Sudden influx of pointless random friend adds...

Hi everyone,

I'm not a hardcore trader by any means, but have bought my share of unusuals, keys, buds etc over the past year or so and SteamRep has always been a valuable tool for me, so lacking any other ideas of where to post this question, I decided here would be a good place to start.

That said, I am not even sure what exactly it is I am posting about... it's basically just a series of odd events that's been occurring recently, and it's starting to make me paranoid. Here's what's happening: over the past few weeks, I seem to be getting on average one or two random friend requests per week. Now, random adds aren't anything out of the ordinary, as I might have a trade up on Outpost selling extra weapons or crates or whatever, and those are fine. The friend requests I am talking about now are very different, but they always end up the same exact way. I'll accept the request and say something generic like "hello", or "how can i help you?" or whatever. Then, one of two things will happen - they will either say something like "hi" and immediately remove me from their friends list, or just straight out remove me without saying anything. Very strange.

When it first happened, I just figured it was a simple mistake, either they added the wrong person or decided at the last minute they didn't want to trade, etc, so I thought nothing of it. But it very soon became a pattern... consistently, I have been getting 1 or 2 of these a week now for the past few weeks, sometimes more, and it's the same exact thing every time - they add me, they do/say nothing, and they remove me 1 minute later. I am in the habit of checking people's SteamRep page when I get random adds, but none of these accounts have specifically been marked as scammers (although some have had scammers listed in their friends list), so I always decided to accept the requests to see what they wanted. Now, me being a TF2 collector with quite a few valuable items, and with the rash of account hacking going around lately, it didn't take long before I started getting paranoid. The thing is, I'm just not sure what it is I am apprehensive about... after all, what could possibly be the endgame of people randomly adding me and removing me? It doesn't make sense. That said, I never underestimate the ingenuity of people who are dead set on trying to hack or scam someone. So perhaps this is just the precursor to some other plan... or maybe it is really nothing, and no more than a coincidence. I just don't know.

Regardless, on the chance that this might be something even remotely sinister, I at least wanted to bring it to the attention of you guys. I wonder, have any of you had this happen? Is it common? Sadly, I never thought to actually document these strange encounters until today, when it happened yet again (twice actually). From now on though, I plan to screenshot every time this happens. Why, I'm still not sure... but better safe than sorry.

Thoughts?

Happens sometimes because they add a bunch of people and trade the first one to respond. Or they forgot what they added you for. At least that's my experience. I get quite a few adds a day, and at least one ends up like this.

I suggested a add filter function to my friend at VALVe, it's on the to-do list.

When? VALVe TIME.

Iget a bunch of invite, currently i have 40.
Most of the time it's end as


- I added you because you seemed cool ---> Then they stupidly ask for free games, and when i say no they say "But you have 900 games and you seems rich so you should be able to".
- Do you have something to trade?, then they ask to say EVERY single items because they tell they hate looking on backpack website.
- They ask for trade but they seems ignore when i post on Steam trade forum i ask to post offer and not adding randomly.
- Etc
- We're doomed.


And for the groups, bunch of them are just bot that spam send invite. I do report them when i get too much invite, they mostly disable steam community on the offensive steam account but also they have a way (which i won't tell how) that liunk your main account to all your alt WITHOUT working with IP.

I saw some add that delete me right away.
Feel free to send me in PM link of their SteamID64 of those who add and delete right away, don't post them here since they don't need to be falsely accused just in case.


If they are getting abusive, feel free to report them using report violation function on their profile too.

A couple could simply be they liked what you were trading and wanted to trade you then went with another trade. I know a couple times I have added someone to my friend list wanting to buy their item then I find a better price or decide I dont really want it. THough with the length of my list, i forget who i added sometimes and admittedly am lazy to sort through it.

Though there could be a chance that the bots are practicing adding people for future ads or scams. I just hope we can do something about these people inviting everyone to their spamerific group. I'm not sure they can be listed as scammers, what about spammers? Id how'd that work though, just they're annoying.

Random ads in the Paranoid world:
- To lurk in your friendslist and wait till a time they can impersonate somebody you have in friends or phishing etc. Simple resolution: remove ppl after you had your chat with them. Oh, and make sure its actual removal, not "going offline" by blocking you temp or exit their Steam client.
- To get your IP, so they may target you directly with hacking. Solution: Dont use steam voice, not even "cancel call" button.
- They want to gain credibility by having trusted persons in their friendslist.
- They are stalking you.

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In general I have the habit of removing people right after I had my chat, unless I think I have business with them later on, or are a valuable addition.

The people I keep on my friends list:
Real life friends
Admins
People I deal with on a daily basis

Anyone else is just taking up space. That being said I've hit 300 again. I wish they would increase the max.

Thanks for the replies everyone. I have thought about all of the things SilentReaper mentions above. The possibility of them being bots has also crossed my mind as well. I also always check to make sure they actually removed me and did not just go offline. For the most part, I only keep actual 'friends' (you know what I mean) on my friends list. It is pretty clean. So I think I am good on that front. I guess I will just remain vigilant and hope it's nothing to be concerned about. I'd hate to have to just ignore all random adds, because I do get some for legitimate trades (people wanting a particular craft # hat I have, etc). Anyways, thanks again. If any new developments occur, I'll report back.

bots can invite you to groups without being friends, no need to worry bout that much I think