Any Fake Forum Members From China?

[Old Moparz]

Ran across an interesting story that I've thought about in the past. Not so much on a forum like this, but mostly for when I read reviews or opinions of a product somewhere. I never considered that they were compensated by a company, just that the company was up to the posting.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15869683

Sometimes on a forum like this one, it's pretty obvious when you see a brand new member with 2 posts who posts an ebay link to a car & says, "Wow, look at this beautiful car!" & it turns out to be theirs.

Will anyone on here admit that they are Chinese & being paid by a big company to post in the threads, or are you too chicken to say so? I don't care if I've met you at Carlisle either, you could be using a rubber mask like they did in the old Mission Impossible TV show.   



Fake forum comments are 'eroding' trust in the web
Trust in information on the web is being damaged by the huge numbers of people paid by companies to post comments online, say researchers.

Fake posters can "poison" debate and make people unsure about who they can trust, the study suggests.

Some firms have created tens of thousands of fake accounts to flood chat forums and skew debate.

The researchers say there are reliable ways to spot fakes and urge websites to do more to police users.

The researchers from Canada and China say paying people to post comments is an "interesting strategy in business marketing" but it is not a benign activity.

"Paid posters may create a significant negative effect on the online communities, since the information from paid posters is usually not trustworthy," they wrote.

In some cases, rival companies have used competing armies of workers to wage comment wars that confused members of the public looking for unbiased information.

The researchers say the fake comments can overwhelm some users, causing them to find it hard to trust any information found online.

They give the example of a spike in activity on a World of Warcraft chat forum on the Chinese website Baidu.

A thread titled "Junpeng Jia, your mother asked you to go back home for dinner!" received over 300,000 replies over a two day period.

A PR company later claimed it had employed 800 individuals to run 20,000 separate accounts on the site to help maintain interest in the videogame while it was down for maintenance.

While the practice of flooding forums with fake comments is most widespread in China, where such posters are called the Internet Water Army, it is becoming common in other nations too.

The US military is known to use fakes to infiltrate chat forums to gather information about potential terror groups.

Similarly many Facebook pages are plagued by bogus friends and "social bots" that are used to stage debates.

Many marketing firms also seed forums with comments in a bid to create "viral" interest in a company or event.

However, fakes can be spotted by analysing their patterns of activity and the words they use, say the researchers.

Fakes are more likely to start new comment threads, make inane comments rather than add to a debate, and repeat former comments with minor changes, the study suggests.

The researchers say they are refining software tools to help website administrators tackle the "painful" problem.

[stripedelete]

Don't know about DC.com, but, I have a competitor that employees a poster.  He's not completely obvious to the end customer, but, if you're in the industry you can spot it.

I believe it helps drive position on Google. (or at least it did at one time)

[PocketThunder]

I dont know if you are real or not Bob...        

[ChgrSteve67]

Who can you trust?

Maybe I have been a sleeper poster this whole time and didn't know I was really working for the Chineese.

HEY they owe me money.


In reality I could see that if a company made a product towards a specific industry they would have people on the fourms that would buy that type of product out there posting reviews and directing people towards thier product.

I was on a few fourms the other day run by the company that makes the product to ask questions and get product advice.

Now if the Chineese want to come on here to influnce peopel to sell thier charger and go buy a chineese car I would love to see that.

-Steve

[68X426]

 

[Brock Samson]

 Not New Bob, there are huge buildings full of Posters working for the Governments and Military and Mafias all over the world.. One report said that in a secret U.S. Corp. each "Gorilla Marketer" is tasked with 100 different Personas.  1984 was a looong time ago..

[RallyeMike]

Have you ever read engrish instrcutions written in China?

The posterers should be too easy to spot on now.

[flyinlow]

1) You mean I can't believe everything on the internet?

2) Studie's prove and experts agree, you should believe what I say.

3) Acording to J.D. Powers , I am the best triple black 3rd gen. owner between the ages of 53 and 55 in Ohio in initial satisfaction.

4) me no chinese

[bull]

There is a lot of stuff on this site that reads like a commercial or infomercial testimonial: http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,86717.0.html

[Vainglory, Esq.]

Click on bull's profile for cheap v1@gra!  No prescription needed!

[Old Moparz]

Click on bull's profile for cheap v1@gra!  No prescription needed!

[Troy]

If you wanna know how bad the spam is around here just look at the ID of the last user to register VS the total number of users registered (it's an incremental counter). It is a massive job trying to prevent them but, as stated, there are some pretty common clues. Unfortunately, some of my more aggressive methods tend to take out innocent bystanders and then I have to fix that mess. Every now and then someone who knows what they're doing can get through ut they usually make themselves known within a few days (or posts).

Troy

[Budnicks]

I saw something on History Channel, "Brad Metzler Decoded" show last night, about the South of the Border, Chinese & Russian Gangs/Mafia doing a bunch of cyberspace hacking here in the US too, I don't know about the blogging or forums they weren't mentioned, but that could be true also... Just a observation..

[ACUDANUT]

Me Chinese. Me play joke. Me go peepee in your Coke.

[resq302]

You caught me!  My real identity is Soom dum phuk.

[bull]

Click on bull's profile for cheap v1@gra!  No prescription needed!

Yea, thanks for paying my January mortgage.

[b5blue]

Me fake no push button click red blink light off blue. Many enjoy time much for big use recharge battery's! Huge happy much long forum many time use. Make instruction big important user control for operation.

[skip68]

I'm not saying I'm a Chinese member, .......................................................................................     BUT, I'm not saying I'm not.   

[bobs66440]

We get a few spammers over on the 66-67 Charger board. They are kind of creepy actually, posting stupid jokes and making nonsense comments. I don't know if they are Chinese or not. Is it a coincidence that there is more and more spam and apparently the cat population is disappearing??   Oh, wrong kind of spam. 

[Wicked72]

Anyone know a good wonton recipe?

[TK73]

Anyone know a good wonton recipe?

1) Catch neighbors cat...

[jaak]

You caught me!  My real identity is Soom dum phuk.

Jason

[Drache]

You caught me!  My real identity is Soom dum phuk.

I think I met you once. I'm Sum Ting Wong!

[Fred]

Anyone know a good wonton recipe?

1) Catch neighbors cat...

 

[PocketThunder]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vj1SyWntdo4

[Bob T]

Remember when that guy Behrooz? joined up and posted from Iran about his 71-72?Charger, he said he would get shouted at and hassled when he drove it just cause it was American, I think he was a genuine guy though, put up some cool ''in the day" pics of the car and sandstone wall buildings.
Then he went on about the secret police and how they drive around on motorbikes 2 up and the shooter sits on the back and they fire into crowds and stuff
He had a few more posts and then he was gone...

[Hud]

Lol a couple weeks ago, I couldn't log on, said that I had been banned for spamming.  I went to my email and sent a message in and Troy said that it appeared that I had been logging in from South Korea and thats why I had been banned.  I sent a message back saying basically its because Im in South Korea lol.  Im military and travel lol.  Happy to be back!  Im curious though, if messages are sent out before just banning people or if its just a precaution because there has to be more active duty military folks on here than just me.

Cheers all

[Troy]

Lol a couple weeks ago, I couldn't log on, said that I had been banned for spamming.  I went to my email and sent a message in and Troy said that it appeared that I had been logging in from South Korea and thats why I had been banned.  I sent a message back saying basically its because Im in South Korea lol.  Im military and travel lol.  Happy to be back!  Im curious though, if messages are sent out before just banning people or if its just a precaution because there has to be more active duty military folks on here than just me.

Cheers all

No messages. In order for an IP to get blocked it only takes one spammer. In order for a block of IPs (or country) there has to be a significant amount of spam coming from them. Currently Russia/Ukraine tops the list with about 1,000 hits per day - but that's only recently and due to some hackers using hijacked computers. China is next but has been the leader for years. Korea, Philippines, and Brazil are up there too. It's hard to block some middle eastern countries because of the number of military personnel in those areas so I try to only block specific IPs. Pretty much anyone using a Proxy server (especially anonymous ones) gets banned too. Even with all that I have to inspect 35-60 new accounts every day just to find the 3-8 "real" members.

There are some alternatives that I've been testing but none seem to work as well as this approach.

Troy

[Old Moparz]

Just for the record, I met Troy at Carlisle & he doesn't appear to be Chinese.

[Budnicks]

Lol a couple weeks ago, I couldn't log on, said that I had been banned for spamming.  I went to my email and sent a message in and Troy said that it appeared that I had been logging in from South Korea and thats why I had been banned.  I sent a message back saying basically its because Im in South Korea lol.  Im military and travel lol.  Happy to be back!  Im curious though, if messages are sent out before just banning people or if its just a precaution because there has to be more active duty military folks on here than just me.

Cheers all

No messages. In order for an IP to get blocked it only takes one spammer. In order for a block of IPs (or country) there has to be a significant amount of spam coming from them. Currently Russia/Ukraine tops the list with about 1,000 hits per day - but that's only recently and due to some hackers using hijacked computers. China is next but has been the leader for years. Korea, Philippines, and Brazil are up there too. It's hard to block some middle eastern countries because of the number of military personnel in those areas so I try to only block specific IPs. Pretty much anyone using a Proxy server (especially anonymous ones) gets banned too. Even with all that I have to inspect 35-60 new accounts every day just to find the 3-8 "real" members.

There are some alternatives that I've been testing but none seem to work as well as this approach.

Troy

Thanks for your diligence Troy

[Ponch ®]

Just for the record, I met Troy at Carlisle & he doesn't appear to be Chinese.

I met him at MATS. Definitely Nigerian though.

[moparstuart]

Just for the record, I met Troy at Carlisle & he doesn't appear to be Chinese.

I met him at MATS. Definitely Nigerian though.

he must be that same nice fellow who keeps sending me emails with free millions   

[bill440rt]

Just for the record, I met Troy at Carlisle & he doesn't appear to be Chinese.

I concur! 

[Fred]

Remember when that guy Behrooz? joined up and posted from Iran about his 71-72?Charger, he said he would get shouted at and hassled when he drove it just cause it was American, I think he was a genuine guy though, put up some cool ''in the day" pics of the car and sandstone wall buildings.
Then he went on about the secret police and how they drive around on motorbikes 2 up and the shooter sits on the back and they fire into crowds and stuff
He had a few more posts and then he was gone...

Yes, I remember him, he seemed nice enough. I've wondered myself what happened to him.

[ChgrSteve67]

Just for the record, I met Troy at Carlisle & he doesn't appear to be Chinese.

I concur! 

But how do you really know?
Maybe we should run independant DNA test at different labs just to be sure.
Those Chineese are sneeky devils.

[skip68]

Now that you guys mentioned it, I have suspicion about Troy also.    I think he is a clone.   The Troy I met was barely 5 foot tall and had squinting eyes.  He also kept wanting to do karaoke.       

Just sayin ...........   

[Old Moparz]

Now that you guys mentioned it, I have suspicion about Troy also.    I think he is a clone.   The Troy I met was barely 5 foot tall and had squinting eyes.  He also kept wanting to do karaoke.       

Just sayin ...........   

You're not mixing our Troy up with Tro the street musician from Angkor, are you?   

[skip68]

   Looking at the picture more closely I can say without a doubt that the man in that picture is not the Troy I met. 

#1,  that man in the picture has small nipples. 

#2,  the eyebrows aren't the same. 

#3,  the man in the picture has a better tan than the Troy I met......

So you see it's clearly not the Troy on this site.   

[Old Moparz]

 Looking at the picture more closely I can say without a doubt that the man in that picture is not the Troy I met.  

#1,  that man in the picture has small nipples.  

#2,  the eyebrows aren't the same.  

#3,  the man in the picture has a better tan than the Troy I met......

So you see it's clearly not the Troy on this site.  

I don't think Troy uses a bow when he plays anyway.

[Ponch ®]

Have you ever read engrish instrcutions written in China?

The posterers should be too easy to spot on now.

Found one:
http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,87526.0.html