[REPORT] Fake Conversations Alerts

[dkbit98]

We have all noticed a lot of fake conversations happening in Bitcointalk forum.

Theymos recently introduced new rules that will help regarding topics bump,
but I am not exactly sure what is the best solution for this issues.

Best thing we can do now is:

- Report to moderator



- Negative Trust



- Add or support Flag





- Uncheck option to receive PM from Newbie members
Go to profile >> Personal Message Options >> Allow newbies to send you PMs. Deselect this option



- If suspected for Scam - Create new topic in Scam Accusation section:
First search if someone created topic already

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=83.0

- Report copy/paste plagiarism - if any:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1926895.0

- Report Malware and Suspicious Links - if any:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5182222.0



One Example:

Scammer created fake Ethereum Classic Airdrop PrivKey Grabber:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5183449.0

Many minion alt accounts are posting there, they received flag, tag and waiting for ban:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5182187.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5184106

Example reported member thoor:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1965402



Last thing you can do:

- Ignore user


PS
If you have any construction suggestions for updating this topic please write.

If you notice Fake conversation anywhere on forum - Report it here.

Thank you

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[rosezionjohn]

With the introduction of the new bumping rule, fake conversations between newbies won't really matter now. Those selling their bumping services will eventually stop once these new projects find out that it's useless.

[dkbit98]

With the introduction of the new bumping rule, fake conversations between newbies won't really matter now. Those selling their bumping services will eventually stop once these new projects find out that it's useless.

It will help as I wrote, but it is not the final solution,
combination with report and ban will crush them.

You can see that scam topic is still on 1st page,
and they are also posting in real ETC topic
https://i.imgur.com/9owa7ej.png

[hugeblack]

Go to profile >> Personal Message Options >> Allow newbies to send you PMs. Deselect this option if you do not want to receive messages from newbie account.
The overwhelming majority of scammer accounts are newbie accounts because they do not cost much.
I do not think that those scammers have enough time and effort to rank-up an account and therefore will not do random things using those accounts.
Reporting them will be enough.

[dkbit98]

Go to profile >> Personal Message Options >> Allow newbies to send you PMs. Deselect this option if you do not want to receive messages from newbie account.
The overwhelming majority of scammer accounts are newbie accounts because they do not cost much.
I do not think that those scammers have enough time and effort to rank-up an account and therefore will not do random things using those accounts.
Reporting them will be enough.

Good point.
I will add this suggestion in first post,
but it should be noted that scammers can be any rank,
as they can hack other members or buy any member rank.

[BitHodler]

but it should be noted that scammers can be any rank,
as they can hack other members or buy any member rank.

Sure, hacking accounts happens sporadically, but it's usually pretty obvious when it happens and action is taken quite quickly to prevent further damage, especially with how alert most people on this forum are.

Scammers can't hack accounts all the time, and the number of higher ranked accounts that are relatively easy to hack into are relatively scarce, while newbie accounts can be created as many times as a scammer wants.

[Welsh]

There's been a number of accounts which haven't been hacked, and just decided to go on a scam attempt. You should always be cautious when trading with anyone on the forum, and you should definitely not take any users opinion of a project with any sort of serious weight. After all, we aren't perfect, and we are all bias to certain things. Sometimes unintentionally.

Hopefully, we see a reduction of these fake conversations because at the moment I would estimate 1/5 actually uses this method. Normally very low ranked members who are generating fake buzz for the project. Again, with the new bump changes I think we'll see a reduction of this, but not completely stop it. There will be users who are unaware, and don't take note of forum changes, and there will be users who are simply doing it to appear an active, and worth while investment rather than the intention to bump the thread.

[suchmoon]

This shitbumping is a violation of forum rules and should be reported to moderators. It's not a good use of the trust system to fight it. Hit the report button, yes it's going to take a while for them to accumulate enough reports to get banned, but at least you'll be cleaning up the forum in the process. They don't care about red trust.

[dkbit98]

When are moderators going to BAN this scammer?

How many time people need to report him for BAN?

How many scam topics in other languages he needs to create for BAN?

How much more fake conversation with his minions is needed to NUKE them all?


etclabs
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2679499

More info in Scam Accusations:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5183449

[JeromeTash]

snip

AFAIK, scams are not moderated in the forum.
Mods only usually get to ban/nuke brand-new accounts that try to spread malware or spam around... I have witnessed this as i have personally reported dozens of them

The Best thing to do in the scenario you observed is make scam accusations report and have the DT members tag/ Negative trust the scammer and his alts Tags and Flags can be of much help as people won't be easily fooled by what the scammer posts.

I believe you already did so

[morvillz7z]

Ethereum Classic “Atlantis” is nothing more than a private keys stealer website, it's as bad as posting malware and it deserves to be punished with a ban. Not to mention that all these (NEO, Stellar, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Tron) hardforks, giveaways and 2:1 swaps posted in the last few months come from the same scammin' bastards.

[dkbit98]

This etclabs terrorist opened multiple fake scam ANN topics in Turkish, Russian, English and who knows how many topics he will open...
And please don't say 'moderators can't BAN him... no rules for that...'

PRIVATE KEY STEALING WEBSITE is considered MALICIOUS and PHISHING

[finaleshot2016]

Shitbumping was common in altcoin discussion using alt accounts. I know someone that is doing the same thing but don't have enough evidences to prove that it's alt accounts. It's very disgusting if you're just talking to yourself, such a poor human trying to bump his own idea through fake replies and supports the idea.

The worst part of having fake conversations is the alt accounts are earning through BTC sig camps while doing fake conversation. I can't report those (it will be another bad report) since it's very constructive and people are too lazy to check and observe if they're just spitting nonsense on a thread.

[TheBeardedBaby]

Let me put this simpel. You can't get a scammer banned if he does not break any forum rules. No point to report scammers to the moderators because it's not their work to investigate and ban them. There is a dedicated section for those cases : Scam Accusation. This is the place where you need to open a thread and get the scammer tagged. That's all you can do.

If the scammer is posting some suspicious links then you can report him to the mods /he can even get banned for this/ but that's all.

[Harlot]

Best thing to do now is just report it to the mods since this newbies don't have the bumping power anymore they think they have. What they are doing now is just ruining the quality of the thread and I think the OP of the thread is aware of that because they won't have fake conversations in the first place if they didn't hire any. But to me personally I would just let them destroy their own thread because cleaning up their mess is not our work we could just focus more on real threads where some low quality posts are lying around.

[Upgrade00]

If the scammer is posting some suspicious links then you can report him to the mods /he can even get banned for this/ but that's all.

Whether or not the scammer gets banned, any reply which contains suspicious links should be deleted on sight, or once the attention of a moderator is called upon, through reports. Cause AFAIK, the newbie warning sign is shown for only threads created by the accused user and not replies on other threads. This should be a measure to protect newbies in the forum.

A ban would be decided on the discretion of the moderator, considering the possibilities, such as the account being hacked or a user inadvertently promoting a malicious site.

[dkbit98]

But to me personally I would just let them destroy their own thread because cleaning up their mess is not our work we could just focus more on real threads where some low quality posts are lying around.

Problem is that he is opening multiple duplicate auto-translated topics in other languages and local topics!

Let me put this simpel. You can't get a scammer banned if he does not break any forum rules.

That only means we need small update in forum rules that will include scam somehow.

And with current Rules, this user violated them in 3 points:


https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=703657.0#post_rules

[TheBeardedBaby]

That only means we need small update in forum rules that will include scam somehow.

This is almost impossible, the mods have complete different responsibilities, they don't have the time to investigate scams. All that will only mean that there should be hired new mods which will deal only with scams. On the other hand to prove something as scam is not that easy. You need to collect strong evidence against that person/project to be able to mark it as scam.
Go browse a bit in Reputation and you will find 1000 people complain of being tagged based on assumption without strong evidence, of course it's better to protect the newbies but it's also not good to ruin someone's account based only on assumptions. The scam prevention is very complicated case that cannot be covered by the rules, that's what I think.

[dkbit98]

...

Forum Rule 6 is clear.
Phishing is easy to prove.
Fake websites are easy to prove.




Metamask confirmed and blocked numerous phishing websites that Bitcointalk members reported them.

[nakamura12]

Good point.
I will add this suggestion in first post,
but it should be noted that scammers can be any rank,
as they can hack other members or buy any member rank.

If I am a scammer and I buy an account then successfully scammed someone then the account got reported is a total waste of money so I think scammers won't do that kind of scheme to scam people using the account that they bought. What if they scam only small amount but it cost them much buying an account. Let's be more careful as scammers are always finding a way to scam people that won't cost them too much money.