[PSA] Steam Support returning hijacked users multiple copies of high tier items

[polar]

I think it's about time I let people become aware of this. Maybe with some publicity this will get fixed...

 

It will be easiest for me to show you what's going on

 

http://backpack.tf/profiles/76561198020208006?time=1418284800- this was never fixed

http://backpack.tf/profiles/76561198000637572?time=1424246400 - this was fixed

http://backpack.tf/profiles/76561198012611517?time=1425970800 - this was fixed

http://backpack.tf/profiles/76561198129897082- new case

 

If you know of any other similar cases, PLEASE post them so that we can compile a list to send to steam support to look at.

 

These users were hijacked. Steam support restored their items, but not just 1 copy. In case #1, 2 copies of all items were restored. In case #2, 4 (!!!) copies were restored. I won't go into all the details of these cases, and I ask you not to harass these users. But I have now seen 4 such cases in the last month that I feel it is important enough to raise awareness of this issue.

 

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Background:

 

About 1 month ago, I first saw a backpack with triplicate copies of items, including an aussie scattergun and a few other low tier aussies. At the time, I was concerned that a new duping exploit was uncovered. The person in question quickly made his profile private and I was unable to follow up on the situation.

 

Two weeks later, another backpack.tf moderator identified one of the cases above. Given the bp histories, all items were restored at the exact same time, so it looked like this wasn't a duping exploit but rather an issue by steam support. I asked around to admins of various other communities, and one of the admins said he had heard of a similar case in which a particular unusual was duplicated 5 times.

 

Now, this week I see the last case I have shown above.

 

Of note, after the individual's account is restored, there is a 2 week waiting period where no items are tradable. It appears that during that time, 4 of the unusuals that were duplicated were removed, but there still remain duped copies of rare, special keys, buds, max heads, and a few other high value items even though one of the accounts is now well past those 2 weeks and he is free to trade.

 

The second individual's account has not surpassed that 2 week waiting period. So it is unclear what will happen to those duplicated items just yet.

 

You can see, for obvious reasons, what a shit show this would be if every time an account is hijacked, buds, max heads, unusuals get duplicated. It's a serious enough issue that the community needs to be aware.

 

Cheers

 

-Polar

[Explosion-chan]

This could possibly lead to fake hijacking/self hijacking. Maybe a steam support ticket bringing the problem to their notice?

[Пол игрока trade karambite]

Time to get hijacked on purpose?

[jelly jiggler]

Ian regrets not getting hijacked completely now :*)

[thecityburns2day]

imagine this - two collector whoopee caps, both made by me!

[Puddilicious]

We don't know how many times this has happened, but if it's much more common than we are aware of, then this could be contributing to the recent decline in prices of high end TF2 items from buds to aussies.

[cares]

The result of a high latency operation (item restoration) and impatient employees.

 

Or perhaps creating multiple tickets?

[ShadowMan]

4 copies, really? I won't be surprised if dupes will get even more hate now, and, in this time, for a reason.

[Tactical]

Valve plz.

 

 

No but seriously, you should be more patient and careful.

 

Or was this on purpose?

[thecityburns2day]

We don't know how many times this has happened, but if it's much more common than we are aware of, then this could be contributing to the recent decline in prices of high end TF2 items from buds to aussies.

It's probably way more common than we think atm.

 

4 copies, really? I won't be surprised if dupes will get even more hate now, and, in this time, for a reason.

That's not to mention that the current hate is retarded as fuck. The original hate for dupes was that there were so many player made dupes that valve would delete that people feared (some didn't, used it to their advantage) the player made dupes causing you to be out X amount of pure/unusuals/cash

[Fenrir]

http://backpack.tf/profiles/76561198012611517

 

This guy got literally everything in his backpack duplicated 4 times by Steam Support. What Valve?

[Eldric Liaz]

http://backpack.tf/profiles/76561198012611517

 

This guy got literally everything in his backpack duplicated 4 times by Steam Support. What Valve?

Not just 4, some items are 5, some items are 3.  Its kinda inconsistant.  How can they mess up that badly to where items have different amounts of copies among each other?

[Gren]

- snip -

 

Definitely not isolated incidents.  I remember seeing a trade on OP months ago where the user stated that Steam Support for some reason granted him 4 copies of the same hat after he was hijacked.   

[Explosion-chan]

Guess it's time to go get hijacked

[Groovypanda]

Guess Valve can use some pink slips.

 

But in all honesty if this goes around with the same rate as it seems to be, it can ruin the market further to an extent where it would be irrecoverable.

[JCapps]

Does anyone know when these accounts were hijacked?

[Space Jesus]

Wait how do you tell if the item was duped more than once? For some of these items, it looks like an item gets red flagged multiple times if the dupe current ID changes. Adding paint, tags, etc. That might not necessarily mean a ton of dupes, unless bp.tf item history only gives red entries for each dupe?

 

Edit: nvm saw that example with the second link, otherwise I only saw 1 of the items. M'bad. Dude has like 4 of everything, valve plz

[polar]

Does anyone know when these accounts were hijacked?

 

It's really easy to tell. Just look at the bp.tf history. You can tell (1) when they were hijacked, (2) when they recovered their items, and (3) when they were able to start trading again and whether the duped items were still around once they could resume trading.

[Puddilicious]

Does anyone know when these accounts were hijacked?

 

Some time in January of this year is when the earliest hijackings of affected accounts occurred. That's when these multiple dupes from Steam Support began showing up.

 

I wonder if these Steam Support multiple dupes are related to the CAPTCHA / email confirmation change that was made to trading. Both began around the same time.

[♛ AlphaOmega ♛]

I dont really see how raising awareness would fix this "problem". Valve would just keep giving peoples items back after being hijacked. At this point, with so many duped items, we may as well stop caring about dupes if this is the case.

[polar]

I dont really see how raising awareness would fix this "problem". Valve would just keep giving peoples items back after being hijacked. At this point, with so many duped items, we may as well stop caring about dupes if this is the case.

 

Do you not see the problem of suddenly adding 4 buds to the market every time someone got hijacked? Or 4 new aussie scatterguns? Or 4 new max heads? Or 4 new burning tcs?

[Puddilicious]

I dont really see how raising awareness would fix this "problem". Valve would just keep giving peoples items back after being hijacked. At this point, with so many duped items, we may as well stop caring about dupes if this is the case.

 

The issue isn't Valve creating dupes of items. The issue is Valve or rather, Steam Support, creating more than the usual 1 copy of each stolen item when restoring items to the recovered account.

 

For example, instead of Steam Support restoring 1 copy of a Strange Australium Scattergun to an account that lost 1 Strange Australium Scattergun, they restore 2-5 copies of that same Strange Australium Scattergun. All copies have the same level, same Killstreak kit, same Strange Parts, same custom name and description, same Item ID numbers and the same history. They are all dupes of each other. Steam Support has effectively added 2-5 new Strange Australium Scatterguns to the economy that weren't there before. Usually, it would just be 1 new Strange Australium Scattergun added to the economy when they restore just 1 copy like they are supposed to do.

 

1-4 more copies may not make a significant difference, but 10-40 copies would. 100-400 copies would crash the market for Strange Australium Scatterguns.

[Gren]

I dont really see how raising awareness would fix this "problem". Valve would just keep giving peoples items back after being hijacked. At this point, with so many duped items, we may as well stop caring about dupes if this is the case.

 

 

Wouldn't that mean we should start caring about dupes even more?  

[The Recluse]

wow what a terrible situation! Also, the password to my steam account is password12345

[t0night]

http://backpack.tf/profiles/76561198020208006?time=1418284800

 

early december 2014 is the first case i know of.