A BUMPING SERVICE EXAMPLE: How long are we going to look the other way?

[tmfp]

I came across a dubious "Crypto Bank" type scheme by the name of ATRONOCOM in the [ANN] section the other day.
Nothing unusual in that you may say, it's full of scams. Very true, but there's another aspect which I believe is very damaging to the integrity of this forum, the existence of so called "bumping services" which enable and promote them.
Apart from the essentially fraudulent basis on which they operate, i.e. posing as legitimate forum members and creating the illusion of genuine interest in schemes which are seeking $millions in investment, they also involve large numbers of sock puppet accounts registered solely for this purpose by account farmers.
This particular ring advertise openly here

Hello . Our advertising agency will help attract investors and popularize your ICO.

At the moment, the most effective and inexpensive services for advertising and promoting your ICO are:

1) TELEGRAM
- Our team will invite in your telegram a chat of real users from any chat of a successful ICO project of your choice, these people are potential investors
-  Creating the appearance of activity in your group
We use more than 500 accounts, with a variety of nicknames and names, we write without pauses 24/7, we create thematic dialogues with administrators, other participants of the group and among themselves
- We will execute the mailing of private messages in telegrams to potential investors

2) BITCOINTALK FORUM
- In our location more than 50 accounts of different ranks, through which we will conduct a simulation of social activity
-With this service your topic on the forum will be on first page 24/7 also you will receive 100+ comments and 1000+ unique views daily.

3) EMAILING
- We will send an email newsletter with information about your project  to more than 800.0000 potential investors
- Sending messages on your database

4) START AND CAMPAIGNS IN FACEBOOK / ADWORDS
- Today, advertising is prohibited, but we have the knowledge that helps us get around these bans.

5) Attraction of Investment Funds
-We have addresses of investment funds (more than 500), they invest money in a promising ICO. If one of the funds gets interested in you, you will no longer have to deal with advertising in general. They will invest a lot of money in your ICO.

6) Administration of all social networks and BTT Threads

We create an investment offer and send it to the funds with the next communication with representatives of Funds, agreements on meetings and so on up to investing.

All of the above mentioned types of promotion  you can order at the best price in the market in our advertising service CriptoTrafficMarket

Thank  for taking the time to read

Best Regards, CTM Team

These accounts have posted in the ATRONOCOM thread: they have either been re-activated specifically for this purpose or newly registered.

Gonnelixo
dualeyes
MaelshormOne
ILTVSasha
PackisAwesome
BilliMiligan12
HauseWork
Peteer Brooks
Millenium3X
JackHammer53
bgterek
slaiderek
vova1548
nefedova
unrommsu832
JenniferArmstrong4


This is just one small, easy to find example where the bumping service forum account has also been used to open a thread in which the puppet accounts are employed.
There are many long running echo chamber threads, sustained solely by endless pseudo conversations, a couple of examples here and here, between them accounting for thousand upon thousand of bogus posts.
Mods do what they do, deleting individual posts when reported, but imo at some point in time this huge abuse must be addressed at policy (Theymos) level, or whatever cred the forum has as a source of reliable information will be compromised.

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[LoyceV]

We've been fighting many of those in [CLUB] The SpamBuster! Over 7000+ accounts reviewed : [23.11], but I got discouraged when I reported a few hundred of them, and they only got their post removed. That doesn't do any damage to a bump bot, the thread was bumped already, the bot doesn't lose any time on it, and if it's not banned it can just continue what it's doing.
I think this forum is far too soft on spammers.

These accounts have posted in the ATRONOCOM thread: they have either been re-activated specifically for this purpose or newly registered.

My full list (these accounts have posted in that topic, it shows how many times. This does not mean they're all bump bots, the high number of earned Merit is usually a giveaway that they're not)
    1. 18x (Jr. Member) Gonnelixo (1 Merit earned) (BPIP)
    2. 15x (Newbie) ILTVSasha (BPIP)
    3. 11x (Newbie) BilliMiligan12 (BPIP)
    4. 8x (Legendary) tmfp (280 Merit earned) (BPIP)
    5. 7x (Newbie) Millenium3X (BPIP)
    6. 6x (Newbie) JackHammer53 (BPIP)
    7. 5x (Newbie) dualeyes (BPIP)
    8. 5x (Newbie) MaelshormOne Autobanned!
    9. 3x (Sr. Member) Fesatmas (BPIP)
   10. 3x (Newbie) PackisAwesome (BPIP)
   11. 3x (Newbie) HauseWork Autobanned!
   12. 2x (Sr. Member) tippytoes (5 Merit earned) (BPIP)
   13. 2x (Member) TheLoser (BPIP)
   14. 2x (Hero Member) Mr.Ease (18 Merit earned) (BPIP)
   15. 2x (Full Member) Twinkledoe (2 Merit earned) (BPIP)
   16. 1x (Sr. Member) datguyian (BPIP)
   17. 1x (Sr. Member) naura168 (3 Merit earned) (BPIP)
   18. 1x (Sr. Member) Onika84 (BPIP)
   19. 1x (Sr. Member) ICOEthics (522 Merit earned) (BPIP)
   20. 1x (Sr. Member) lovesmayfamilis (282 Merit earned) (BPIP)
   21. 1x (Sr. Member) Ribak1992 (2 Merit earned) (BPIP)
   22. 1x (Newbie) Arjunking Autobanned!
   23. 1x (Member) thaliaand (BPIP)
   24. 1x (Member) Bitkocha (0 Merit earned) (BPIP)
   25. 1x (Legendary) AmoreJaz (22 Merit earned) (BPIP)
   26. 1x (Jr. Member) Bellyss (1 Merit earned) (BPIP)
   27. 1x (Jr. Member) Denreal (2 Merit earned) (BPIP)
   28. 1x (Jr. Member) Buttermellow (6 Merit earned) (BPIP)
   29. 1x (Jr. Member) kokowannabe (1 Merit earned) (BPIP)
   30. 1x (Jr. Member) bubu4845 (1 Merit earned) (BPIP)
   31. 1x (Full Member) Kadal Ijo (0 Merit earned) (BPIP)
   32. 1x (Full Member) sambuddha (3 Merit earned) (BPIP)
   33. 1x (Full Member) nira09 (0 Merit earned) (BPIP)

[TheBeardedBaby]

There are many such bitcointalk bumping services in Internet. I've messaged Theymos about it some months ago and he was quite surprised.

I'm not gonna post links here but there are already many positive reviews/feedback for those services so I can imagine how many have used them. No surprise that the forum is full of HQ spam a.k.a. fake conversations.

[The Cryptovator]

Few days ago I had exposed someone for selling bumping service for bitcointalk on fiverr (I can't remember the thread). That means even outside of forum people's selling bump service. Previously I had reported so many post and users also due to bumping spam. Lately I not doing due to lack of time. Thread should be trushed if someone cought use of bumping service in my opinions if detected.

[Lauda]

Staff looks the other way even when there is direct and and undeniable evidence of this behavior.

[Theb]

If these kinds of services are already prevalent even outside of the forum the only way to mitigate it is either making the ANN section heavily moderated or having some kind of limits within their thread. If we want to stop this lucrative business we must make it weak and useless for the ICO developers and in order to do that we need to make their service ineffective in the forum. Hopefully pretty soon afterwards we would be seeing less and less of this services being offered online.

[cryptohunter]

Staff looks the other way even when there is direct and and undeniable evidence of this behavior.

They look the other way when there is undeniable evidence of scammers lying for financial gain, trust abusing and general net negative actions with obvious greedy financial motives behind them.

I wouldn't complain too much though hey, imagine they looked your way.

I mean sure this bumping ico junk is totally annoying. It is not pure scamming though and....

I actually believe that the suggestion to prevent bumping by new accounts that do not reach x threshold merit/activity was one of the better ones that someone else has suggested recently. Then higher level accounts busted doing it can just be smacked down to 0 merit again. Risky.

I guess they have actually a lot of snitching to work through for minor infractions, hence why I feel it best to stick to snitching the most dangerous and shady stuff only until we are on top of that.

[r1s2g3]

We've been fighting many of those in [CLUB] The SpamBuster! Over 7000+ accounts reviewed : [23.11], but I got discouraged when I reported a few hundred of them, and they only got their post removed. That doesn't do any damage to a bump bot, the thread was bumped already, the bot doesn't lose any time on it, and if it's not banned it can just continue what it's doing.
I think this forum is far too soft on spammers.

These accounts have posted in the ATRONOCOM thread: they have either been re-activated specifically for this purpose or newly registered.

My full list:
     1. 18x (Jr. Member) Gonnelixo (1 Merit earned) (BPIP)
     2. 15x (Newbie) ILTVSasha (BPIP)
     3. 11x (Newbie) BilliMiligan12 (BPIP)
     4. 8x (Legendary) tmfp (280 Merit earned) (BPIP)
     5. 7x (Newbie) Millenium3X (BPIP)
     6. 6x (Newbie) JackHammer53 (BPIP)
     7. 5x (Newbie) dualeyes (BPIP)
     8. 5x (Newbie) MaelshormOne Autobanned!
     9. 3x (Sr. Member) Fesatmas (BPIP)
    10. 3x (Newbie) PackisAwesome (BPIP)
    11. 3x (Newbie) HauseWork Autobanned!
    12. 2x (Sr. Member) tippytoes (5 Merit earned) (BPIP)
    13. 2x (Member) TheLoser (BPIP)
    14. 2x (Hero Member) Mr.Ease (18 Merit earned) (BPIP)
    15. 2x (Full Member) Twinkledoe (2 Merit earned) (BPIP)
    16. 1x (Sr. Member) datguyian (BPIP)
    17. 1x (Sr. Member) naura168 (3 Merit earned) (BPIP)
    18. 1x (Sr. Member) Onika84 (BPIP)
    19. 1x (Sr. Member) ICOEthics (522 Merit earned) (BPIP)
    20. 1x (Sr. Member) lovesmayfamilis (282 Merit earned) (BPIP)
    21. 1x (Sr. Member) Ribak1992 (2 Merit earned) (BPIP)
    22. 1x (Newbie) Arjunking Autobanned!
    23. 1x (Member) thaliaand (BPIP)
    24. 1x (Member) Bitkocha (0 Merit earned) (BPIP)
    25. 1x (Legendary) AmoreJaz (22 Merit earned) (BPIP)
    26. 1x (Jr. Member) Bellyss (1 Merit earned) (BPIP)
    27. 1x (Jr. Member) Denreal (2 Merit earned) (BPIP)
    28. 1x (Jr. Member) Buttermellow (6 Merit earned) (BPIP)
    29. 1x (Jr. Member) kokowannabe (1 Merit earned) (BPIP)
    30. 1x (Jr. Member) bubu4845 (1 Merit earned) (BPIP)
    31. 1x (Full Member) Kadal Ijo (0 Merit earned) (BPIP)
    32. 1x (Full Member) sambuddha (3 Merit earned) (BPIP)
    33. 1x (Full Member) nira09 (0 Merit earned) (BPIP)

I am surprised by this list because I used to think only newbies account are in bumping business. This list contain large number of user who are full member and above.

[Quickseller]

The solution is to change how ANN threads are bumped to the top of the board.

Perhaps posts by those who are not the OP can be ignored when determining thread ordering. To go a step further, the OP could designate one post per day that will “bump” the thread to the top of the board.

This should entirely remove the incentive to use fake/paid bumps.

[LoyceV]

I am surprised by this list because I used to think only newbies account are in bumping business. This list contain large number of user who are full member and above.

Note that they're not necessarily all bump bots, I've edited my post a bit to make that more obvious. These are just all accounts that posted in that topic.

[lovesmayfamilis]

Is it possible to block such profiles?

Date Registered:    September 21, 2018, 02:49:22 PM   Veregig
Date Registered:    September 21, 2018, 02:50:53 PM   Pabirope
Date Registered:    September 21, 2018, 02:52:42 PM   Teryle
Date Registered:    September 21, 2018, 02:37:07 PM   Galdavea
Date Registered:    September 21, 2018, 03:20:19 PM   Joendio
Date Registered:    September 21, 2018, 02:53:52 PM   Kattoweymo
Date Registered:    September 21, 2018, 02:51:33 PM   Idgitcha
Date Registered:    September 21, 2018, 02:44:27 PM   Qabette
Date Registered:    September 21, 2018, 02:41:55 PM   Rdalvianna
Date Registered:    March 14, 2019, 07:04:26 PM   Elena329Vor
Date Registered:    March 14, 2019, 06:31:10 PM   96InnIvanova
Date Registered:    March 14, 2019, 07:11:40 PM   80ArkPopova
Date Registered:    March 14, 2019, 05:54:32 PM   1981FirNadezhda
Date Registered:    March 14, 2019, 06:18:20 PM   1977IulAlieva
Date Registered:    March 14, 2019, 06:39:32 PM   GalievaNab
Date Registered:    March 14, 2019, 06:51:43 PM   IrkValera1993
Date Registered:    March 14, 2019, 06:57:59 PM   VitalikNov
Date Registered:    March 14, 2019, 07:06:50 PM   Maks1994Pet
   

bumping    Ammut Network   
bumping    Tagz- Australia's licensed

[LoyceV]

Is it possible to block such profiles?

You'll need to report their posts, and they need to break forum rules to be banned. And even if they get banned, they'll just use many other accounts too. Bump bots are a plague

bumping    Ammut Network   

The list
The following users have posted x times in https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5116036.0
This does not mean they're all bad users.
Merit is based on last Friday's data dump. I only show Merit if there has been at least 1 transaction. If it shows 0 Merit, that means the user has sent Merit, but didn't receive anything.
Trust is only shown if it's non-neutral.
    1. 18x (Copper Member) ammutnetwork (BPIP)
    2. 5x (Newbie) ILTVSasha Autobanned!
    3. 3x (Newbie) Teryle (BPIP)
    4. 3x (Newbie) Galdavea (BPIP)
    5. 3x (Newbie) Eyahlann (BPIP)
    6. 3x (Newbie) BilliMiligan12 Autobanned!
    7. 3x (Newbie) PackisAwesome Autobanned!
    8. 2x (Sr. Member) Fesatmas (BPIP)
    9. 2x (Newbie) 80ArkPopova (BPIP)
   10. 2x (Newbie) 1981FirNadezhda (BPIP)
   11. 2x (Newbie) Joendio (BPIP)
   12. 2x (Newbie) Zardarex (BPIP)
   13. 2x (Full Member) Ngemmeng (0 Merit earned) (BPIP)
   14. 1x (Sr. Member) Sergei.Gerasimenko (82 Merit earned) (BPIP)
   15. 1x (Sr. Member) naura168 (3 Merit earned) (BPIP)
   16. 1x (Sr. Member) Prime Gold (BPIP)
   17. 1x (Newbie) Maks1994Pet (BPIP)
   18. 1x (Newbie) Elena329Vor (BPIP)
   19. 1x (Newbie) VitalikNov (BPIP)
   20. 1x (Newbie) GalievaNab (BPIP)
   21. 1x (Newbie) 96InnIvanova (BPIP)
   22. 1x (Newbie) 1977IulAlieva (BPIP)
   23. 1x (Newbie) TrevorJob (Trust: -2: -1 / +0)  (BPIP)
   24. 1x (Newbie) Kattoweymo (BPIP)
   25. 1x (Newbie) Idgitcha (BPIP)
   26. 1x (Newbie) Pabirope (BPIP)
   27. 1x (Newbie) Veregig (BPIP)
   28. 1x (Newbie) Qabette (BPIP)
   29. 1x (Newbie) Rdalvianna (BPIP)
   30. 1x (Newbie) dualeyes Autobanned!
   31. 1x (Member) btcmegastar (2 Merit earned) (BPIP)
   32. 1x (Member) ekateriinae (BPIP)
   33. 1x (Jr. Member) Seiwuhsyr (2 Merit earned) (BPIP)
   34. 1x (Hero Member) Free1bitco.in (BPIP)
   35. 1x (Full Member) Krezz2017 (Trust: -8: -3 / +0)  (28 Merit earned) (BPIP)
   36. 1x (Full Member) dzkrb1966 (10 Merit earned) (BPIP)
   37. 1x (Full Member) annazaitun87 (0 Merit earned) (BPIP)

bumping    Tagz- Australia's licensed

    1. 3x (Newbie) TAGZ (BPIP)
    2. 3x (Newbie) 96InnIvanova (BPIP)
    3. 3x (Hero Member) pinoycash (8 Merit earned) (BPIP)
    4. 2x (Newbie) CupidCoin[CUP] (]BPIP)
    5. 2x (Newbie) Rdalvianna (BPIP)
    6. 2x (Member) Bitkocha (0 Merit earned) (BPIP)
    7. 1x (Newbie) 80ArkPopova (BPIP)
    8. 1x (Newbie) Maks1994Pet (BPIP)
    9. 1x (Newbie) Elena329Vor (BPIP)
   10. 1x (Newbie) VitalikNov (BPIP)
   11. 1x (Newbie) IrkValera1993 (BPIP)
   12. 1x (Newbie) GalievaNab (BPIP)
   13. 1x (Newbie) 1977IulAlieva (BPIP)
   14. 1x (Newbie) 1981FirNadezhda (BPIP)
   15. 1x (Newbie) Joendio (BPIP)
   16. 1x (Newbie) Teryle (BPIP)
   17. 1x (Newbie) Idgitcha (BPIP)
   18. 1x (Newbie) Pabirope (BPIP)
   19. 1x (Newbie) Endaynethe (BPIP)
   20. 1x (Newbie) Veregig (BPIP)
   21. 1x (Newbie) Qabette (BPIP)
   22. 1x (Newbie) Vaneenneva (BPIP)
   23. 1x (Newbie) Galdavea (BPIP)
   24. 1x (Hero Member) TimeTeller (15 Merit earned) (BPIP)
   25. 1x (Copper Member) lalitbansal (BPIP)

[Lucius]

And I've noticed that there are quite a lot of such cases in Services where few users (probably one with many alts), opening threads for selling SEO and different kinds of traffic. For purpose of bumping and fake conversation he / she use dozens of accounts, most of them created on same day. It is big problem that some people actually sell such services publicly, and every such account should be tagged or maybe even banned.

[Quickseller]

Is it possible to block such profiles?

You'll need to report their posts, and they need to break forum rules to be banned. And even if they get banned, they'll just use many other accounts too. Bump bots are a plague

From the forum administration's perspective, I don't believe it will be viewed these people are breaking any rules, as I am willing to bet they do not appear to be the same person when looking at their IP information and/or browser fingerprints (even though they are clearly doing harm).

IIRC, some people claimed to be in telegram groups in which someone would tell people which threads to post in and would receive payment for doing so, when there was an *actual* sting operation of someone pretending on purchasing the services of these people.

[Coin-1]

The solution is to change how ANN threads are bumped to the top of the board.

Perhaps posts by those who are not the OP can be ignored when determining thread ordering. To go a step further, the OP could designate one post per day that will “bump” the thread to the top of the board.

This should entirely remove the incentive to use fake/paid bumps.

A few months ago theymos created this thread:
Ideas for topic ordering in altcoin announcements?

He suggested an interesting idea of how to remove the incentive to use paid bumps and spam in announcement threads. Many members proposed their own ideas, but as I can see, bumping services still exist and work on the forum.