TradeHill - Stance on spam / removing users referral codes

[Jered Kenna (TradeHill)]

There have been countless threads and emails about the spam users are receiving with our referral codes on it.
We do not condone using the stolen Mt Gox email list for personal gain and hate spam as much as everyone else.
These emails are not coming from TradeHill and never will.

As of 1600 EST we have identified 3 individuals that are responsible for nearly all of the spam.
Their accounts have had all the referral codes stripped.

IF YOU SPAM YOUR REFERRAL CODE YOU WILL LOSE IT

We have received a lot of positive feedback on our referral program and would like to continue using it.
But if you cross the line your code will be removed. Use common sense.


We want to say it again:


IF YOU SPAM YOUR REFERRAL CODE YOU WILL LOSE IT


We appreciate any additional feedback and would like to work with the community to reduce this spam.
Feel free to paste the spammed referral codes in this thread.

[tito13kfm]

Are there any safeguards in place to prevent somebody from using MY referral code to send out spam and make it look like I am a bad user?  Remember that not all people abuse the system for monetary gain, some just do it for the lulz.

Right now the email list is in the wild.  I could pick a referral address of somebody I disliked, and get their referral code revoked.

I'm not saying I would do this or that it has happened, just putting out the possibility that it could happen.

[Jered Kenna (TradeHill)]

Are there any safeguards in place to prevent somebody from using MY referral code to send out spam and make it look like I am a bad user?  Remember that not all people abuse the system for monetary gain, some just do it for the lulz.

Right now the email list is in the wild.  I could pick a referral address of somebody I disliked, and get their referral code revoked.

I'm not saying I would do this or that it has happened, just putting out the possibility that it could happen.

We're open to suggestions on how to deal with a situation like that.
I don't personally see how we can differentiate between someone spamming and someone spamming someone else's code for the lulz.
If we accept the lulz excuse the spammers will just use it as well unfortunately.

Like I said, we're open for feedback on the policy.

-Jered

[tito13kfm]

Unfortunately I don't think it would be possible to differentiate between the actual spammer and somebody who was targeted.

This presents a very sticky situation.  Users will demand that you punish the spammers, but the first false positive will create a backlash from the community.

My only solution is to remove referrals.  Only institute a random referral service, but of course this isn't fair to the ones who are legitimately referring users to your exchange.

I wish I had a solution, and I'm sorry if I put a nefarious plot in to somebody's head.

Best of luck to you.

[arkados]

I ask TradeHill to totally deactivate referral codes for now, since this is an incentive to spam and scam. And you won't be able to manually deactivate every infringing account one by one, it isn't worth the pain. Let the situation calm down, until the referral codes are used for fair uses.

ps: got 2 spams:

"Mt Gox has been hacked"
?r=TH-R15683
Received: from goemitar by bonecrusher.gulfsouthmedia.com (envelope-from <goemitar@bonecrusher.gulfsouthmedia.com>)
Last remote: 209.223.236.66 (bonecrusher.gulfsouthmedia.com)
http://network-tools.com/default.asp?prog=express&host=209.223.236.66

"Important message to Bitcoin traders!"
?r=TH-R15977
Received: from server ([46.5.146.44]) by home  [s15389739.onlinehome-server.info]
Last remote: 87.106.62.244 (s15389739.onlinehome-server.info)
http://network-tools.com/default.asp?prog=express&host=87.106.62.244

Enjoy your spam reports.

[bzzard]

Solution - refferal can be used only once.
If someone want to use refferal on multiple times then he must generate multiple refferal (for one account).
Refferals should be for people you know. Not for bragging about this at every possible place.
(edit: lol somebody was faster with this idea )

Anyway - smooth move TradeHill.

And please fix this - I can't see the price.

[Jered Kenna (TradeHill)]

Charts are going to get a complete overhaul.
We want to provide more data and make it clearer.

That's a good idea on the single use codes, we can look in to that.
Maybe an invite system instead.

We have had a lot of people tell us the spam has stopped so removing referrals may have done the trick.

Let us know if they're still coming in.
-Jered

Solution - refferal can be used only once.
If someone want to use refferal on multiple times then he must generate multiple refferal (for one account).
Refferals should be for people you know. Not for bragging about this at every possible place.
(edit: lol somebody was faster with this idea )

Anyway - smooth move TradeHill.

And please fix this - I can't see the price.

[chaud]

"Mt Gox has been hacked"
?r=TH-R15683
Received: from goemitar by bonecrusher.gulfsouthmedia.com (envelope-from <goemitar@bonecrusher.gulfsouthmedia.com>)
Last remote: 209.223.236.66 (bonecrusher.gulfsouthmedia.com)
http://network-tools.com/default.asp?prog=express&host=209.223.236.66

Thank you for your email.
After further review, the offending account has been suspended.

Best Regards.

Gulf South Media Support Team

All done!