Are these shills/users abusing the rating system?

Help Discussion in 'BeerAdvocate Talk' started by Chuckdiesel24, Dec 5, 2023.

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  1. Chuckdiesel24

    Chuckdiesel24 Grand Pooh-Bah (3,208) Jul 6, 2016 Illinois
    Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    I've noticed there are 5 user accounts that are clearly just shills to give 5 ratings to Modist Brewing. These users have done nothing on this site but rate 15-50 Modist beers at 5.0 in all 5 categories.

    It clearly messes with the ratings and one of the beers benefiting from this is actually the top rated beer in its style on this site.

    I doubt this is actually someone at the brewery doing this, so not trying to call the brewery out (I actually just had one of their beers and noticed it again - beer was really good!). I reported a couple of them a few months ago but seems like was nothing was done - just checking what the response is supposed to be on this?

    SmilezWithMilez
    BaileyMayM
    CockerDaniel
    DollysFollys
    TerribleBeer
     
    #1 Chuckdiesel24, Dec 5, 2023
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  2. Todd

    Todd Founder (13,518) Aug 23, 1996 Finland
    STAFF Mod Team Society Pooh-Bah

    (I cleaned up the banter, which wasn't helpful to this report.)

    Thanks for flagging this with more details. Reporting an individual rating doesn't provide much to go on and there are plenty of homers, and indiscriminate tickers, who give every beer that they rate a 5. This alone isn't against the rules and the system compensates for this over time.

    In this case...

    Findings: All five users can be traced back to a single, static IP address (business account) in Minneapolis and some of the accounts (including ones not listed above) are using an email domain that's associated with the brewery. There were several other indicators too.

    Actions Taken: Ratings have been purged, beer scores have been updated, and accounts have been banned. I'll issue an explanation to the brewery if needed, reminding them that this sort of behavior is a violation of Federal Trade Commission guidelines.

    Situations like this are rare on BeerAdvocate, but they'll always be investigated and handled accordingly when enough information is provided.
     
    #2 Todd, Dec 6, 2023
    jmdrpi, gatornation, emerge077 and 20 others like this.
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