$$$ for WPI vote daily now in Vivint Round 2!

[Sasha]

Well done, helen, No Poster Girl and Specialk - you've done a terrific job in detecting and then batting off the cheating opposition! Our whole community owes you big thanks!

 

[eric_s]

In this last hour (night in the USA) they got around 30 votes again. So they seem to get around the same at night as during the day. Either they have similar problems like us or there could still be some sort of cheating going on.

I think we should try to monitor this a bit. Vivint of course has all the voting stats too. My guess is that Conejo's voting pattern is quite unique, most charities will probably get most of their votes during the day (North America). Or how is it in our case? Maybe they get a lot of votes from Europe and Israel though, that could well be the case.

 

[eric_s]

Before I look into it, tell me some more about what you plan to do and why. You want to hold that over their heads to get them to stop or do you want to pursue this regardless of the contest outcome (that last one would seem inefficient imo). I think it would be good to threaten 'the Rabbit' with filing a complaint with IRS and FCC (federal commerce commission) without researching the specifics since this will take some energy.

IRS decides whether you can be exempt from taxes under section 501 of the Internal Revenue Code. You can operate a non-profit or public interest group without dealing with IRS (other than paying taxes of course) but if you want to not pay taxes you have to file and comply under section 501. So if they are violating the requirements of section 501 then IRS could make them pay taxes which would be a huge problem for an entity of course. IRS would I assume be receptive to meritorious complaints about 501 violations since it would increase their revenues. Don't know if cheating in a contest would necessarily disqualify them though. You can google section 501 and see what the requirements are. Nolo.com has good info on non-profit law.

I would think that a non-profit would be regulated by the same bodies as a for profit would- state and federal commerce commissions. I would guess that this would not be something that they would want to pursue, since the org being injured (WPI) is not the one giving out the money, but I don't know.

I would like to be able to tell them we will pursue this, in case they start cheating again. I would not tell them now, only if there are new signs of cheating. Of course i would only do that if it's a valid option, if we "threaten" them with that but they find out it's not something they have to fear that would have the opposite effect of what we want to achieve.

And should they win the contest in the WPI's region (if they win overall i don't care), i would like to file a complaint. So that it's filed there, no matter wheter something happens or not. They might at least get an admonishment or there might be some inquiry, and if complaints pile up, at some point it might be too much.

 

[eric_s]

To make the comparison, here are the votes for the last 10 hours (19:30 - 5:30 EDT)

WPI: 261 new votes
Conejo: 279 new votes

The WPI gets more votes per day, but less during the night (in North America) than Conejo. But i don't think the difference is very significant, so we can't know if this comes from some sort of automatic voting with fake accounts or if they just have a lot of support from jewish orgs in other parts of the world.

 

[eric_s]

Everybody who didn't vote yesterday, VOTE FOR THE WPI TODAY!!! Apart from when they were evidently cheating, we have more votes than them and can clearly win this contest, 100'000$ for the WPI, 100'000$ to develop a treatment for us! These 150 votes that were missing yesterday make a difference, over 40 days!

 

[helen41]

caught them again

I just posted this on the Vivint page. Hopefully they will do more than just ask Conejo to disable it this time
Konduparti Venkata Murarji
I just voted Conejo Valley Friendship Circle on the Vivint Gives Back Project. Vivint is giving away $1.25 million dollars to local charities and I want Conejo Valley Friendship Circle to win.
10 hours ago Like

Helen Watkinson I see you are a member of Easy Cash. Interesting site
8 hours ago Like
Helen Watkinson I just voted Conejo through Easy Cash. They appear to have disabled the offers for Foodollars, puntos, swagbucks, razoo, and coins. I was able to vote the razoo site yesterday morning and have the screenshots. I was intrigued by this individuals post, and went to look at his information. Sure enough, he is a member of one more site offering rewards for votes. It is not one of the sites we have complained of, so I checked. It is working well http://apps.facebook.com/e?asycash-usd/?page=offers I have screenshots of my vote this morning, but payment is still pending. If anyone chooses to replicate my actions, allow the app, then it takes you to the "make money" link. Scroll down until you see "vote for a good cause" in return foe 5 cash.
12 minutes ago Like
Helen Watkinson I didn't bother contacting Conejo about this. My last attempt failed, and I was told I sent them "a screenshot of disabled offer as per the rules...Let's focus on the legitimate ways of publicizing our causes." Thing is, it wasn't disabled 3 hours previously when I used it. I have to wonder how many more of these sites are being used, and whether we have to hunt each individual one down and report it to get them to stop.

 

[eric_s]

I can only see your last post, did they delete the other 2 ones?

Edit: The easy cash link seems to already be down again, they seem to go up and down quickly...

And i wonder why this Indian guy would post that message on Vivint's board??

 

[helen41]

I can only see your last post, did they delete the other 2 ones?

Edit: The easy cash link seems to already be down again, they seem to go up and down quickly...

And i wonder why this Indian guy would post that message on Vivint's board??

rats! my post has ghosted. I can see it, friends can see it and Vivint can see it, but no one else can unless the admin of the Vivint site unhide it. There has been a lot of trouble with this the last 2 days. I am admin on a board and was unghosting posts every couple of hours yesterday
Eric when you say the link is inactive, does it take you to an app? I had 2 people try the link before I posted and it worked for them
Re the guy posting, I suspect it is another level of proof that he did the vote so he will get paid. There are some others doing the same on the wall. They are writing things like 'vote, I like, good' etc, just to prove they actually were at the site. Other people just take screenshots to prove it. This guy was just the first one with an open profile showing where he came from, I've been looking for clues for days

 

[Tuha]

They are really motivated to get this money. I think the only way which would stop them if Vivint would write them if they will not stop they will be disqualifie - but I think even then they would continue because they know that they will not win if they will play fair. The question is - will Vivint take an action against? they dont seem too motivated
I am going away for the weekend - good luck

 

[eric_s]

No, when i click the link all i get is an FB error message that says that the page could not be found. I think they took it down as soon as you posted.

 

[justinreilly]

I would like to be able to tell them we will pursue this, in case they start cheating again. I would not tell them now, only if there are new signs of cheating. Of course i would only do that if it's a valid option, if we "threaten" them with that but they find out it's not something they have to fear that would have the opposite effect of what we want to achieve.

And should they win the contest in the WPI's region (if they win overall i don't care), i would like to file a complaint. So that it's filed there, no matter wheter something happens or not. They might at least get an admonishment or there might be some inquiry, and if complaints pile up, at some point it might be too much.

Eric, ok, I guess my thoughts are the same that you could just threaten them and then if you get to the stage of making a complaint learn about it then. I know you disagree on this. And pursuing it after the contest may be some work that won't help us directly that much; but then again it may help us in the future if we are ever in another contest a complaint should have a 'chilling effect' on cheating then.

In an ideal world, i'd be healthier and help you on this, but obviously i, like everyone, have to choose to do what they most need to do, so good luck. fwiw, I can put my signature on the documents or letters if you think having a (nonpracticing) lawyer writing to them will make any difference.

I admire your passion and commitment and am so glad you're involved in ME advocacy!

 

[No Poster Girl]

Several things:

The EasyCash! app was the main one we found payments offered through in the Chase Community Giving contest. Helen, if you see the offer come up again, click on the title of the offer (which is in blue) and that might give you a link that others can use. And please send me the screenshots you took ASAP. I'll start another blog post.

I posted my blog entry on Vivint's wall. This link should take you right to it. Please like it if you can so Vivint knows there are a lot of eyeballs on it, and comment, too, if you feel moved to do so.

I am going to start posting my blog entry on the facebook walls of all the Vivint-participating charities. Justin has offered to help with this. I may need to take him up on that offer.

Justin, Conejo does *not* file Form 990. I looked all the VoteFive schools up on GuideStar during the Chase contest and used the filings from the ones that did file to find the names of their board members and administrators in order to know whose facebook profiles to scrape for friends lists. (Even without that, I was able to figure out which Southern CA rabbi was behind the whole VoteFive effort. It's the same person here.)

 

[helen41]

the frustrating thing is that I had a friend check the link minutes before I posted and it worked for her. I wonder if you need to be logged into facebook before you go to the site. would someone try?

 

[No Poster Girl]

I was, Helen. I still had the EasyCash app from when I accessed it during the Chase contest. I went through all the active offers and didn't find it.

 

[eric_s]

Ok, Justin, thanks. I think i will look into it before anouncing it to them, because i want to know the chances for success first. It's true that after the contest it would not help much anymore as far as the contest goes, but that's not why i would do it. I just wouldn't want them to get away with it. This is wrong and should not be allowed to happen. But of course we should better do it as long as it can still help with the contest. If we file a complaint i will contact you first, so we can see about the letter and signature.

 

[SpecialK82]

Just a few comments/questions because some of this is over my head:

- Would it be a better idea to call someone at Vivint while a link is working and give them the site so that they can walk through it and get the proof that they need in order to disqualifiy? I'm thinking that if we post sites as we find them, those specific sites may get disabled quickly but others may keep going......

- As far as the legal question, Justin, do you know if there is a legal body that exists that governs contests, lotteries, etc. I've always understood that to be the case, in order to ensure that the company running the contest doesn't cheat. For instance, they could fix it so that they would acheive a predetermined outcome. This governmental body would have some oversight abilities to ensure a fairly run contest. Just thinking, that this may be a route to go if Vivint does not disqualify them.....

 

[No Poster Girl]

I posted my blog entry to WPI's facebook page, and Andrea posted the following two things in return, which appear to be from Vivint. Holly is the person I was corresponding with at Vivint.

I have received notice of this website several times. I appreciate the diligence of everyone to keep this contest legitimate and full of integrity. I have contacted this organization to ask them to take this down. This post should be gone by the end of the day. It seems that it was posted by supporters of the organization and not the charity itself.

Please let me know if you have any questions

Thanks!

Holly

I really am impressed by everyone keeping an eye out as well as our team. Please also convey to your supporters that we welcome hearing about things like this and we try to take action as quickly as possible with each incidence.

This tells me that Friendship Circle attempted to claim that they weren't the ones who put up VoteFriendship.com. And while that may be technically correct, it's certainly splitting hairs. The "supporters" would be InvisionCA and pfr:events...under the direction of people at Conejo. Don't miss the pfr:events Products (big ol' vote button) and Pricing (they get a cut of your winnings) pages.

So this is potentially very good news, if true...but we still need to keep our eyes out for any more shenanigans. If you see anything suspicious between now and August 27th, please feel free to email me at imnopostergirl@gmail.com

Jocelyn

 

[No Poster Girl]

I can speak to the first question. These sorts of things - the offers for online currencies in exchange for votes/surveys/watching videos/etc. - are so evanescent that it's generally much easier, and totally accepted, to take screenshots of them. It's especially good to take a screenshot of the initial offer, then take a screenshot of each page as you walk through the offer. If you can get a permalink that works, like in the case of the Project Swag and SwagBucks Offer Zone blogs we saw in this case, save the link *and* take a screenshot.

My favorite screenshot tool is Awesome Screenshot, which is a free add-on you can use with Firefox or Chrome. It gives you a little camera lens in your browser toolbar and will capture the visible area, a selected area, or the whole page. Then it allows you to easily draw arrows, boxes, or underlines on the page, and save it. This is much easier than the old print screen -> Paint -> Save rigmarole.

Just a few comments/questions because some of this is over my head:
- Would it be a better idea to call someone at Vivint while a link is working and give them the site so that they can walk through it and get the proof that they need in order to disqualifiy? I'm thinking that if we post sites as we find them, those specific sites may get disabled quickly but others may keep going......

 

[helen41]

apparently Cherubs got a surge in votes last night. Someone contacted Charlie Sheen, of all people, on twitter and challenged him to support them http://www.upi.com/Entertainment_Ne...or-sick-kids/UPI-65971310677127/?spt=hs&or=en does anyone here twitter? It sounds like a great idea
Re the screenshots, I took pics of each screen as I voted for Conejo this morning and Vivent has them. They have the date and time at the bottom, so I think they will be convinced

 

[Nielk]

Charlie Sheen from all people? I wouldn't want him representing us!
although the idea of a famous person standing by us wouldn't hurt.