ago...
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Maybe as his bots each were giving away other set of games.
Maybe he just bought 20 bundles or something.
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Buy cheap keys in bulk from DIG, Get all free carded game keys, Buy Good bundles at Indiegala in Happy Hour 4x Multiple purchases are among fast ways to get BOT profile with games up.
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Those Marvelous type farm card simulator Free keys GAs were real fast ways to get those cards only oriented cheap games given free to BOTs. Sadly for BOTs steam cracked down on free keys, key issuance and those GAs largely.
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Good to know. I did not know that but it is good if Steam is doing anything with this BOTS because there are a ton of bots and farms.
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Hm. Well, it was always "$100 of unbundled games", as I recall. It could be cg changed that back when he removed account restrictions on SteamTrades, or it could be due to the fact that the free/bundle lists really haven't been updated at all since last October. (Actually, a lot of recent exploitation I've come across seems attributable to that latter fact.) Further, Sundance seems to have an alternative loophole in mind, just below. Looks like cg may need to do a pass on some things sometime soon.
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I'm not going to go into any details how to avoid helping more people create multi-accounts but unless it was fixed by now there is a trick that let's you register on SG without actually having 100$ worth of unbundled games on your account.
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I support the idea but 100$ of unbundled would hurt many innocent people ;/ I hope SG administration will take a closer look at this though!
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One of the reasons why i don't make public GA's under lvl 3.
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It's not a suggestion. It's actually already the current requirement to register an account here on SG. Sadly it doesn't prevent the exploit I was talking about.
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Oh, ALL my games come from bundles or were free :O I shouldn't be here :O
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Actually I took a brief look earlier because I was kinda bored and if you already had them when you registered GTA Collection alone probably gave you most of the account value you needed ;) They only count as bundled since early 2018.
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Oh so You mean the games alone are counted as bundled, but when I got all of them they count as collection which was not in bundle? I got them from humble bundle bundle :P
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Bundle status is calculated by total bundle value (or by tier value, for tiered bundles). Back when I was new to the site, the minimum range for bundling was typically 92-94% [with anything 95% or higher being guaranteed for the list] off the USD retail price. These days I believe it can occur in the high 80%s. Staff factors in liklihood of exploitation, so that often affects the discount value they decide to go with.
SG doesn't care about the nature of the games [ie, whether they're base games, DLCs, or collections], staff only compares the total retail price of the tier/bundle against the price the tier/bundle is actually sold for. If all games from a collection are bundled, or if enough of the collection is bundled that one could exploit the matter by completing the full collection and offering it for giveaway, staff then also adds the relevant collection to the bundle list [even if the collection wasn't directly bundled].
Generally speaking, high tiers [eg "Tier 3" or "Tier 4" in Humble Bundles] don't typically reach bundle list status.
In any case, I'm not seeing any bundle with the GTA collection (prior to the individual games being offered in January 2018, wherein which it doesn't appear that enough Collection content was in low tiers to make the Collection itself be added to the bundle list).
The closest I can find is GMG having it for 80% off, 4 years ago.
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In any case, I'm not seeing any bundle with the GTA collection. The closest I can find is GMG having it for 80% off, 4 years ago.
Yeah, that's on me for calling it GTA Collection. We were talking about the Rockstar Games Humble Bundle roughly 2 years ago which contained GTA: THE TRILOGY, GTA IV and Stories from Liberty City.
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Since Collection also requires GTA 1 and 2, which can't be purchased seperately, we've an explanation as to why Collection was never added to the bundle list. Or, if the Collection includes IV and Stories, simply due to them being at a $15 Tier 3. (Side-note, I find the formatting of Shakti's threads much easier to reference than the format used on most deal sites :P).
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I find the formatting of Shakti's threads much easier to reference than the format used on most deal sites :P).
I agree. I didn't notice you had already posted the bundle thread when I posted the gg.deals link ;)
I couldn't remember the name of the bundle so I searched there and posted that one because I already had it at hand.
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I wasn't really poking at your choice; Rather, I was just touching on the fact that I'm not a fan of the general push towards disorganized graphical representation of information, over listing information in, well, lists and tables. Even on my tablet, where it actually makes some sense, I'm generally not in favor of that approach (since text is easier for me to parse over images to begin with).
Really, I mostly just meant it as a comment of appreciation towards Shakti. ^.^
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Yeah, I'm currently using an old, relatively small screen because apparently my HD outlet has been broken for ages (or maybe rather the graphic card) so viewing the Bundle on gg.deals takes 2 - 3 screens vertically which is sort of annoying but it still beats isthereanydeal because it searches for games by Id rather than name (which can be problematic if there is a common word in the title).
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No that shouldn't make a difference. Guess it was just personal bias then because I'm a big R* fan ´:D I just briefly scrolled through your library and when I saw GTA I was like "Yeah, that would do if you had them before they were bundled."
But basically 2 big unbundles games with a 60$ tag would suffice.
Also as Douchelord pointed out you don't really have to have spent $100, the US price just has to add up to 100. But since AFAIK you poles for some weird reason only have slightly lower prices than Central Europe and US that probably wouldn't change much.
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It's not that hard to surpass 100$ mark for account, if you are from not very rich country. For countries such as Philippines, Russia, Chin, Turkey, Brazil and many others it's pretty easy to do
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Aren't most level 0-1 users bots anyways and we should never feed them.
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Well let's hope that not all of 1.044.006 users are bots.
The problem is also that the main account of this thief is level 4 build on 1$ bundles.
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Actually lots of higher lvls do enter and win giveaway then I can see how account is online multiply times for a few days and enter new giveaways but key remains unseen for 3 or 4 days...
It's kinda sad
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I hope you are right because this "bot case" is bit depressing
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Yes, it is.
It's VERY frustrating to be forced to run behind winners that they please please please take their wins. I have that cases, much, too often.
One of the reasons why i do lesser and lesser public GA's or for open groups.
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Yeah, I even created copy-paste message I send to winners to take their wins. Pity.
Recently I started creating whitelist and groups focused giveaways too. It's more likely that winner is actually living person, not bot and cares about SG ;)
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Problem is the main account of this thief is level 4 build on 1$ bundles.
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The good thing is he did win only a few games on his main account and he use bots to win anything level 0-1 he can enter by auto joiner.
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Well, you figure at least at that point it's going to his main account, and not one of his bot accounts.
If you're not exploiting some super cheap but high value bundle, it takes a while to get to level 4. I remember that getting to level 4 myself felt like quite the achievement.
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Hm, i thought Steamgifts got IP tracking to prevent bots. oh well, more Group GAs for me from now on.
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I think they use it to check suspicious people, not as a constant surveillance-tool.
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...as if IP checks have ever actively stopped people with malicious intentions. Too many ways to bypass or trick them.
And yes, I think there is one, and that's why it's advised to contact support beforehand if a relative on the same IP plans to register.
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Im not sure if its relevant at this point, but in the original post you mentioned names of Bot001-Bot500 as noted on their profiles. Ive seen one from the grouping that posted an hour ago that identifies as #844 so there may be significantly more of them out there. Though they could just be using a unique number between 1-999
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Omg, this looks like a new level of exploiting SG, over 500 bots is expert level botting. How the heck is that even possible?! :/
Thanks for the important warning, Zarddin and let's hope something can be done to stop this shit.
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How the heck is that even possible?! :/
Most likely account registration exploit.
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Cardfarmers don't need exploits tho. Idle games for others and buy unbundled games straight from the devs in bulk.
Seems like it's suspended permanently tho.
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People idle games for others to make money? I feel like there's this whole crazy card farming industry going on in the shadows that I have no idea about.
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Back before steam started to put limitations in place ("steam is learning..."), there were these idling groups, the group master would go to russian sites and buy 100 copies of a game for 1 cent each or whatever, then give the free keys to group members and in exchange the group members would idle the cards and send the cards back to the group master. Then that person presumably sells those cards for profitz. Which is probably why Steam sale events require actual money to be spent and wallet funds don't count.
There were also cases of devs giving keys for free to these idle groups and idle botnets, in order to collect the marketplace fees from the sales of those cards.
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Wow, I had no idea this sort of stuff existed. Crazy!
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He and his bots are now Suspended - Permanent <3
GREAT JOB SUPPORT <3
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BIG BIG BIG thank you for all your help in all this :)
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Would it still be considered calling out if they have been Suspended permanently?
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Sadly yes.
Tomorrow when the Steam will work good again I will invite you to friends and send you everything on chat.
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how about leaving a comment on your own profile/Steamtrades topic? I just want to block and avoid the guy in advance.
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Thanks for letting me know.
I thought Steam was just acting wonky for me, but it looks like it must be acting up for multiple people! Which is surprising since there isn't a sale going on right now. ;)
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The ones we spotted we could report but I think because a few people were reporting this and there were many evidences for support they can dig a little deeper and find all accounts as they were created at the same time and have numbers at the end of names.
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And i dont know if saying the details how you spotted the guy should be here.
Its the little details that help to prevent that things from happening.
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Each case will be different depending on the programs someone will try to use and games someone will try their bots to run so I think there are only basic informations here.
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Yikes at whoever that user was, and thanks for the alert and reporting.
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Useless oxygen wasters at work again.
I hope this person invested effort and time in this escapade and by getting suspended lost it all without getting a chance to exploit system
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Nice piece of sleuthing, man, and great response time from support!
Take that, bots! No bot gets past Zarddin!
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I was fighting fraud documents, bots, scams etc. for 2 years of my life so they still get my blood boiling :P
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Sorry to hear your battle against evil was so long but I'm glad you're using your powers for good.
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And I thought with my report that caused 6 perma suspends I was able to qualify to the leaderboard...😿 I'm sure you are the No.1 now.
Congrats! :)
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It was a combined effort.
Theanyelpes helped me a ton!
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Hey I was one of the winners of these bots. What should I do now? I also activated their game.
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Whoooa! Awesome work, Zarddin and all those who helped! And many thanks to Support for their speedy response! 💜
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Praise the sun and Support for their speedy response!
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Nice Spot, Thank you for reporting! <3
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I hate scams and thiefs so it was my duty :P
Thank the support for super fast response and action :)
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We just found them out I think many people started reporting the accounts they could find so it isa team effort.
We should thank the support for super fast response and action :)
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Nice investigation skills! Woo! Added to my whitelist!
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Thank you but it was not me alone it was a team effort to clean the SG from this bot farm :P
Added you to my WL too ;)
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Great job! Added you to my WL as well. 👍 Thanks for the effort! 🙂
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hank you but it was not me alone it was a team effort to clean the SG from this bot farm :P
Added you to my WL too ;)
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Thanks for the info and thanks to support for suspending the accounts.
Three cheers for Zarddin!
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Bro why did you get all my alt accounts banned wheat did I ever do to you? JK GJ 🕵️
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I knew it!
But I'm still lacking proof. (ಠ__ಠ)
Still wondering why two accounts which have basically have an identical, good customized, steam profile with the same text blocks, the same auto answers, login times... are still not banned (/ ticket closed if they should really be legit.) after 1 year!
Even a new ticket for the second account with more detailed info, screenshots, links is still open after two months.
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Thank you but it was not only me it was team effort :)
But it is sweet to know that the guy lost 6 months of preparation and creation of bot farm accounts in a few hours :)
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Maybe it wasn't just for sg. Who knows how many other schemes he have runing, afterall he has the basic knowhow and the profile of a scammer. Most of those try various things, heck some have scams as their fulltime job.
Thats why i think its all the more important to report him to valve. Heck id spam reports to valve if i could.
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Well bots were looking like some card farming/steam accounts leveling service.
He also is a trader on ST so maybe he also used them to steal some keys to trade.
I already spamed the same report 50 times (main acc and all his bots that I know of).
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Take care guys there are about 500 bots right now creating GAs to get to level 1 and also entering your GAs and winning them!
How to spot that BOT did win your GA?
The main account is a guy from Philippines and he is level 4 on SG thanks to all the 1$ bundles. He have all the bots as his friends.
EDIT:
He and his bots are now Suspended - Permanent <3
GREAT JOB SUPPORT <3
EDIT 2 - UPDATE:
His main account and 50 bots accounts were reported to Steam. We will see if they take action.
List of games lost to this guy: The Gardens Between, Cultist Simulator, GRIP: Combat Racing, Europa Universalis IV, Mages of Mystralia x2, Two Point Hospital, Euro Truck Simulator 2, Ancestors Legacy, X-Morph: Defense, Aegis Defenders, Motorsport Manager, Hand of Fate 2, Dead In Vinland, Street Fighter V, Sword Legacy: Omen.
I had 0 people in my BL but now I have this one guy but he takes 50 spots.
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