I'm not sure if this is an isolated incident but this was posted in the NH forums (http://www.granitestategeocachers.org/community/index.php?topic=1537.0), figured I'd post it here just to give a heads up.


I woke this morning to ALL but 1 of my hides being found by User "AutoJoey" (http://www.geocaching.com/profile/default.aspx?guid=8037a190-fd4a-4d5c-b23f-7935310c712d)

This "User" signed up Sunday and has 1800+ Finds??

I dont think so..

I deleted the logs on my Hides.

Im thinking Groundspeak's computers have been infiltrated by a Hacker!!

DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK IN THE LOGS!!!

Updat @ 6:25am: Now up to 2000 finds.
This IS a BOT!

It brings you to some Wiki and has MALEWARE! (I know because when I clicked on it I lost my passwords and log in Info!!)

I notified our reviewer (NH) an hour ago (6:22AM) and he is trying to get Groundspeak to axe the account. Still a mess to clean up though.

I did a quick scan. This person seems to have hit only NH caches. I only looked at maybe a dozen or so pages (he's up to 2250 caches now).

Has anything like this ever happened before?

I don't recall anyone automating logs destructively before, but it certainly would not be hard to do. I'm guessing if it has happened, they were caught quickly. The timing on this was good though, Sunday night when logs have been coming in fairly heavy anyway, and when the left coasters and gc.com workers are asleep.

It does seem to be localized to NH, so my first guess is they started with a random cache there and then logged one of the nearest caches on that list and so on. If that is the case it will spread to other areas if it is not stopped in time.

I'm not sure as there is any need to delete the logs outside of concern for malware infection mentioned, once gc.com gets started I think they can delete them all.

Some of my NY caching friends have had the same thing happen. They have notified GC.COM.

We are in caching in Vermont and noticed that it happening here too. The caching name is JoeyBot and he logged over 1200 caches on 10/2.

Anniebananie

Happy to see this posted here. I had asked the NH website admin to post it here but presume he is working this AM.

Hopefully GC.com will take care of this.

3528 finds as of 10:00. I'm not sure what time gc.com starts their day, but it should not be long from now.

I just glanced, 3553 now.

The gang at gc.com have their work cut out for them.

I guess I was wrong about gc.com deleting the logs, so if you have any on your caches you should delete them yourself...


From NH Zamboni in the national forums:

Thank you for the e-mail messages and concern regarding the user "JoeyBot" / "AutoJoey" over the weekend. It's good to see how responsive and attentive the caching community has been to this issue. JoeyBot attacked Vermont Sunday logging about 1500 bogus cache finds. AutoJoey is currently logging finds in NH. For those of you who contacted me yesterday I immediately forwarded concerns to Groundspeak and JoeyBot has been banned from the website. Earlier this morning I contacted Groundspeak requesting bannination of the AutoJoey account.

For the health of your PC. Please do not click any of the links included in the found it logs.

Traditionally Groundspeak will only take action on cache logs in limited situations such as profanity and personal attacks that violate the Terms of Use Agreement. Other than that, taking action on someone's cache page is typically not performed. Please delete any bogus 'found it' logs from your caches. I regret the burden this places on the affected cache owners.

Thanks

Zamboni / Trevor
Geocaching.com volunteer reviewer for VT / NH

NativeMainer-"Has anything like this ever happened before?"The Groundspeak forums have been talking about various BOT attacks in this thread started 9-19-2010.

http://forums.groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=260242&st=0

I just glanced, 3553 now.

....ah, it really is about the numbers then. :D

As of 2:18PM the number of logs has dropped to about 3400. People are starting to delete the bogus logs.

The AutoJoey BOT was logging caches at the rate of about 500 per hour for about 7 hours before the plug was pulled. Although Groundspeak got official notification of the problem before 6:15AM, on the west coast everyone was in bed. It took another 4 hours and 1800 more bogus logs before the account was disabled.

Good News was recieved at noon today from Groundspeak that "Joey" was now a banned user.
That does not mean that other states wont get hit though..

Strange that it was a State by State hit, though...
AND not ALL of mine were logged either...

Stay vigilant and, yes Hollora, I was at work when I got your email.
Kind of hard to sneak around the shop with the iPod Touch posting on the internet..

Good News was recieved at noon today from Groundspeak that "Joey" was now a banned user.
That does not mean that other states wont get hit though..

Strange that it was a State by State hit, though...
AND not ALL of mine were logged either...

Stay vigilant and, yes Hollora, I was at work when I got your email.
Kind of hard to sneak around the shop with the iPod Touch posting on the internet..

:-) You are the best Bass Chaz.......no probs here - I think through the help of everyone it may be covered. God Bless!

This "cacher" found our new cache and twenty seven hundred seventeen other caches all yesterday. Now that's a numbers run!!
http://www.geocaching.com/profile/default.aspx?guid=fbd0115a-e5ba-4cd9-8b91-04e3ff1d6c8f

This "cacher" found our new cache and twenty seven hundred seventeen other caches all yesterday. Now that's a numbers run!!
http://www.geocaching.com/profile/default.aspx?guid=fbd0115a-e5ba-4cd9-8b91-04e3ff1d6c8f


they are hitting caches all over 3 states this morning....including maine!

This "cacher" found our new cache and twenty seven hundred seventeen other caches all yesterday. Now that's a numbers run!!
http://www.geocaching.com/profile/default.aspx?guid=fbd0115a-e5ba-4cd9-8b91-04e3ff1d6c8f

The blog site has pictures of hundreds if not thousands of the caches they have found, taken and destroyed!
They posted they found 5 of my caches..All in remote places. Do I need to check if they've been removed?
They evidently own the whole planet. Deeds to property don't apply to them.
(selfrightious God wannabees!):mad::mad:

I believe some of my caches have been hit too -I am deleting the logs! Here is one - but DO NOT CLICK IF THERE IS A LINK - I have no idea where it goes! "http://www.geocaching.com/images/icons/icon_smile.gif October 4 by ForestDefenders (http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?guid=fbd0115a-e5ba-4cd9-8b91-04e3ff1d6c8f) (3165 found)

Stop littering and destroying our fragile ecosystems! (protectsensitiveecosystemsdotblogspotdotcom/)"

I believe some of my caches have been hit too -I am deleting the logs! Here is one - but DO NOT CLICK IF THERE IS A LINK - I have no idea where it goes! "http://www.geocaching.com/images/icons/icon_smile.gif October 4 by ForestDefenders (http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?guid=fbd0115a-e5ba-4cd9-8b91-04e3ff1d6c8f) (3165 found)

Stop littering and destroying our fragile ecosystems! (protectsensitiveecosystemsdotblogspotdotcom/)"

It takes you to their Blog site!:eek:

If a sign says wet paint..... I can't help but touch it to see if it's true!!

If a sign says wet paint..... I can't help but touch it to see if it's true!!

Better you than me - what is on their dang site!

Better you than me - what is on their dang site!

He is describing why is he destroying all caches he finds.

This morning I looked at the list of caches that ForestDefenders supposedly found. They seem to be new caches that have been listed since May or June 2010. We physically checked a cache for another cache owner this morning and the cache is there and hadn't been touched. The interesting thing is that some of the caches are Premium caches that were logged.

By discussing this crap you have fallen right into what these loosers want.

By discussing this crap you have fallen right into what these loosers want.

Losers . . . not loosers.

Sorrry my computer is stilll fighting me.

By discussing this crap you have fallen right into what these loosers want.


It's a slow tuesday night.....what else is there to discuss? Radical wing-nuts seems to be a good suject!

I believe some of my caches have been hit too -I am deleting the logs! Here is one - but DO NOT CLICK IF THERE IS A LINK - I have no idea where it goes! "http://www.geocaching.com/images/icons/icon_smile.gif October 4 by ForestDefenders (http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?guid=fbd0115a-e5ba-4cd9-8b91-04e3ff1d6c8f) (3165 found)

Stop littering and destroying our fragile ecosystems! (protectsensitiveecosystemsdotblogspotdotcom/)"

They/he/she/it posted that stupid comment on Earthcaches, too. Since there is nothing physical left at an Earthcache, this bozo evidently doesn't know squat about caching, and likewise, has probably not been actually at any of the locations.

Sheesh! He/She is spamming caches here in Massachusetts as well. I was doing some planning for a few caches to find tomorrow before I go to visit
RULOST2?, and this (http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=9af85167-ce56-4605-a113-426665dacebb) is an example of what I found...

:mad::mad:

Please use contact@geocaching.com to report and suspicious geocaching.com activities.

Groundspeak is aware and addressing the issue.

Do follow any suspicious links!

Do follow any suspicious links!

I love this Tat. You're funny.

And to make matters worse, I must have copied and pasted that a dozen times.

"Do not follow any suspcious links"

I studied this guy's blog a bit. It seems he's on a crusade to rid what he considers to be fragile ecosystems of all geocaches and letterboxes. So far he's ransacked a couple of caches out in Washington state as well as quite a few letterboxes. His last blog entry was back in June. This attack on the GC.com site seems to be a new tactic, but so far just seems to be annoying.

I have my doubts that his crusade will get as big as he hopes, but it's always a good idea to keep vigilant.

Pretty sure this is the same person outside of the geocache bash: forestdefenderdotblogspotdotcom for forum saftey reasons so people who do not feel comfortable following links the . have been converted to "dot"

I studied this guy's blog a bit. It seems he's on a crusade to rid what he considers to be fragile ecosystems of all geocaches and letterboxes. So far he's ransacked a couple of caches out in Washington state as well as quite a few letterboxes. His last blog entry was back in June. This attack on the GC.com site seems to be a new tactic, but so far just seems to be annoying.

I have my doubts that his crusade will get as big as he hopes, but it's always a good idea to keep vigilant.

Can he be arrested?:mad:;)

Can he be arrested?:mad:;)

We can hope, but I'm not sure. I'm by no means any sort of legal expert (maybe I should spend the night in a Holiday Inn Express sometime ;)).

I heard this story once on the Podcacher podcast where someone in Germany was taking all the TBs out of caches. Some of the local cachers set a trap for this guy where they created a new cache and put a bunch of TBs in it and then managed to record his face and were able to directly confront this guy later on. My concern is that something like this is that this guy is attacking caches that have been long established, it would be rather difficult to set a similar trap. He's trying to remain anonymous but hopefully he'll either trip himself up or someone can trip him up.

Great idea for a trap! hahaha which someone would do that to the TB/Geocoin thief around here! =(

bahh wish not which... not doing so hott tonight!

I was looking up caches this morning near Grand Lake Stream and noticed a strange log, so I also took a look at "ForestDefenders" blog. I agree NativeMainer, it's a good idea to be vigilant about people like this~ so much anger for an activity that they don't understand, and haven't taken the time to research. It's interesting that his blog is set up so that no one has the ability to comment at all. He wants to have that "all mighty, I'm absolutely right about this" atmosphere to post in, because allowing others to post might inspire a reader to research on their own.

As far as not discussing it because by doing so we fall into their "trap".... knowledge is power. The more knowledgeable cachers are about this type of activity the better prepared we can be. Not just regarding what might be on an online log, or at a cache site, but also more thoughtful about what we can say in response to lies about geocaching and letterboxing. It's unlikely someone like this can make a huge impact, but we don't want him to make caching uncomfortable for people either. Creating awareness about trolls like this is a benefit.

Things like this always take me back to the "premium" vs "regular" caches argument though... =(

Things like this always take me back to the "premium" vs "regular" caches argument though... =(

For a long time my thinking has always been there should be a credit card or some other authentication of all new accounts, premium and regular. I know there's plenty of people who will say they would not have joined if there were such requirements, but it seems there would be a lot less abuse if all accounts had an actual name attached to them.

In this particular case, even members only caches were being logged.

Things like this always take me back to the "premium" vs "regular" caches argument though... =(

I don't recall any conversations about premium vs regular member caches, and I don't really want to bring up the subject. I've never quite seen the reason to have premium membership caches. The premium membership caches that I've done are no more nor no less special than any of the other caches that I've found. None of my caches are for premium members only, and I doubt they (and any future caches I place) ever will be.

People like ForestDefender are few and far between, we as an organization can replace caches far faster than one (or even a small handful of individuals) can wreck. I will not let an anonymous malcontented individual ruin my fun.

If you look past the tirade, FD does make a couple of points, such as the creation of geotrails and geotrash (which should be another topic). He's just taken to destroying the caches and letterboxes he finds, a fairly extreme measure he feels justified in doing.

If you read his blog, he's got some valid points. He's taking things to a huge extreme in destroying caches by all means, but there are some caches that are placed without consideration of what it might do to an area.

If you read his blog, he's got some valid points. He's taking things to a huge extreme in destroying caches by all means, but there are some caches that are placed without consideration of what it might do to an area.


First, I would like to apologize for the following rant. It's been a terrible day and I suspect that is tainting my perspective. :o

I honestly do not feel that he has any valid points at all. In fact, I percieve this FD to be, using cop lingo, a "Adam-Henry". His lack of common manners, lack of respect for other opinions, intentional disruption of logs and overall holier than thou attitude on his so called "blog" proves that he is nothing more than pond scum. A few years back when Plum Creek proposed development of land around Greenville a few "crusaders" attacked the house of a Plum Creek executive here in Oakland. They coated rocks with fresh orange paint, surrounded the house and tossed them into windows, narrowly missing the kids. The damage was fixable, but the family was terrified. A few weeks later, they moved out of state for fear of their kids safety. Unfortunately, we did not make any arrests, which bothers me to this day. It was cowardly, foolish and actually set more people up against their cause than anything else they could have done. FD is the cyber version of these jerks. When civilized people stand up for what they believe in, they do not hide in anonymity. Yes, we use geo-names, but it's not hard to figure out who we are. John Hancock was probably the most arrogant founding father, but he certainly did not hide his name. If FD wants to have a civilized conversation over litter and trails, that would be great. But cyber-attacks and stupid blogs make me want to go out and plant 10 more caches just to piss him off. I'm hoping that Karma gets him someday and he tries to steal a cache, and grabs a wasp nest instead. :eek:

Oh, and I sincerely hope I did not offend anyone. Please tell me if I did.

I basically thing the FD is much like a PETA extremist but for nature. Seriously, if you look at things from all sides, his idea is great in regards to preserving nature the exact way it is and letting it take its own untouched course but how he's going about it is completely wrong. I would certainly be mad if it was one of my caches he got a hold of. At the same time, I wouldn't be going out and placing a cache in an area that has endangered species of plants or anything.
Comparing the situation to Plum Creek, while it can be viewed in the same way, isn't really the same. FD is not going to Groundspeak's employees homes and damaging stuff and frightening their families with rocks through windows or anything. Hes out stealing $10 ammo cans full of McToys and if he's lucky, might take a trackable out of circulation The guy is an ass for going about it the way he is, but thats just the nature of those type of extremists and he's obviously just doing things publicly enough to try and raise support for the cause.

Oh, and I sincerely hope I did not offend anyone. Please tell me if I did.

No offense taken. I by no means condone what FD is doing. I merely meant that he's expressing some valid points the wrong way. We should take whatever means necessary to prevent someone like him from wrecking our game, short of violence, of course.

No offense taken. I by no means condone what FD is doing. I merely meant that he's expressing some valid points the wrong way. We should take whatever means necessary to prevent someone like him from wrecking our game, short of violence, of course.

Haven't we all learned that violence to get what you want is okay? Look at the extremist idiots who kill doctors who perform abortions. I, personally, don't believe abortion should be legal execpt in cases where the mother's life is in danger or the baby's life is in danger and neither can be saved any other way. Other acceptions would be in the case of rape, for example, on a case by case basis. Someone getting an abortion merely because they have an unwanted pregnancy should not be allowed.

Oh,oh. We might be moving into "politics" and I don't think this site encourages this type of discussion. Brdad can you chime in here?

Oh,oh. We might be moving into "politics" and I don't think this site encourages this type of discussion. Brdad can you chime in here?

"LIKE"


My mouthpiece hit the nail on the head

Oh,oh. We might be moving into "politics" and I don't think this site encourages this type of discussion. Brdad can you chime in here?

I already gave him what for Dan....this is neither the place or time for that discussion....no worries brdad

It is getting close to the edge, and it is a good topic, let's not ruin it by compromising the thread. Looks like Pam has it under control. :D

It is getting close to the edge, and it is a good topic, let's not ruin it by compromising the thread. Looks like Pam has it under control. :D

She can't.....haha

And perhaps what I should have said was more along the lines of I don't think abortion should be a "convenient form" of birth control.

I don't have to worry about that. The doc took the "bullets out of the gun" but it still makes people nervous when I point it at them! Ok, I better go to work now!:eek:




She can't.....haha

And perhaps what I should have said was more along the lines of I don't think abortion should be a "convenient form" of birth control.

I don't have to worry about that. The doc took the "bullets out of the gun" but it still makes people nervous when I point it at them! Ok, I better go to work now!:eek:
Strong words for someone who is carrying a .22. :)

Ha Ha Ha, I carry a 30.06 but it still shoots blanks....LOL oops, getting off topic here again.

and a .22 shoots straight, far and has no recoil! (That's it, I promise to stay on topic!):)



Strong words for someone who is carrying a .22. :)