Sadly, there isn't much more to discuss. This has come up many times and we've done all we realistically can.

From: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/groups/tf2outpost/discussions/0/540742399405362271/#c540742399404625939

"There is nothing we can do on our end. The only interaction between the phishers and outpost is them scrubbing the front page for SteamID numbers/profile links and then adding them directly through the Steam client.

If we were to remove that information, it would cripple the site and do nothing in the long term as that information can be found anywhere your profile is publicly seen.

Valve did take some action not too long ago where they limited the number of friend requests you could send out in a single day, but reversed it for some reason. "


On imposing limits on who can see trades: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/groups/tf2outpost/discussions/0/540744299979574330/

"...we cannot add any type of restriction that makes a user need a certain action completed in order to use site functions, such as hours played or amount of items in a backpack.

Bots can easily idle whatever time it takes to do that, as well as fill up pages of weapons to bypass whatever system you set up. On top of that, it could restrict legitimate users who may just be started out on the game and our site.

Really, it's all on Valve to do something about phishing at this point, we can't do much more than the steps we've already taken to combat them besides try to educate more people on the practices and common signals of a phishing scam."


And on why phishing bots do not need to be online/public to get to you: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/groups/tf2outpost/discussions/0/540743212121412369/#c540743212239182690

"...Let's pretend here that I was a phisher.

My account is perfectly normal, logged in and ready to view everyone's information. My account will then scrub the site for the information it needs, Steam ID's, Profile links, etc.

I then send that information to alt accounts Currier Bell 2, Currier Bell 3, Currier Bell 4 and more. They are the ones that send links to other users over Steam and never actually logged onto the site.

Even if we banned 2, 3, and 4, they have never been on the site. It was all Currier Bell 1 who did the work, who still looks perfectly fine and is logged on the site."

I got 6 bloody invites at ONCE -_- pretttyyy bad

Originally posted by Currier Bell:

From: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/groups/tf2outpost/discussions/0/540742399405362271/#c540742399404625939 "...we cannot add any type of restriction that makes a user need a certain action completed in order to use site functions, such as hours played or amount of items in a backpack.

Funny, I was banned once for having my profile set to private. But I guess this doesn't matter.

Well, this really sucks, then. I understand that little can be made now, but it is really annoying knowing that pretty much who is fishing is myself - I'm putting my trade in the hook and throwing it in a tank full of fucking robots.

Thanks for the attention anyways.

No, the private profile thing is a permanent ban for anyone.

The part I quoted about private profiles mostly refers to this part of your post:
" All of the bot's profiles that I came in contact with had their profile settings to "private", so I believe that this could be a starting point - if one's setting of privacy is private, don't allow them to see the trades"

The fact that these phishing account have private profiles will have no bearing on what they can do on the site, mainly because many, if not all of these accounts never actually visit the site directly.

I believe you misunderstood my quote about doing arbitrary things to gain full access to the sites. This was in response to a common suggestion of making anyone on the site need X amount of hours in TF2 or items in their backpack. We have many games now supported for Outpost so these limits would hurt people who may not have played TF2, for example someone who may have traded for items from it in exchange for Dota 2 items.

Originally posted by Currier Bell:

I believe you misunderstood my quote about doing arbitrary things to gain full access to the sites. This was in response to a common suggestion of making anyone on the site need X amount of hours in TF2 or items in their backpack. We have many games now supported for Outpost so these limits would hurt people who may not have played TF2, for example someone who may have traded for items from it in exchange for Dota 2 items.

Gotcha. Well, that really sucks.

Anyway, thanks for the attention. Have a good one.

maybe flooding the bots with fake accounts data on their phishing sites?

Originally posted by Wraith:

must be logged in T2Oupost and account older than X days, or steam account has X number of games. Or anything like that.

What about people who have only TF2 in their library and aren't bots? Some people actually only play TF2, believe it or not. Besides, I've seen bots with more than seven years of activity and around fifty games on their library. Probably from some dumb fuck who actually logged in into their scam website.

There really is no way to stop it, apparently. It is just sad.

here's my blocklist, 1300 entries. If you zoom in you can juuuuust make out the steam logo and my avatar at the top. http://i.imgur.com/mcRXZmi.png

One thing I do to save time is bookmark the invites page /id/YOU/home/invites/ and from there you can mouseover the adds and block all the level zeroes. There's no confirmation dialog if you do it on this page.

I guess there's just no way after all. I give up, the bots win, I doubt I'll use TF2Outpost much (if at all) from now on.

Honestly, phishing bots are way too common. I've blocked 150 of them and counting...
If you really want to rid yourself of phishers, start using trade offers to trade instead of allowing people to add you. Those bots have 0 items so it's impossible for them to send you a trade offer (It's possible but it's never happened to me ever)

Currently only one major bot system I know of that has been doing this and it's some user who has tried to use their bots to get by using two names (tyjuk3ef and fawcybkuu3) and both times I have reported and have gotten confirmation about their ban, although the fawcy account was mere minutes ago and I got confirmation, so Steam is working quick to get these bastards off the site.

Same profile picture, random character name featuring one number, private account.

Originally posted by 徐 | Pulse :3:

Honestly, phishing bots are way too common. I've blocked 150 of them and counting...
If you really want to rid yourself of phishers, start using trade offers to trade instead of allowing people to add you. Those bots have 0 items so it's impossible for them to send you a trade offer (It's possible but it's never happened to me ever)

Usually they may have gotten a few less informed players and their accounts may actually be filled with pages of weapons. I just block and wait for a real trade.

yup

This bot adds people and sends them this line:

Hide: hey mate my friend wants to trade with you but he cant add you (steam error )add him please steamcomnunrty.com...

I think the link he uses is a phishing site. This is the second time a "person" has added me with an identical request (same url as well).

Screenshot: http://tinypic.com/r/2rgnr78/8

Be happening to me too. It is getting bothersome really. It isn't so bad, just annoying. I normally just block, report the bot, and then remove em. I think that's enough... if it ain't well what is? (no really what is)

Can there be an option to remove the "add on steam" button from our outpost trades, I know it wont stop the issue but it would reduce is and force illiterates to go through more steps for those if us who prefer trade offers to adds