Massive systemic abuse discovered in St. Cloud, Florida - Over 300 fake/abusive portals documented.

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Comments

  • LukeAllStars-INGLukeAllStars-ING Posts: 4,625 Ambassador

    That they think they are "cool" we already noticed. This is the kind of disgusting wayfarers destroying the system for all of us.

    I have also already gotten a few "friends" but mostly, they stopped arguing since there is no pro-fake argument other than "our kids can play now" (German Wayfarer insider)


    The only time I got threatend vit this forum ended in multiple locals texting me to help reporting with pictures as evidence.


    The Niantic abuse team is a bit overwhelmed right now. It takes a bit longer than normally. Still, those POIs will get deleted for sure.

  • LukeAllStars-INGLukeAllStars-ING Posts: 4,625 Ambassador

    hope that edit abuse also got punished 🤮

  • LukeAllStars-INGLukeAllStars-ING Posts: 4,625 Ambassador

    Normally, the abuse team ignores parts of the discussion and only stock to the beginning of the discussion. You need to do a "rest report"

  • I was informed about this recently (I do not live in Saint Cloud) but that there was some crazy abuse and drama doing on in the centra Florida area. I’ve read through this and honestly this thread needs to end and be closed. It’s time to drop it, Niantic already said they’ve worked with this and they’re going to do what they feel they need to do. People are too heated about it and there have also been threats. There’s no use continuing this thread any longer. I’m not coming back because of my incredible shock of this happening and how desperate people are to continue this thread. It’s time to get back to life again.

  • LukeAllStars-INGLukeAllStars-ING Posts: 4,625 Ambassador

    Tbh I understand him a bit. This is just a boosting of hate against abusers. The report is checked, the Niantic team could theoretically stop the discussion since its original content was not "fakes are bad", it was more like "here are fakes " so the discussion is a bit out of context. For me keeping it open is alright, but it could get closed aswell. We have at least two other discussions about the abuse form and abuse in general open, we dont need to keep this one alive where multiple fakers already threathened and harrassed the OT.

  • Roli112-PGORoli112-PGO Posts: 2,236 Ambassador

    Closing this thread is one thing, what that person wants is for us to drop the subject all together.

  • Roli112-PGORoli112-PGO Posts: 2,236 Ambassador

    @NianticCasey-ING If I am not mistaken, accounts "banned from Wayfarer" are still able to nominate.

  • LukeAllStars-INGLukeAllStars-ING Posts: 4,625 Ambassador

    "Hey lets take their permission to do something for the community and let them abuse further".. this sounds like nonsense.

  • SiIverLyra-PGOSiIverLyra-PGO Posts: 952 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I have also opened up a conversation with the abuse team about ways that we can improve the abuse reporting experience.

    Certainly looking forward to hearing more on this in the future, Casey. IIRC, you've mentioned improvements on this front were planned for the 2021 roadmap.

  • Stephyypooke-INGStephyypooke-ING Posts: 506 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Thank you @NianticCasey-ING !

    Being left in the dark when you are the ones trying to do good isn’t the best feeling. I can’t speak for everyone but I think this is a good first step towards a little more transparency on the ramifications of abuse and gaining my trust in the system again.

    Thank you keeping the investigation open at this time.

  • AisforAndis-INGAisforAndis-ING Posts: 1,072 Ambassador

    @NianticCasey-ING Thank you for this. This is a much better response than what we have gotten thus far and I am truly grateful for it. I do have some additional concerns.

    Four accounts banned is definitely too few. While I have several pieces of evidence that support this, I think the real smoking gun here is a piece of evidence that we users dont have, but you most certainly do: How many users does it take to move a wayspot during review.

    If it only takes 4 people suggesting a new location during review, then hey, maybe you did get them all, however, not only does that number seem too low to be correct, it would mean that those 4 people moved the pin on all 300+ of these Wayspots. Only you know what the minimum number of people required to move a wayspot is, and it's very unlikely that with the volume of abuse discovered that they are only just meeting that number.

    Secondly, I discovered this abuse through my local community. For context, I help run a Discord server with wayfinders from across about half of Florida. I have chatted with many people from the St. Cloud community over the past year and a half (chatting with some more than others) and I can assure you, there are more than four of them. In fact, I recently shared a post from their Facebook group from back in 2019 where they not only tagged 5 of their submitters, but then collectively admitted to using statues to create fake Wayspots. That comment, which is still unaddressed, is below.


    Since then, their community has certainly grown, especially with the ability for pogo players to submit. Personally, I have evidence that at least 6 are humans involved with the abuse (with suspicionson more people), and I know that at least 3 of them have at least 1 alternate account. We encountered an alt account for one of those people earlier in this thread. For some of these people, I know the account names, or something they have submitted on those account in lieu of the name, but for others I don't.

    Lastly, the locations of the abusive stops that were submitted also point to there being a much higher number of actual abusers than 4. Many of the abusive Wayspots were located on private residential property, and while some of these were likely just for the sake of having a convenient stop to walk or drive by, many of the stops were clusters deep inside neighborhoods on top of someone's home. The sheer amount of these clusters points to a number that must be at least 10 individual humans/homes of abusers, if not more.

    I can do my best to provide anonymized information to support this, but I can also provide account names, connections, and the "personal" information of these individuals that I have if you provide me with an appropriate avenue to do so. I would do it openly, but I've been advised by others that this is frowned upon, and I can certainly see why.

  • Roli112-PGORoli112-PGO Posts: 2,236 Ambassador

    Your actions are not enough enough @NianticEG the person that openly admitted and threatened people here still has their ingress account active! We demand justice! @NianticAaron @NianticCasey-ING

  • Rodensteiner-PGORodensteiner-PGO Posts: 1,705 ✭✭✭✭✭

    well this situation is not good @NianticCasey-ING

    it feels a bit like let the police take away your drivers license and then let you drive home.

  • Kellerrys-INGKellerrys-ING Posts: 696 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited February 2021

    I don't demand or expect justice, no investment in the situation. Still consequences are needed if Niantic wants to regain at least some kind of credibility.

    Just one example here, that "Tortoise Education Board". On someone's front yard.

    Every single account involved in either

    • approving it, if placed on the front yard

    OR

    • moving it during review process, if placed in more believable location

    is part of the voting block. There is no way that's an honest mistake.

    Giving warnings has no lasting effect. Bans, permanent (Wayfarer, nominating) and temporary (Ingress and Pogo accounts), for starters.

    Yes, I know, not going to happen.

This discussion has been closed.