Another spoofing incident in Korolev

Ilya95Ilya95 ✭✭✭
edited January 2021 in General

Well, reports and Fast Track form filling don't help. I am afraid forum is the only hope to get the notorious spoofer banned.

Agent lyshkama (RES) has recently destroyed several anchor and home portals of the ENL agents of the neighboring cities of Korolev, Ivanteevka and Mytischi. This spoofer has been known for several weeks (since 4 Jan 2021). Several reports had been written previously (11552481, 11580854, 11580927, 12019958, 12019972, 12020018, 12020082), but no actions were taken.

30 Jan 2021 UTC+3

For more than an hour he was destroying ENL home/anchor portals, starting with: 

23:36 lyshkama destroyed a Resonator on дом с двумя выходами (https://intel.ingress.com/intel?ll=55.915049,37.799212&z=17&pll=55.915049,37.799212)

At 0:41 AM he captured the portal https://intel.ingress.com/intel?ll=55.920644,37.86976&z=17&pll=55.920644,37.86976. It is the last portal he dealt with in Korolev. More than 30 shielded ENL portals were destroyed.

Then at 0:46 AM he destroyed well-shielded portal with links https://intel.ingress.com/intel?ll=55.972586,37.900026&z=17&pll=55.972586,37.900026 in Ivanteevka.

The real route between them takes about 15-20 minutes by car.

After that he moved to portal https://intel.ingress.com/intel?ll=55.998118,37.913439&z=17&pll=55.998118,37.913439 and captured it at 0:50 AM.

This portal is on closed-at-night area of medical center in the forest, and the route to it cannot take less than 10-15 minutes.

Reports were sent, fast-track form was filled. But the night passed after these activities, and in the morning bad actor resumed GPS spoofing. He started with the hardly-accessible portal located between Korolev and Mytischi 10:13 lyshkama captured Котяра (https://intel.ingress.com/intel?ll=55.916616,37.794883&z=17&pll=55.916616,37.794883) and cleaned out Mytischi vicinity in 30-40 mintutes, finishing at:

10:52 lyshkama captured Спорт Спорт Спорт (https://intel.ingress.com/intel?ll=55.894234,37.711155&z=17&pll=55.894234,37.711155, 30 Jan 2021)

The problem of spoofers terrorizing our region remains unsolved for years. I have written about it several times (https://community.ingress.com/en/discussion/12546/numerous-spoofing-and-multiaccount-accidents-ruining-normal-gameplay-in-korolev-moscow-region , https://community.ingress.com/en/discussion/comment/123351) and the bans happening after forum posts helped for some time. It's clear that operator is strongly connected to RES community: he knows the location of ENL favourite portals to be destroyed, upgrades RES home portals (see 11552421), tries to throw cross-links with ENL account to prevent operations (https://community.ingress.com/en/discussion/comment/126203/#Comment_126203). He knows that ENL communities of 3 cities (Korolev, Ivanteevka and Mytischi) are connected, so he has to destroy portals in all of these cities to reduce our game items inflow.

I hope that the account will be banned and operators relation to other players will be investigated (his items sources, the similarity of his device to the one of other players and other possible bonds).

Thank you for attention.

Edit: spelling

Post edited by Ilya95 on
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Comments

  • SpindlePLSpindlePL ✭✭
    edited January 2021

    https://intel.ingress.com/?ll=55.97168,37.903805&z=16&pll=55.97168,37.903805

    Ivanteevka, 30th January, about 17.30 GMT+3

    destroyed 6 favourite ENL portals without real appearance just in time I was walking near them

    Post edited by SpindlePL on
  • Posting on the forum is not going to get this looked at. This is not Support. Please keep reporting on the support site, provide portal link and date/time with timestamp and a short description of why you're reporting.

    The forum is not the place to report spoofers.

  • 3car3car ✭✭✭

    This is bad.

    The TR worked, the fast track doesn't.

    In turn, the support doesn't help(or only Lambert doesn't help) and the forums bans some spoofers, coincidence or not.

    Then what is the sole purpose of reporting through support? This is getting ridiculous. If posting on the forums do ban spoofers we need a sub category, if not then delete all these.

  • oscarc1oscarc1 ✭✭✭✭✭

    It's interesting that these posts are increasingly common, the complaints are that the system doesn't work or isn't effective or quick enough. However, posting here, appears to yield results. Why? Probably because it shows transparency in the process and ensures that if Niantic are not accountable, quick enough, then the worst aspect of the game is accepted and consequences are not brought swiftly (which is what is needed).

    With silence, nobody knows what is happening, but with transparency and communication, things actually happen!

    Will a sub-forum work? Who knows, it will probably get ignored, but with posts amidst everything else in the general sub-forum, then that causes more eyes to see it. Perhaps it's time to stop working in the shadows and be upfront.

  • Ilya95Ilya95 ✭✭✭

    Spoofer is banned, thanks!

  • 3car3car ✭✭✭

    So the forums work. So from now on, we report the spoofers here instead of the Niantic support, Remy, and Lambert?

  • Actually, no. I contacted @Ilya95 and assisted in creating a new report. It still went to support and was banned that way.

  • 3car3car ✭✭✭

    That’s way better than ‘the forums bans spoofers’. Might have been better if the new report part was mentioned faster..

    And @Azhreia I always see your role as a vanguard in the spoofing incidents in the forums. Huge thanks for your work!

  • quirischaquirischa ✭✭✭✭
    edited February 2021

    assisted in creating a new report

    @Azhreia @Ilya95 Can I have a question?

    Could you please clarify what was wrong with the previous reports (11552481, 11580854, 11580927, 12019958, 12019972, 12020018, 12020082)? Why wasn't the spoofer banned after these reports but only after the latest one?

  • I don't have visibility of what you submitted. If you want to PM me with that, please do.

  • And just for clarity, I asked @Ilya95 what was in their report as well.

  • InDogeWeTrustInDogeWeTrust ✭✭
    edited February 2021

    I realize Niantic support is short handed and can only deal with so many spoof incidents and restores at any given time. How about creating a volunteer committee to help deal with spoofing incidents? Anyone involved can sign an NDA so nothing gets disclosed. I would personally spend at least 10 - 15 hours a week helping with this stuff if I could. Just an idea. @NianticBrian

    Post edited by InDogeWeTrust on
  • Not the OP but I don't see that there is a PM function on this forum.

  • Ah apologies, I should have specified Telegram. Username same as my IGN.

  • TheKingEngineTheKingEngine ✭✭✭✭✭

    Would it be the reason of successful reporting that you are Vanguard? I fully acknowledged that for the new trusted reporter procedure it's customer support rather than trusted reporter that determines whether a case could be escalated but... perhaps customer support does review your ticket manually and carefully while regarding cases submitted by normal players they were just skipped by default...

  • TheKingEngineTheKingEngine ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited February 2021

    There was one, that is the Trusted Reporters.

    But probably the "committee" has been dissolved after the change of this procedure in 2020/Dec.

  • As I said before, I didn't create the report. He did. I merely assisted in drafting it with the necessary information.

  • quirischaquirischa ✭✭✭✭
    edited February 2021

    I want to emphasize once again, that only when you draw the NIAOps' attention to our reports, effective decisions are made on them (last time - about @CypherC7H).

    I could wish it were a coincidences, but they are obviously not ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    It shouldn't in no way detract from your efforts - for which we are very grateful to you!

  • TheKingEngineTheKingEngine ✭✭✭✭✭

    This is exactly what I would like to confirm. Not surprised that you received multiple Disagree as someone does so on my replies in relevant posts as well.

    Still, thanks for the guide from @Azhreia helping us to make report more likely to be picked up by NIAOPS or whoever do the fast track review than sinking in the future.

    I will ask an allie to do a series of experiment on some super obvious spoofing activities of some spoofers to see if doing the same could result in a careful review or not, if not exposed on the forum, and come back later.

  • One significant point (and possibly a failing of NIA Ops):

    I want to emphasize once again, that only when you draw the NIAOps' attention to our reports, effective decisions are made on them (last time - about @CypherC7H).

    There should never be a need to 'prove' any sort of spoofing when a username contains C7H or "Code 7 Hacks" variants. The combination is an intentional 'red flag at a bull' that the spoofer group waves at Niantic. Anything with that combination name should be auto-escalated.

  • 3car3car ✭✭✭

    If it is a super obvious spoofing and you need a series of reports, then I suspect that the reports are the problems

  • SSSputnikSSSputnik ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited March 2021

    Can we have the sanitised original report shared here?

    Be good for all to see to make more effective reports.

  • SSSputnikSSSputnik ✭✭✭✭✭

    Just FYI a 'good' report looks like this:

    IGN: Spoofers IGN

    Portal Coords: {insert intel link}

    Date/Time: 28-2-2021 16:42 UTC+8

    Note: This portal is not accessible at this time. (Or similar).

    Note I have included the UTC offset, the description is short and to the point.

    A bad report generally misses Timezone, and or has a lot of irrelevant text. "I was parked there and could not see them" or "Please do something, this is my tenth report etc" or goes on for multiple pages detailing past wrongs.

    Subjective text and pleading tends to end up with a bad result.

    So you submitted a good report, and it got rejected, what next?

    Submit it via TR system if appropriate portal type. Still no luck?

    PM your local Vanguard for assistance. This may require a bit of back and forth and multiple attempts but usually works.

    Still no luck? Don't give up, report again next time you see them.

    Always remain civil, NIAOps, Vanguards etc are all just people doing their jobs. (And Vaguards don't even get paid). There is no conspiracy to deny your report. If you act with poor manners you will lose sympathy, much like a demanding patient in hospital emergency department.

    Azhreia I really thank for past help, (and future, though always hope not) but I feel sorry for amount of work you must get.

  • A bad report generally misses Timezone

    Though this is truly only an issue if you're not reporting in the timezone of the location. It's not hard for them to know the timezone where the portal is. I tend to put my timezone on my reports, but that's more for when I'm reporting random locations in the middle of eastern europe, and reporting in EST.

  • SSSputnikSSSputnik ✭✭✭✭✭

    How do NIAOps know the timezone of the portal? They vary across latitudes, daylight saving etc.

    Safer to include it.

  • If the portal isn't accessible provide proof with a link to an official site stating that.

    There is no TR system now.

  • That's not true. We get a lot of reset requests where we never heard of the reporter, the spoofer, or the report before the ban. We get those from NIAOPs, not the other way around. There are other cases where we're in contact with the reporter before the ban, and those where we help the reporter to file a useful report. But no matter how many cases of the second group you've experienced, the claim that the first group doesn't exist is false.

  • quirischaquirischa ✭✭✭✭

    But no one says that the first group (let's call them "lucky") does not exist.

    For the protocol: you forgot the third group: agents who have been unsuccessfully trying to ban the spoofer through NIAOps for several months, than they write a topic on the forum (someone from the Vanguards sees this topic) - and then the magic happens! Sorry, it's still coincidence, I see, I see 😁

  • What I replied to was "only when you [Vanguards] draw the NIAOps' attention to our reports, effective decisions are made on them". That is claiming that the first group doesn't exist.

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