Hey Norby89,

Thank you for your reply.

I understand that the previous bot operation was to spam the site directly. You guys have done a terrific job of squashing that mode.

Now there is a new mode of harvesting trader information directly from the site and using that to phish directly to traders. The message I am receiving concerning this new method is, "nothing can stop it completely once and for all so we're not even going to try; it's completely out of our hands."

Originally posted by Norby89:

Can you fully stop them? Sure, let's hide everyone's Steam IDs so that we have little site where we can view each other's trades without actually being able to trade anything since we cannot add anyone. Bottom line is you cannot do anything that would not render the site unusable for regular users, after all those who scrape the site for IDs are regular users as well.

Steam IDs should be treated as important protected information. They are currently out in the open for anonymous use. The message that I am receiving from the above statement is, "if we do any countermeasures, it is guaranteed to render the site useless." The message I am trying to convey is, "having free and open Steam IDs is bad and should be made more difficult for bots to access while having little impact on users." Yes, my statement implies that there will be an impact on users.

I am likely out of the loop as far as new site scraper countermeasures. What has been done recently to protect Steam ID information from scraper bots?

My current suggestions:

• A captcha to reach site links containing Steam IDs (fights scraping)
  
• Log user activity and analyze for potential bot accounts
  
• Help Steam by collecting and reporting bots and hijacked accounts
  
• NEW: Provide a wiki for articles about phishing, bots, proposed and current site countermeasures, etc. (not a sticky thread 200+ posts)
  
• NEW: Trade through Steam Trade Offers rather than direct friending (can friend after offer)

The reason I bring all this up is because I love the site. It has worked great in the past. The site is currently infested with phishing bots. The site must do something or else my customers will stop using the site which will cause me to stop using the site (or vice versa). For me, old fashioned trading servers have been less annoying than Outpost recently. This is bad for both of us. :-(

What will cause more users dropping the site: phishing bots or phishing bot countermeasures?

For me, it’s the bots...

Thanks again for your help!

Joe.