It’s “not just” about the identity of the individual controlling this account.  But that’s the biggest question—and the one which was supposed to have been disposed authoritatively with IP evidence!

It’s also a threshold question.

If there exists such a person as Alia and she has been telling the truth about that, there is a huge difference in the case between that and it all just being one big long-con lie from start to finish.

If there does not exist such a person as Alia, and if “alia” = “favours”, then there are no remaining questions worth asking.

Alia claims to know Dave from Wallet Recovery Services in real life.


At the time, I took an archive of the whole thread because a wallet recovery scammer tried to rope Alia in.  I asked her privately for her Skype log.  She did not seem interested in pursuing the matter.

https://web.archive.org/web/20180218040114/https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2969896.0

Alia, if you’re legit, I just saved you.  If not, well—I probably closed the case.

I will ping Dave.

Welcome to $YEAR.  Don’t get me started.

Ah.  Correct hermeneutical reading of this text should be settled by the fact that the words “just yesterday, in public” were hyperlinked to the post whereby I made first contact in full public view of the whole forum.  That post was an open letter to Alia.  The next post in the thread was Alia’s reply to it.  To set this now in virtual stone:
https://web.archive.org/web/20180228021905/https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2846629.msg30424698#msg30424698

First rule of scam detecting:  Get the evidence.  Seriously, “did not feel like” clicking on a hyperlink?

Now, I see roughly four remaining divergent issues in this thread:

• The control of accounts #1764044 “alia” and #974658 “favours”.  IP evidence is damning, but has been challenged.  Outweighing IP evidence would be a hefty task, and quite a surprise to most people here.  theymos’ suggestion would fully settle the matter, if it were to actually occur.
• The propriety of offering for sale of gambling scripts and of claims made about them.  As I’ve said, I lack sufficient knowledge to make a judgment there—but I do trust RGBKey’s technical judgment.
• Involvement by aTriz with the preceding item.  This looks to me like a case of technical ignorance.  It seems more an accusation that aTriz got scammed than that he scammed anybody.  Obviously, this point hinges entirely on the preceding.
• Some vague claim that aTriz did wrong with that 3-year contract.  I have not seen a precise accusation specified, let alone supported by evidence.

I hope that helps avoid conflation of issues and sort out remaining factual questions.  I repeat again to all parties:  My sole concern is the truth.  I am zealous about that.

I see where this is going:  After you “look” for awhile, you will accuse me of editing or deleting this mysterious post.  Am I right?

(Funny, it is, how a purported “scam_detector” who evidently upthread knows how to use archive services purports to have found such a damning post, yet did not take an immediate snapshot and keep it handy...)

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Edit:  I myself have been uncharacteristically slack with archives here.  Snapshot right after posting the above:
https://web.archive.org/web/20180228020133/https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3032057.0;all

I will start doing these semi-regularly.  Everybody, please do not make unmarked substantive edits to your posts here.  Thanks.

It is you who is distracting from the actual topic.  You are dispoiling a scam investigation, not performing one.

Put up or shut up:

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Yes, it’s (in large part) about me.  My original instinct in that regard is borne out by the evidence of you telling bald-faced lies about me.

I know that OP is a liar.  I know that, because I have first-hand knowledge that I have never met you and never claimed to.

My questions are about you.

I have been lurking quietly whilst waiting to see if Alia would send me a PM.  I expressed my such intents to several people, including theymos.

This has not occurred; and I can no longer sit this out when issues are being deliberately confused by certain persons.  OP is a liar, and I have first-hand knowledge that #1887512 “scam_detector” is maliciously stating false and incorrect information:


It was clear to me from the first that this thread was a troll attack on me and on certain persons associated with me.  I gave it zero credibility until RGBKey, Joel_Jantsen, and ibminer put me on alert.  Whether a troll got lucky, or something else is going on here, I do not know.

I have more to say about new developments since my last post.  Will do.  Immediately, I must make a few things clear for the record:

• I am a pseudonymous user.  I connect to this forum through Tor; and I am quite careful about my identity.  Nobody on this forum (except me) has any idea whatsoever of my age, the continent on which I am physically situate, etc.  To suggest that I publicly discussed meeting another user IRL is preposterous.  If you wish to call me a liar:  Put up or shut up.  Cough up a link to the post.
• The attacks on aTriz’s signature campaign contract are clearly spurious.  aTriz saw a rising-star user account, made a business decision, and locked in a contract.  I don’t see what’s so difficult to understand about that.  I also don’t see any evidence that it occurred otherwise.
• I see that Alia immediately latched onto (at least) three points which I stated in my prior posts:  Care in determining innocence versus guilt, avoidance of a lynch mob (as to which I had linked a djb essay), and my off-the-cuff “little brother” hypothesis.  This would occur either in case of total innocence (and some astonishing coincidences), or total guilt.  theymos has suggested what I believe to be adequate means for the person controlling account #1764044 to adequately demonstrate that an Alia exists, is a 19-year-old girl, and has a 15-year-old brother.  In the absence of that demonstration being made, I will book bets⁰ on 1000000:1 odds that the IP evidence is conclusive.  Stranger things have happened, but—oh so very rarely.  Curiously enough, an innocent person would also understand how bad this looks.

For one thing I take responsibility:  I quite deliberately did what I could to bring another account instant fame and a rather high-level circle of admirers.  My first, last, and only concern is the truth here.  It is clear to me that somebody is opportunistically mud-slinging with lies and distorted half-truths amidst a very serious investigation.  That is distracting from the focus on aforestated first, last, and only concern.

Note:  I do not here reach the issues about the gambling script because frankly, I do not understand enough gambling.  Having interacted with RGBKey in Dev & Tech, I trust his technical correctness, and will defer to that.

(I will make a follow-up post with some interesting questions...)

---

P.S., quick question:  Alia, you have repeatedly said “scam_detector” = “mdayonliner”.  Why?  On what evidence?

---

0. For the record, this is a rhetorical flourish amidst all the gambling discussion.  I am not actually booking bets on this.

Thank you, theymos.


I only took it as one; I understand the concept of a neutral rating.  I understood it to mean exactly this:


Thus, no chance it was a 15-year-old boy doing a “pull & tuck” as someone else alleged upthread.  I will continue to rely on /r/GirlsGoneBitcoin verification procedures for exactly what they promise.  If somebody with malicious intent will go to the extent of hiring another party to do the verification and the camshows, then that is well beyond the threat model which I understand your verification procedures to protect against.

I appreciate your setting the record straight here.

---

Whomever-I-was-writing-to told me a story about some alleged privacy breach.  It did not fully make sense to me; but he/she/it gave me few details, and did it in such a manner that I could not pry without coming off as invading privacy myself.

The gist (also stated in public threads I could dig up) was something about needing the username to not be searchable (i.e. someone IRL had found alia_armelle, and Google would lead to naked pics).

What story did he/she/it tell you?


I presumed you did not, in this case; and I was offended by a user who suggested that it happened because alia “sucked theymos dick [sic]”.  [Edit: Post apparently deleted by user, but preserved in another user’s quote.  Edit:  And also in this archive link.]

---

That makes three of us.  From the “naked gambling” thread:

Actually, you are more than questioning theymos’ reliability:  You are directly impugning it.  I and many others rely on this as sterling information:


<edit>theymos has removed that neutral tag.  I would appreciate some public information as to why.  theymos has explained.  I will continue to rely on his verification procedure.</edit>

If a 15-year-old boy could fool theymos with a pull and tuck, then the “verification” procedure is pretty much useless.

Note:  I am not a customer of such online services; and as I said in my open letter to Alia, I’m not her customer, either.  I don’t get a hot head for such things.  (You can tell by the fact that I haven’t bothered pushing to get her on camera, when I’ve apparently had free access to.)  Also, I have been around this Internet thing for awhile; and I long ago developed a rule that “anybody who claims to be a sexy girl is a 200 kg. male nerd, unless strong evidence says otherwise.”  theymos’ vouch counts as “strong evidence” in my book; I trust him—not only his intentions, but his judgment.  What you are telling me is that my trust is misplaced.

The above image represents the only substantial evidence I have of Alia’s identity, age, or sex.


Out of respect for private communications, I will not publicly reveal what she told me about this unless a scam accusation is already clearly proved.  However, I will say that what she told me sounded plausible—at least, enough so to not arouse any suspicions on my part.

I have clipped the quote tightly here, because I have no knowledge about what else you’re saying; and I need to investigate before I say anything about it.  N.b., as I said in the “naked gambling” thread, I am (or was) a “gambling virgin”.  I don’t know any of these sites, or any of the characters involved.  The 0.01 BTC I bet with Alia was the only money I’ve gambled in my life, other than one low-value coin I tossed into a slot machine in my youth so that I could claim to have “gambled” in a casino.  I have never tried a gambling site, and I know substantially nothing about them.

Alia said relatively little to me about this.  Slightly more than she said in public, about some ostensible privacy issue.  I presume she must have told theymos much more—and told him something deeply plausible—if he agreed to a free change of username.


You are directly questioning theymos’ own reliability—actually, worse than questioning it.  Many (including myself) do rely on him here; and I’d expect he would have a response for what you’re saying.  @theymos?

(At this point, I’m not sure whether I should be glad that I have not gotten Alia on camera, or sorry that I have not had the chance to assess the matter myself.  It would be quite difficult to fool me.)

What about all Alia’s customers?  Do any of your scenarios fool both theymos and customers on an ongoing basis about the sex of the person?


I dislike speculating about such things, especially in public.  But if I try to think of a plausible “why”, the first thing which comes to mind is, “Little brother got jealous of big sis doing that Bitcoin thing, wanted his own exchange account, needed to be 18+, had easy access to her identity docs for alteration.”

I gambled with Alia.  She did not tell me the name of the site, and I didn’t ask.  —  Edit:  I recall her having said explicitly in that thread that she would not reveal the name of the site, in order to prevent her method from becoming “saturated”.  I will look for that post when I have a moment; or somebody else can find it.

Anybody who has read my red tags can see that I exercise a high standard of care in accusing and judging people.  I don’t shoot from the hip.  I am also extraordinarily conservative in choosing whom I trust—you will note that I did not leave Alia positive trust feedback (only neutral), although she did carry through in exemplary fashion when I risked 0.01 BTC with her.  That’s nothing against her—I just don’t yet know her well enough give her a green mark.

In the face of an extremely serious accusation by a credible person (ibminer), I shall neither jerk my knee to automatically defend someone I barely know, nor throw her under the bus.  I will seek the evidence, and address the matter fairly.  I’ve written before here about standards of evidence.  I intend to apply those here.  You will note, I am not saying anything I haven’t said before.

Whereupon:

• I am seeking further information linking the Reddit account “revcback” to #1764044 “alia” on this forum.  In particular, any evidence indicating that the individual controlling the Reddit “recvback” account is or was the same individual as is currently controlling the “alia” account on this forum.  I am also seeking evidence contradicting the link; and as I just noted, this seems quite contradictory:
  
  
  Quote from: nullius on February 27, 2018, 07:41:34 PM
  https://web.archive.org/web/20180227193817/https://www.reddit.com/r/omad/comments/7pw6dm/failed_day_1/dskg039/
  
  

  Quote from: revcback

  I have never counted calories :(
  
  This morning I had cereal with milk, approx. two or three handfuls. A pretty moderately sized bowl. Do you think that's enough "calories" for the day? How many calories do I actually need? (I'm a 15 year old 105kg male)
  

  
  Setting aside the age issue for a moment:  I find it wildly implausible that a 15-year-old boy could fool theymos’ /r/GirlsGoneBitcoin verification procedure.  theymos has a bit of experience with this, you know; and he’s not stupid.
  
• I have interacted with Alia only through the forum’s PM system.  In particular, I have neither seen her on camera, nor heard her voice.  (I don’t do Skype; she has not yet taken up my suggestion to try Tox.)  The only image I have seen of her is something she posted to imgur, and linked in one of her early threads.  Thus, I don’t have any direct visual information by which I could try to gauge her age for myself.
• In private communication, Alia told me information which would be fully consistent with what she has said publicly about identity.  Her private statements to me were credible on their face, although I have nothing to corroborate them.  I am fairly adept at catching inconsistencies; however, this is not conclusive in and of itself.
• A response is needed from Alia.  As somebody who has a bit of experience levelling serious accusations against someone in real life, I have learned to always see what someone facing a serious accusation has to say for himself (or herself, as the case may be).  The guilty tend to bury themselves with their own words.  The innocent deserve a chance at a fair hearing.  Alia is here accused of outright criminal activity; and I intend to see what she has to say for herself before I make up my mind about this.  Most of all, I will not try her with a lynch-mob mentality.
  
  Of course, if she’s guilty, then I will personally boil her in oil on this forum.  But the evidence thus far is not only inconclusive, but contradictory; and if she is innocent, then I will be someone who was fair to her.
• As a totally separate matter, the troll libels against aTriz would be comically absurd if they weren’t so outrageous.  Either Alia did nothing wrong, or Alia did something wrong without aTriz’s knowledge or involvement.  Nobody has presented any evidence raising even a scintilla of suspicion that matters could be otherwise.

In closing, I will note:  The reason you may rely on the red-tags I’ve been issuing is that I am careful everywhere.  Naturally, I am proportionately more careful for more serious charges; and this is an extraordinarily serious charge, indeed.

Preparing a longer response here; and I see I am already 13 replies behind this thread.  First things first:  A question.


https://web.archive.org/web/20180227193817/https://www.reddit.com/r/omad/comments/7pw6dm/failed_day_1/dskg039/


Setting aside the age issue for a moment:  I find it wildly implausible that a 15-year-old boy could fool theymos’ /r/GirlsGoneBitcoin verification procedure.  theymos has a bit of experience with this, you know; and he’s not stupid.

I checked on your link.  The only people with “substantial merit” replying on that thread after your are a Sr. Member who (still!) has exactly 250 merits, and a Full Member who (still!) has exactly 100 merits.  Those are their grandfathered merits; meaning that one month into the merit system, they have earned zero.  Those are users who clearly do not deserve their current ranks; at least, they will not rank up any further.

(N.b. that I myself started with zero merit, having been at Jr. Member rank as of 25 January 2018.  I’m glad of that.  I understand why grandfathered merit was given; but I would not want it, since I take it as a point of pride for the number beneath my own name to be 100% meaningful.)

I am repeatedly on record here as saying point-blank that “99.9% of altcoins an 100% of ICOs are pure make-money-fast scams”; and I have recently been involved in abuse-fighting activities, for which I occasionally receive hate mail.  You may rest assured that I am not trying to cover up for anybody here.

If you have any substantial evidence of merit farming or trading, please post it in this thread.  If you see any merit-begging (asking explicitly for merit), please PM me.  I get results—observe that that “hate mail” link pertained to a beggar whose account is now useless for making money.  Thank you for caring about merit abuse issues.

[Edit:  I just realized that a Newbie account can’t PM me.  My e-mail address is in my signature; though please be advised that I sometimes get behind on my mail lately.]

[Edit:  P.S., love your sig:  “Strength and nobility... not LSD and sideburns.”]

[2018-03-11 edit:  Struck out some of my suggestions; issued correction, q.v.]


Thanks, hilarious.  I do think it’s reasonable to not include avatars in the current Copper Membership offering.  However, I don’t see why it would be required to add another paid membership level; that seems to unnecessarily complicate matters.  I suggest instead that avatars should be offered as an à la carte add-on for those who already buy Copper.

For personal use in an account expected to “rank up” normally within a few months, as I said in my post:


The business use case could be different.  For example, consider a role account which functions as a fully disclosed alt, and mostly just does occasional announcements.  Such an account may never reach Full Member status—and it certainly shouldn’t play evil games to bump up posts/merit for that purpose!  At present, there exists no means at all for such an account to display a simple graphical business logo.

For that use case, I think a fair avatar add-on price would be 50–100% of the current price of Copper Membership (thus making the total price 150–200% of Copper’s current price).

Such an account would also need simple hyperlinks in its signature, which Copper already semi-unofficially provides.  I don’t see any reason why such an account could legitimately need a fancy signature—ever.

N.b. my edits to OP and feedbacks, articulating a suspicion of farmed/traded sockpuppets.  I am not yet experienced at running those down.  Someone who is may want to take a peek.

@Joel_Jantsen:  No, that’s the keyboard I use when I see people spamming the forum.  Whereas it appears that @actmyname’s must have katana and wakizashi affixed in traditional pairing.  Having not studied that particular form of poetry, I will not attempt to split cherry blossoms.  Rather, I will gather up a pile of spam, light it on fire, and apply the glowing red coals to melt all the special snowflakes who demand that the forum serve as their personal free money machine.

The purpose of this thread is to publish hate-mail, whines, threats, etc. I receive for spamfighting activity, in cases where no other pertinent thread exists.  If/where warranted, I may then use posts here as references for issuing negative trust feedback.

N.b.:  Although I always handle my communications as a gentleman, and I would issue negative trust feedback for unreasonable or treacherous disclosure of personal communications, I publish unsolicited hostile communications as a matter of policy.  Be guided accordingly.

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To inaugurate this thread, following is my very first hate-note specifically for spamfighting activities on this forum.  (I have previously (2018-02-16) received a PM threat from a troll who was subsequently banned.)

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PM from: #1431219 “quyhj94”
Activity: 70
Merit: 0
Posts: 124
Account (archived) personal text: “Thu Quy”
Account current signature: “ARCBLOCK ┃PRIVATE SALE OPEN ON 12TH -28 JANUARY ┃ARCBLOCK  (https://www. arcblock .io/)” [spaces added to prevent URL from linkifying]

Prior history:  Merit-beggar who spammed the forum repeatedly begging for merit.  Red-tagged by me 2018-02-05, later by others.  Note:  #1809792 “littlepony” left this user two positive feedbacks on 2018-02-17, in a self-evident (futile!) attempt to counteract negative feedbacks.  “littlepony” has an account (archived) “website” field consisting of a reflink for bountyplatform.io.  I am red-tagging “littlepony” for trust farming; see below.  I should thank “quyhj94” for bringing this to my attention with its hate-PM.

Subject: Fuck you bitch !

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After I post this, I will leave additional negative trust feedback for #1431219 “quyhj94” with this post as a reference, and the following comment:

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After I post this, I will leave negative feedback for #1809792 “littlepony” with this post as a reference, and the following comment:

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Whines > /dev/null.  Otherwise, shall be published here.

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Edited to add note about both #1809792 and #1431219 having recently reset passwords.  Both negative feedbacks have been adjusted to note this; also, to cross-reference the trust farming.  “For investigative purposes *only*, I here articulate a suspicion that these ‘users’ may be farmed and traded sockpuppet accounts.”