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The original was posted on /r/dota2 by /u/No-Celebration8286 on 2025-08-18 23:29:03+00:00.
Hi Dota reddit,
Not many people know this, but back in April there were rumors coming from China about an exploit on Steam that allows users to duplicate items. The biggest chinese traders all say that a small group in China, consisting of only a few people, has been abusing it on a large-scale, making hundreds ultra-rare items, possibly thousands of much cheaper items. This information is well-known among dota traders and collectors, but very few people outside that small circle are aware of it.
People are still buying these items without realizing not only that they are buying dupes - which is risky since Valve could revert them if they crack down - but also that they’re buying items that are steadily losing value.
First known occurrence once the issue gained traction:
Was posted on r/Dota2 by a user weigq18 on June 11 2025
Someone put 43 Ionic Vapor gems on sale in 1 bundle, which is highly unusual and suspicious. To get just 1 Ionic Vapor gem, you have to completely break an Unusual Platinum Baby Roshan, which costs around ~$1800 per gem and removes a PBR from circulation. That means this person would have had to break at least ~$80,000 worth of PBRs.
At the same time, bugged wearable items (such as ones that make your hero permanently burn) started appearing for sale in private from Chinese traders with Ionic Vapor gems inside. While not unheard of, it’s extremely rare, and suddenly a whole bundle of them appeared at once.
These duplicated bugged items were then primarily sold privately to pro players and collectors for $10,000–$25,000 each, slowly and quietly, to avoid drawing attention. They weren’t listed on Chinese trading sites or Steam itself, since that would have made it obvious that such a supply spike couldn’t be natural. Normally, low-tier bugged items are available at any time for around $1500-$2000, like the Abaddon or Nature’s Prophet ones seen in pro matches now, but if you wanted high-tier bugged items such as QOP, Shaker, Elder Titan, Ember Spirit etc., you’d need to approach a collector since there could only be like 2 or 3 items in the world for this hero - and collectors basically never sell, even for a much bigger profit than they initially acquired it for. Yet here they were being offered en masse in private, 10, 20, 30 items in the span of few days.
Example of bugged item with TOBD gem inside
One page of the inventory of a known exploiter. The cost of this page alone with a normal price before duping became public is around $150.000-$200.000.
What people tried to do:
Around April 2025, when the first rumors appeared, some people reported the exploit to Steam support. Nothing happened. The same accounts are still duplicating items today.
A Valve employee was even directly notified through mutual contacts. They said they would look into it, and soon after people started spreading the word that it had been fixed. But clearly, nothing was done - or maybe something was fixed temporarily, but the exploiters found a workaround. Either way, the accounts were never restricted.
Recently I personally made a few tickets with all the evidence, and was told that they transferred the information to Dota 2 development team, but I’m afraid without more traction this issue could be forgotten and exploiters will continue making money and the problem will spread further tanking the steam items economy.
Other rumors about the exploit:
Chinese traders and collectors claim that the exploit can even remove trade restrictions from items. Supposedly, when an original item has no trade ban, it stays that way after being duplicated. Some even say they can generate completely new items out of thin air without a trade ban for days at a time. This part is still just a rumor, but if true, it would allow scammers to withdraw items from other people’s inventories instantly.
What’s happening now:
In August 2025, a flood of items that were once almost impossible to get suddenly started showing up for much lower prices than usual. Many were offered privately. Items once thought to exist in quantities of only 1–3 now show up in 10+ different public inventories.
There are rumors that one of the exploiters split from his partner, took some of the items, and started selling them for profit. The other, out of spite, began undercutting him by dumping the items he had, which collapsed their market value. Now they’re no longer quietly selling to pros and collectors - they’re trying to cash out as much as possible.
As a result, items that were selling for $10,000–$25,000 are now going for ~$4000 or less. Yet some buyers are still paying full price without realizing.
Why this matters for the Steam items economy:
This isn’t just about ultra-rare $10,000+ items. The exploit has been confirmed to affect:
- Roshans and other rare and semi-rare couriers.
- Bugged items with ethereal gem inside.
- Ethereal Gems themselves.
- Arcanas, Crimsons, other items - because they can sell FAST and have big liquidity. Exploiters can make even more money selling these instead.
- Possibly CS2 items as well? - but probably not being used because the community is tens of times bigger for CS2 items and there are many tools to track duplicates, or the float can be changed too when duplicating and it is used, but on a much smaller scale.
For regular or semi-rare items, one suspected exploiter who was selling bugged Dota 2 items below market price currently has: 28 PA Arcanas, 12 Juggernaut Arcanas, around 15 other arcanas and a bunch of crimsons for sale, also he probably already sold tens/hundreads more only from this one account.
These people use dozens of accounts with different usernames, Steam profiles, and pictures. They almost never play Dota, just idle hours with software. Their accounts look off compared to normal players, traders, or collectors. Yet they share obvious similarities: same writing quirks, same emojis, same spacing, same behaviors. Many even received bans in other games on the same day, linking them together for sure.
I can’t post the Steam profiles of known dupers (subreddit rules), so I won’t. But if someone from Valve is reading this - you can find my support ticket by searching keywords. All the evidence is there, and it shouldn’t be hard to track supply spikes or item movements using internal tools.
Any help spreading the word is appreciated.
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