Fake Cacher

[+jellis]

A new cache came out and I was thinking about going after it. But a cacher logged a find with only a letter "a" on it. I thought oh well. I later checked out why they didn't say anything else. Well it turns out yesterday they claimed to be in France but today they are logging new caches all over California. From the desert of SoCal to SF to East Bay.

FLORIANFILOU

[jholly]

I never heard of anyone doing anything like that. Wonder why they would do something like that?

[Pup Patrol]

A new cache came out and I was thinking about going after it. But a cacher logged a find with only a letter "a" on it. I thought oh well. I later checked out why they didn't say anything else. Well it turns out yesterday they claimed to be in France but today they are logging new caches all over California. From the desert of SoCal to SF to East Bay.

FLORIANFILOU

 

Might want to check their profile:

 

https://www.geocaching.com/profile/?guid=597f6ac7-bf79-4240-accf-d8c4fcb5328e

 

It's up to the CO's in California to check their log books, and delete any bogus "finds".

 

B.

[+Manville Possum]

Looks like they are qualifying for the armchair alphabet A-Z challenge cache.

[+jellis]

A new cache came out and I was thinking about going after it. But a cacher logged a find with only a letter "a" on it. I thought oh well. I later checked out why they didn't say anything else. Well it turns out yesterday they claimed to be in France but today they are logging new caches all over California. From the desert of SoCal to SF to East Bay.

FLORIANFILOU

 

Might want to check their profile:

 

https://www.geocaching.com/profile/?guid=597f6ac7-bf79-4240-accf-d8c4fcb5328e

 

It's up to the CO's in California to check their log books, and delete any bogus "finds".

 

B.

Yeah I should have said fake logs. He/she had more earlier so I guess I'm not the only one who noticed. There are two old ones that COs no longer active.

[+The A-Team]

I never heard of anyone doing anything like that. Wonder why they would do something like that?

It happens fairly often, but you usually don't hear about it unless the person logs a massive number of caches and/or some high-profile caches. This person seems to have limited their activities to a handful of caches, so there's minimal impact. Even if some of the logs don't get deleted, most people will be able to recognize that their logs are bogus and ignore them.

 

As for why, I'd say most cases can be filed under two headings:

-Boredom: "I'm bored, I'm going to bogus log a few caches in California"

-A mild sense of malice: "Ha ha, I'm going to mess with people in California by bogus logging a few caches"

[+jellis]

It was about 25 before COs started deleting the logs. Half were really old caches and the other half were brand new ones. Like the one I was going to get but they would have to have gone during park curfew to actually find it plus a mile and a half in the dark.

(Add)Range from Southern California to Sacramento to Bay Area to Klamath in the Northern California.

Edited April 9, 2016 by jellis

[+jellis]

Same cacher is at it again.

[+jellis]

Well heard from GS and they said they gave the cacher a warning. Not sure if that was before or after they logged 21 more caches they didn't actually go to. Another CO also sent GS a letter after they checked their cache to find no signature and asked the cacher why they are doing this. They replied in bad english, basically they can do whatever they want.

Edited April 13, 2016 by jellis

[kablooey]

Groundspeak can't offer us any other support and just expects us to badger the individual cache owners?

Edited April 14, 2016 by kablooey

[+4wheeler]

The spurious finder has 4 caches and an event of his own so just post a couple of hundred phony finds on his

[+jellis]

Some of the French COs feel the same way about this cacher and Groundspeak.

Edited April 14, 2016 by jellis

[+NanCycle]

The spurious finder has 4 caches and an event of his own so just post a couple of hundred phony finds on his

 

I don't want to get a souvenir for France when I never have and never will really be there. But we could flood his event with phony "Will Attends."

[+jellis]

The spurious finder has 4 caches and an event of his own so just post a couple of hundred phony finds on his

He posted an event and you should read one of the logs. I had nothing to do with that. But someone in France noticed what he did in California.

[+Manville Possum]

The spurious finder has 4 caches and an event of his own so just post a couple of hundred phony finds on his

 

I don't want to get a souvenir for France when I never have and never will really be there. But we could flood his event with phony "Will Attends."

 

Why would you want to do that?

[+Seek2FindMe]

I was contacted very recently by a cacher in France who is developing a puzzle. He wanted permission to log my events from the past so he could use those logs as part of the puzzle solving process. This sounds like it might be the same guy. He wanted to log a lot of California finds.

[+The A-Team]

I was contacted very recently by a cacher in France who is developing a puzzle. He wanted permission to log my events from the past so he could use those logs as part of the puzzle solving process. This sounds like it might be the same guy. He wanted to log a lot of California finds.

If I received such a request, I'd advise them that since they didn't attend the event/find the cache, I'd be willing to allow them to submit a note log. I wouldn't allow them to log a bogus find, though. If their puzzle depends on them logging bogus finds on caches, then they need to revisit their idea.