Edit: My hacked account was used for merit abuse by this user: bgpsq

[peter0425]

I'm requesting the mods to perma ban this account: bgpsq.

If anyone is not aware of, my account was hacked about three weeks ago. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4497259.msg41907856#msg41907856.

Fortunately, I was able to get it back from the hacker yesterday. The steps to retrieved my account  is very simple. I have PM my FJ manager Hhampuz and LoyceMobile to verify. However, I was surprised to find out that the hacker/s has sent all my remaining merits to bgpsq. Which led me to believed that either the hacker is related to this account, or it is the hacker itself. If you take a look at his merits someone sent him 50 merits as well.

I think global mods need to look at that account because its very suspicious and he is really trying to rank up very quick. And should be perma ban to cut off his head as early as today.

Thanks.

[Steamtyme]

Good job getting the account back

Just following that profile leads to more and more accounts passing them along. to Jeremiesaranza, todumbtool45

As you can see those posts received a completely deserved amount of Merit 

[Don Pedro Dinero]

4 different transactions were done in a matter of minutes to different posts from that user, adding up to 88 merits. That looks very suspicious to me. Merit is unmoderated but I think this guy is going to be red tagged fast.

[LoyceV]

The steps to retrieved my account  is very simple. I have PM my FJ manager Hhampuz and LoyceMobile.

To avoid confusion: I had nothing to do with getting the account back, I just read the story behind it.

Did you see this post in the Merit abuse thread?

USER PROFILE :    bgpsq

(click for more)

I don't think receiving Merit can be a clear case of abuse, but sending 46 Merit for this post is clear abuse. The receiving account sent them to this post again.

[peter0425]

The steps to retrieved my account  is very simple. I have PM my FJ manager Hhampuz and LoyceMobile.

To avoid confusion: I had nothing to do with getting the account back, I just read the story behind it.

Did you see this post in the Merit abuse thread?

USER PROFILE :    bgpsq

(click for more)

As usual thanks LoyceV. 

[seoincorporation]

Is the ChardsElican28 account hacked as well?



50 merits for this phrase "You are not crazy, Trump is" (or something similar, I can't read Chinese, this is a google translator job).

Also the user ChardsElican28 doesn't seems to speak Chinesse: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1692227

EDIT. As said, the Jeremi... account https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1320011 also managed to earn exactly the 100 merits required to rank-up, so it seems both accounts are into a merit trading and hacking others.

Please, mods, PERMABAN for those two (at least)>.

[LFC_Bitcoin]

4 different transactions were done in a matter of minutes to different posts from that user, adding up to 88 merits. That looks very suspicious to me. Merit is unmoderated but I think this guy is going to be red tagged fast.

Yeah that’s fucking ridiculous. Clear Merit abuse.

[kitty94]

This is bit off topic and I apologize for that in advance.!
I am really curious about how your account got hacked, You have any guesses about that? Although my account is a really new one I am really concerned about this matter. All the hard work done by a legit user is in vain, once it is hacked. This must be stopped at any cost!!!

Can you please give us any hints as we can avoid those circumstances.

Potential Vulnerabilities in my opinion

• Untrusted extensions which can access user credentials
• Phishing sites
• Data selling by some websites

Are there any other ways? As like in films one can not "Hack" our account, right??

[seoincorporation]

The original account asked to be permaban is not active since yesterday, probably it has been banned already (hopefully)

This account doesn't seem to be banned yet: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1692227
Neither this one. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;u=1320011

All have been implied in this clear merit abuse and probably in the hack.
Bump.

[peter0425]

The original account asked to be permaban is not active since yesterday, probably it has been banned already (hopefully)

This account doesn't seem to be banned yet: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1692227
Neither this one. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;u=1320011

All have been implied in this clear merit abuse and probably in the hack.
Bump.

Nope that account is still active and not yet ban. Mods should really look at that account and the merit abuse going on.

[seoincorporation]

Nope that account is still active and not yet ban. Mods should really look at that account and the merit abuse going on.

You mean that account https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=176128/??

Yes.. it was active yesterday!!! How can it be possible? And also, due to the merit abuse, the guy is proudly earning with a signature... wtf
I prefer to avoid red-tagging people, but, in this case I can't help myself. I've already red-tagged him, and I recommend for you to do the same.

I've also reported to the mod in the chinesse board the post with your merits. Maybe this is also useful to write him a PM explaining the whole situation. He's the chinesse mod: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=779106

I've already PM him:
"Hey, please to meet you.
Well, recently we have had a situation of a hacked account being use to merit abuse. This is the thread explaining all https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4642710.0
The user has managed to obtain the necessary merits to become a Full Member (exactly 100) by merit trading (?) Farming (?). The most concerning situation is about the hacked account and the use of his merits in this thread of the Chinesse board:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3037610.msg35847978#msg35847978

Do you think it can get a permaban? Hacking accounts to transfer merits seems pretty serious to me..."

Whatever the Chinesse mod decides, this is a serious situation. Implies a hacked account and cannot be tolerated.

Also, you can change the title of the thread to something like "My hacked account was used for merit abuse", in order for more people to read this.

[peter0425]

I edited the title as per @seoincorporation, hope that it can attract the attention and needed penalty on this guy. Its very clear that all the accounts that has given him the merits are connected to each other and most likely all bought accounts.

[domnablo]

How can receiving merits be against the rules ? This can be used to ban accounts of innocent users as well.

[xtraelv]

How can receiving merits be against the rules ? This can be used to ban accounts of innocent users as well.

If you look at the times that merit was received  - that is not normal. Especially when some of that merit came from a hacked account.
All the accounts that participated in that should be banned or at least tagged.

LoyceV already mentioned that earlier in his post with a link to the post where that was identified.

[simonova]

This should be judged on specific cases to case basis in my opinion.

Just because merits were send to an account from a hacked account does not make him a culprit. The account history and his past merit stats and posts should be taken into account before coming to any conclusion. This is to ensure that someone does not use this exploit for taking revenge with some members by sending them merits in bulk.

[seoincorporation]

This should be judged on specific cases to case basis in my opinion.

Just because merits were send to an account from a hacked account does not make him a culprit. The account history and his past merit stats and posts should be taken into account before coming to any conclusion. This is to ensure that someone does not use this exploit for taking revenge with some members by sending them merits in bulk.

This is judged case by case. Have you read the whole thread?
An account was stolen and merits were sent while stolen, those merits went to this account for a chinesse post with ZERO quality. Besides, the user has received 50 from another post of the same lack of quality, and there are some users implied.

Trading with merit is forbidden. You cannot give 50 to a post with "I like trump" in it. This is a clear merit abuse and the most concerning part is that is including the robbery of an account with merit trading purposes.
Is a bad and ugly case.

We don't judge anyone without proof in here, neither without investigation.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

How can receiving merits be against the rules ? This can be used to ban accounts of innocent users as well.

Normally I wouldn't tag somebody like this, because I'd be suspicious that the purpose was to just dump the merit out of spite--not necessarily to give it to a specific person.  However the receiving account used it to rank up, and that's good evidence that it was sent intentionally.  That account might be an alt, but the merit might even have been sold, who knows.

If you look at the times that merit was received  - that is not normal. Especially when some of that merit came from a hacked account.

Agreed.  It's another good piece of evidence.

[arhipova]

Normally I wouldn't tag somebody like this, because I'd be suspicious that the purpose was to just dump the merit out of spite--not necessarily to give it to a specific person.  However the receiving account used it to rank up, and that's good evidence that it was sent intentionally.  That account might be an alt, but the merit might even have been sold, who knows.

What other factors do you consider before making the final decision  ? Is there some standard guideline to be followed by all DT members ?

[seoincorporation]

I don`t think there is a magic formula, for it can be tricky to accuse someone of merit abusing. But, In general, we can say:
- When a user receives a big amount of merits for a bad topic in a megathread, in general in a local board, in which they think they are harder to detect.
- When there are several accounts involved, sending merits to each other in bad quotes, nonsense replies as "I love orange", etc.
- When, casually, the received merits are enough to rank-up, and they usually don`t receive any more merits after ranking-up.


This case above is particularly serious because it implies a hacked account and maybe is talking about how some accounts can be hacked in order to sell the merits they have. There is an underground market of merits. Also, the account tagged, as soon as become Full member, joined a signature campaign.

I don`t like to use the trust setting, to be honest. But this case is particularly unfair. There are many people trying hard to rank-up, creating good posts, good threads, working hard, and those users are just ranking up in a non-legit way.