Fake finds

October 31, 2015

I just received (about 4 each) discoveries on 2 old & probably lost Travel Bugs plus one recent one I own.

Cacher's name was Thorning & by the profile pics seems to be a legitimate cacher but I don't think they ever saw these bugs. Anyone else having issues with this person?

21.9k · October 31, 2015

I am moving this thread from the Geocaching Topics forum to the Travel Bug forum.

3.8k · October 31, 2015

It's nothing newm. Nothing you can do except delete the log.

2k · November 1, 2015

I've had a few trackable codes get onto some scumbags list that gets passed around at events, and then they get logged a bunch of times, and then I have to delete. I have no idea what game those people are playing, it's not what I'm playing. Why log something you've never seen? I just don't get it.

There's an opportunity for HQ to come up with a selling a trackable tag that can only be logged via their app by using a cheap NFC tag. That would be pretty cool and much harder to cheat at.

2.1k · November 1, 2015

Cacher's name was Thorning & by the profile pics seems to be a legitimate cacher but I don't think they ever saw these bugs. Anyone else having issues with this person?

Yep. Just yesterday Thorning, presumably in Denmark, logged one of our travelbugs which appears to be on the US west coast.

Could be that the two just happen to be in the same place but I'm guessing Thorning is on a roll with bogus logging. 8700 trackable logs doesn't exactly ease my suspicions.

I am going to delete the log. If they can show me that I am wrong I will allow them to relog and I will report my error back here.

2.1k · November 1, 2015

Thorning and Wall--E are on a bogus logging spree. I checked several TB's logged by these guys and it is clear they have a list or are logging sequential numbers.

Here is one example

And this one is getting hit by several others too.

Poor epw. They must be getting tons of bogus discover logs and since they have not been active since 2003 they might be a bit confused by all this.

I don't recall now from past topics... does Groundspeak want to be notified about gross bogus logging or is it just too out of hand for them to handle?

10.1k · November 1, 2015

And then again... I found a cache in 2004 that had a TB listed as having been left there in 2003. It wasn't there, so I put it on my watch list. Lo and behold! It was discovered yesterday by a cacher in Sweden! But only one log. So I figure that was probably a typo by the Swedish cacher.

November 1, 2015

Yup, your bug ended up on Facebook. It seems that there is a group that looks for Trackables on the Geocaching home page. If you took a photo (or someone else took a photo) of the dogtag number, it probably was posted by this group on Facebook. Other people on Facebook can now use the dogtag number to post "Discovery" logs. I have a travel bug that has been missing for quite some time now. It has received hundreds of these "discoveries". The popularity seems to be mostly European people, and in particular Germany, but I've seen them from just about anywhere in the world. I have a posted a rather stern note on my travel bug's page, but that does not deter these FALSE discoveries. I have been deleting all of these discoveries the second they arrive.

2.1k · November 1, 2015

But only one log. So I figure that was probably a typo by the Swedish cacher.

Quite likely it was not an error. The discoveries by Thorning and Wall--E on my travelbug led me to check out their trackable logging and I saw immediately that they were bogus logging many TBs. If you look into the Swedish cacher's trackable logs you might see an immediate pattern.

9.2k · November 1, 2015

snip >< I have a posted a rather stern note on my travel bug's page, but that does not deter these FALSE discoveries. I have been deleting all of these discoveries the second they arrive.

With the introduction of the Groundspeak API, it's possible to log TB's without ever going to/reading the TB's web page.

November 16, 2015

TB owners can "lock" the TB so no-one can log it if they wish ... see this thread

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=335906

Edited November 16, 2015 by Auld Pharrrt

2.4k · November 16, 2015

TB owners can "lock" the TB so no-one can log it if they wish ... see this thread

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=335906

If they somehow obtained the tracking number, they could actually retrieve the travel bug from it's actual location and place it in any cache they wanted to right? With the tracking number they have the ability to completely mess up the location and miles of these travel bugs. I don't do it, but the fact that they are simply discovering them seems harmless to me. It could be worse comes to mind.

I guess it doesn't bother me as much as some. I just look at it as another side game of geocaching . If you're watching your trackables and monitoring uploaded photos you should be ok.

November 16, 2015

TB owners can "lock" the TB so no-one can log it if they wish ... see this thread

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=335906

If they somehow obtained the tracking number, they could actually retrieve the travel bug from it's actual location and place it in any cache they wanted to right? With the tracking number they have the ability to completely mess up the location and miles of these travel bugs. I don't do it, but the fact that they are simply discovering them seems harmless to me. It could be worse comes to mind.

I guess it doesn't bother me as much as some. I just look at it as another side game of geocaching . If you're watching your trackables and monitoring uploaded photos you should be ok.

I only posted that for information purposes.

Personally it doesn't bother me if people want to log "fake" discovery logs on any of my TB's, b ut I try to make it more difficult by keeping the tracking code off any pictures. When I first joined I did a google search and logged about a dozen discovered logs ... each was logged with a message similar to "I kinda discovered this" I have since deleted them all but a couple because of the novelty value (one on a person's arm and GCHQ.

2.4k · November 16, 2015

TB owners can "lock" the TB so no-one can log it if they wish ... see this thread

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=335906

If they somehow obtained the tracking number, they could actually retrieve the travel bug from it's actual location and place it in any cache they wanted to right? With the tracking number they have the ability to completely mess up the location and miles of these travel bugs. I don't do it, but the fact that they are simply discovering them seems harmless to me. It could be worse comes to mind.

I guess it doesn't bother me as much as some. I just look at it as another side game of geocaching . If you're watching your trackables and monitoring uploaded photos you should be ok.

I only posted that for information purposes.

Personally it doesn't bother me if people want to log "fake" discovery logs on any of my TB's, b ut I try to make it more difficult by keeping the tracking code off any pictures. When I first joined I did a google search and logged about a dozen discovered logs ... each was logged with a message similar to "I kinda discovered this" I have since deleted them all but a couple because of the novelty value (one on a person's arm and GCHQ.

Sorry I must have hit "reply" to your post. This was intended to be a separate post.

November 17, 2015

Thanks Auld Pharrrt, I activated the lock on my missing travel bug today. That particular bug had an image posted on facebook...not by me....but it was an image that I mistakenly showed the tracking code when I activated it. Someone "shared" that image within hours of my activation, without my permission or knowledge. I have since put the correct image on geocaching.com, but it is too late. But it kind of irks me that these people have changed the rules (albeit unwritten) to play the game their own way. In my opinion the base game "Geocaching" is by it's own definition, a REAL WORLD OUTDOOR ADVENTURE GAME. These Keyboard Geocachers have taken the outdoor part out of the game. What's next, people using Google Earth street view to find Geocache locations and logging them. I know that's extreme and hopefully unlikely, but that is the best illustration I could come up with to show how I see this subject.

5.7k · November 17, 2015

What's next, people using Google Earth street view to find Geocache locations and logging them. I know that's extreme and hopefully unlikely, but that is the best illustration I could come up with to show how I see this subject.

Nothing at all wrong with using Google Earth street view to find Geocache locations and logging them online after actually finding them and signing the log. It's geocaching without a GPS or phone app, lots of geocachers do it.

November 17, 2015

Thanks Auld Pharrrt, I activated the lock on my missing travel bug today. That particular bug had an image posted on facebook...not by me....but it was an image that I mistakenly showed the tracking code when I activated it. Someone "shared" that image within hours of my activation, without my permission or knowledge. I have since put the correct image on geocaching.com, but it is too late. But it kind of irks me that these people have changed the rules (albeit unwritten) to play the game their own way. In my opinion the base game "Geocaching" is by it's own definition, a REAL WORLD OUTDOOR ADVENTURE GAME. These Keyboard Geocachers have taken the outdoor part out of the game. What's next, people using Google Earth street view to find Geocache locations and logging them. I know that's extreme and hopefully unlikely, but that is the best illustration I could come up with to show how I see this subject.

I'm aware of using google earth as a tool, I do it myself. However, I was just trying to say if you do not physically go to a cache to log it, it is the same as logging a travel bug without actually physically, in person going to a cache location and finding or "discovering" it. I think discovery of a travel bug was intended to be a tool for other cachers to let the bug owner know, "Hey, I've seen your travel bug in a cache and it is safe and sound" "I just do not intend to move it along.".

November 17, 2015

TB owners can "lock" the TB so no-one can log it if they wish ... see this thread

http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=335906

If they somehow obtained the tracking number, they could actually retrieve the travel bug from it's actual location and place it in any cache they wanted to right? With the tracking number they have the ability to completely mess up the location and miles of these travel bugs. I don't do it, but the fact that they are simply discovering them seems harmless to me. It could be worse comes to mind.

I guess it doesn't bother me as much as some. I just look at it as another side game of geocaching . If you're watching your trackables and monitoring uploaded photos you should be ok.

I only posted that for information purposes.

Personally it doesn't bother me if people want to log "fake" discovery logs on any of my TB's, b ut I try to make it more difficult by keeping the tracking code off any pictures. When I first joined I did a google search and logged about a dozen discovered logs ... each was logged with a message similar to "I kinda discovered this" I have since deleted them all but a couple because of the novelty value (one on a person's arm and GCHQ.

Sorry I must have hit "reply" to your post. This was intended to be a separate post.

No problem

Thanks Auld Pharrrt, I activated the lock on my missing travel bug today. That particular bug had an image posted on facebook...not by me....but it was an image that I mistakenly showed the tracking code when I activated it. Someone "shared" that image within hours of my activation, without my permission or knowledge. I have since put the correct image on geocaching.com, but it is too late. But it kind of irks me that these people have changed the rules (albeit unwritten) to play the game their own way. In my opinion the base game "Geocaching" is by it's own definition, a REAL WORLD OUTDOOR ADVENTURE GAME. These Keyboard Geocachers have taken the outdoor part out of the game. What's next, people using Google Earth street view to find Geocache locations and logging them. I know that's extreme and hopefully unlikely, but that is the best illustration I could come up with to show how I see this subject.

You are very welcome ... glad I could help, I only recently found that out myself so it was fresh in my mind when I noticed your posting.

Thanks Auld Pharrrt, I activated the lock on my missing travel bug today. That particular bug had an image posted on facebook...not by me....but it was an image that I mistakenly showed the tracking code when I activated it. Someone "shared" that image within hours of my activation, without my permission or knowledge. I have since put the correct image on geocaching.com, but it is too late. But it kind of irks me that these people have changed the rules (albeit unwritten) to play the game their own way. In my opinion the base game "Geocaching" is by it's own definition, a REAL WORLD OUTDOOR ADVENTURE GAME. These Keyboard Geocachers have taken the outdoor part out of the game. What's next, people using Google Earth street view to find Geocache locations and logging them. I know that's extreme and hopefully unlikely, but that is the best illustration I could come up with to show how I see this subject.

I'm aware of using google earth as a tool, I do it myself. However, I was just trying to say if you do not physically go to a cache to log it, it is the same as logging a travel bug without actually physically, in person going to a cache location and finding or "discovering" it. I think discovery of a travel bug was intended to be a tool for other cachers to let the bug owner know, "Hey, I've seen your travel bug in a cache and it is safe and sound" "I just do not intend to move it along.".

They don't even need to use Google Earth ... in reality they could do it just using the geocaching maps, but they are entitled to play the game they want I guess, but it's not how I play it. I enjoy the "hunt" and getting out and about, but I have used google earth to help solve some parts of mystery and multi-caches. That way I'm armed with as much info as possible before I leave the house on a long hunt.

2.4k · November 17, 2015

Thanks Auld Pharrrt, I activated the lock on my missing travel bug today. That particular bug had an image posted on facebook...not by me....but it was an image that I mistakenly showed the tracking code when I activated it. Someone "shared" that image within hours of my activation, without my permission or knowledge. I have since put the correct image on geocaching.com, but it is too late. But it kind of irks me that these people have changed the rules (albeit unwritten) to play the game their own way. In my opinion the base game "Geocaching" is by it's own definition, a REAL WORLD OUTDOOR ADVENTURE GAME. These Keyboard Geocachers have taken the outdoor part out of the game. What's next, people using Google Earth street view to find Geocache locations and logging them. I know that's extreme and hopefully unlikely, but that is the best illustration I could come up with to show how I see this subject.

I agree that taking photos of travel bug codes and sharing them on-line is not how the whole travel bug concept was designed to work. You have a right to be upset about it. Everyone has a different idea on how the game should be played. Often times those ideas don't fit well with other cachers.

Mistakes and accidents happen all the time in this game. As long as there not malicious I don't get too worked up about them. In this case it seems like the acts were intentional but simply discovering the travel bugs really isn't hurting anything so don't worry too much about it. Locking the travel bug is an option but so is letting it travel along it's journey.

November 19, 2015

Thanks for all the great reply's & info.

I guess I'm just an old school redneck. If you didn't sign the log or actually have the TB in your hand, (with the exception of some tattoos ) you' don't get credit for it. Not on my stuff anyways.

Each to their own I guess.

Again thanks, I don't get on here often enough & need to get back in the habit!

November 20, 2015

Thanks for all the great reply's & info.

I guess I'm just an old school redneck. If you didn't sign the log or actually have the TB in your hand, (with the exception of some tattoos ) you' don't get credit for it. Not on my stuff anyways.

Each to their own I guess.

Again thanks, I don't get on here often enough & need to get back in the habit!

Yeah, that is pretty much how I look at it ... after all, I don't think people who build trains did it so train spotters could collect their numbers, aeroplanes the same, good God, even the Taj Mahal (at a guess though please do not quote me) probably wasn't built for tourists to go and eyeball, but all these, and many many more, get "collected" or "discovered" by tourists, so it's no real surprise that some cachers like to collect "discoveries" on TB's.

To me its a lot more pertinent that some unscrupulous people collect our TB's like stamps, effectively stealing them!

If you have TB's that are long lost, have you ever considered re-releasing a copy?

It's dead easy to do ... in fact I would even do it for you if you wanted (see my signature or profile info) ... I love the TB aspect of the game and I feel so strongly about the ones people have had go missing in action, that I came up with the idea (not original I know) to release a copy of any TB if the owner asks me ... I will only do it if the registered owner asks he provides me with the tracking code so I can log it. I think it's very sad and a great loss to the game that so many people have "lost" tb's just sitting doing nothing either in "Unknown Location" or taking up a space in a cache's inventory for years on end (there is one near me that has allegedly been sitting in a cache for 4½ years.) Neither the cache owner nor TB owner will mark it as missing and no-one else can do anything about it without the tracking code. At first this sort of thing annoyed me as a cacher, but now I consider it useful to know if a cache has been muggled at some time in it's history ... who knows, maybe it will be muggled again.

I do accept and understand that sometimes a TB might go missing in action as a result of loss, accident or even death and in any genuine case I would never hold any grudge or ill-feeling toward the last person to handle it. It's the theft, and only the theft of people's property, that gets me angry.

November 29, 2015

If you have TB's that are long lost, have you ever considered re-releasing a copy?

I knew I saw that tagline somewhere but couldn't remember who it was.

Email me if you would please.

November 29, 2015

If you have TB's that are long lost, have you ever considered re-releasing a copy?

I knew I saw that tagline somewhere but couldn't remember who it was.

Email me if you would please.

Email sent.

Edited November 30, 2015 by Auld Pharrrt

6.8k · November 29, 2015

If you're watching your trackables and monitoring uploaded photos you should be ok.

No, definitely not. For example in my corner of the world it becomes increasingly popular that after events lists of all the trackable codes of all trackables that have been at the event are posted as logs to the event (that could regard 50, 100 or even more trackables per event). (Previously at least these lists stayed within the limits of those who attended the event -now they are available as logs forever and worldwide. It does not help to write to those who post such logs and ask them to delete them and to refrain from posting such logs in the future. They just do not care and are so convinced that they do the right thing.

Due to tools like project-gc bulk discovered logs for a large lists of trackables are done within seconds. One just needs to copy and paste the code list from the logs and use it within project-gc.

While Groundspeak has no influence on what is shared on Facebook or on events, they could care at least a bit of what happens on their site and about educating cachers about trackables (the dos and don'ts) e.g. in their newsletter or in their blog.

Edited November 29, 2015 by cezanne

2.4k · December 1, 2015

If you're watching your trackables and monitoring uploaded photos you should be ok.

No, definitely not. For example in my corner of the world it becomes increasingly popular that after events lists of all the trackable codes of all trackables that have been at the event are posted as logs to the event (that could regard 50, 100 or even more trackables per event). (Previously at least these lists stayed within the limits of those who attended the event -now they are available as logs forever and worldwide. It does not help to write to those who post such logs and ask them to delete them and to refrain from posting such logs in the future. They just do not care and are so convinced that they do the right thing.

Due to tools like project-gc bulk discovered logs for a large lists of trackables are done within seconds. One just needs to copy and paste the code list from the logs and use it within project-gc.

While Groundspeak has no influence on what is shared on Facebook or on events, they could care at least a bit of what happens on their site and about educating cachers about trackables (the dos and don'ts) e.g. in their newsletter or in their blog.

Once you release the travel bug you have little control over what happens to it. The only thing you can do is monitor the logs and delete things as you see fit. I think Groundspeak dose care how travel bugs are handled but they have even less control over them than you or I. All of the education on the basics of geoaching and travel bugs is right here on this site. It's our job to educate ourselves. Asking Groundspeak to put an end to this practice is unreasonable for two reasons. First it's not really hurting anything. Second is lack of time and resources. As far as the whole on-line discovery thing. As long as their not altering the mileage or location I'm not going to get too worked up about it. If they are having fun discovering these travel bugs, and they're not hurting anyone, who am I to stop them.

6.8k · December 1, 2015

I think Groundspeak dose care how travel bugs are handled but they have even less control over them than you or I. All of the education on the basics of geoaching and travel bugs is right here on this site. It's our job to educate ourselves. Asking Groundspeak to put an end to this practice is unreasonable for two reasons. First it's not really hurting anything. Second is lack of time and resources. As far as the whole on-line discovery thing. As long as their not altering the mileage or location I'm not going to get too worked up about it. If they are having fun discovering these travel bugs, and they're not hurting anyone, who am I to stop them.

I was not talking about stopping discover logs. That would never work and discover logs have been introduced with a reason.

But devoting (part of) a single newsletter to the trackable issue could be a good idea and mentioning there that posting lists with trackable codes in event logs is bad practice would not do harm. Many newer cachers seem to read the newsletter (they are usually quicker informed about new souvenirs and things like that than myself) while they do not read the unstructured set of pages dealing with travel bugs. I also noted that e.g. for the blog a German version of many important posts is available, maybe also for the newsletter (I do not know this as I have many years ago unsubscribed due to a lack of interest and moreover I would never switch the language selection to German anyway).

Having long lists of trackable codes in event logs allows to abuse the system in a much wider way than what individual discover logs can ever manage to achieve.

August 11, 2016

Cacher's name was Thorning & by the profile pics seems to be a legitimate cacher but I don't think they ever saw these bugs. Anyone else having issues with this person?

Yep. Just yesterday Thorning, presumably in Denmark, logged one of our travelbugs which appears to be on the US west coast.

Could be that the two just happen to be in the same place but I'm guessing Thorning is on a roll with bogus logging. 8700 trackable logs doesn't exactly ease my suspicions.

I am going to delete the log. If they can show me that I am wrong I will allow them to relog and I will report my error back here.

Yeah the team known as "Thorning" are a bunch of liars and cheaters. I know it is a game, however just to log items to log them is stupid. My daughter was so very excited when she saw her travel bug, that has been missing for 12 years, come back to life. She was very discouraged to find out it was a liar claiming to have discovered it. So I looked at all our travel bugs and it is amazing, they have discovered all of them, even the two that are in my garage and have never been put in a cache. No wonder that Team Thorning has such impressive numbers, they just log what they want and call it a day. I have no time for such people!!! To all the honest Geocachers enjoy the hunt!

Edited August 11, 2016 by SmoothZalen

August 22, 2016

Today, I received notice that 6 of my Geocoins were found by the same person within a 24 hour window. Totally IMPOSSIBLE. Why? I have one of the coins in my garage and at least four of the 5 are either lost or in someone's private collection around the world on at least three different continents.

The user name is "Chup'a" and according to his profile he has found 1,683 caches and 6141 trackables and had only been a member since April 5, 2015.

Think about folks. Over 4 caches and nearly 20 trackables a day, every day,...

TOTALLY BOGUS. He has either hacked into the geocache database or discovered the algorithm to identify the tracking ID of trackables.

While I don't geocache much, (currently a stay at home dad of twin toddlers), I wish to do so more when my kids get bigger.

People like "Chup'a" will ruin geocaching if he is allowed to carry on.

Thank you,

isee3dtoo

August 22, 2016

I just looked and he has logged roughly 330 "TBP***" Geocoins in the last 3 days.

Have no idea how many fake travel bugs are on his list.

1.9k · August 23, 2016

Sounds to me like he is running a script that tries series' of trackable numbers and logs the ones that it finds. Not really geocaching, huh?

Sorry that it hit your bugs.

You are allowed to delete bogus logs.

7.3k · August 23, 2016

Today, I received notice that 6 of my Geocoins were found by the same person within a 24 hour window. Totally IMPOSSIBLE. Why? I have one of the coins in my garage and at least four of the 5 are either lost or in someone's private collection around the world on at least three different continents.

The user name is "Chup'a" and according to his profile he has found 1,683 caches and 6141 trackables and had only been a member since April 5, 2015.

Think about folks. Over 4 caches and nearly 20 trackables a day, every day,...

TOTALLY BOGUS. He has either hacked into the geocache database or discovered the algorithm to identify the tracking ID of trackables.

While I don't geocache much, (currently a stay at home dad of twin toddlers), I wish to do so more when my kids get bigger.

People like "Chup'a" will ruin geocaching if he is allowed to carry on.

Thank you,

isee3dtoo

Report it to Groundspeak.

http://support.Groundspeak.com/index.php?pg=request

If it's a bot/spammer, they can lock the account and delete all activity it created.

Even if it's not a bot, they can take action against the account that is abusing the terms of service.

B.

Edited August 23, 2016 by Pup Patrol

Fake finds

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