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sdumitriu 6 Oct, 2024 @ 8:42am
A new bot army is invading Steam
In the past few days I and other reviewers encountered a bunch of bots commenting on reviews. The things they seem to have in common:
  • They are new accounts, usually girls
  • They set up an account ID, not just the random number Steam gives to accounts
  • They leave positive, praising comments on reviews, old and new
  • They have 3 games in their accounts, two mostly unplayed, and one is AbyssalRestaurant which they seemingly played for hours; XCom2 is frequently one of the unplayed games, but not always
  • They give themselves lots of profile awards
Is there any purpose for this bot army? Is it just propping up AbyssalRestaurant, or is it ramping up their profiles for a later scam?

Here are some of these accounts:

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/id/IsabelRodriguez
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/id/AnnaMillerCc
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/id/LLLLauren
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/id/AshleyD05
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Showing 1-10 of 10 comments
sdumitriu 6 Oct, 2024 @ 8:54am 
One other thing: they are all following/wishlisting InvisibleHand.
#1
Obey the Fist! 6 Oct, 2024 @ 8:58am 
I guess this is just some loser making Steam accounts for his imaginary girlfriends.
#2
Shattered mind 6 Oct, 2024 @ 11:04am 
you should probably show an example of the comments they make, otherwise I don't see it, two of the profiles you linked only has 2 awards each... :goblin:
#3
sdumitriu 6 Oct, 2024 @ 11:09am 
I kept this one: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/id/sdumitriu/recommended/1500400
#4
Shattered mind 6 Oct, 2024 @ 11:19am 
Originally posted by sdumitriu:
I kept this one: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/id/sdumitriu/recommended/1500400

heh.... I guess you're right, as it turns out I have the exact comments on one of my own reviews:

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/id/GammaBetaAlpha/recommended/1689500/

it's a private profile though.
my best bet is that they're fishing for engagement to check for active profiles and then try to hijack profiles or some other sort of scam. :goblin:
#5
sdumitriu 6 Oct, 2024 @ 11:23am 
Looks like that was an early version of the "protocol", before they added profile names and pictures.
#6
sdumitriu 6 Oct, 2024 @ 11:25am 
And a lot of the positive reviews on AbyssalRestaurant come from such profiles, random number account, private. Maybe assuming it's a bot army is too much, it could be the low tech Russian review for hire.
#7
svenevil 9 Oct, 2024 @ 11:09pm 
Ah, damn, and I assumed "Scarlett" really loves my review :lol:

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/id/svenevil/recommended/1202130?tscn=1728513363
Last edited by svenevil; 9 Oct, 2024 @ 11:09pm
#8
Shattered mind 10 Oct, 2024 @ 1:27am 
*plot twist*
it's actually Valve trying to counter the bot reviews by employing their own bots to encourage players to leave informative reviews.

at least with the 3 examples we have in this thread the reviews clearly has thought put into them.(on not entirely undeserving of praise) - anyone seen these bots comment the same stuff on let's say... less deserving reviews? like stuff were it would be a dead giveaway they were bots.
#9
Tiago Rocha 16 Oct, 2024 @ 7:34pm 
An extra profile to add to your list:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/profiles/76561199768916553

Left a comment on my review:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/id/TiagoRocha1989/recommended/973810

I remember it had a female name, "location" USA. But now it's back to a profile with just numbers.
I suspect this is just random comments to solidify the bots presence, so they aren't so easily flagged when actually commenting the reviews they are supposed to boost.

PS: Thanks for creating this thread. IsabelRodriguez also left a comment in some other review of mine lol
#10
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Date Posted: 6 Oct, 2024 @ 8:42am
Posts: 10
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