As I occasionally encounter requests for downloads-for-downloads, likes-for-likes, boosts-for-boosts, and similar exchanges, I’m curious about how you handle such situations. Personally, I always decline these requests by referencing the Community Guidelines and Terms of Service, and I advise them against engaging in this fraudulent behavior with anyone else.
So far, I haven’t reported anyone, as these individuals are generally friendly, though they may have a somewhat misguided moral compass. I believe everyone deserves the opportunity to reflect on their behavior and adhere to the rules.
How do you deal with these situations?
@MakerWorld
Should we report these individuals immediately? Could we face any repercussions for not reporting them? The issue is that we can’t be certain if these individuals continue this behavior with others when we decline their requests. However, I believe it might be better to let them proceed so the system can identify and ban all parties involved.
Via the Makerworld message system. This makes it even more perplexing. Consequently, I am uncertain whether they genuinely do not recognize this behavior as fraudulent or if they simply don’t care.
Wow. I saw this kind of open posts before on other places such as Reddit. But I would never expect them on MW’s own message system.
It’s expected that download traders will expand into boost trading. But sending out such solicitations on MW is a sign of boldness.
You should definitely report them, even though you are not obligated to, and even though reporting them probably won’t stop boost trading because the account sending out the solicitations is just one of many accounts that they have.
These are not innocent friendly users :). They will destroy the reward system if they succeed.
Anyone going along with their requests will end up blocked and penalised once these harvesters are caught as the assumption will be; that anyone exchanging boosts or other merit for points trick is also a bad actor.
To detect such behavior, all messages would have to be scanned and suspicious messages would have to be read by employees. I wonder if this is even allowed in many countries. There are data protection laws.
It’s much simpler than that. The system can compare boosts received versus boosts given. If there is a significant overlap, it could be considered suspicious. Messages between these accounts can then be used for further investigation. That’s how I would approach it.
Yes, and that is exactly the situation I have been describing. They don’t ask me to be part of a boost chain. They ask me to give them my boosts in return for their boosts. The fraud is simple as well as the detection.
It seems like this topic is getting quite heated. Accusing me of advocating for fraud is a serious allegation. I believe it’s in both our interests to avoid continuing this conversation under these circumstances.
I am still waiting for @MakerWorld to respond to the questions I specifically addressed to them.
We need a way to report comments/messages sent to us. Right now all one can do is delete comments, or block the sender. I think that’d be the best way to deal with stuff like this. I realize one could report the user and include all the details, but it’d be ncie if it could be done right from within the messaging page. To report a comment or the whole conversation, so it automatically sends all the transcripts over.
Also, I think you two are arguing over which hammer to use, forgetting that you’re both talking about trying to hit the same nail
Uhl isn’t a hammer in the face type, and so was asking what the diplomatic approach here is, if one. I can relate; I don’t like scammers, but part of me still wants to give the world the benefit of the doubt.
Everyone just said nah dawg, report it and moveeeee on.
Then everyone got in the weeds trying to talk about how Bambu could tackle these issues at a higher level.
At it’s core though, I think we all agree, report it. The perfect system may not be in place to catch and prevent this stuff, but the more we individually report these things, the cleaner the platform has a chance to be.
report it, and I’d block the sender. In addition, I’d NEVER boost or even print something from one of these guys. You are running the risk of Bambu banning you…
While your summary is quite good, there are additional points to consider:
It’s more beneficial to ban both cheaters if the system identifies two offenders after a fraud incident, rather than just one.
Currently, creating a support ticket for such issues consumes time and effort on both ends with each occurrence. Automating detection would save valuable time and resources, especially considering the scale at which these incidents likely occur.
Reporting violations has been a frustrating experience historically. Despite clear and obvious violations, the response rate has been below 5% in my experience, and these reports have often resulted in no consequences.
MW can’t do that because these are private messages. I would have a bigger concern if they do
MW can create a report button to allow a user to pull in a screenshot of the message, or even better to automatically include the solicitation message but without the ability for MW to go see any other private messages. In the meantime, you can create a ticket for this case while MW evaluates how best to address this issue.
