A likely case of merit purchased

[Poker Player]

I was trying to find a lower-ranked member to give him some merit, when I came across this case:

User wsxqaz123 has 10 merits. In January 08, 2021 he created a thread, Lost in my life:

Where should I go in the virtual currency world?I don’t have the funds to invest. I don’t have a premium account for bounty and signature tasks, but the cruel reality does not have much time for me to learn.

It turns out that on March 15, user sanada.motokage gave him 4 merits for 4 different posts (3 in Chinese or Oriental language). This user is atm with no negative trust but Lauda, who is no longer in DT but I think she was before, left him negative trust as an account trader.

Apart from that, in May 5, cherry11800 gave him the 6 merits he lacked to be promoted to junior member. This user woke up recently from a long period of inactivity. He hadn't posted anything in a year and just wrote two posts the same day, May 5.

What do you think of this? As in another case I discovered, we cannot be 100% sure but personally I am 99% sure that he has bought the merits he needed (in the other case, the user confessed).

I've left him negative trust.

[1715481774]

1715481774

[1715481774]

1715481774

[lovesmayfamilis]

Thanks for your observation. This account is currently evading the ban. And I think that soon he will leave our forum.

25. Ban evasion (using or creating accounts while one of your accounts is banned) is not allowed.[e]

Ban evasion.

shlwsx Autoban user
Aske Autoban user
wsxqaz123

Your Facebook account link:  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100023563163621

Facebook Link: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100023563163621

Facebook Profile Link:https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100023563163621

[ archive ]

[Poker Player]

-snip

Hey! How have you discovered that? Googling it? I doubt you have gone through all the post history of the three accounts comparing.

EDIT: Answered via PM so as not to give scammers any clues..

[lovesmayfamilis]

-snip

Hey! How have you discovered that? Googling it? I doubt you have gone through all the post history of the three accounts comparing.

EDIT: Answered via PM so as not to give scammers any clues..

In fact, the history of his messages is very meager. He had earlier accounts. But what I liked the most and amused me was the lie that he was a beginner, and he was not interested in merits.

I'm a newbie, I don't pray for Merits.
I hope to correct me for my remarks to encourage me to write better articles and posts.
I will come here every day to learn knowledge, and one day I will get a lot of encouragement and praise.

[hugeblack]

Selling sMerits is not a problem unless who selling those sMerits is a merit source.
If the user is to earn these sMerit by creating high-quality posts, there is nothing to prevent him from spending them however he wants.

The reason for banning the user is breaking Bitcointalk rules and I do not think that selling meris deserves a negative trust.

[Poker Player]

Selling sMerits is not a problem unless who selling those sMerits is a merit source.

I don't agree with that at all. Theymos explicitly prohibited merit sources from selling merit. That does not mean that he allows others to sell them. I saw this discussed on the forum in some thread in the past, but I can't find it now.

[tranthidung]

I think you mean theymos will not take action unless those who selling those sMerits is a merit source.

theymos do some reverse merit transactions but it is not common. Last time it happened is in 2019 as I recalled. Here (click to see details)

Code:

       +-------------------------------------------------------------+
        |          forumtime   amount   sent_userid   received_userid |
        |-------------------------------------------------------------|
132299. | 05feb2019 22:07:11       -2             0             92110 |
132300. | 05feb2019 22:07:10       -5             0             81995 |
132301. | 05feb2019 22:07:10       -2             0           1316028 |
132302. | 05feb2019 22:07:10       -9             0            290351 |
132303. | 05feb2019 22:07:10       -1             0            289011 |
        |-------------------------------------------------------------|
132304. | 05feb2019 22:07:10       -9             0            249872 |
132305. | 05feb2019 22:07:10       -7             0            249436 |
132306. | 05feb2019 22:07:10       -8             0            165478 |
132307. | 05feb2019 22:07:10       -2             0              9645 |
132308. | 05feb2019 22:07:10      -10             0            358020 |
        |-------------------------------------------------------------|
132309. | 05feb2019 22:07:10      -10             0             15728 |
132310. | 05feb2019 22:07:10      -10             0           2536607 |
132311. | 05feb2019 22:07:10       -4             0           1246188 |
132312. | 05feb2019 22:07:10      -10             0            355462 |
132313. | 05feb2019 22:07:10      -10             0             92110 |
        |-------------------------------------------------------------|
132314. | 05feb2019 22:07:10       -5             0           2472107 |
        +-------------------------------------------------------------+

Merit sales, transfers to aliases, back-and-forth trading, etc. are not much of an issue. All illegitimate merit will decay, and will account for a tiny and very expensive fraction of the total merit economy. It's basically a rounding error; fight it where convenient, but waste no sleep over it.

[lovesmayfamilis]

Selling sMerits is not a problem unless who selling those sMerits is a merit source.
If the user is to earn these sMerit by creating high-quality posts, there is nothing to prevent him from spending them however he wants.

The reason for banning the user is breaking Bitcointalk rules and I do not think that selling meris deserves a negative trust.

Also disagree. Based on your theory, why reward anyone with merit at all, if you can, as you say, sell them? Do you seriously think that if such a sale were allowed, people would send merits to everyone for free? What would the bounty hunters do? Why buy cooper members when you can buy merits cheaper?

In general, it's time to close the topic. The user is banned.

[Poker Player]

Also disagree. Based on your theory, why reward anyone with merit at all, if you can, as you say, sell them?

I think exactly the same.

In general, it's time to close the topic. The user is banned.

I'll leave it open a little bit more, in case someone else wants to reply/add something to the selling merits issue.

If the thread doesn't die by itself, and I see that the replies (if any) don't add much to what has already been said, I'll lock the thread, as I have done other times.

[Insanerman]

It turns out that on March 15, user sanada.motokage gave him 4 merits for 4 different posts (3 in Chinese or Oriental language). This user is atm with no negative trust but Lauda, who is no longer in DT but I think she was before, left him negative trust as an account trader.

Apart from that, in May 5, cherry11800 gave him the 6 merits he lacked to be promoted to junior member. This user woke up recently from a long period of inactivity. He hadn't posted anything in a year and just wrote two posts the same day, May 5.

If this statements pertains to certain instances that a user with many sMerits or is a merit source gave many merits to a user in his recent posts, then I know it is just a normal thing that someone would do. Recently I was shocked that my Telegram Bot Notifier^{(brought to you by TryNinja)} alarmed me with notification that @The Pharmacist gave me merits (which I am so glad of) from my recent posts that I never expect to be merited! With the issue of constant merit giving especially just for a short period of time given by a user to many of other user's post, then I know it myself that it wasn't really a problem nor should be stereotyped as suspicious merit buying/selling. I guess some merit givers really sees some user's fruitful post then checks if there is other posts of that users worth meriting (not bragging, just sharing).

[Imran232]

i also saw that thing that lots of people are selling merit and lots of new users who want to buy this merit. And they are not selling this merit as a cheap price. And thanks you guys are becoming aware of this news. And you guys are taking necessary step about this. Well i am a bounty hunter and i saw this in lots of bounty group where new people’s comes and ask for merit because they need it for bounty campaign then higher ranked person give them offer and they are making there deal. Though now the time is comes for those scammer they should get punished. But the problem is how you guys find them? Its might be tough.