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Drakey Fenix Mar 10, 2021 @ 10:45am
Why does Steam not have bot protection?
Like the title says, I'm wondering why Steam have no captcha or other protection to prevent bots from using Steam and also the market to gain an upper hand in terms of sales. Adding such a simple feature would solve a lot of bot issues Steam has been facing throughout the years.
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Showing 1-15 of 32 comments
cSg|mc-Hotsauce Mar 10, 2021 @ 10:48am 
They do have a captcha upon account creation. They only issue is, they can be beaten easily.

Report suspected accounts for abusing the Market using automation to manipulate the listings.

:qr:
Last edited by cSg|mc-Hotsauce; Mar 10, 2021 @ 10:49am
#1
Watermelon {JESUS IS LORD} Mar 10, 2021 @ 10:50am 
Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:
They do have a captcha upon account creation. :
#2
Drakey Fenix Mar 10, 2021 @ 10:51am 
Originally posted by huut {JESUS IS LORD}:
Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:
They do have a captcha upon account creation. :
They need it for the market though. Whenever you buy something you should have to fill a captcha to prevent bots from using it.
#3
cSg|mc-Hotsauce Mar 10, 2021 @ 10:54am 
Originally posted by ↯ Drakey Fenix ↯:
Originally posted by huut {JESUS IS LORD}:
They need it for the market though. Whenever you buy something you should have to fill a captcha to prevent bots from using it.

That would not be a good thing. Especially, like me, others have tons of cards and cases we dump at the same time. Having thousands of cases I want to get rid of so I can get a game on sale would mean hours of my life wasted by doing captchas, that don't always work, just to try to get a game.

Captchas will not stop it.

:qr:
#4
Gwarsbane Mar 10, 2021 @ 11:41am 
Originally posted by ↯ Drakey Fenix ↯:
Like the title says, I'm wondering why Steam have no captcha or other protection to prevent bots from using Steam and also the market to gain an upper hand in terms of sales. Adding such a simple feature would solve a lot of bot issues Steam has been facing throughout the years.

Here is a fun fact....

A while back before Valve brought in t 5 dollar for full account thing to help block spam invite bot accounts, Valve tried a number of things.... and one of them was CAPTCHAs.
After a few hours of it first going live, the bots were flying through the CAPTCHAs, the humans however were suffering though it. This lasted a week before they turned it off and went with put 5 dollars on the account.

Its actually the only thing that has worked against bots... why? Because anything a human can do on a forums a bot can be programmed to do.

5 dollars was used because Steam is a store and they expect people to buy stuff here, so its not like you are losing anything.

But this doesn't stop people from using bots on stolen account... If Valve put CAPTCHAs on the market stuff, guess who it would actually stop/slow down? Humans, bots would be blasting though it in hours if that.

So no your idea of using CAPTCHAs will not work, but they don't actually stop bots.
#5
Judgmental Amaterasu Mar 10, 2021 @ 4:46pm 
Thinking capcha's work.
#6
Drakey Fenix Mar 10, 2021 @ 4:51pm 
Originally posted by Fiddle:
Thinking capcha's work.
If it didn't work, a lot of websites wouldn't use it. It's there for a reason. Bots might be able to learn how to pass it but that doesn't mean there is no point in having it there. Just giving up isn't right either. The bot infestation has to stop.
#7
cinedine Mar 10, 2021 @ 4:52pm 
Originally posted by Fiddle:
Thinking capcha's work.

They do. If you aim is to driver testers insane and users away.
#8
Drakey Fenix Mar 10, 2021 @ 4:54pm 
Originally posted by cinedine:
Originally posted by Fiddle:
Thinking capcha's work.

They do. If you aim is to driver testers insane and users away.
I mean if you stop using a platform just because it has a simple thing like captcha then maybe the issue lays on you and not the platform.
#9
Wolf Knight Mar 10, 2021 @ 4:56pm 
Originally posted by ↯ Drakey Fenix ↯:
Originally posted by Fiddle:
Thinking capcha's work.
If it didn't work, a lot of websites wouldn't use it. It's there for a reason. Bots might be able to learn how to pass it but that doesn't mean there is no point in having it there. Just giving up isn't right either. The bot infestation has to stop.
then figure out a way to stop them with out stopping the humans. IP bans dont work yet there are people that still use them. just because people still use it does not mean it works.
#10
Drakey Fenix Mar 10, 2021 @ 5:01pm 
Originally posted by Wolf Knight:
Originally posted by ↯ Drakey Fenix ↯:
If it didn't work, a lot of websites wouldn't use it. It's there for a reason. Bots might be able to learn how to pass it but that doesn't mean there is no point in having it there. Just giving up isn't right either. The bot infestation has to stop.
then figure out a way to stop them with out stopping the humans. IP bans dont work yet there are people that still use them. just because people still use it does not mean it works.
It's not up to me to solve it, and even if i did come up with a solution it's very unlikely Valve would listen and implement said feature. I just think that giving up to such a widespread problem isn't the right way to go. The entire steam market is dominated by bots buying and selling stuff at a profit and it has to stop.
#11
Wolf Knight Mar 10, 2021 @ 5:07pm 
who said steam gave up on fighting the bot problem? you are the one making that claim, not us. you are the one that thinks a system that does not work will stop bots. If you want to stop the bots, fix the users so they stop giving away their account log ins, that will deal with some of the bot problems.
#12
Spawn of Totoro Mar 10, 2021 @ 5:07pm 
How are bots getting an upper hand on the market?

Valve already has measures against bots in many places on Steam.
Last edited by Spawn of Totoro; Mar 10, 2021 @ 5:09pm
#13
Drakey Fenix Mar 10, 2021 @ 5:15pm 
Originally posted by Spawn of Totoro:
How are bots getting an upper hand on the market?
They are constantly refreshing the page on said item of choice they want to make profit on, and then as soon as someone sells it for just slightly under the normal price, it buys that item and then immediately puts it up for sale for a higher price, earning the user a little profit, and over time that adds up. I'm not talking about buy orders. I have noticed this myself and so have others by testing to put up stuff for sale and as soon as the item goes up for sale it has already been bought within a second.
#14
Spawn of Totoro Mar 10, 2021 @ 5:22pm 
Originally posted by ↯ Drakey Fenix ↯:
Originally posted by Spawn of Totoro:
How are bots getting an upper hand on the market?
They are constantly refreshing the page on said item of choice they want to make profit on, and then as soon as someone sells it for just slightly under the normal price, it buys that item and then immediately puts it up for sale for a higher price, earning the user a little profit, and over time that adds up. I'm not talking about buy orders. I have noticed this myself and so have others by testing to put up stuff for sale and as soon as the item goes up for sale it has already been bought within a second.

Could still be buy orders.

I also don't see the issue as the original seller got what they wanted for the item.

Also doesn't make sense for bots to do that with slightly under the "normal" price as they lose money in the process, due to the cut that is taken.

Isn't there a 7 day cooldown on market purchases that prevents the item from instantly being resold?
Last edited by Spawn of Totoro; Mar 10, 2021 @ 5:24pm
#15
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Date Posted: Mar 10, 2021 @ 10:45am
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