Shdvb - Potential Fake Feedback

[Wardrick]

I've noticed a lot of new accounts that have only been posting on Shdvb's thread for months, saying how good his service is. I found this weird that the only place they post is on his thread. They give him feedback all the time too. He could be doing this to make his service look more popular and keep it at the top by faking trades and feedback. The site he comes from has a reputation for the large sellers hiring people to fake feedback and vouches and post on their threads to keep them at the top to get more sales and have an unfair advantage over the others.

Here's one of the accounts - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=355653;sa=showPosts;start=20


Shdvb's Profile - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=318030

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[Tomatocage]

Yeah man, I noticed that too (well since you pointed it out). Seems a bit fishy.

[Quickseller]

If the accounts are only posting on his threads and they are alts of him then he is effectively getting bumps that he should not get (assuming they post more then once per day).

I also notice that most of his feedback is from people who report risking bitcoin (meaning they sent first) but I don't see any indication of him sending feedback to any kind of escrow services (implying that escrow was not used). I would somewhat doubt that that many people would be willing to send first with him without escrow - his trust level is not that high.

[Wardrick]

Yeah I'm pretty skeptical that they're real people. What I think he did was started his thread and waited a little while so it looked legit and nobody questioned if he was giving himself feedback and posting on his own thread. Then, he made a bunch of new accounts to bump his thread and leave himself feedback to keep his thread on the front page and make his service look more popular. If anyone can prove/disprove this that would be great. Maybe getting btctrader to post the transactions would do this.

Here's another account with only posts on his service thread. He just posted on it too, must not of seen this thread. - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=358982;sa=showPosts

[hilariousandco]

Well spotted. The following users have done pretty much nothing but post vouches for him in his selling thread:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=355653
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=358982
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=68535
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=87632

And those are just from the last page or two.

There's also quite a lot of vouches from other newb accounts with just 1-3 posts on his thread that look very suspicious:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=359044

I think it's pretty obvious that they are his alt accounts and he's using them to bump up his thread and pad his feedback. If you go through most of the vouches in his selling and rep thread (which he sermingly loves posting/bragging about) they're all largely from the same people who pretty much exclusively post in his there. Now, the question is he doing this merely just to build up his businesss or building up for a longcon? Regardless, this is shady and untrustworthy behaviour.

[wunkbone]

I think it's pretty obvious that they are his alt accounts and he's using them to bump up his thread and pad his feedback. If you go through most of the vouches in his selling and rep thread (which he sermingly loves posting/bragging about) they're all largely from the same people who pretty much exclusively post in his there. Now, the question is he doing this merely just to build up his businesss or building up for a longcon? Regardless, this is shady and untrustworthy behaviour.

What he is doing (assuming the allegations are true - it is theoretically possible, but unlikely that a lot of newbies are happening to be doing business with him and are not otherwise active on the forum) would generally make any claims of him scamming less credible so he could potentially scam multiple times even if they publicly accuse him of scamming. All of his vouches would make others hesitant to "cry" scam in the first place.   

[Bitcoins101]

A lot of people don't really bother making posts on forums. However, they may still be interested in purchasing bitcoin, so they'll check out the services of someone who advertises himself constantly, like Shdvb. I bet Shdvb tells buyers to leave a vouch for him after their purchase, so the result is a bunch of newbies leaving vouches.

Having customers post in his thread after every transaction may just be another segment of his extremely spammy way of doing business. Of course, that's not to say they aren't alts.

[Smack That Ace]

Very nice investigation work !

[hilariousandco]

A lot of people don't really bother making posts on forums. However, they may still be interested in purchasing bitcoin, so they'll check out the services of someone who advertises himself constantly, like Shdvb. I bet Shdvb tells buyers to leave a vouch for him after their purchase, so the result is a bunch of newbies leaving vouches.

Having customers post in his thread after every transaction may just be another segment of his extremely spammy way of doing business. Of course, that's not to say they aren't alts.

If they're not interested in posting on forums then they would unlikey be interested in leaving a post everytime they traded as well. I'm sure he does request that genuine users leave feedback as well and there's nothing wrong with that, but when you've got several accounts that have done nothing but tell everyone that they've done yet another trade with the guy one after the other day after day it's very suspicious.

[Bitcoins101]

A lot of people don't really bother making posts on forums. However, they may still be interested in purchasing bitcoin, so they'll check out the services of someone who advertises himself constantly, like Shdvb. I bet Shdvb tells buyers to leave a vouch for him after their purchase, so the result is a bunch of newbies leaving vouches.

Having customers post in his thread after every transaction may just be another segment of his extremely spammy way of doing business. Of course, that's not to say they aren't alts.

If they're not interested in posting on forums then they would unlikey be interested in leaving a post everytime they traded as well. I'm sure he does request that genuine users leave feedback as well and there's nothing wrong with that, but when you've got several accounts that have done nothing but tell everyone that they've done yet another trade with the guy one after the other day after day it's very suspicious.

I don't think they're volunteering offhand, but I'm sure he makes sure everyone who does a deal with him goes the whole nine yards with vouches, posts, trust, etc. He's requesting that his customers post in his thread - they're obviously not just doing it randomly. It doesn't seem out of character for him to do this with every customer to get his thread bumped.

I'd like to see him explain himself.

[hilariousandco]

I've requested that he addresses the concerns made in this thread and asked for transaction IDs and proof of payments via skrill etc. If they are legit he should be able to do this with no problem or excuses and I doubt if they are fabricated he would've gone to the trouble of covering his tracks like this.

[AnonBitCoiner]

I've requested that he addresses the concerns made in this thread and asked for transaction IDs and proof of payments via skrill etc. If they are legit he should be able to do this with no problem or excuses and I doubt if they are fabricated he would've gone to the trouble of covering his tracks like this.

If he's able to provide proof, that'd be impressive. He was probably just building trust so that he would be able to scam others in the future; there's also the possibility that he just wanted to make himself seem credible so as to attract more business without the intention of scamming. Don't think he's trying to build up for a long scam

[hilariousandco]

It will be impressive and I'll be very surprised if he can provide sufficient proof. He just PMd me this:

Just see your post,I've dealt them a lot not fake accs.I have no time and no need to hire them ,but people\s doubt can be unstandable.

Do you just need TX ID or need TXID and Skrill and chat history?

also you need a screenshot or you need to watch on skype screenshare/join.me?


Regards
 

I asked him to post all proof publicly in this thread. I've also asked BadBear to check the accounts so it should be cleared up soon enough. 

[AnonBitCoiner]

So what would happen if it is fake feedback? Banhammer? It seems he's had quite a few successful transactions with other members of the forum as well, that are very unlikely to be his other accounts haha

[Minnlo]

So what would happen if it is fake feedback? Banhammer? It seems he's had quite a few successful transactions with other members of the forum as well, that are very unlikely to be his other accounts haha

If those accounts are really his alts, he would have been bumping his thread way too often as the current rule is you can't bump a thread more than once every 24 hours. I believe he could be banned for that reason.

[AnonBitCoiner]

So what would happen if it is fake feedback? Banhammer? It seems he's had quite a few successful transactions with other members of the forum as well, that are very unlikely to be his other accounts haha

If those accounts are really his alts, he would have been bumping his thread way too often as the current rule is you can't bump a thread more than once every 24 hours. I believe he could be banned for that reason.

That would be the only rationale for his ban? There's gotta be something against false self-promotion...

[hilariousandco]

So what would happen if it is fake feedback? Banhammer? It seems he's had quite a few successful transactions with other members of the forum as well, that are very unlikely to be his other accounts haha

Well he could get banned for reasons stated above but he's more likely to just recieve a lot of negative feedback from the community. Having lots of trades with other members isn't the point and we're not disputing that, but it's potentially all the other suspicious/fake feedback. Maybe he only managed to do all those genuine trades because they (and potentially future others) were duped into trading with him because of all his feedback.

That would be the only rationale for his ban? There's gotta be something against false self-promotion...

Trust abuse maybe, but he's still likely just to get severely negbombed which will be as good as a ban for his business.

[shdvb]

Good doubt ,I could understand but no fakes.I've personally explained the recent 3-4 transactions which the Staff member quoted on my thread:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=583572.600

See post #610,Page 31.

Regards,
Shdvb

[Wardrick]

Good doubt ,I could understand but no fakes.I've personally explained the recent 3-4 transactions which the Staff member quoted on my thread:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=583572.600

See post #610,Page 31.

Regards,
Shdvb

Thanks for posting, does anyone see anything out of line? All I see is that the MoneyBookers account names are American and Italian/French and one of the BTC addresses is in Chinese, where Shdvb lives. I also see that BTCTrader (I'm guessing you know this guy personally?) and Chadwicksr have BTC addresses without any other transactions in them, where Salmon, the only one I suspected was real, has an old address. I guess this isn't out of the ordinary though.


It looks like everything checks out though. I guess it's just extremely odd. I've never seen someone make an account just to post on one thread, especially for four or five months. I know r2pleasent and Alex2012 (and a lot of other people), your competition on the other site, have been temporarily banned for using fake accounts and hiring people to bump their thread up and leave them vouches. I obviously know you know how everything works because I've traded with you a lot before, which is the reason I'm skeptical here. I know you complete a high volume of trades you and you're always looking for the most effective ways to get more customers and beat the competition, even if that means taking an unfair and questionable route to get there. Like knowingly receiving stolen goods, when that large trader was banned as an example and you got off without punishment, you're not scamming but the methods you use to get more business would be considered unethical or unfair by some people.

[shdvb]

Do not spread roumour,I never hired anyone to bump and I never got banned on other forums.Whats wrong with you Wardrick,you can also let all your customers post vouches on your thread and vouch for you after you dealed with them.I dont think this is against forum rules(If it is,let a mod or admin post here,I wont do again).If not ill keep doing to make myself and this community active.


PS: @Wardrick: Btctrader56 and chadwicksr use different address everytime while Salmon use the same one address everytime.
AS for English or Chinese address,I could make any address to any country language if you want.Just my default address is Chinese,I click and link on thread,or I can just got to blockchain and paste the address and get an English one.Also I can choose any country to make any country language one.

Your doubt is okay and good.I could also understand that,but dont post anything against me if you dont know the truth.Like I never hired anyone to bump for me and I never used fake accounts or got temp banned on other forums.


Regards,
Shdvb