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Phishing Uprise?

Discussion in 'SteamRep General Discussion' started by Mr. Valentine, Apr 29, 2013.

  1. Mr. Valentine

    Mr. Valentine New User

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    Is it just me or has there been a steady increase in the amount of people trying to hack other people's accounts? I've seen just in the past two or three days, four or five accounts on outpost banned because of it.
  2. VenGanZa

    VenGanZa User

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    Well there is always and ebb and flow in the murky currents of the phishing world. You are correct however, over the last few weeks there has been an upsurge of the little bastards. One tried to catch me out (poor sod, there is a report in and an inevitable tag once SR deals with it).

    Some of the recent ones are quite nasty and difficult to spot for some of the younger kids on the net, even older hands who are not on-the-ball can be caught out very easily. Fortunately OP Staff are very quick to remove links and ban people, but it is vitally important you guys report them on OP directly so they can react. Pretender is very quick in this, and he normally forwards details to SR for tagging purposes too at no extra cost :)

    Beware the <>< guys!
  3. Mr. Valentine

    Mr. Valentine New User

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    It seems even more and more are randomly appearing, I've had a few on outpost with the messed up steam community link but from what I have been reading here on the forums, people are not fully paying attention.
  4. DataStorm

    DataStorm Retired Staff

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    its always when vacations hit, or "long weekends". The bastards have more time off, and more ppl are online to be hurt.
  5. Mr. Valentine

    Mr. Valentine New User

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    But it seems that there's even more than there has been previous known vacations for people.
  6. DataStorm

    DataStorm Retired Staff

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    yeah, and much is more automated nowadays. I've seen phishing websites that directly put the put up password into a steamclient, log in with it, and therefore trigger the SteamGuard mail and have the guts to ask for that steamguard activation code to "activate" steam in their browser. After, they got hijacked, the bot trades a bunch of valuable items away fast, and logs out.

    Owner just "re-logs in" 3 minutes later and finds somewhere later they lost items.

    One can't protect ppl from their own stupidity.
  7. Teeird

    Teeird New User

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    Definitely a lot more phishing going on. I'm getting dozen adds a week from hijackers trying to sell me their stolen backpack.
  8. Mr. Valentine

    Mr. Valentine New User

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    It's utterly ridiculous how many accounts there are trying to do this, but it seems that they are just by a group of people using the same few links rather than a much larger community. Also from reading that guide on hacked accounts that you created, is it just people who have bought their accounts from E-Bay, or a hacked accounts that happen to include the few accounts purchased?
  9. Teeird

    Teeird New User

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    The eBay point I brought up was just a reference to the fact that the sales of Steam Accounts are real, and mighty active. There's probably some private Russian forum out there where Russians buy/sell/trade old steam accounts.
  10. Xenophobia

    Xenophobia Retired Staff

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    Phishing is a huge problem on TF2OP, but we (as in outpost) are taking steps to stop them.
    DataStorm likes this.
  11. ForteSP

    ForteSP New User

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    Maybe a new rule that is no links other than TF2OP links. and have a bot that detects and bans anyone who posts a URL (just like the SR ban bot)?

    That's just an idea, though it may be a bit severe.
  12. VenGanZa

    VenGanZa User

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    This already exists: No advertising — this includes referral links and third-party websites. http://www.tf2outpost.com/rules. I think that is pretty much all encompassing enough to give OP Admins plenty of scope.
  13. Teeird

    Teeird New User

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    Here's an idea. . .

    All links on outpost need to manually be copy/pasted to view them, i.e not hyper linked. This gives a bit more time for the person to see if a link is fake or not. Sure it adds an extra layer of annoyance, but I believe it will cut down on phishing considerably.
  14. Duskfall -a^DF

    Duskfall -a^DF New User

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    I don't believe forcing a manual copy and paste will help cut down phishing. Yes, like you said: it's an extra layer of annoyance.... and then that's it. You're only delaying the inevitable of some poor, uninformed guy entering his info on a phishing site. A person not paying attention to the link he's clicking (if it were simply hyperlinked), isn’t going to be paying attention when he copy and pastes a link in his search bar.
  15. ForteSP

    ForteSP New User

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    Not to mention it will reduce accidental clicks.
  16. Mr. Valentine

    Mr. Valentine New User

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    Unfortunately you're right. It may be an added layer of annoyance, but if some trader is eager enough and reads that a guy is wiling to pay their buy out through a link, then they will still go through with the copy and paste fun. Though I do believe it may cut down on some people being phished out of their items.
  17. Cuttlefish

    Cuttlefish New User

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    Couldn't there be some way to stop the posting of non-Outpost links altogether? Like, literally not be able to post a post with a URL?
  18. TemioMAN

    TemioMAN New User

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    I am just gonna put this out there; to be honest people should not be so dumb as to click on a link offering free steam games.
  19. TemioMAN

    TemioMAN New User

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    I do get what you mean about uprising though, either the hackers are getting smarter or the GP of the steam comm is getting dumber.
  20. Duskfall -a^DF

    Duskfall -a^DF New User

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    That would only be were we living in a world where parents actually taught their children to be careful.... Unfortunately we don't live there.