Legitimate wayspot but with fake photos?
Hosette-ING
Posts: 3,470 ✭✭✭✭✭
Several months ago I found a large collection of fake wayspots in an area about a hundred miles from me. I documented them and had many of them removed but a few remained. I recently spotted several new ones in the area that I strongly suspected were fake, at least partially because multiple wayspots had identical photos. I made a list of suspected fakes before I went, and since they were all within a fairly small area I was able to check most of them out.
I was right about most of them. The photos that I thought were photoshopped were all fakes. There were several that didn't exist in street and satellite view that were fakes, and I found another that I'd missed on the map. Most of the ones that had duplicate photos were fakes, but there were a couple of cases where I'm not quite sure fake is the right word. The ones in question are listed as soccer fields or all-purpose fields. It's pretty clear from seeing them in person that they're used for soccer fields although the goals aren't permanent... one even had faint remnants of the lines on the grass. The problem is that multiple wayspots have identical photos. I found two different photos in use across several wayspots, and those two photos are clearly different angles of the exact same soccer goal. The same photos are on wayspots that are very clearly soccer fields as well as those that very clearly aren't because they're too small and too hilly for soccer. (Football for non-Americans, of course.)
I took along a visually distinctive prop and photographed each of the fakes with the prop placed precisely on the pin to show where the wayspot isn't. My plan is to drop all of these on Wayfarer support at once with all of the supporting info, but this leads me to wonder... If you encountered a wayspot that was actually there but the photo was clearly fake how would you report it? I wouldn't consider it a third-party photo because all of the ones with the same photo were submitted by the same person and one of them is legit.
Comments
Just submit a new photo
@29andCounting-PGO Submitting a new photo doesn't get the fake photo out of the games, and it's not even likely to replace the fake main photo.
Sorry for the delayed response, @Hosette-ING. We were unable to find an in-game location with the information provided. Please reply with the full address and the latitude/longitude coordinates of the location in question and we'll investigate further.
We appreciate you for helping us maintain the quality of the Wayspots.
@NianticOtoStar Of course! Here's a spreadsheet containing all of the fakes that I documented during my second round of finding them in Roseville. For continuity, here is the thread about the first round of fakes that I found and documented in that area.
For the second round I was traveling near Roseville and had some free time so I made a list of probable fakes and went to each location. For each of them (saved for a couple where I was unable) I placed a small pink stuffed animal at the pin representing the fake Wayspot-- for example, this image has the stuffed animal at a location where there is allegedly a lion sculpture. This is the main portal photo for the lion sculpture, and it's obvious that the lion could not possibly exist at that location. I found multiple instances of images photoshopped onto utility boxes, such as this one that allegedly has a bear painted on it. Each of the entries in the spreadsheet has an Ingress intel link to the fake portal.
There are also multiple instances where the same photo was used for multiple wayspots, and I have documented those in the spreadsheet as well.
Thank you for handling this. I will have a third set of Roseville fakes documented soon... there's an entire park full of them, and I've encountered multiple new ones during my recent reviewing.
Hi @Hosette-ING! We have reviewed this report and taken action on the 17 Wayspots and the 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.