I have identified a new ANN thread bumping service that I believe is a continuation of a
previously exposed service that has now closed up shop.
Why is this bad?Not only is it a way to skirt forum rules, it means the project does not want to invest its own time into building an organic community and is resorting to creating a fake buzz, which in my opinion is a dishonest tactic. Its also frequently used by scam projects that never had any intention of being honest in the first place. In my opinion, all of these accounts should be banned for spamming, and investors should steer clear of projects which have hired them for safe measure. In addition, future spammer-for-hire operations should be deterred, or at least made harder for them to go undetected.
Service provider: Vitor Services (
archived)
Connected ANNs (clients)
I was PM'd about this service and website confidentially but notice how the last screenshot above mentions
Phore Blockchain. The below list of ANNs have all been being regularly bumped by the same accounts:
MidasCaps Atronocom Cocos-BCX Levolution ZEST AuditchainInvechPHORE ELLCRYSPBETVexanium AssetStream EXBEGA Blue Hill Mining(there's actually a couple of others that popped into my radar after this list was made, will add them later)
Connected Accounts (spammers)
There are at least 50 accounts connected, possibly dozens more, but I have only included the first 32 for the time being (will add more later). These accounts share similar features:
- they are somewhat aged accounts, with registration dates between 2013 and 2018, making me think they were all bought at the same time
- they ALL have the same default Local Time (every single one of them)
- they all have the same style of writing, composing 1 or 2 line low-level content, basic English replies, frequently asking questions and then answering themselves, creating long chains of replies to each other, and avoiding interaction with non-involved accounts
- they all comment in the same swarm of ANN threads
- they are all Newbie accounts, except for maybe 1 or 2 Jr Members (I forget -- they might all be Newbies)
The accounts identified thus far:
ad14n994adhe1989andreideeuAndy Soeb AndybinoysonowalbizinvestCopynerdederson0506Felix17gmoorthy87vigotnospotskellogssken995kingoflionsktuj164maungaklMCTarakanmedalizichncelnurgalievmarselPavel64puneeth670ranelluccisdoowsintal1tytagan75ThundRM8tinnguyen161vasokwesleylexwinklepluswithDemonstration of ConnectionHere is a matrix showing which accounts (rows) are bumping which threads (columns) (up to the 1st 22 accounts because thats all I could fit in a reasonably visible screen shot):
What's Next?Here's the problem: spammers aren't supposed to be tagged, they are supposed to be reported for spamming. However, since they aren't technically engaging in back-to-back posting, and their content could arguably be considered not spam, I had little success in having the thread bumpers banned the first time around. Some of them were banned for plagiarism, but most remain active.
Obviously I'm not opening flags on all of them. But is it worth leaving them a red or neutral tag over?
Basically, how do we curb this kind of behavior?
I'd like to get some opinions on this.
