D. Grieve Reserve, Victoria, Australia (Fake/Abuse?)
Tntnnbltn-ING
Posts: 809 Ambassador
Okay so there is a park in Australia that I keep getting nominations from, and it keeps setting off my spider sense for fake nominations.
This is the park, approximate location -37.884905,144.780729. It is a small reserve, at 80 metres x 50 metres, with no playground or anything. Yet has a surprising number of Wayspots (with more in voting).
So what is in this park?
This is the sign, which seems like a completely normal style for Australian parks.
But then there is also this sign...
Close inspection of the sign reveals questionable scr-ew placements (what do they connect to??) and a suspicious outline around the letters indicating they might have been cut out and stuck on. Note that the weird embossing of the letters doesn't include the inside of the D, G or R, which is what would be expected if it was an intentional embossing on a professional sign. Also, just realising this now, but the full stop appears to be a poorly painted circle.
The letters also do not appear to be straight and aligned. The bottom V is clearly crooked.
Then there is also this sign. Once again, does not match a style I would expect from Australian parks. Appears to be home made.
Then there are these "park maps".
They use some default clip art, the marker circle is a poorly drawn red circle (It actually looks like red marker potentially drawn on the outside of the plastic). The plastic casing is incorrectly sized for the sign, leaving the bottom sticking out, and the width of the casing is too wide. I cannot imagine that this is professionally made at all.
Then there are these signs...
And this one which is currently In Voting...
As with the "park maps", they all feature cases which are inappropriately sized and are broken at the bottom.
The clip art used for the scavenger hunt signs comes from the internet.
Note also that these types of signs do not appear in any other park. It appears localised to this otherwise insignificant park, which makes me think the submitter lives near here and is creating fake Wayspots for their own benefit.
The positions of the submitted Wayspots also has maximised number of Pokestops. For example at the south east corner there is allegedly a park map on the wooden railing, but despite the railing being on the north side of the footpath, the Wayspot ended up on the south side of the footpath in the perfect position to enter a new Level 17 cell and therefore make an additional Pokestop.
@NianticGiffard Can you please refer this to the abuse team for investigation?
Comments
More of these questionable signs keep appearing, now at neighbouring parks.
This one is from -37.885514,144.782066.
Full size image: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/XuJmedLyoFItYZXnBljKVqG6yl2mI5iEKCyIvrcOPD4Gmarb8ZHi3GfZRVkKW7CXTw6ISS0Rb1g2gx5wpAIn6DXp3hON0q_RJhMrBYbr=s0
The logo on the left is a logo from a commercial television program. It is not something that a local council would license.
The images on the sign appear to be cut and glued by hand, with uneven cutting around the image.
The bottom of the sign also features the same cut-open bottom at the other signs listed.
Additionally, the submitter placed the sign away from the real location and requested in the supporting information "Please keep location on footpath away from Goal Posts." If it was moved to the correct location then it would not be a Pokestop.
@NianticGiffard If you have already referred this to the team, can you please also pass on this information? Thanks.
Continuing with more suspicious Wayspots from this area, these two signs on trees (on in D. Grieve Reserve, one in a neighbouring park) both appear to be homemade with laminated paper stuck on a blue backing.
Definitely looks hand-made and none are of the local styles used in the area, let alone the rest of Victoria. Those fonts are questionable too lol
Whoever has made them has been creative and careful to make them appear legit, but they do reek of clipart and inconsistencies.
Asking around if anybody can check these, otherwise I'm happy to go there and report them.
The submitter should be banned from all Niantic games.
Thanks for the flag, @Tntnnbltn-ING! We have reviewed the report and have taken action on the 8 Wayspots and Wayfinder in accordance with our policies. While we are unable to discuss our actions in detail to protect the submitter’s privacy, they may include, but are not limited to, sending a warning message, placing restrictions on their Wayfarer, Pokémon GO, or Ingress account, putting their account on probation, or placing a temporary or permanent suspension on their Wayfarer, Pokémon GO or Ingress account.
Thanks for helping us maintain the quality of the Wayspots.
I had a LOT of these come up too, and repeatedly. At first glance, people unfamiliar with the park (such as myself) would think they were legit (even though I am also Victorian). Thanks for pointing all of this out!
Another example...
And another
Yeah, so this is copied and pasted from the suburb profile for Altona Meadows on the Barry Plant website.
And the content for this sign one is copied and pasted from the Royal spoonbill wikipedia entry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_spoonbill
Screenshot from your post
The content in this image is stolen from the image on this page http://www.pulsedesign.com/news/outdoor-interpretive-nature-trail-sign-in-animal-related-series-animal-tracks-scat-identification-reading-the-signs-animals-leave-behind-080-2525-01a-9616
And the content for the "Importance of Trees" sign can be found word for word on this page https://www.aplustopper.com/importance-of-trees-essay/
Thanks to this thread, something tells me this nomination is from the same person:
AW Knight Reserve is only a few hundred metres up the road from D Grieve Reserve, and while that plastic box looks slightly different when zoomed in, it's still a dodgy plastic box. You guys might want to keep an eye on it.
I wonder if there's some playbook for fakes? This looks like the same basic trick I encountered in the Roseville California area. There's a thread on it in here.
Looking around that area, here are the other dodgy wayspots already/still in game, some of which have already been mentioned:
Got someone to have a look, those were submitted by 2 different accounts.
Just found this as well:
Judging by the duplicate list, a similar tree one "Bull - Oak - R.K. Richards Park." has already made it through. 😒
Fake because that particular species of Eucalyptus is not native to that part of coastal Victoria according to the below website.
From the website http://anpsa.org.au/e-sider.html
Eucalyptus sideroxylon is one of the best known of the Ironbarks as there is an isolated population in the western area of Australia's largest city, Sydney. There are two subspecies recognised; subsp. sideroxylon is the common form found over most of the range of the species except that it only has a very slight incursion into Victoria. Subsp.tricarpa is found along the south coast of New South Wales, the north-east coast of Victoria and in central Victoria.
The red marks from the above map are where this species of Eucalypt grows. Altona Meadows would be 200+ KM south of the most southern red mark.
Lol I 1 starred these .... whenever they came up in wayfarer. Lol . They certainly had fun with trying to get stops. Over reached lol .... they might have gotten away with 1....
Thank you for the reports. We have reviewed them and taken action on 3 Wayspots and 4 Wayfinders in accordance with our policies.