Suspiciously high scoring

I've also checked off some To Dos that I've done long ago. I don't mind that since it's not like people get points for doing that (currently). Besides, some of those To Dos that people have are one-time or rare things that I have no plans to do again, so I've hit "I've Done This" because I have.

...and Lars B.? Very likely a cheater. Sabine d. is highly suspicious as well.

We have a similar problem in Los Angeles. Someone has checked into every ride at Disneyland at least twice, not to mention the Disneyland parking structure, and Fireworks (which is an event, not a place you can even meet people at).

http://foursquare.com/user/-1336

This guy currently has 1463 points, while the #2 person in LA has 285!

I am following Jason F in Chicago and he went from 430 points yesterday to 706 = a jump of 276. I can't find him - he doesn't exist?

Shane L in Boston had an insane number of points this week. I did the math earlier on Sunday and it looks like he'd have had to have gone to 13+ new places (not in the foursquare database) every day that week.

I looked him up online and he's playing in Bangor, ME...not a Foursquare city...but logging them all in under Boston. Considering we're all down here in Boston going to places that are likely already in the system, this isn't exactly fair.

He's been playing for just 17 days and is the mayor of 31 places...since there aren't a whole lot of other people playing up in Bangor.

http://foursquare.com/user/-58435

Hey, thanks for the comment. This totally turned me off to playing foursquare. This truly was a "made up" person. I quit caring today. I just looked and Jason F from Chicago didn't move ahead, because I stopped. Very unfair.

Margot, this could be him? http://foursquare.com/user/-75590

Maybe someone told him he was doing it wrong. :P

I wouldn't worry about it too much. It's not fun to be constantly checking in every 5 minutes. He will probably lose interest and stop playing soon.

Hey K - thanks for looking. I don't think the link you sent could be "the Jason" I was looking for. He couldn't possibly get to 700+ in a week. I probably will never know - but I think he was a totally ficticious person.

It just made playing - not fun. For me, I have to put on a pair of reading glasses to check in - so there is some hassle involved. And I think I am going to take a break for awhile. Have fun!

We have the same problem in London. Since it's one of the newer cities to be added - it's to be expected that people are hitting a lot of points for adding and checking into new places - but there's some users consistently getting ludicrously high top scores (altho this week it seems a bit more sensible - I suppose people get bored when there's not a lot of incentive for being top-dog). That's why the friends-scores shine through as being more interesting/important.

This kind of behavior is happening in Cleveland, too. I'm hoping that after a while, things will chill out because there won't be as many new venues to add. Since CLE's only been on Foursquare just over a month, there's a lot out there to add and therefore a lot of points available for farming.

I don't think I've seen an official answer regarding this behavior.

Usually I have seen an employee from foursquare jump in - but they didn't when I was complaining. I think "they" manipulated the game and I didn't like it.

Dennis - let me know when you fix problem and I'll start playing again. Because as I said "there was no one named Jason F playing when I was complaining.

Someone in Toronto seems to be "gaming" the system as well. This person is actually in Ottawa (5 hour drive away, should be a different city) and they are creating venues (including fake venues) to accumulate the points.

This person has 167 Check ins with only 7 nights out... how can that be logical?

I can't wait for the changes to the game! Here's hoping the mobile apps make use of GPS co-ordinates (so I can't check in to a place across town).

I see some people that are gaming the system and I don't really mind it enough to stop playing; I'm not trying to get a high score among the city, I'm try to get personal high scores. Somebody will always beat you anyway, and what do you get for the highest score? It's like winning an argument on the internet, all you prove is that you cheated.

That being said I do wish there was a way to turn certain venues into "negative" venues just to encourage people to use the site correctly. Give local power-users or a voting system the ability to mark a venue as bogus. Then when people check in it will first warn them it's bogus, then if they keep doing it it will take away points. Maybe even give badges for people who repeatedly log in to bogus venues:

"X checked in from his cubicle 8 times in one week"
"X spent another night hanging out at the bus stop"
"X created 10 bogus venues to cheat other users"

If they're ruining the system for the rest of us why not point out the fact on their profile for all to see? Give points for playing correctly, take them away for cheating.

Hey - I was playing against a truly a "made up" person - Jason F from Chicago. Let me know when problem fixed.