Exposing an Exploiter who mass duplicated a bunch of Genuine Horaces and made over 6000$

[lewkree]

This guy https://backpack.tf/profiles/76561199172735112 exploited hundreds of genuine horaces and sold them for dirt cheap. I'm just making this post to spread awareness in the hopes that he gets trade banned. If you don't believe me, just check the backpack.tf page for the genuine horace and you can see that the number that exists skyrocketed in the past few days. If you check the guys backpack history and do some comparisons with the hats being sold on the market, it will be very evident what's going on. Please just -rep this guy and hopefully justice is served, I have sent a bug report to steam so hopefully valve takes action, but I wouldn't say I'm very confident in that. If you want to see more details just look at my negative rating on his profile. https://backpack.tf/trust/76561199172735112

 

 

I know the title of this thread looks a little bit like a witch hunt, but this is very VERY scary for the economy. If this guy found an exploit that just allows him to mass exploit this hat into the game for free, he literally would have an infinite source of currency, which would absolutely destroy the value of refined and keys as we know it.

[gege hates anime]

https://backpack.tf/trust/76561199172735112 fake trusts. def shady. 

[Vebster]

Also -trusting people from his alts if you leave him -trust.
https://backpack.tf/trust/76561198276738225
https://backpack.tf/trust/76561198200420351

[g52d]

Maybe you show me any proof where im exploiting? im not will be banned for legal terms and clean items bruh

[duskfen]

16 minutes ago, g52d said:

Maybe you show me any proof where im exploiting? im not will be banned for legal terms and clean items bruh

sus! 

[TraceofCakes]

Shouldn't you just report the profile and not make a witch hunt thread?

I swear, threads like this crop up about once a week. Just make a report, and if it's genuinely bannable, the mods will take care of the rest.

[Soju]

What should I do with mine? Sell now because price is dropping fast? Save it/Buy up more and hope the duped ones get deleted? Gamble with it? So many choices... 

[hooters]

https://backpack.tf/profiles/76561199172735112?time=1631318400

damn how do i get me that many

[Zodiak]

oh boi here we go again

[lewkree]

1 hour ago, TraceofCakes said:

Shouldn't you just report the profile and not make a witch hunt thread?

I swear, threads like this crop up about once a week. Just make a report, and if it's genuinely bannable, the mods will take care of the rest.

The reason why I'm making a thread is because in the past, these item exploiters in general have gotten THOUSANDS of accounts banned. This isn't a witch hunt thread at all, I'm spreading this information so that people who actually bought items from this guy realize that their account could be in jeopardy, especially since this is something completely new to the trading community whatever the exploit is. Even people who buy these items like 3rd hand might get fucked over, valve doesn't give a flying fuck about your accounts, they care about dealing with the exploit while impacting the economy as little as possible.

[Relic]

Why Horace's tho? Not a very interesting (or expensive) item, if it were to be for solely financial gain, why not do Max heads or something else more valuable? 

[Slam]

1 minute ago, Relic said:

Why Horace's tho? Not a very interesting (or expensive) item, if it were to be for solely financial gain, why not do Max heads or something else more valuable? 

 

It's a genuine item you can still get via the Rock Paper Shotgun club thing, right? I'm assuming this guy found a way to generate a fuck ton of duplicate codes for the item off RPS or whatever, that'd be my best guess.

[Foxy Grandpa]

It's not a dupe exploit. Some how he's getting access to accounts on the promotion's website and creating new horraces with the codes. Either that or the promotion key is guessable. 

Similar thing was done with Max heads

[lewkree]

7 minutes ago, Foxy Grandpa said:

It's not a dupe exploit. Some how he's getting access to accounts on the promotion's website and creating new horraces with the codes. Either that or the promotion key is guessable. 

Similar thing was done with Max heads

I never said it was a dupe exploit, however its still an exploit. I mean no matter how you look at it, he's still flooding the market with a ridiculous amount of the preexisting hats which hurts anyone who bought these items, as well as people who own the ones that were legitimately earned.

[Nickman]

Does anyone know the details around the Horace promotion? It looks like when the promo first stated the minimum time frame was a 6 month subscription at $25. Now you can be a supporter for $4.99 a month. I'm not sure if one month grants you the Horace though.

 

If you only need to pay for one month to get the Horace it's possible he just took advantage of the fact that a single month subscription costs a less than the Horace and signed up for a bunch of accounts.

[Seminal Inhalation]

2 hours ago, g52d said:

Maybe you show me any proof where im exploiting? im not will be banned for legal terms and clean items bruh

Making fake -trusts is bannable.
Trusting on alts is bannable too.

[Seminal Inhalation]

16 minutes ago, Nickman said:

Does anyone know the details around the Horace promotion? It looks like when the promo first stated the minimum time frame was a 6 month subscription at $25. Now you can be a supporter for $4.99 a month. I'm not sure if one month grants you the Horace though.

 

If you only need to pay for one month to get the Horace it's possible he just took advantage of the fact that a single month subscription costs a less than the Horace and signed up for a bunch of accounts.

Looking at the website, it looks like it is still obtainable so this is a possibility.

[Nickman]

3 minutes ago, Seminal Inhalation said:

Looking at the website, it looks like it is still obtainable so this is a possibility.

 

Looking at their supporter program again (on desktop this time), this seems less likely than I originally thought. If I'm reading things correctly it looks like in order to access the promo items you would need to pay for the premium supporter tier, which is $8.99 a month. A whole lot less profitable assuming you could get it at only one month.

[Seminal Inhalation]

1 minute ago, Nickman said:

 

Looking at their supporter program again (on desktop this time), this seems less likely than I originally thought. If I'm reading things correctly it looks like in order to access the promo items you would need to pay for the premium supporter tier, which is $8.99 a month. A whole lot less profitable assuming you could get it at only one month.

Yeah so he's either dumb and counted wrong when buying the subs, or he is exploiting. All those new horaces originate from him if you look at the id's for each one.

[Shelley Duvall]

 

was discussing it with a friend and this could be a likely possibility too. Pretty sure credit card fraud would still be bannable.

[Nickman]

Just now, Shelley Duvall said:

was discussing it with a friend and this could be a likely possibility too. Pretty sure credit card fraud would still be bannable.

 

That was my next guess if not an exploit with how keys are distributed. No way for anyone outside of Rock Paper Shotgun to prove that though.

[roygbiv]

you can get still get horace from rps for 7.99 under premium subscription. Its value is somehow a bit more on market and bots pay more than that. Legitimately you could be making hundreds of accounts to sell for 1-2 bucks more on here especially a couple days ago. 

[Flaim]

1 hour ago, lewkree said:

I never said it was a dupe exploit, however its still an exploit.

 

 

hmmm...

[lewkree]

7 minutes ago, FLAIMBOT_ said:

 

 

hmmm...

You got me there, but still, it's as bad as exploiting the items into the game, you still are flooding the market with items that shouldn't be in the game. So the wording really isn't what's important but I apologize for any confusion with that.

[Flaim]

Just now, lewkree said:

You got me there, but still, it's as bad as exploiting the items into the game, you still are flooding the market with items that shouldn't be in the game. So the wording really isn't what's important but I apologize for any confusion with that. 

 

Meh. If he found a way to abuse the system that has been in place for years.. power to him imo. If the demand is there for Horace's, and he filled it... awesome.

 

If someone is genuinely concerned about the economical repercussions of investing into a $12-15 TF2 item, they should be checking every statistic that's available, including the amount of Horace's that exist. My guess is that most of the people that bought a Horace from him want it because 1. It's a cute hat, or 2. They're an insta-trade bot that has already made hundreds or thousands of dollars upselling items on backpack.tf. Neither of those parties should be very devastated by the idea that maybe they bought a Horace that was created with a loophole of some sort.

 

Who decides what should and "shouldn't be in the game"?

 

Not saying this guy's completely innocent at all. Maybe he did maliciously abuse a bug. And if those reps he had were faked/left by alts, that's bad too.

But as far as flooding the market with newly created Horaces, I think it's fine honestly.