Topic: [SCAM ] Polkasocial-AI generated founder photo+fake ratings on Google Play (Read 261 times)

Yeah I saw that you wrote some kind of warning, but do you really think that this is a legit project considering the fact that they are misleading their investors because people will think that those are real people as they mentioned nowhere that those are fake identities. Add on that bunch of fake Google Play reviews that are  removed now I don't see how they could be trusted.

And in case that you think that this is a scam/ or that there is a big chance that this is a scam, why would you keep promoting them as that's what you are essentially doing by keeping their ANN?


Edit

I decided to go on their Telegram group and asked them about fake team member photos, which resulted in me getting removed from the group and all my messages disappeared. Just before I got banned, one of the "random members" (probably team member) used  "Satoshi argument"




What is also interesting is that someone asked in their Telegram group whether team is anon (anonymous) to which admin replied that it isn't, deliberately lying. If they are lying about this, its safe to asume that they are lying about other things as well which can only end up with people loosing their money.

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With all evidence provided, I really hope that ANN thread will be deleted as soon as possible.

That's why I wrote at the top that they used fake images so people will be careful while going through the project.

As expected, they used the "Satoshi argument", conveniently forgetting that Satoshi didn't make fake photos and fake LinkedIn profiles nor he organized ICO in which he asked people to invest the money in bitcoin like they did.



Don't you think that their announcement thread should be deleted as it is obvious now that this is a scam and if you keep it up it will look like you are knowingly promoting a scam?

I mean, it's naive to think that this can end up in any other way other than team disappearing without the trace once they raises enough money, given all the evidence - fake team and fake app ratings.

Hi, Got a reply from them a few days earlier, couldn't get a chance to make a reply here. They emailed me a long reply, saying bla bla but the main point is YES! They used fake images, and here is his famous quote


I'm not gonna make a reply to them as this thing says it all.

Regards

Edit: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/anndefi-polkasocial-decentralised-social-network-powered-by-polkadot-5322479

Four days passed and ANN thread is still locked meaning no answer form Polkasocial team. From my experience, them ignoring this completely means only one thing; team is completely fake, and not just the founder photo, but the rest too. No legit project would wait for so long to answer to these accusations. I mean, how hard is to make one lousy video and remove all doubt?

Worst of all, seems like people are buying those tokens, if those are legit investors on Telegram asking about token distribution, but  sometimes scammers fake that too in order to attract legit ones.

Exactly. As I said before, it's perfectly legit to decide staying anonymous for whatever reason (even though I would personally never invest in such projects that asks money from people while not willing to reveal their identity),  but you can't have it both ways, and that's something that many try to do. And what's even funny, they like to use Satoshi as an example.

They all know that if they appear to having their real names and photos, people will be more inclined to invest and that's why having AI generated photos is dishonest as I'm sure that everyone thought that's their founder real photo.

By the way, any answer from Polkasocial team yet? To be frank, I don't think that an answer will be positive because if   they haven't answered by now as it's in the best interest of a legit project to clear any doubt as soon as possible.

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Regarding the Polkasocial app, just yesterday it had more than 300 reviews that all gave max rating, and now suddenly all those fake ratings disappeared, meaning Google probably noticed strange behavior ( only 500 downloads and 300 reviews) and removed those. Just another proof that there is something fishy going on with Polkasocial and that it should be avoided.

I have asked them to come to a live call with me, and until they do I have locked the thread. Impersonation is illegal and shouldn't be defended in any case. If they want to remain annon they shouldn't have used any avatars.

Yeah, sometimes it ain't easy at all to spot them, if job is done properly. Worst of all, those generated images are getting better and better so soon we won't be able to spot the difference. If it wasn't for reverse image search it would be kinda hard to prove "Spase Roth" is a generated image. I have a strong feeling that rest of the team is done the same way (especially "Andrew Kang"). I tried to find it manually on several websites with generated images but to no avail. Have you check other team members, if you can notice anything weird there?


Yep, I see no reason why legit project would do something like that. @irfan_pak10 asked team for a live chat so I am really curious how will they reply to that request. I like how one newbie defended Polkasocial there with that classic "so what if photos are not real" line.


What he doesn't understand is that it is one thing to say "we want to stay anonymous due xyz reasons" and to make whole fake identity of a team member, and not just some random irrelevant person in the team but of a most important person, founder of the project. He even went  one step further and used that generated photo for his LinkedIn account.

Reported to Cryptoscamalert
https://cryptoscamalert.com/crypto_scam_report/1195

Good catch, Rikaflip!

To be honest, I am having trouble sometimes in determining whether the picture either computer-generated or not. But when you observe their facial features, usually, those computer-generated images have blurred backgrounds and some of their features (i.e. eyes, nose, teeth, ears, and hair) are not proportional to each other. In this case, you can clearly see the disparity on the eyes, eyebrows, and nose.

I also agree that people should exercise extreme caution in dealing with this project. There is a high chance that the project may be a scam in the near future.

What happened: While casually browsing altcoin section, I stumbled upon Polkasocial announcement thread. Since there is a lot of hype going on around everything connected to Polkadot, I've decided to take a look. Upon checking their team members, it turns out that for their founder "Spase Roth" they used AI generated image.

ANN https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/anndefi-polkasocial-decentralised-social-network-powered-by-polkadot-5322479
Archive https://archive.fo/s437r

Website https://home.polkasocial.org/#about
Archive https://web.archive.org/web/20210308211901if_/https://home.polkasocial.org/#about

 


This is Polkasocial founder "Spase Roth" and his Linkedin account. Problem with this image is that it is AI generated, meaning whole identity of their founder is fake. On this website you can play around with that image and adjust it as you like. There you can also get many other AI generated images. Since founder image is fake, chances are that rest of the team images are done the same way.

 



Another fake about Polkasocial is their app rating on Google Play. App was released few days ago and during that time more than 300 people rated it, all giving it maximum rating. I haven't tried the app, but I generally don't trust any that has that kind of score and is available for only a few days.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.polkasocial.app&showAllReviews=true

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In the end, what to expect from a project that used a generated image for one of their team members and then ask people to invest their hard earned money other than to be a scam. Add on that all those fake reviews on Google Play and you get something that is best to avoid.