Bitcoin Forum

Yesterday, Blitzboy (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=757577) posted about a user who had sent 50 merit to a newbie for a post that didn't deserve any merit.  (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5215183.0)
Now, I want to draw your attention to a user who has earned 136 merit while has zero post.

Newbie1273819 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=957009) has received 136 merit from phr0stbyt3 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=52957), JL421 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=42820) and dancingnancy (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=25157).
The merited post has been deleted. Merits have been sent recently, but as the merited post is an old post created before LoyceV started to archive the posts, I couldn't find it using Loyce.club (http://loyce.club/archive/posts/).  

Interesting. All 3 accounts that sent the merits woke up on 27 December 2019 in the evening hours.
The merits were sent between 09:46 and 09:50 PM on that same day.

Looks like some dump merit transactions. Not even look's like merit selling.

Even the newbie account was created on February 15, 2017. Looks more like some experiment.

Very annoying.
This sort of merit abuse cripples the main purpose of the merit system. Imagine if a number of individuals realize that they can abuse merit to such an extent and still get away with it.

I know we are discouraged from tagging such chaps but something has to be done... or at least members can be asked to vote on whether to reverse merit transactions of such cases when discovered.

Another common thing I have found between those three accounts those accounts was created during 2011-2012 maybe the accounts have been hacked and getting involve for negative use that's really strange.

The three sMerit Sender accounts have not gained any merits through their posts, so all their sent sMerit is airdropped. This looks like a (hopefully sparse) case of bough/alt merit abuse, sending some stocked sMerit amount to a new account in order to start building it up from scratch, but without needing to pay attention to merits.

The fact that the post was deleted piles on to this suspicion.

Edit: It Could be related to this off-topic thread:Is it possible to shut down the facebook? (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1913211.0)

The account shows linked to it here (although not the actual deleted post):
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%22Newbie1273819%22&t=h_&ia=web


It did retrieve a result yesterday when I looked into it (albeit the link between the username and the thread was in the search results themselves, not in the retrieved thread). It is not retrieving anything now though.

Is this something like a nuked user?

And the merited post/reply is the same based on the link of the merited post on merit page which either deleted by the user itself or some mod.

If not, probably, a merit abuse or just experiment ┐(￣ヮ￣)┌

I think not only 3 hero accounts woke up and sent merit to the newbie account, but 4 accounts including the newbie also woke up on the same day on December 27, 2019. There wasnt a single post we could find where all the services were sent, but it really pisses me off.

There's no way he will use that account for farming merit, I think this account will be used for merit selling. What do you think guys? by deleting his post he thinks that there will be no way to track him. until OP caught his account. maybe this is their way to hide from the DTs.

I see it as some sort of abuse. If it would have been just an experiment he wouldn't have cared to delete the post(s).
And I tend to believe that a proper account made in 2017 should have quite some posts if it wouldn't be shady / getting its posts deleted more than once.

Maybe the account is getting prepared to be sold?

People are always going to find ways to cheat the system and merit abuse is inevitable, but it's probably quite rare that people do it to this extent, but it's easy to spot when it happens. Sending large amounts of merit always sticks out so abuse is easy to spot, but it's the smaller numbers that fly under the radar.


No. The account isn't nuked so he must have deleted all the posts (unless another staff member did it). Likely trying to hide something but kinda stupid if his intention was to rank up as he's now going to have to post consistently over time to get the activity to rank up to Full Member which is what I'm guessing was his intention.

Probably farming account nor selling merit, and let the merited account sleep until 120 days passed and you can't able to view merit transactions on the profile unless if you are using via bpip by Vod. All accounts who sent merits was stopped posting since the year 2018 and I think they are the same owner.

But unfortunately, I can't find any transactions of merit on Vod bpip. https://bpip.org/profile.aspx?p=Newbie1273819

It's a shame, dear, what has happened lately, as if Merit was just a game and entertainment, was ignored anymore, the real meaning of Merit.

Intimidation, there are thousands of accounts here that contribute and very good and useful posts, but not as lucky as those who get 136 Merit at the same time with very funny posts, really ironic that happened in this forum the last few.

I am very concerned about what happened to the account, if this continues it is likely to make others frustrated with good posts going forward, like a fairy tale before going to sleep.
Somehow, who is wrong and who is right.

In this case what happen to the merited account and those 3 accounts who have merited the newbie with zero post? It is punishable by admin or what they are going to do. I am curious with this since i am a new user of this forum, as i read forum rules good posts are only merited other users.

Interesting.
It is obviously one guy with his alt accounts and merit abuse.

I would like to hear what he has to say about this, from any of his accounts.

I doubt he'd care to respond, knowing it's gonna draw more flak.

That was a very stupid use of merit.

if someone bought those merit then it was a dumb move as he already deleted all his posts.

if an account farmer sent all the merit to his new account then he just ruined his 3 hero member account reputation.

I don't see any other possibilities. looks like all the 4 accounts belong to one person.

I guess that user aware of what theymos said, never tag anyone for merit abuse without clear evidence so he abused and cleared all the evidence. 8)

But not that much smart though since he forgot that these kinds of things will get easily identified, only theymos can say these accounts belongs to same person or not until that tagging will be appropriate for that newbie.

Interesting, i remember the case of this user https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2189580 but he goy banned.
This one is much smarter:

He got merit for old topic/post created before Loyce started to scrape the recent posts.
The posts were quickly deleted, no archives, no cached versions, nothing.
I haven't give up yet but i have a reduced time now... Something i was waiting for almost 9 months is keeping my attention busy... ;l

To get my 21 Merits, I killed 3-5 months on the forum.
I feel that I am bewildered now and my heart is stabbing.

I guess the post was deleted once it was merited and that's why merit transactions have not been recorded by BPIP
Those merit transactions are shown in Loyce.club (http://loyce.club/Merit/history/957009.html).

I don't know why it says No results found for "Newbie1273819".

I doubt this user has abused the merit system.
According to BPIP (https://bpip.org/smerit.aspx?to=anunymint), this user has received 127 merit 57 times, from 32 profiles including some well-known users of the forum.

Well well, beautiful things are happening on Bitcointalk, eg: you can get 136 merits without writing a message  ;D
but not just merit...
DT1, feedback... that's what we mean by "Bitcointalk is dying" >>>> https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5214462.0

A forum where just one particular group wins, one group is right, where the privileged make the law...
Like some ancient British say: "everyone is equal, but British are more equal"
You declared me a scammer, you declared everyone who trusted me a supporter of scams, then those who added them the "supporter of scam supporter"... thus your plan to disenfranchise all the Turks is in play...

you send your lowly hitmen after me for propaganda with drools in his mouth every day

while there is still time, stop all the dissenters and alternative opinions, otherwise this is going to turn into a public uprising, like the French Revolution... V for Vendetta

I call to all excluded and outcast communities and individuals:
Save yourself from "learned helplessness" and REBEL
don't think someone is superior to you, don't let them make you think like that, crush them when they dare to attempt something like that.

Don't kneel to the feet of your enemies; SPIT ON THEIR FACES, otherwise you would lose the respect of your enemy as well as your own self respect.

Why are you feeling bewildered for earning Merits?

Unless I'm missing something.

I think each of us knows the answer to this problem  :D But just with this information, it is not enough for us to confirm that they are connected account  ::) It is really shady, it shows an abuse in the merit system between connected accounts to each other. If this topic has not appeared here yet or the owners of these accounts do not see this topic, perhaps this new account will be used some time later to get the desired rank  ::) An easy way to abuse the merit system and increase ranks, create a new connected account  :D

If anyone wants to monitor this kind of sMerit TXs, you can play around with the parameters on the Merit Dashboard TX Tab (i.e. date range, ranks from/to, board, sMerits sent in the TX).

For example the following shows the list of all sMerit TX greater or equal to 10, sent to Brand New or Beginners since the 01/12/2019 (*): https://public.tableau.com/shared/6SQCZ7QS6?:display_count=y&:origin=viz_share_link

Besides the star case clearly popping-up, there are some genuinely interesting cases of Newbies being merited for seemingly great technical posts, amidst a tenner received for some smashing advise on  How to make a girl fall for you?  (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3376270.msg50916289#msg50916289) (which looks like an addition to the sender’s farm for a back-tracked post) ...

(*) Clicking an item on the list allows you to go to the Sender’s profile, Receiver’s profile or merited post.

What for? You got your merits the way they are meant to be collected. Maybe you didn't get the amount you fell you deserve but you are still doing fine in the post-to-merit count. Just do your thing.

This individual probably cheated. I can't say for sure but the evidence is pointing that way.
It is better to have your 22 earned merits rather than abusing the system and wasting your account when you eventually get caught.

So what are the consequences of those arrested? So far, a lot of abusers have been discovered, but we just sit here and talk. No one is to propose or implement any punishment. And the abusers are still there, they achieve their purpose, no punished, no flagged, nothing.

Lets have some Common sense please as the world is already fucked up enough.

to the op I think someone  tricked you into thinking it was abuse when instead it was a way to stir the pot.

I think the most likely explanation is one that is the simplest - someone used their alt accounts or hacked accounts to rain some merits on an account with no negative feedback so that they can start ranking it, or because it's now probably worth *something* and they could sell it. It is also possible the owner of that account bought merits from someone else.

Some interesting similarity among these 3 account.

Name:   phr0stbyt3                           Name:  JL421                                Name:   dancingnancy           
Merit:   500                                      Merit:   500                                   Merit:   500
Position:   Hero Member                    Position: Hero Member                   Position:   Hero Member
Last Active: December 27, 2019,        Last Active: December 28, 2019,    Last Active:   December 27, 2019,
                 09:46:14 PM                                      09:33:34 AM                                    09:50:43 PM


Local Time : same in each account.

Noteable that, these account are created in different date, the post categories are also different. But I see that, their last post created in 2018. And in 2019-2020 they don't have a single post or deleted.

I guess you mean caught rather than arrested …

There are really not that many cases blatantly caught, and being 100% certain is quite difficult (although one may be 100% suspicious of a given case). Some extreme cases have had their merits countered (this, in my opinion, should be one of those cases), and since merit is not moderated, they do not get banned for it.

Applying negative Trust is pretty controversial. On the one hand, they have very likely cheated the system, and therefore are not really trustworthy. On the other hand, Trust is more of a commercial/scam feature, and whilst these individuals have done something shady, it does not mean that they are going to scam or are even likely scam others. More often than not though, they still get tagged if the case is crystal clear in intent. Smaller cases get away with it, but in the big picture the idea is that they are not representative (and close to impossible to prove lest they self imply).

This case does represent a case example of why airdropped sMerits that have not been used after such a long time may be better done with (that would be my personal preference). But then again, we don’t really see many similar cases.

I'd guess the OP means stopped rather than caught, translating back from neo-latian languages that fits the writing style at least. In this case, I'd assume french or spanish.
stopped = arrêté/detener = arrested. Language lesson over  :)

Maybe you are correct. I edited my post to reflect that.








Does anyone have an archive of this thread.
Ovys posted here and it is gone  it was deleted.  Does anyone have that deletion?