Re: Wiping Out Spam

[kmkmjohnson]

Nice write-up! Thanks!

[I MAP]

Brilliant and exhaustive work , Dan !

Must have taken hours and days

[Will / NeoPhoenixTE]

There's been a few in Colorado that seem to be leaving the same mark. Here's some patterns I've noticed, and maybe you can tell me if any of them look familiar. If so, then it's the same accounts doing it all over the country.

• Typically has the ` character in the name (that's the mark that shares a key with the ~ on the keyboard), and that typically comes up first in any ordered list
  
• Loves to make names that start with A ("Always On Time Locksmith" "Affordable Locksmith" etc), again just to top an ordered list
  

Just those two things alone make it like shooting fish in a barrel. I also Google the phone number, just to see what comes up. I hardly ever have to go as far as you do. I guess I should consider myself lucky...

[Will / NeoPhoenixTE]

And you get a sticky pin! Congrats, sir! :D

[Rajnish Khare]

In Indian cities I have seen florists, movers & packers and escort services, spamming using this tactic.

[Jaxcoffee]

Is the profile name change to throw them off your scent Dan?

[Fitch]

Great post! I am getting harrased and being forced to read the awful english of these spammers like "joan"

Please have this account deleted

http://www.google.com/mapmaker?gw=66&uid=203085899246663220224
and

http://maps.google.com/maps/user?uid=202069959250484822407&hl=en&gl=US&ved=0CEMQhQo&ei=QFs7TvyiOYTWsAP9h_mNAw&ptab=1

 

Dan, just to add fuel to your fire, have you seen the tow truck spam? It's right alongside the locksmith spam.

 

-Fitch

Seattle

[Eric]

I'd be more than glad to help out in the Florida region to get rid of spammer locksmiths.

While we are on the subject, has anyone had their edit marked as spam like this:

 "Marked as abuse 1 hours 31 mins ago
Reason: Contains deliberate spam
Hi, I was unable to locate this address."

How do you know who is doing it since there is no name next to the spam comment??

http://www.google.com/mapmaker?gw=55&editids=fHR_t0Cg2CdLPJN3WK&iwloc=0_0&t=h&dtab=overview

[Saikrishna Arcot]

I have, on this and this edit.

Why do I get the feeling it's one of the locksmith spammers?

[Moid]

Hi all,

@Dan, tremendous job on providing your insights and suggestions on tackling various kinds of spam. This should certainly help and inspire other mappers to fight spam :)

@all spam fighters, we are keeping a track of the profiles you have reported and will ensure that appropriate action is taken against them.
Also, please note that we have pinned this thread and request you to report all instances of spam here. This would ensure that we have one thread where all spam fighters can come together.
Time and again, your exhaustive work has helped us in identifying many spammy profiles. I believe just saying that your efforts and interest are appreciable would be a serious understatement.
Keep up the awesome work!





Thanks & Regards,
Moid.  

[JD]

Nicely done Dan! This is a good process flow. Unfortunately I have to rely on local jurisdictions to look up businesses and my city's database requires IE 6 or something (so much for eGovernment).

You could add "garage door" sales and service and taxis/limos to the list of spammers.

You still get DVDs by mail? Netflix is not happy. :)

[Jaxcoffee]

Typical Local SEO practices. Local centralized office locations, places them in prime search locals for Places.

[djboge]

Too late, looks like your edit got denied already.

[D C]

Hi Moid,

     I just received my third spam denial (actually, this time it was "marked as abuse" rather than denied, but still says: "Hi, I am unable to locate this address.") :

http://www.google.com/mapmaker?gw=55&editids=yVZpZd2048aj_Kgk1H&iwloc=0_0&t=h&dtab=overview

[Moid]

@Dan, I understand that these businesses did not exist in the first place. So, removing the feature citing the reason as "Feature does not exist" would be more appropriate, rather than marking it as 'Place Closed'. Marking a feature(business) as 'Place Closed' may imply that the business previously existed, but has now been closed. However, I agree this should have been properly explained by the reviewer, instead of denying it directly.

@Dan, DC, sorry again for the inconvenience. Hopefully, these unfortunate occurrences will be put to end soon. 

[Saikrishna Arcot]

Dan marked it as spam/abuse instead of closed. Therefore, the reviewer should have approved it.

[John]

Spammer still going around reporting valid edits as spam - is there a better thread for this?

http://www.google.com/mapmaker?gw=39&fid=0x89c25a3388f07a95:0x687d05eb76a8eab9

[rjhintz]

Two fake abuse reports resulting in a denial.

http://j.mp/n0eD7K

--

Rich

[Jimmy Ly]

Yet the same for me. It's dragging my approved/denied edit ratio down. I don't want to be seen as an idiot who doesn't know how to map. Seriously, is there a way to turn off the abuse denial function? I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard. Or better yet set a filter with the spam keywords (the "Hi, I was unable to locate this address.")

What's the temporary solution for now? Should I remap this or just wait until Google finishes their investigation?

Thanks!

My denied edits:
http://goo.gl/IgK5y
http://goo.gl/Pqvl7
http://goo.gl/iaorK
http://goo.gl/E4dOz

http://goo.gl/xzuTH

http://goo.gl/GCyrK

They are all from the same bot. "Hi, I was unable to locate this address."
...If only I could retaliate, "THEN LOOK HARDER, ASSHOLE." (excuse me for the French) ;)

[Saikrishna Arcot]

One solution: post edits here or in the Review edits requests so that they get at least some approvals, making it harder to deny it.

[Jimmy Ly]

Yeah, I wouldn't believe even a shred of what he's saying. Red flags were raised the entire time I read that.

iPhoneから送信

On 2011/08/13, at 12:59, General Map Maker on behalf of blissfulight <google-...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

They're still busy (emailed from my Google+ profile):

How are you ? Im new over here i just moved from London to the US . I have Lot of free time, what i need to do in order to get the map maker editors ? Thank you in advance ... Amanda .

I don't know, Amanda, maybe you should start...editing?  Is this some sort of entrapment scheme?  I email back, and 'Amanda' uses that as evidence of my locksmithing conspiracy to take down hard working, single mom spammers?  

Amanda Chisolm <chisolmamanda9 at gmail dot com> is the same person, dumb as ever.  If you're moving from London to the US, how did 'Amanda' ever pass the literacy test?  If you come from a country that, ostensibly, requires good English to function, and you can't even get through two sentences without reminding me of a Nigerian spammer...Not so good.  Not sure how you got in, but please, there's the door...

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[Jimmy Ly]

I take that back. Maybe the part about having a lot of free time--that I'll believe. :)

iPhoneから送信

[djboge]

Reporting a spam user: http://www.google.com/mapmaker?gw=66&uid=218317400038587706056

They're going through every one of my edits and marking them as abuse, which seems to deny them. I don't think someone with 14 edits should be able to do this...

[djboge]

30 of them and counting. How is it that they can completely deny my edit with a single denial but I can't do the same for their obviously spam ones? Should a user with nearly 4000 edits have some sort of protection from malicious users?

[djboge]

On a related note, it seems that it takes two denials (or report as spam reviews) to deny an edit - but they don't have to be from unique users! This person went through each edit and actually denied them all twice, which seals the deal. I looked at a few of their spam edits, marked them as abuse once - "this feature will be approved after further review whatever", the second time - "your review will help substantiate the data" - which actually puts that edit into Denied. This system definitely needs some work - I can see dedicated users getting turned off very quickly if their hard work can be flushed down the drain so easily.

Sorry for the three posts, I got kind of fired up over this. :)

[djboge]

Here's another that needs to be dealt with, same M.O.: http://www.google.com/mapmaker?gw=66&uid=204916025210902052459

[John]

I can confirm that same one djboge reported.  Sick of this - can the same user really vote three times on a single edit?  Thanks for digging this one up first:

http://www.google.com/mapmaker?gw=39&fid=0x89c297968fd44f51:0x946e866d0ae9a2dc

There has to be some serious reconsideration of policy here, it's quite frankly demoralizing.

[John]

I agree - I think that some security would come from knowing that not just any user can come along and deny while I'm not watching.  The more time-consuming and ineffective you make their tactics, the better off everyone else is.  Remember, their motivation is money.  This is like a full-time job for these operations.

You have to put them and occasional volunteers like us on a level playing field.  The system has to be modified so that evidence wins every time.  They could learn some lessons from user-content sites like Wikipedia, though then again, I can't say much to that end because I don't do much of anything there, so I don't know the day-to-day successes and struggles - but I do know that their content is generally pretty good.  I think the big difference in GMM is that revenue-generating businesses are a key component on GMaps, unlike many other user content sites.

The fact is, the system right now is rigged in favor of the steamrolling spammers, and it's demoralizing for the average user.  I was interacting with one user in Texas whose first GMM edit was fixing a local road name that had changed back in 2000!  It was one of a few dozen roads in the county that GMaps hadn't changed yet.  Deliveries weren't arriving, it was a mess, and the user was excited about helping out on the project as I recommended a plan of action!  Lo and behold, spammer followed my edit/review trail, got this user's first GMM edit denied as spam, I can't find a place to comment on it to explain, user had no idea what happened, got frustrated, and says she's gotta stick with MapQuest.  The result is, you're going to see reviewers get gun-shy about editing or reviewing edits, because they know that spammers will follow, and unsuspecting users will get broadsided as a result.  This is a vicious pattern, and Google's gotta dedicate some resources to fixing this rather than fixing boundaries by two inches.  The credibility of the data and the company as a whole are at stake.

[Mxx]

In Manhattan tonight I started getting notifications about this spammer:

Club Texting Website: http://www.clubtexting.tk http://www.clubtexting.com/ Modified: 54 mins 27 secs ago
Atlas Talent Agency Website: http://www.atlastalentmobilemarketing.tk http://www.atlastalent.com/ Modified: 23 mins 14 secs ago
Paradigm Talent Agency Website: http://www.pmobileagency.tk/ http://www.paradigmagency.com/ Modified: 29 mins 36 secs ago
CESD Talent Agency Website: http://www.cesdtalentmarketingsolution.tk http://www.cesdtalent.com/ Modified: 27 mins 12 secs ago
Empire State Building Website: http://www.esbnycmobilenetwork.tk http://www.esbnyc.com/ Modified: 47 mins 26 secs ago Factory Outlet Modified: 58 mins 59 secs ago Extreme Networks Inc Website: http://www.extremenetworking.tk http://www.extremenetworks.com/ Modified: 45 mins 57 secs ago There might be more, these are just from the area that I monitor.

[Mxx]

They do have a full-time spam team. It's headed by awesome Matt Cutts. Love that guy!
As for your 'credit' rating, I think that's the last thing you should worry about. What is your primary goal here? To create better maps or to get auto-publish permissions? I don't really care about my % denied. Even if its low, my edits will eventually get approved. It might be a bit more hassle, but it's not the end of the world.

[JPF]

+1 victim of both users Ajay and maggi : got 11 edits being reported as spam by them... I left comments and/or "I object", no reply, neither the presence of any Google Rev. and/or Trusted were seen on my reported edits..

I did "Submit Feedback" reporting this users on all the reviews they have done on my edits. 

Thanks @djboge for bringing them up!

Side notes: They do review together; they do have some sort of spam related history on their edit/review, particularly escort kind of illegal edits in India, where I have been keen on trying to keep GMM clean of... Coincidence, of course, not retaliation :p

Last but not least, @Dan, thanks for the topic, and for your inside on this issue!

Cheers;)

[JPF]

Indeed Dan!

Allow me to share this India edit: Call Girls in goa Escort Agency in goa (Added on Jul 15, 2011 8:03am by an anonymous user, automatically published )

From there we can see several attempts to report/delete this spam edition, including from Google Reviewers, but all get undone by this "user:" Map Maker Revert

7666770 edits

since Apr 2010

100% approved0% denied

I reported this user for several other reviews/editions like this... And the result? Nothing, she/he/they keep reverting spam deleted editions!

Sometimes it is quite frustrating trying to keep GMM 'clean'!

Regards;)

[Saikrishna Arcot]

All of the edits you posted allow editing, even though it's pending. Someone might need to undo and then redo the edit.

[I MAP]

Hope to have such links for each city :)

[chedder james]

MXX

 

What is this new spam you found all about? These look like modeling and talent agencies. I have an apt in SOHO and have been trying to put together a solid NYC team where we could collaborate on issues and do a Map Up. If we get a group of us together at one time we could do a lot of good without everyone having to go through a ton of wasted time and frustration. Email me back.

 

Cheds

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[chedder james]

Dan

 

Hello and good tracking. I came up with a surefire way to wipe out spam. I posted it in another spam posting like yours. There are very few that would take the time to do the research. It can be done. You need a team effort. Maybe we could put together a team.

 

Cheds

On Mon, Aug 8, 2011 at 8:44 PM, General Map Maker on behalf of Dan Austin <google-...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

I've been tackling a lot of locksmith spam in my spare time, so not as much time for the fun stuff.  Ugh.  I think we can wipe out spam, but I'm trying to collect as much knowledge as I can and put it here, in this thread, to help other spam fighters.  

In Washington State, I have been refining my methods, and have been purging Google Map Maker of locksmith spammers.  Some of the tools I use, if I find a locksmith that looks suspicious (usually using the search box):  

I check the Google Place page, usually, to see if there any reviews for that business.  If the reviews are 5 star, no comment, I'll check through the individual reviews to see if they've rated other locksmith businesses.  Smoke, meet fire.  

Are they located at a UPS or similar private mailbox store?  Not such a good sign.  

Then I look at their website.  If the website is full of typos, the fire just escalated.  If it looks like one of about six templates they all seem to use, then the four alarm just turned into a five.  

Street view available?  No shop, no lock.  

After that, I cross check to see if there's a licensed business at this location:  

Washington State Licensing Search

And then I report it as spam.  If you try to delete it, the spammers will spammily deny your deletion.  Happily, their profile usually leads to more spam that you can delete.  You can also use the 'Submit Feedback' button in Google Map Maker and the 'Report a problem' in Google Maps.  If they deny your edit, report their profiles with an explanation to Google directly.  Hopefully they'll add a report this profile button to individual map profiles.  

I've set up a watchlist, using the Community Edit function, for the state of Washington, and added 'locksmith' to the keywords (it doesn't work for category search) for reviews/alerts.  'Lockout' is another useful term.  

Some other helpful resources I've found:

California

Texas

Find A (Legit) Locksmith (helpful, but not everyone is on board with them)

BBB

Locksmith Police (Mxx just found this...)

Any other categories/search tems that should be added?  Tow companies?  Limos?  Towncars?  Carpenters?  Roofers?  

Let's throw out some ideas on how we can fix the problem.  Maybe a Google Mod can pin this, if it proves to be helpful...

[gzub]

Cheds looks suspicious to me, female widower who is ex-miltary, has an apartment in NYC, but on her profile shows she lives in NJ and works in Atlantic City at a Casino...

Also one of her profile pics is a poster if you would like to buy it:

http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Us-Army-Soldier-Armed-with-a-Mk-48-Light-Machine-Gun-Provides-Rear-Security-During-Civil-Affairs-Posters_i7886628_.htm

Her profile pic is also used here: https://profiles.google.com/malesstrippersnewyorkcity/about 

Geoff

[gzub]

Since Cheds brought my attention to your post...

Noticed that .TK is an open registry for domain names, anyone can register them, so I am assuming the spammer registers a domain, has a copy of the website at his new .tk domain and then hopes the reviewer approves it, after that they then change the content of the website to what they want.  Neat idea, if I were Google I would require extra verifcation for .tk domains when used in an edit.

It seems that .TK gives out free domains to everyone but Fortune 500 companies that have had their domains squatted upon... interesting revenue idea...

Geoff

[chedder james]

Hey,

 

Glad to see the locksmiths are getting edgy about who is trying to organize to stop them.

By the way, that is my ex-husband in the picture and the other profile is my daughter Alley who still resides in my apt in NYC. I do live in NJ now but the apt originally belonged to me and my husband.

 

How could I be organizing a face to face group if I am not who I say I am? Please, someone report the spammer profile that attacked my credability.

--

[gzub]

So Cheds, 

Here is another picture that you swiped from the Department of Defense website: http://www.defense.gov/dodcmsshare/homepagephoto/2008-05/hires_20080528-A-91455.jpg

Which according to the caption on http://www.defense.gov/homepagephotos/homepagephotos.aspx?y=2008&m=5 was taken of "The 42nd Iraqi Army Brigade stops at a checkpoint in Sadr City, Iraq, to assess conditions, May 28, 2008."

Which would imply your husband was in the Iraqi Army...

The other photo is also from the military, and referenced in tons of places on the web here is one example: http://www.salem-news.com/articles/may302006/Iraq_Bombdeaths_53006.php

On a side note I really like Google Image Search...

Geoff

[Mxx]

there's also http://www.articleclick.com/Extended-Bio/Chedder-James/
with similar type of content as http://knol.google.com/k/chedder-james/-/1nec6xcoz2eyi/0#knols
Nothing necessarily wrong with doing that kind of business, just does seem..like gzub said, suspicious.

[Mxx]

It's not about talent agencies, it's about URL hijacking. All the urls were changed to .TK domains. See gzub's accurate explanation of the issue.

[chedder james]

US soldiers worked along side the Iraq military. Photographers take thousands of pictures. Pictures are sent with quick captions. All Iraq military units back then had US military with them. It was part of the strategy to guide them to make them more efficent.

Geoff

[DTFix]

Cheds could indeed have a legitimate interest in helping clean spam, but in the interest of full disclosure, Tracy James who appears to be Cheds sent the following email that prompted a warning from the map maker team.

Hello my name is Tracy James and I am contacting you because you have selected to be part of Google Map

Maker. As you know Google has to select you in order for you to become part of their moderation team

and work your way up the ranks from there. Some of the key steps they look for in new potential

moderators is team work.

 

I am assembling a team at this time and had recieved your email as a potential candidtate from the map

maker staff. Every participant will have their email sent to the team at map maker for credit in the

group and projects we under take. I know that a lot of you are spread out all over the place but when

we come to gether as a unit and target an area the benefit would be tremendous.

 

 

I have collaborated with Map Maker on what could and what should be currently be completed.

This group will be given certain areas. Each area will need a certain amount of edits, reviews.

boundaries, roads, spam, closed places, and corrections. Please let me know which of these sections you

would prefer to work on so I can assemble the correct amount of people for each. This will not be labor

intensive and only may require a few hours of your time.

If you would like to be a part of this team simply reply back to this email. Keep the subject line.

 

Cheers

 

Tracy


Thank you all for letting us know about these concerns, we are looking into them.

@DTFIx and Jax, the email you received is definitely not genuine and we are not associated with it. Any collaboration with mappers would have been posted about on the forum.

Please be warned about such emails being sent to you. I repeat, these are not genuine!

Also, it's a great idea to keep us posted about instances like these, so we can step in as required.

Thanks and regards,

Raza

[Andrew Balfour]

Maybe this is along the same lines. I had 3 edits marked abuse apparently by Google Reviewers

http://www.google.com/mapmaker?gw=55&editids=DKjwLl4I8hqBYbtxDp&iwloc=0_0&t=h&dtab=overview

http://www.google.com/mapmaker?gw=55&editids=DKjwLl42fqXeXfZ2So&iwloc=0_0&t=h&dtab=overview

http://www.google.com/mapmaker?gw=55&editids=DKjwLl4ApnaSZu2MrJ&iwloc=0_0&t=h&dtab=overview

Three simple map edits of a light rail line by my house. Just nudging to match the sat image. Denied and marked as abuse by

Google Reviewer Ryan K (http://www.google.com/mapmaker?gw=66&uid=205408523749774183845) and Google Reviewer K.Bro (http://www.google.com/mapmaker?gw=66&uid=206762621885017970138)

Reading this thread makes me hope they're spammers and not actual Google employees.

[mara]

Dan,

 Only one locksmith listed for Columbia (wrong address) but 175 for Irmo, SC?  Seems a bit much.  Irmo is metro Columbia and is a real town but the addresses are all over the map, including across the bridges.  They're all supposed to be in Lexington county but lots are in the city (Richland county)...hiding from you?

[djboge]

Reporting another malicious user: http://www.google.com/mapmaker?gw=66&uid=203505268926268631903

He's starting to mark my edits as abuse.

[djboge]

Chalk up another 7 and counting Denied edits. :) It's really terrible that a single user, marking something as abuse twice, is enough to completely deny an edit. 

As Dan was pointing out, marking something as abuse shouldn't have an effect on the edit directly, but it should bring it to an official's attention for review.

[djboge]

And for effect...

[Sanjay Baranwal]

LABEL HAS BEEN PUT ON WRONG POSITION.

On Sun, Aug 14, 2011 at 6:13 AM, General Map Maker on behalf of djboge <google-...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Reporting a spam user: http://www.google.com/mapmaker?gw=66&uid=218317400038587706056

They're going through every one of my edits and marking them as abuse, which seems to deny them. I don't think someone with 14 edits should be able to do this...