- Russian version:
Пoкpacкa зa пиap мoшeнничecкиx пpoeктoв (by
madnessteat)
- Filipino version:
GABAY UPANG MAIWASAN ANG RED TAG MULA SA PAG-PROMOTE NG KILALANG SCAM(FILIPINO) (by
sheenshane)
I am re-organizing the thread.
Objectives- To help newbies avoid jumping immediately into scam projects’ promotions;
- To guide newbies fundamental steps to check scam projects;
- To help newbies avoid getting red tags (of course).
Table of contentsReasons of red tags1) Join and support
already known scam projects;
2) Posts with ref links outside the place for signature or phishing links (violates the #4 and #6 rules there:
Unofficial list of (official) Bitcointalk.org rules, guidelines, FAQ);
[1]3) Joining pumping services and get rewards from scam teams;
4) Abusements on forum rules (such as merit sellings, account sellings, trust sellings, and so on);
5) Scamming others to steal their money via loans, etc.
However, in the topic, I only mention about
red tags due to supporting already known scam projects.
Signals of scam project’s campaigns(1) Extremely high payment rates;
(2) Easy requirements to get paid;
(3) Bounty managers with red tags;
(4) Unstransparent payments after payday, and lack of promise-kept on their payment rates.
To-Do Steps to avoid red tags(1) Checking the Trust & Flag history of bounty managers or creators of bounty topics;
(2) Checking the Trust history of project’s main account in the forum;
(3) Searching feedbacks/ warnings of community about their project’s trusworthy;
(4) Investigating feedbacks/ warnings of bounty hunters about their payment history for participants;
(5) Checking spreadsheets for past weeks;
That's all for bounty hunters.
If you are investors and want to dig deeper in order to make sure that you will invest your money into a good, unscammed one, the following topic will be helpful for you:
Guidelines, how to spot a scam ICO & report effectively. ✔ (by
Coolcryptovator)
For my topic, I only guide you those five steps above. Now, let's get started.
(1) Step #1: Checking the Trust history of bounty managers or creators of bounty topicsLet's take the case of recently hot scam bounty, DuckDice.io as a case study.
This one, DuckDice PR is an alt of Duck Dice project, got red trust after opening scam signature campaign.
With
- 32 red trust, in total.
Check trust of Duck Dice PR there:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/user/duck-dice-pr-2536146I added the additional guide for Flag:
LoyceV developed his Trust Flag Viewer page, on
http://loyce.club/trust/flags/?MDSteps to check Flags and Flag status of the user you want to investigate Flag history before making deals/ trades.
- Visiting the page: http://loyce.club/trust/flags/?MD
- Choosing the newest version: by looking at the date of creation. [a]
- Using search with keywords: Ctrl F > Entering these keyword combination: flagged + "username of the user you want to investigate"
- Paying attention on total number of flags, type of flag, and status of flag (Active or not). [c]
[a]: As of writing, the current version is this one:
http://loyce.club/trust/flags/225.htmlFor example:
theymos flagged newsilike as the first user was flagged in the forum (?),
here.
So if you use the Trust Flag Viewer page (of LoyceV), and keyword combination: "flagged newsilike", you will see the flag created by theymos highlighted (
in Green).
[c]: Total number of flags; type, and status of flags:
Next to the keyword combination is the type of flag (type one for this case).
How many flags newsilike has gotten so far: 1 (see the image)
You can recheck the result by visiting the Trust page of newsilike:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;u=157669Advantages of the Trust Flag Viewer page (compare to the personal trust page for each user on the forum):
- You don't have to log-in your account to see it.
LoyceV's (Personal) Trust Flag viewer [daily updates]Trust flags (2) Step #2: Checking the Trust history of project’s main account in the forumDuckDice.io (main account)The trust history shown red, with
-256 red trust.
Check trust of DuckDice.io there:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/user/duckdiceio-917361 If you don't known how to find main account of projects, please clicking on links to ANN topics. Then, you will easily know which ones are main accounts by looking at the OP's author of ANN topics.
Most of bounty topics give link to ANN topic in the OP.
(3) Step #3: Searching feedbacks/ warnings of community about their project’s trusworthyBoth, got red trusts. It's so bad, generally.
Then, let's dig deeper by looking at their trust history. Clicking on the Trust link at profile page of each account, it will lead you to trust history of eaech one.
- DuckDice.io's trust history:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;u=917361- Duck Dice PR's trust history:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;u=2536146Histories are both badly, too.
(4) Step #4: Investigating feedbacks/ warnings of bounty hunters about their payment history for participants4.1. Looking at past bounties topics and comments of participants
- For example:
[CLOSED] DuckDice.io Signature and Avatar campaign! (opened on February 01, 2017, 04:12:55 PM, closed and locked on February 28, 2017, 06:36:35 PM). Please remember that the old bounty topic locked for no reason. No one knows because the bounty manager did not disclose reasons.
-
The newest one that opened days ago, has been locked too.
4.2. Using search with key words (if you don't find anything negative in their past bounty topics)
Details mentioned below.
(5) Step #5: Checking spreadsheets for past weeks- If campaigns have publicly spreadsheets, at first it is transparent and good.
- Next, check the spreadsheet and see whether they pay for their participants in the past or not.
How to do this? Copying address of one arbitrarily chosen participant, and pasting it into the explorer to see past transactions.
If they really paid for their supporters, they are good.
If they did not pay, one more bad thing found.
How to use forum search funtion?There you go:
[Tips] Guide for forum search (by
coly20032003)
How to use key words for your search?For scam investigation, I highly recommend to use these key words:
- scam
- scam accusation
- exit scam
- scam bounty
- Two essential words:
+The name of your interest project
+ bitcointalk.
Let's see results with some combination of keywords:
Remove signature and avatar several hours after DT members warned that projects/ bounties are scamIt is a very important step.
If the campaign you joined has not warned as scam at the start, but days or weeks later, DT members tag it as a scam one, and warned that participants should stop supporting it. You should remove all your signature and avatar hours later.
It is un-official rule, but I think DT members will allow you around 72 hours to remove signature and avatar, before tagging you with red trust.
I will add a image of red-tagged case due to keep supporting scam project after received warning from DT members. When I saw a case, I will add it here
Where to find scam projects?
Reference:1)
Be careful of not getting red-tags by advertising a known scam in your signature (by
Cashi)
2)
[Tips] Guide for forum search (by
coly20032003)
3)
Alt of DuckDice.io which was tagged for scam (by
Coolcryptovator)
[1]Nowhere. Affiliate links (also known as referral links) are not allowed to be in a post anywhere on this forum. You can however have them in your signature.
Honestly, I made my mistake by applying to join DuckDice campaign. I am human, so I made mistakes, it's normal and likely acceptable if I don't repeatedly make it.
Therefore, I think that others can make same mistake and the topic will be helpful for so many forum users.