TL;DR What you are about to read is a detailed and total exposure of the scammers behind content website orcz.com and astroturfed subreddit /r/FortniteBattleRoyale. All of this research is independent and my personal doing as a direct result of having my OC stolen 4 times.
In case you do not already know, /r/FortniteBattleRoyale has been ripping all the top content off /r/FortNiteBR every day, non-stop, for months. They even go as far as to directly copy announcement posts, see here vs. here. After having 4 of my own OC posts stolen by /r/FortniteBattleRoyale, I got upset and decided to dig into the subreddit to see what I might be able to find. Well... I found out A LOT (and I am here to share it all with you here today)!
First of all, on June 23 I reported all my findings to the Reddit admins via DM to /r/reddit.com and got a response saying "Thanks for alerting us to this." I followed up a month later on July 27 asking why no action has been taken - and I got no response.
It is August 22 and nothing has been done. The content stealing continues to run rampant and no bans or suspensions have been issued. Here's the entire message with all my findings I sent the admins on June 23 (A * indicates things that have changed in the past two months):
Hello,
I've discovered a network of ban evading accounts who all work for the gaming forum http://orcz.com and have been abusing and astroturfing Reddit for 7 years.
DISCOVERY
A huge and current problem is that /u/MinimumComfortable is taking the front page posts from /r/FortNiteBR every single day and posting them to /r/FortniteBattleRoyale while pretending he made all the content. If you check his profile, he has stolen exactly 621 posts from the front page of /r/FortNiteBR in 4 months and claims he made every single one.* I have personally had 4 of my own posts stolen and claimed by this user.
This upset me, so I decided to research the /r/FortniteBattleRoyale subreddit and I noticed that 98 of the 118 sidebar links go to http://orcz.com... which is a gaming wiki covered with ads. This is where things start to get interesting.
It's no coincidence that the creator of /r/FortniteBattleRoyale, /u/Mirrankid, is banned from Reddit for spamming orcz wiki links and that the sidebar of /r/FortniteBattleRoyale is conveniently full of http://orcz.com links as well.
Take a look at this comment from 7 years ago where the user recommends a forum called RarityGuide.com. If you look at this ICANN WhoIs listing for RarityGuide.com you see the registrant name/organization is RarityGuide Inc. Now, if you look at the ICANN WhoIs listing for orcz.com… the name/organization is the same: RarityGuide Inc. As a matter of fact, here are all 35 different domains registered and owned by RarityGuide Inc..
/u/Mirrankid, original creator of /r/FortniteBattleRoyale, works for RarityGuide Inc. This proves the goal of /r/FortniteBattleRoyale, including the mass stealing of content from /r/FortniteBR on a daily basis, is to phish Redditors who think they are on the official Fortnite subreddit and guide them to orcz.com (covered in advertisements) via astroturfing. So far, 61,000 Redditors have been tricked into subscribing*, and that number grows as Fortnite grows in popularity. In my search, I also discovered that in addition to the 621 posts stolen by /u/MinimumComfortable, 2 month old account /u/zubadrat has stolen 247 posts following the same exact pattern.* He also frequents the same subreddits as the moderators of other orcz astroturfed subreddits (listed later).
As I mentioned, /u/Mirrankid is already banned for spam. However, this person and multiple people within the RarityGuide Inc. organization are using alt Reddit accounts to continue pushing their spam agenda. This brings me to...
WHO ALL IS INVOLVED?
The following alt accounts are connected to RarityGuide Inc and are complicit in phishing, astroturfing, and stealing content without giving proper credit:
ALTS THAT THE ADMINS NEED TO SUSPEND:*
/u/MinimumComfortable (4 months old) stole and claimed ownership of 621 posts from /r/FortNiteBR to populate /r/FortniteBattleRoyale
/u/Zubadrat (2 months old) stole 247 posts from /r/FortNiteBR to populate /r/FortniteBattleRoyale
/u/Eleluk (4 months old) pushed this Fortnite orcz wiki and currently moderates /r/FortniteBattleRoyale
/u/VinceDonYT (2 months old) moderates /r/FortnitePS4 (created at the same time as /r/FortniteBattleRoyale and is astroturfed by orcz)
/u/G-Perfection (1 year old) created /r/FortnitePS4 (created at the same time as /r/FortniteBattleRoyale and is astroturfed by orcz)
/u/command3r_ISA (3 months old) moderates /r/FortnitePS4 (created at the same time as /r/FortniteBattleRoyale and is astroturfed by orcz)
/u/Derfad (5 years old) steals content from /r/FortNiteBR to populate /r/FortniteBattleRoyale and moderates orcz astroturfed subreddits /r/ARK, /r/CallofDutyWW2, /r/eternal, and /r/Bless_Online
/u/Gyex (5 months old) moderates /r/FortniteBattleRoyale and 9 other orcz astroturfed subreddits
/u/Shakse (4 months old) moderates /r/FortniteBattleRoyale and 6 other orcz astroturfed subreddits, also frequents /r/Fremont indicating geo-locality to RarityGuide Inc’s listed address in Palo Alto, CA
/u/Rilissunt (4 months old) moderates /r/FortniteBattleRoyale and 2 other orcz astroturfed subreddits
/u/Akronymm (2 months old) moderates /r/FortniteBattleRoyale
/u/NoMansSkyWiki (1 year old) has only made one Reddit post, to an orcz wiki
/u/Pokemon_Go_Wiki (1 year old) has made two posts, one of which is to an orcz wiki
/u/Adegos currently moderates /r/CallofDutyWW2, an orcz astroturfed subreddit
...and many more accounts either I don’t have the energy to keep digging into, or are hiding behind the scenes
ALREADY SUSPENDED:
/u/Mirrankid created /r/FortniteBattleRoyale and has spammed forum links on Reddit for 7 years
/u/Beorhtio pushed this Ashes of Creation orcz wiki link
/u/Terrarianna pushed orcz as a place for /r/IndieGames to start a wiki 5 years ago… and pushed another site owned by RarityGuide Inc.
/u/Flightoff pushed orcz challenge guides to /r/Breath_of_the_Wild
/u/koronto, /u/Ygipt, /u/Mointch, /u/Gazzwo, /u/Hissfio, /u/UpsieDownie,and /u/Ulikoth all pushed the Fortnite orcz wiki to /r/FortniteBattleRoyale and other places
/u/Monotrak was complicit in astroturfing /r/projecteternity /u/FortniteBattleRoyale was an original moderator of /r/FortniteBattleRoyale
/u/Tejjjj was an original moderator of /r/FortniteBattleRoyale
/u/Absolvery was an original moderator of /r/FortniteBattleRoyale
ACTIONS I REQUEST THE ADMINS TAKE
-
Permanently ban every alt account associated with orcz.com and RarityGuide Inc (listed above).
-
Permanently ban the subreddit /r/FortniteBattleRoyale, the astroturfed subreddit full of 867 posts confirmed as stolen directly from /r/FortNiteBR.*
-
Permanently ban the following autoturfed subreddits managed by RarityGuide Inc: /r/FortniteBRuniversity, /r/FortniteBRteams, /r/FortniteEsportsTeams, /r/FortniteBRLetsPlay, /r/FortniteSavetheWorld, /r/NintendoFortnite, /r/FortniteNintendo, /r/FortnitePS4, /r/ARK, /r/Battleground, /r/Walkthrough, /r/PoeDeadfire, /r/PoE2, /r/PillarsofEternityII, /r/NintendoNES, /r/Bless_Online, r/NoMansSkyNEXT, /r/Satisfactory_Game, /r/Eternal, /r/EarthNight/, /r/CallofDutyWW2, /r/FalloutV, /r/JurassicWorldEvolutio, /r/Sea_of_Thieves, and /r/Escape_From_Tarkov.
-
Remove all orcz.com spam links from Reddit, including subreddit sidebars. Here's a non-exhaustive list of subreddits the creators of orcz.com have infiltrated the sidebars of (of which they do not have full control): /r/nomanshigh/, /r/DivinityOriginalSin, /r/lawbreakers, /r/Breath_of_the_Wild, /r/Battleborn, /r/fo4, /r/Borderlands2, /r/RogueLegacy, /r/SimCity, /r/alienisolation, /r/LV426, /r/Spintires, and more.
CLOSING
Let me leave you with this quote from our main man and creator of astroturfed /r/FortniteBattleRoyale… /u/Mirrankid: “It's actually unethical I think for moderators to promote one [wiki] over the other as people may think they have some personal agenda.”
Cheers,
end message to admins
In the two months since I first did this research, the following new developments have occurred...
- The admins have not banned /r/FortniteBattleRoyale, or any associated subreddits/accounts (add 2 months to all the account ages above)
- Fake /r/FortniteBattleRoyale gained 20,000 new subscribers (33% increase)
- The orcz.com creators have made more alts and are using them to steal and claim more OC from /r/FortNiteBR
- /r/FortniteBattleRoyale has partnered with the creators of unofficial subreddit /r/Fortnite_Mobile to further their agenda and trick more people
What can you do, /r/FortNiteBR?
Read the post! Do not let /r/FortniteBattleRoyale off the hook. Spread word about this issue in this subreddit. Message the admins if you feel so inclined. I've done what I can, now you do what you can.
Thank you very much for taking the time to read this. Cheers.
Edit: typo fix
Submitted August 22, 2018 at 03:50PM by i-comment-all-emojis https://ift.tt/2LkXVud https://ift.tt/eA8V8J
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