This yelp-user, Thomas B., just tried to add me - and I almost accepted without thinking since we were "connected" substantially since so many of you have already friended him:
yelp.com/user_details?us…

So the question I have for the analytical minds here in Sacramento Yelp, do you think this user could be a spammer, a sleeper-troll, a very sophisticated bot, or merely a user plagiarizing other Yelpers content?

Exhibit #1:  one of the first things I do when deciding to accept a friend-request from another Yelper is to check if their pictures are "legit" - I spotted this picture of Seafood pasta from Spaghettini by "Thomas B." taken on March 6, 2016:
yelp.com/user_local_phot…

Only problem is that upon review, it appears that Thomas B. stole this pic from Jasson C. who posted it first on Jan 30, 2016 - Thomas B. merely cropped the image and reversed-image it before posting.it.
yelp.com/biz_photos/spag…

EXHIBIT #2:  but as if doing it once is not bad enough, Thomas B. posts a 2nd picture to Spaghettini, also stolen from the same user, Jasson C:
yelp.com/user_local_phot…

..with the same M.O., cropped, and reversed image before Thomas B. re-posted it as his.  But, jesus - 2 pictures in a row from the same user and in the same sequence even on Spaghettini's Yelp site?  Just crass.

And many of the other pictures of these generic landmarks Thomas has reviewed show through a google image-check they've been absconded from brochure websites.  But to be honest, the pictures stolen from Jasson and other Yelp-users I consider to be a far worse offense.

But other shit too:

* Most of his reviews don't have check-ins commensurate with them (admittedly not fatal, but definitely suspicious, and a red flag for "did you even visit the business?")

* And 355 reviews written in just 3 months since "he" joined in Dec 2015?   Over a 100 reviews (albeit short) a month?  That's more dedicated than William L. and myself COMBINED.

My curiosity is definitely piqued!  What nefarious purpose do you thing for someone to have dedication of re-posting other Yelper's pictures and writing fake reviews?

Is my analysis of this Yelper askew?  Any helpful insights from the great brain-power on Sacramento Talk?  :D

He's just trying to bring selfies back to yelp. There simply weren't enough before.

I think he might be some kind of spammer from all the pics of naked abs and selfies. That sure is a lot of dedicated copy and paste of images and I suspect reviews.

Very very odd.

If it looks like a skunk and smells like one...  It ain't a duck.

Anomalies and coincidences happen occasionally.  When they start to produce multiples, you have developed a pattern.  When you have a pattern, you have an MO.

Once you have an MO, you have something you can track and follow - and it usually leads to the same person.

This is usually propagated very easily in social media by people adding "friends" they don't know, and accepting any and all invitations - thereby granting legitimacy to the person and profile.  "So and so knows him or her, so they must be ok."

There are a lot of "intelligent" technologies now that allow systems to perform these types of actions through automated scripts.

Good hunting to you...  Maybe now you'll stop making fun of my hunting cap.  :)

On face value, his profile looks legit but his pictures definitely look way too "catfishy".The reviews are brief and read like a teenager wrote them, but I've seen worse.  I wonder why anyone would go through so much effort?

As for Brett's point, when I first joined, I pretty much friended anyone who sent me a request. But I soon found that I found no value in friending people outside of my cities of interest (Northern & Southern Cal). Plus as I read people's reviews or Talk comments, I have started deleting ones who I wouldn't friend in real life.

Now I'm more selective and try to connect with the Yelpers I meet IRL.

He 'stole' two of my photos and added them to his review of the USS Arizona Memorial. I reported to Yelp and they deleted from his page

Aw, sorry, May.  I noticed this in the last couple of days with some other mutual friends too.

"Thomas B." and a few other users caught in the last few days have the M.O. of a specific kind of troll-shill they refer to as a "mercenary."  

* If you notice, the "Thomas B." profile has an inordinate number of 5-Star reviews when compared to the other rating-categories, and,

* Is "hired-out" to many of those businesses "buying" those 5-star reviews looking to bump up their overall rating.

These mercenaries used to be based in places like Malaysia and the Czech Republic, but those weren't sophisticated enough to keep from being caught by scrutiny of Yelp's software security, and mainly by other Yelpers like us, who noticed the brash plagiarizing of other Yelper's review content - but when you see one of these fake profiles using a review from a restaurant to describe a dry cleaners, well, that kind of stupid is hard to cover up.

However, these fake users are a bit more sophisticated and home-grown, especially since a few of the reviews have check-ins.

I think I will delete him now... thank you, Michelangelo! you're our Yelp Wikipedia! and before it turns Thursday, 17th, in 9 minutes... HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Haha!  Thank you, May!  

Yeah, the only reason these mercenaries want to friend us is if we are a very active user, with a lot of review and photo content, then they just want to keep us in their friend-"pen" so they can generate fake reviews from places we've been to, and then "farm" our pictures with some minor adjustments to cropping & image shifting so they can post as their own.

* What bothers me is the lack of diligence Yelp demonstrates in taking forever to delete these fake profiles, even after we've *flagged* their reviews and pictures that they've taken down.  

* And based on our prior thread discussions this past winter about trolls / fake users posting talk threads (like Alice F, who has now changed it's name to Lenni R - as if changing it's jacket would confuse it's identity with us.), it ALMOST makes one wonder if these fake profiles are of Yelp's own creation

Ce la vie....

It takes forever to get something deleted. People post fake reviews for restaurants in a residential area (house). I've reported one  several times, but it never gets  deleted.

Wow, I learn something new everyday. Thanks for the info, Michaelangelo & Happy Birthday to the Duke of Sacramento!

Michaelangelo,

YOU are a rock star. I admittedly friended him (after seeing his connection to others) and even commented on one of those pics. Being from LA, and excited for a "new" place to try when i go home, I'm highly disappointed that i was naive enough to not catch the ruse.

Thank you for being you.

He will be gone from my list in 5,4,3... *POOF*

Thanks for the well-wishes, Judi & Darci!

Everyone on the thread raises excellent on-point issues.  In the end, though, I care less if it's a "fake profile" or "fake business" - Yelpers, and even CMs set up businesses and events for humorous purposes - and I care more about stealing someone else's intellectual/artistic property and calling it your own.

What concerns us more and violates the TOS is when a user is actually plagiarizing review-content and stealing picture-content from other Yelp-users.  And Thomas B. stepped over that line as we've seen.  "His" friending other Yelpers is merely a mechanism to make that easier.

now Thomas B is Yelping from Kauai HI... he moved from Rancho Cucamonga CA
yelp.com/user_details_fr…

"Moved" ........yeah.........riiiiight... ;)

no wait, Michelangelo... he moved back to Rancho Cucamonga... that was short lived :)

"That's more dedicated than William L. and myself COMBINED" ... LMAO that one had me giggling for a bit. That ALONE is grounds for a red flag of epic troll proportions. He appears to be on someone's payroll. Thank gawd I wasn't listed under his friends list...

On another note... what kind of offering must I sacrifice to the Yelp gods to get the app feature added where I can manage my friends list from my phone??? We can add but we can't delete? What kind of nonsense is this!!

Bridget, that's why I have my Yelp desktop ready on my phone for such thing... I type in the name and in they go in the garbage can :)

Thanks May. And oh snap! Happy belated Bday Michelangelo!!

Thanks Bridget!  

I actually gotta do that too, May, since I in thane sitch as Bridget, and only have deleted from my laptop.

And while we're bitchen about the site, I don't like how the events & lists pages just seem to have become more user-unfriendly. :/

*I am in same sitch..

(I didn't know I could type with a lisp) ;)

New location.... and he is here to conquer and divide!

Thomas B.
Thomas "Tommy" B.
San Marino, CA
611 Friends  371 Reviews  463 Photos
"I'm here to divide and conquer."

Should I be hurt or offended Thomas B hasn't asked to friend me?  Just searched my friends...wasn't there.  Searched pending friend requests but system just hung.  For what it's worth he sounds like a troll.  Geez, I can't even get trolls to hit on me.  Feigned emoticon - feeling sad.

lmao@ Katalina

I'm wondering if the pics are even real/user. ugh  yes, the pics made for good eye candy lol

Thomas B no like me