Blatant Abuse
So upon reviewing, a friend discovered some fishiness. Upon further investigating we have uncovered some pretty nasty and blatant abuse. (A lot of this was already reported during review as well as the form)
Same exact LFL, same exact picture....and notice the name "Patrick Kline"
Few reviews later this comes up..... "Patrick" Park
No amount of research (city websites and searches) helped prove the claim that any park exists there, or any "Patrick" Park at all. (notice existing waypoints)
None of the following exist:
Mitchell Place Playground No:1
33.601512,-117.182219
Mitchell Place Dog Park
33.601403,-117.181976
Vista Bella Playground
33.601044,-117.181198
Give And Take Little Library (look at the description "Patrick A Kline)
This little library is donated by Patrick A Kline. Public education is very important. Give A Book, Take A Book.
33.601397,-117.182554
Patrick Kline Fitness Row Challenge (again with the name)
33.601319,-117.182248
Further research helped produce these other POI's with Patrick Kline in them:
HDMC Bench Pavilion
A bench outside of HDMC Temecula dedicated to Patrick A. Kline who helped make the school what it is today.
33.48309,-117.10436
Rhodes Family Home Bench at HDMC Temecula
A bench donated by school head Patrick A. Kline to the Rhodes Family for their ongoing support in cancer reaearch. Also a memorial for Sue Ann Rhodes, head of the cancer research commitee at HDMC Temecula.
33.482929,-117.104538
Moderator edit: PII Removed from this post
Comments
Huh, Moderation pulled that YouTube link and Instagram link fast, @Roli112-PGO.
@NianticCasey-ING, information was provided in the original post that linked a YouTube and Instagram account of the person using personal identifiers in the Description & Supporting statements that linked multi accounting and spoofing. They could probably be found quickly and independently. This is some serious abuse of faking Wayspots and adding erroneous personal identifiers that are untrue to the POI.
I see it took a while to approve, and a lot of information I included was removed, how can i provide that if needed? It was proof of who Patrick A Kline is, his youtube channel that shows multiple accounts he uses as well as proof that he spoofs. I think at the very least the accounts are relevant we found around 5 level 40 accounts used. Please let me know how I could provide this info. @NianticCasey-ING
Also @NianticCasey-ING , is there any way to appeal my warning? Mod gave me 1 pt. I feel all information provided was relevant to the abuse.
Also why even bother having posts go into moderation for review when they still get approved and need additional editing (and strikes) from moderation? This happened before where somebody was sharing screenshots containing phone numbers and names and happened multiple times in the same thread.
Does the approval moderation entail anything other than going through a list of posts and clicking "approve" ?
If users are able to see the PII before a moderator removes it, after a moderator approved it to be posted then the system is worthless.
And users definitely saw the PII before it was removed.
This area is part of my review area too, and I want to add that this has been going on for at least the past two months. There were more fake nominations than presented here. These are just the ones that made it into the game.
@NianticCasey-ING can we get a comment on this I just reviewed anothe "Patrick Park" Nomination....so frustrating to see when you know its been reported so many times already.
Wow
Hi folks,
Regarding the YouTube and Instagram information that was removed from this post, I didn't just delete it but rather passed it along internally to our anti-cheat and anti-abuse team to review.
This situation was also flagged with the Wayfarer team, but I haven't gotten an update on the outcome just yet. I'll circle back with additional information a bit later.
@NianticCasey-ING anything on my warning "strike"
@NianticAaron-PGO I see they did or are working on this area....but I see a newly added "Patrick" that might have been missed.
Bean Bag Toss
A public bean bag toss area at Patrick Housing Units
33.598433,-117.182754
To fake a bunch of POIs in an area is one thing, but to put your real name on all of them is some next level hubris and idiocy. This is amazing.
Wow.
I was just about to come and say this too. Submitter has some problems. This needs to be dealt with.
Thanks for your patience, I got an update from the team regarding this situation:
Appreciate you flagging, and keep in mind that sharing PII (including links to other social channels) is a violation of the Community Guidelines and could result in the suspension of your community account. The best place to share these details is in the abuse report form.
As stated in the original post @NianticCasey-ING the form was used multiple times, this post was made because the form does not appear to be as effective as nominations kept appearing and getting approved, and in the process earning disagreements. I wouldn't have posted in here if I didn't find it necessary, and wouldn't have shared that information if it didn't seem relevant.
@NianticCasey-ING this portal seems to have slipped through and still contains the submitters name in the description.
Oh goodie, you've punished (another?) one of his accounts, leaving him with only inifinity - 2 to continue his abuse now.
@NianticCasey-ING also curious why my original post sat pending approval for 30 hours and was approved with the PII content, only to be edited minutes later. What was the purpose of the 30 hours?
Why no response on this thread about massive fake poi's?
https://community.wayfarer.nianticlabs.com/discussion/comment/28139#Comment_28139
@NianticCasey-ING at what point does it become PII? This thread has a Facebook screenshot containing a personal name and linking them to a nomination. The team closed the thread with no feedback and the first post still contains PII.
https://community.wayfarer.nianticlabs.com/discussion/6499/wayspot-valid
Don't know what punishments were issued the first time around, but whoever was doing this is still at it. Just got a submission from the same neighborhood that reused a photo from a nearby wayspot. @Roli112-PGO @NianticCasey-ING
The submitter has continued to submit fake Wayspots and has now replaced all the Wayspots that were removed with new ones that are now in the game. In fact, he's submitted the same "Sit-up Bench" in multiple locations throughout the map. At one point, he sent a dozen Location Edits to the Vista Bella Playground (33.601044,-117.181198) across the street to move it closer to him.
@NianticCasey-ING @Roli112-PGO @Edocsil47-PGO
Wow I'm so glad that all these abuse reports amounted to delaying the abuser by not even two months. @NianticCasey-ING how are we supposed to trust the system when this **** keeps happening? It honestly feels like we care more about stopping abuse than you do.
In case anyone was wondering he's also still spoofing on YouTube. Last video uploaded a day ago.
@NianticEG Could you take a look at this as well?
Yup, he's still submitting... He even named it after himself again.
@NianticCasey-ING in the light of all of this -which is only one of the several large scale operations reported on the forum- does the team considers adding a way to quickly flag and fast track the report of such spread out and continuous abuse? For example, a code to put in the report form so informed reviewers can directly pin an abuse attempt to a known rule breaking individual/group?
Also, it would be nice to be able to report nearby spots on the duplicate map. Sometimes abuse only become blatant when more submissions are reviewed (c.f. the workout station above), and it's not always to report them right now.
I'm asking since a new review interface is down the pipeline and I was wondering if similar features were already being implemented.
Abusing the system is WAY TO EASY... You can report abuse on the review but you will just take down your rating. Almost every good fake I had to review went ingame, my fake report didnt matter.
Nia wants us to give 3* to every nomination, where we cant approve/reject the location. This makes it super easy for fakers. And sorry for that, but I will keep in rejecting such nominations. In Germany, there are was too many Fakes based in such nominations. Its sad if correct nominations get rejected, but getting good nominations rejected is common. Sadly, the system more supports than rejects fakers. This needs to change.
3* At the location, not the whole nomination^^
wow @NianticCasey-ING and @NianticEG can you guys revisit this
My. I wonder what punishment were given to him. However, even if his account got permanently banned he can create another new account, didn't it?
And it got worse by the fact he just need to be lvl 38 to do the abuse again, over and over.