I usually get a nomination for review that is blatantly fake every once in a while, definitely not even once a week. However, over the past several days, I’ve been getting multiple obvious fakes per day. Probably just a coincidence, but I was wondering if anybody else has noticed the same thing.
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I have not, but I think you and I are in different countries/states (IDK, it’s hard to keep track). Different places seem to engage in different kinds of abuse.
Here’s a list of things you can do (any or all of them) when you find a blatant fake:
- mark the nomination as a fake
- start a spreadsheet/list of fakes that you encounter while reviewing - take note of the title, description, (maybe even phrases in the supplemental info), address (GPS coords if you can get them), and anything else notable (maybe the images have some kind of similarity (if 3rd party, they are all pulled from the same source or all the nominations use the same image for main and supplemental image)
After a week or so of collecting that information, take a look to see if there are any patterns emerging - maybe all the fake nominations are coming from the same area?
- send your spreadsheet off to Niantic at the link above under “Reporting Abuse”
Niantic makes the final call. They can look at deeper patterns to investigate if there is a problem.
Just remember that it may take a while for the investigation to be completely processed. So you may see more fakes after you have submitted the abuse form but before you get an answer. You can choose to add those to your spreadsheet or start a new one that will be submitted under a new form.
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Great idea. i just really noticed the pattern, but I’ll keep a record for the next few days to see if the numbers stay higher than normal.
Send them my spreadsheet… Why did I never think of this?
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