Phoenix Rising close to winning $10,000 - Last few days. Vote now!

Sherlock
Merry said:
Read an article, published on the 16th, about allegations of fraud in the Chase Community Giving contest:

http://www.prlog.org/11975146-charities-try-to-cheat-their-way-to-chase-millions.html
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That was kind of what I had been alluding to earlier. As it happens, I have an FB account that I'd used a few times a couple of years ago. Otherwise, I'd be embarrased to say that I use FB. So my account is not new, but not exactly active, either.

Merry, I just read that article you cited. So it occurs to me that those 'bot networks' with computers taken over by hackers would be ideal for that kind of cheating: different computers from all over the world, each with an established FB account, probably friending each other, too. Have you saved the leaderboard so that you'll see if any rankings change? Since the finalizing of results is delayed, there must be some manual intervention involved in checking out suspect votes.

We live in an age of lying and cheating, where winning is all that matters to most people.
 
Merry
Sherlock said:
That was kind of what I had been alluding to earlier. As it happens, I have an FB account that I'd used a few times a couple of years ago. Otherwise, I'd be embarrased to say that I use FB. So my account is not new, but not exactly active, either.

Merry, I just read that article you cited. So it occurs to me that those 'bot networks' with computers taken over by hackers would be ideal for that kind of cheating: different computers from all over the world, each with an established FB account, probably friending each other, too. Have you saved the leaderboard so that you'll see if any rankings change? Since the finalizing of results is delayed, there must be some manual intervention involved in checking out suspect votes.

We live in an age of lying and cheating, where winning is all that matters to most people.
Click to expand...

No, I haven't saved the leaderboard. I suppose I could, if I were energetic. And shortly I have to leave the house for an appointment.

"We live in an age of lying and cheating, where winning is all that matters to most people." I don't know about that. How do we measure that and compare to earlier ages?

It's certainly an injustice -- let's call it a crime -- that those of us who are ill with ME/CFS have to beg for money.
 
Sherlock
Kina said:
taniaaust1 == you asked about FB tracking, here is an article http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/how-to-stop-facebook-from-tracking-you.html

Kina :)
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Thanks, Kina. I suppose I might install one of those.

I always have google cookies blocked in Firefox (which has degraded into a terrible browser, another story). That's probably why I could not complete the voting process with it, I had to use another browser. FB must have wanted to check in with google before letting the voting process continue. It would make devious sense for FB to be jointly privacy-invading with anyone they can, and google is the worst privacy invader on the planet Yet the public thinks they look smart when they go around saying "google it".

Just wait for stories about gigantic leaks of medical records held by google. The expose' will happen long after the actual thefts.
 
Sherlock
Merry said:
"We live in an age of lying and cheating, where winning is all that matters to most people." I don't know about that. How do we measure that and compare to earlier ages?
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That's easy to compare in something very visible like sports. NFL and steroids, that baseball player who was gambling on his own games and had fans defending him, Lance Armstrong being defended for epo, the list is endless. I won't even mention politics because that gets too divisive.
 
Simon
Re cheating now vs then:
Sherlock said:
That's easy to compare in something very visible like sports. NFL and steroids, that baseball player who was gambling on his own games and had fans defending him, Lance Armstrong being defended for epo, the list is endless. I won't even mention politics because that gets too divisive.
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Don't forget, cheating through drugs in the Tour de France started on around day 1, a hundred years ago. It's only in the last 25 years it became seen as an issue at all, and only in the last 10 that people seriously tried to stop it. Seems to be having some effect: the average climbing power of the top cyclists in the Tour has dropped about 20% in the last decade
 
U
Sherlock said:
That was kind of what I had been alluding to earlier. As it happens, I have an FB account that I'd used a few times a couple of years ago. Otherwise, I'd be embarrased to say that I use FB. So my account is not new, but not exactly active, either.

Merry, I just read that article you cited. So it occurs to me that those 'bot networks' with computers taken over by hackers would be ideal for that kind of cheating: different computers from all over the world, each with an established FB account, probably friending each other, too. Have you saved the leaderboard so that you'll see if any rankings change? Since the finalizing of results is delayed, there must be some manual intervention involved in checking out suspect votes.

We live in an age of lying and cheating, where winning is all that matters to most people.
Click to expand...

There are forums where you can buy various accounts inc. facebook along with sets of credit card numbers. Or simply rent a bot for a while. There is probably more money to be made using them for sending spam and click fraud than in a charity competition.

Its worth noting that their fraud detection system wouldn't detect the use of stolen facebook accounts.
 
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