How do you deal with random friend requests?
I sometimes get messages from people who aren't even my friends on steam wtf
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The new Steam chat system introduced a few months ago does not require being friends to send messages. In fact, even people you've "blocked" can still message you. Spammers can abuse this with API calls to message anyone they want.
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Right. I think in the end it is an awareness issue. Probably good to get people more information so they can be educated against this type of stuff. =)
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Yea I am glad most all people who lose their accounts get them back. Now if we can just have a world where accounts were not stolen, this utopia I dream of would become a reality. xD
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Same, just insta block them..
i don't really think reporting them will do anything sadly
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I used to just block them but past week or so I've been reporting them all. I actually been wondering though if I am actually breaking some sort of rules by doing so when I'm not 100% sure they are using malicious links. It would be a weird sort of irony if I got in trouble for reporting bots. xD
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Although you're not Sherlocks but I do not believe you'll get into trouble in what you perceive as a phishing scam. Its up to Valve to interpret the actions on both sides but they are aware of phishing attempts. 1 more reporting means making the community safer for the rest of Steam users imo. We do have users on Steam that accepts and click links which in turn lost their account. Regards, Cruse~
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Report for phishing then block the account. Cheers~
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Yep that is exactly what I've been doing of late.
I used to accept the friend request, and then politely ask them 'Hey, what's up with the random friend add? How can I help you?' etc but they just about always have some automated response "Hi! Please click on my malicious link and use my referral code 69BOT69 to gain free ponies and rainbows." bla bla
I would then report and block them.
Now I just report them after they request to friend me now xD
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Yep, I am rather careful in accepting requests. Unless we had interaction before I usually do not add anyone for eg. Even when we use the same platform like SG. >__<" Cant be too safe to be safe.
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Cant be too safe to be safe.
Truth.
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First I check steamgifts, maybe I was added because I won something. If not I check steamtrades, maybe someone offered.
If none of these two applies then I check their steam level. If low (like below 10), I'll block. If not low then I'll just ignore.
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Yea, I usually check those sites as well, but if they only have 3 or so games and a link at the top of their profile I don't even bother with that xD
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just what i do, put a message on your profile saying people need to comment on your profile before adding you, ignoring/block everyone who doesn't, if they do so, they aren't bots.
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That might work, but I don't think it will stop bots from trying.
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I've been reporting them all for 'malicious activity', stating that they are trying to 'steal my account or information'.
Seems legit, everyone knows you can steal someone's account by sending them a friend request, that's how hacking works... ....in TV shows
I am very
trusting andaccepting and Ilove andadd everyone.
Fixed. Nothing bad will happen if you add random people. Worst case scenario, they'll spam you for real and you can just block them, then
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Well, technically I report their profile for malicious activity when I see what appears to be malicious links.
But typically people send the friend request, people accept it, then they send a message with a malicious link in the message. I used to wait until they sent the message, but now I report them when they send a friend request because it seems a more efficient use of my time. xD
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The thing is, if you really want to help catch naughty bots, I'm pretty sure you'll be more efficient reporting people who have actually done something bad (actually sent spam/scam/phishing) than people who haven't (just sent you a friend request). 👀
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Hmm I bet you are right. That way, when I report them, Valve can see the record with the message(s) they sent and it would aid their investigations. It's not that difficult to go back to messaging them asking 'yo dude why you add me' again, it's just annoying because I then have to add a nickname to them to remind me they are a random add and stuff.
You make a great point though, thanks! =)
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On the record of the recent attempt on phishing and only blocked account on Steam. The user has mostly if not all Free games, the games were idled with no achievements at all, Like Team Fortress 2. The main group displayed is a LEVEL UP SERVICE group. Even if its not a phishing service but an attempt on advertising the group, that account is a bot account.
Certainly, the methods are evolving. I do not see the risk you have to undertake to take that "piece" of evidence when Valve themselves are tracking our actions on their software. They will do the investigate and take appropriate means. It doesn't mean you report and they will get suspended but do look out for signs of it. I do not do trades so there's no meaning for me to add anyone in that regards.
Free games, Idle games, some sort of service group/profits group. These are just some clues.
Once again, Sincere Regards, Cruse~ ^_^
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Volvo can't read your chat log... it scares me that you would be ok with that...
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But Valve can and does read the chat logs, at least when a report has been made. Pretty sure it's right in the ToS. It's not that I'm ok with it, but I never really used the platform with a great need for privacy either.
Old topic but I think it still applies:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/2szu55/are_my_steam_chat_logs_private/
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Actually, it kinda is how it happens. The friend request is done so that you'll check out the profile and click the link. You don't actually have to add them and wait for them to send you a link. It's sometimes right there on their profile. Some of those hackers have stolen accounts via those links in recent weeks. Not exactly sure how it works since I don't click anything that looks suspicious, but... it's actually quite a common problem.
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Actually, it kinda is how it happens. The friend request is done so that you'll check out the profile and click the link.
Well that's ironic then: they count on over-suspicious (yet curious) people to visit their profile rather than sending them links. That would explain why most random friend requests that I accept from low level accounts, which I accept without even checking their profile, never actually send me anything.
Some of those hackers have stolen accounts via those links in recent weeks. Not exactly sure how it works
I guess they redirect, eventually, to some kind of fake Steam website which asks people to reconnect? Apart from one old case of a serious vulnerability in Steam or from exploiting browser vulnerabilities (but for those expensive hacks, hackers have better things to do that steal Steam accounts that Valve will sooner than later return to their rightful owner anyway), they can't hack your account just by making you visit their profile or even a malicious third-party website.
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Well... if someone adds me as a friend, I generally look at their profile to see who they are. One might click a link thinking it's going to tell them who the person is. I generally don't do that because I usually either know people, or I don't. I just don't like to add random strangers if I don't at least know where they are adding me from, or why they'd want to add me.
I have my profile comments open to everyone, so if someone I don't know can't take that few seconds to write why they're adding me, then I can't be bothered with them. I've had to deal with way too much bullshit from various people online over the years. LOL! I save myself hassle by not adding randomers.
Oh I know they can't. You know I'm a techie myself. I just meant that, I wasn't sure of how these particular people have been doing it. Whether it's getting you to sign into a fake site, getting you to click a link that exploits a vulnerability in the software. There are may possibilities. People were hacking Skype accounts a few years back just by getting people to click a link.
As for them knowing you'll get your account back... they do it so that once they get access to your account, they can scam your friends. People are more likely to trust something coming from an account they know. So having a large friend's list is probably just as inviting as having a nice inventory. :)
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2 weeks ago my father's account was in someone's possesion who tried to scam me.
Luckily he got it back 1 day later, but still, I got a message from them to log in on their
super awesome site to get some free skins for CS:GO, PUBG, or DOTA2 which I don't
even play. -.- So be careful with those links they send!
Looks like this:
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Wow! That doesn't even look close to the official sign in for Steam, so I am surprised that people actually got tricked by that one!
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Sometimes people don't pay attention to nothing...
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I agree with everything mentioned above, but I just wonder what is wrong on having low number of friends? o.O
For many years I had only like 7 or 9 friends, being active on SG this past year I got some new friends, but still count it low compared to the others.
I am not much a social person. ;)
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I think there is nothing wrong with that. ^^
I like making new friends but I check every profile and listen to my guts...
I too have friends who only have a few themselves - it does not say anything. ^^
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Nothing wrong with low friend list. I do not allow public comment on my profile, do not want to handle malicious comments. Do not add a person for a +1. There are people I added whom I met as fellow viewers on Twitch or in other forums/service but after a period of time we do not even have a single interaction. I am a sentimental person and a person I regard as a friend remains so unless the other party crossed the line.
I wanted to remove some friends from the list but they are not a +1 to me so I find the reluctance to do so. The same with me not adding anyone that adds me when we use the same service without any form of previous interaction. That said, I have an invite hanging now that the user randomly added me because we are in the same discord. I tried to look for clues where this person knew me from.
Regards and Cheers, Cruse~
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Like others said, nothing wrong with a low friend count, it is just one of a combination of factors I look for. Sorry if I sounded crude
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Yeah, I have read the post a few times and now I get it. XD It's a combination of factors, I completely understand! No need to apologize. ;)
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Oh, I agree. I have a low number of friends. Until very recently, I'd say my friend's list was around 7 or 8. They were people from a forum. Since joining this community, I've added a few people.
I guess, it's not just the low friend count though. Low level, free games, links on profile, etc. ^^
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if you haven't, set your inventory to private or friends-only.
that worked for me so i guess there are bots/scripts scanning users to see if there's something of value to scam from them.
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That and leaving any extraneous groups solved the problem for me.
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Ah, is that what they are after? Steam inventory? I guess it makes sense to make it private in that case.
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They are after "Nothing . . . . . . Everything!"
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Some of the best cinematography and thematic score I've ever seen in film. Love that movie.
Ever see the extended cut?
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I did, I think the movie is underrated though that might be the result of Orlando's acting just not outstanding imo., The other actors nailed it, especially Edward Norton. Who knew acting behind a mask can be such a hit. The only other act I've seen behind a mask was Leonardo DiCaprio's The Man in the Iron Mask when I was young pretty decent. I haven have a good memory collection of Phantom of the Opera but have to mention it. ^_^
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So true, Edward Norton in that role was brilliant, he's one of my favorites for sure. =)
I think you are right, Orlando was probably the weakest performance in the whole movie, luckily Liam Neeson, Eva Green, Jeremy Irons, Kevin McKidd and Ghassan Massoud's portrayal of Saladin was so well done...
Man I think I am going to watch that movie again soon.
Word of warning: don't listen to the soundtrack while driving. At least this song.
I almost got a speeding ticket listening to that xD
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What's the best for Edward Norton's performance is, its short but it left a very deep imprint. Ghassan Massoud left me feeling a lot of respect for his act. Orlando gave me the impression of that him telling himself to stay cool and remain cool all the time. He seems more like spoil noble rather than the blacksmith he is portraying to be. DiCaprio did mature but later in career as you can see the other dimension in that acting. I am no expert or drama student but as a viewer, you can understand when you are touched by an act. He probably portray the role much better now. Its a shame the critics were on the heals of the movie when it came out. It is certainly one of the most entertaining Epic Movie I've seen.
My most favorite tune from a motion picture is probably from The Last of the Mohicans
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lol that song is my ringtone xD
Daniel Day-Lewis is another acting genius.
I agree about Orlando, he seemed to be trying too hard, as if he had something to prove. Luckily, he didn't have to because everything else about the movie was great.
Orlando is not the worst actor but he is pretty one-dimensional. Actors like that, it is all about the 'look' while great actors are about the 'feel'.
It's like Jason Momoa. I know so many people will disagree with me about him, but I can't stand the guy. There is a reason the guy has never had an acting role that did not require him to take his shirt off. All he does is read lines, grunt a few times, and take his shirt off. he is the same character in every role. xD
If you think about it, Orlando's character Balien seemed awfully similar to Will Turner's character in Pirates of the Caribbean... xD
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I watched The Last of the Mohicans when I was young but it left such an imprint in my mind. At that time, I did not understand what the film is trying to portray but it has such a huge impact. I vividly remember the score of the movie.
I'll say actors grow, much like Johnny Depp, they need to find that dimension. Not just a pretty face, DiCaprio matured in that, I've seen Romeo + Juliet, Titanic, The Man in the Iron Mask. Although I had not seen The Revenant I can see his maturity in the trailers. I think Orlando acted well as Legolas, its just that as Balian a historical character though much of his role in the movie is fictional, he lacks that ability to tell a tale.
Like Edward Norton's pointing of his finger to the ground and demand a kneel, took off his glove and demand a kiss, stumbles afterwards. When he declares he is Jerusalem, later in the movie Guy de Lusignan tries to mimic, if he had not done a great act, Marton Csokas would be like meme-ing in today's term rather than the feeling of insecurity.
Ghassan Massoud's respectful, calm. collected sultan and a figure that made me believe that he might have conquered the Sultan lands if he is Saladin. Such a character, I just cant forget about that scene whenever Nothing or Everything is mentioned, thus the start of this discussion.
I think Orlando matured more during the later Pirates of the Caribbean movies and takes part of the shine of Depp. Perhaps he is better at portraying fictional characters where he can make the character his. Rather than a historical figure where you instill the character into the role.
I've not seen much for a long while so I do not know about Aquaman, I do trust your judgement on that. Out of Curiosity, do you have the same feeling for Dwayne Johnson? :D
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Great observation about Orlando. I think you are right, to me it came off as him trying to prove himself, it probably is just him trying to make the shoes fit in a historical role. You are spot on about Legolas, he was able to take that role and make it his own, something he didn't seem able to do in Kingdom of Heaven.
I haven't actually seen Aquaman tbh. I'll get around to it eventually, probably. And yea, same can probably be said about Dwayne Johnson. Is what it is. xD
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I'll say Dwayne Johnson is pretty entertaining as an actor, he started of as a wrestler though there is acting elements to it, its far from a Broadway kind of performance. He made Scorpion King his character, which is surprising. I'll say he takes pride in entertaining.
I had not seen the Fast and Furious films no interest, and his recent films. Jumanji probably is most recent film I want to watch. From Walking Tall, Be Cool, The Game Plan, Hercules, cant remember if I watched Tooth Fairy. I like his effort in Be Cool, I can see him trying to be that character though he did not achieve that outstanding act, well its a comedy, its still fun to watch. Hercules is just a bad script imo than bad acting from him, I feel he can do much more in portraying Hercules.
We commonly known him for his muscle acts but I can see him putting time into deeper emotions. Still overall a very entertaining actor to watch as you go and watch his iconic smiles and moves. Although the Natural Disasters flicks are something you can look over. Thank you very much for this discussion, I enjoyed it. :D Cheerios, Cruse~
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I have my inventory blocked only for friends, I still get 1 intended phishing recently. What I can think of is I have used a public card trading bot for the recent steam winter cards. However, I think I got the attempt early than the sale but considering my memory is potatoe it might be different. Cheers for awareness~
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This indeed helps and there are indeed people (bots much less) that are looking for potential victims through any means necessary. It still doesn't protect you from all scams (especially phishing links), but it works good enough.
Still it's not the best solution if you want to use various community-oriented features, for example SteamTradeMatcher listing, since people outside of your friendlist are unable to send you a trade, therefore help you match your dupes. Personally I'm a fan of "leave me a comment or get ignored", and since only 5% people read that far, it cuts the spam to the minimum.
It also works awfully good towards scammers, since they find out that you're not a braindead zombie that will happily claim your free asiimov or other $20 through betting site, so it doesn't only cut those that do not read, but the ones that do realize you're not worth their time, win-win!
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I've apparently never been important enough to get befriended by a scammer, all I get are requests from people trying to make me join stupid pyramid Steam groups :(
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Don't trust them!Especially if their name is David and asks you: ''Can i come with you?''
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2 in the past day. Had another a few days ago as well.
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I do add them onto my list via steam without clicking on any links as I do make giveaways on a number of sites in case it is from a winner having trouble with their keys. However, if they don't message me or contact me explaining why in a few days or so they get removed again. As others have said, you will tend to get a lot more if you have joined too many public groups which rely on getting more people into the groups to get bonuses games and such like so just be aware.
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I would just always have profile comments on and ask for people to leave a message on your profile why they added you. I hate when people have comments deactivated and just ignore every friend request, no way to get in touch with those users :(
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I got a friend request from a dude, who wanted me to go on his "rust-jackpot-side", I just had to promote his side in my Name...
He told me I get money for it (rust Items). But to get this "money" I had to go to his site, deposite and then I would "definitly" win the next jackpot.
So I looked up some of the guys who went into those jackpots and whoa... suprise, they dont exist.
The funny part about this is, some dude added me 2 days after that, exact same side, exact same scam attempt.
Was pretty dumb tho, at the end I just sended him this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Zn-nGMs-uI
I also get sometimes those links from guys in my fl which are in my fl for more then a month, dunno if they clicked on such a link and then got hacked.
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I also get sometimes those links from guys in my fl which are in my fl for more then a month, dunno if they clicked on such a link and then got hacked.
Yes, those are phished accounts, and yes, they did click the link, or otherwise got account hijacked by scammers. If you by any chance have other contact with your friend, it's a good idea to let him know about it (so he can lock the account and recover), but if he's only your Steam contact and you do not recall any other way to contact with him (e.g. SteamGifts), then it's pointless to leave a message, since it'll never reach your friend in the first place.
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Wait till people start adding you so often that you'll need a legit bot to deny friend requests.
I have a note on my profile asking them to leave a comment so I can have at least a slight hope that they read through it, my bot denies on average 1-2 requests per hour from people that didn't (sometimes 5+), and those that read are in a small 1-2 daily minority that I accept myself.
I can suggest adding similar note then configuring ASF to deny all friend requests, and manually sending a friend request to people that left a note, and others that you care about. This isn't as smart as my solution, but it's good enough for majority of use cases and I know that a lot of people are using that already, even if it isn't a core feature of ASF.
Of course only if you're truly annoyed with them, since some people will immediately raise their voice how I should do nothing all day but stay in front of my PC 24/7 and accept those friend invites myself, maybe even ask how I can be of service afterwards. Since people do not read by definition, I have enough of time to spend on those that care enough to do so, which is great.
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I report bot accounts to help flag them for removal. The sooner, the better.
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I get so many random adds that I had to make a Steam group and tell people to post there before adding me. They rarely do, so it's easy to spot who to block. Reporting seems like a nice idea, but ultimately, you can't know why they're adding you, so anything you choose as a reason is speculation and Valve won't do a thing about it, it's just a waste of your own time.
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How about when the invites are in a foreign language you had to first translate
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The thing is I don't click on their links, so I am not sure if they actually are using malicious links but I assume it and report it anyway.
Joke's on you, mate. More free cash to me! 😄
DISCLAIMER: This was a silly joke, please don't click suspicious links.
I usually ignore random friend requests, but if they send a link I probably report too (can't remember, has been a while).
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Only had about 4 or 5 encounters ever. I always check their profile first then report+block them if they don't pass my standards.
My inventory is trash. I guess that's why I get a few of them.
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If someone randomly add me on Steam I steal their login and password by shady link (=
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So lately I've been getting lots of random friend requests on Steam. Like 3 in the past week alone.
I look at the profile, and the typical red flags appear:
-Not many games and few or none of them mutual
-Not many friends
-Obvious link promising something like 'free cash'
So I wonder what you guys do when you get these requests? I've been reporting them all for 'malicious activity', stating that they are trying to 'steal my account or information'.
The thing is I don't click on their links, so I am not sure if they actually are using malicious links but I assume it and report it anyway.
Good logic or Potato logic?
Giveaways:
Crashday Redline Edition
Labyrinthe Dreams
Pixelpunk XL
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