Learn how to spot fake torrents

thought I would add this to your guides it is a copy of my post on isohunt here it's geared to isohunt but I will update it for TB as soon as I get time.

Spotting Fake/Scam .torrents

If you don't understand any of the bittorrent terms you should read this it explains them pretty well. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent_vocabulary

Always read the comments
Whenever you are about to download a torrent be sure to read and leave a comment here at isohunt See #16 and Google search the info hash for all of your downloads. To find any comments and/or information on different sites around the web.

(most of the times someone else already replied if it works or something is wrong with it)

"'Full Downloads"

"'Fulldls"

Scam/Fakes

Unknown/New TrackersTrackers (that can’t be found on Google anywhere) with large amounts of seeds/peers are probably Scam/Fake.

(Tracker names which look very similar to well known trackers are often fake, I.E.: http ://vip-the-piratebay.homelinux.com:6969/scrape)

Block bad connections

Whenever you are downloading be sure to have some protection like PeerBlock

PeerBlock wrote:

PeerBlock is a new version (aka a "'fork") of the popular Peer Guardian 2 software. It blocks "'known bad" computers from accessing yours, for example governments, corporate entities, and those flagged for anti-p2p activities. Peer Block maintains the functionality of the original Peer Guardian 2 program, but includes fixes for various issues that remain unaddressed in the latest (~2 year old) version of PG2.

The new PeerBlock has signed drivers so it will run on x64 based windows systems (that require signed drivers). You can get help from their forums Here

(Additional block lists can be found at I-Block More than 2,705,588,093 (See picture below taken from PeerBlock and Yes that's 2.7 Billion IP's) Can be blocked depending on how paranoid you are).

And/or add the ipfilter.dat *(This may be used in conjunction with any of the above IP blockers) to µTorrent's settings folder By typing this into the run dialog box %AppData%\uTorrent it will open the appropriate folder Extract the .dat file, if necessary rename it to ipfilter.dat and copy it into that folder.

(See picture below))

(this will help weed out the Scam/Fake Seeders)

*

(Bluetack is no longer offering it for download on there website any more, You may get it from http://emulepawcio.sourceforge.net/ipfilter.zip

fear-otaku

download his ipfilter update utility

fear-otaku

Hash Fails
Keep an eye on hash fails. Typically these should be below 1%. If they are greater than 20% then the torrent is being accidentally or deliberately poisoned.

(If hash fails are high. Stop the torrent and wait a week before restarting it. If it was accidental it is likely the uploader will have completed their seeding back and stopped, in which case the remaining seeders will be "'clean". Equally, if it was being deliberately poisoned it's possible the bad guys would have moved on).

New uploader & lots of seedersLook out for fake uploader's by anti-p2p companies, they create a new account on the websites and use tools like BTSeedInflator, NRPG RatioMaster, And/Or Custom Scripts to fake the amount of seeders and peers.

(Also posting fake comments to fool you even more)

http://tracker.torrentq.com/scrape.php.

DumpTorrentCGI.

(See above).

http://isohunt.com/

	Code:
	http://isohunt.com/60d5d82328b4547511fdeac9bf4d0112daa0ce00 or http://torrentz.com/60d5d82328b4547511fdeac9bf4d0112daa0ce00

(I used a Ubuntu torrent for an example hash info.)

All Files

Media:

Any legit release group will not archive and/or Password (.rar .7z .ace .tar .gz .arc .dar .pea .sit etc.) their files/Releases. Video is already compressed so there is no need in trying to compress it further. (be weary of archived video, Though they are not always Scam/Fake) The main reason for them to be compressed is that they are downloaded from a Dump Site in a multi part .rar file and turned in to a torrent as is.

.WMA/.WMV files are almost always fake and should be avoided altogether as they can link to websites to get their "'CODEC" which either costs money or is malware/spyware or worse .

.EXE file extension is not a Media format it is an executable file and will install some real bad stuff on your computer Never download and run a Audio/Video file that ends in .EXE

Games:

It's always Better to try and find Image files (.iso .bin/.cue .nrg .mds/.mdf .ccd .img .daa .uif etc.), Although Games (even image files) are often archived with no password (.rar .7z .ace .tar .gz .arc .dar .pea .sit etc.) and are usually OK.

Programs:

It's always better to download the trial from the creators website to make sure you get only the program and not some extra included Virus/Trojan's. Programs are also often archived with no password when dowloaded via torrent (.rar .7z .ace .tar .gz .arc .dar .pea .sit etc.).

Password's
Passworded Archives (.rar .7z .ace .tar .gz .arc .dar .pea .sit etc.) are probably Scam/Fake. although not all of them are, If the password is "'mininova" it is probably good. Check the comments to see if somebody posted it.

(hint for finding passwords see picture below).

Text Files

Any .torrent that has a text file named "Important read me first", "important unlocking instructions", "Unrar Instructions", "Movieurl", "Password.txt", "Password.nfo", any html file, Or something similar. It is probably a Fake/Scam.

(A single readme or .nfo file is OK)

When you download a .torrent at first only download the .txt/.nfo file By Unselecting everything except the .txt/.nfo file if there is one included to see if it is a SCAM or not You will know if there is a link that says something like (Go here to unlock or view this file), BTW Damnnfo Viewer is a great program for viewing .nfo files in their proper format (The Ascii art displays like it was meant to be displayed).

µtorrent

OR

Vuze

Vista's Preview pane and Video'sOpen the folder that you download to and keep an eye on the thumbnail a lot of time it will show a preview with only a few percentage of the file downloaded as in the picture below with only 2% done. This may work in XP also for the thumbnail (Not the preview pane as XP doesn't have it).

µtorrent

Bad torrent Clients

DO NOT INSTALL OR USE ANY OF THE FOLLOWING TORRENT CLIENTS.

BitLord
Bitroll
BitThief
Get-Torrent
Torrent101
TorrentQ

Special Players/Decoders for Video files.
Never download "'Special Players" I.E.

BAD Player's/Decoder's (Codec's)/Downloader's

DO NOT INSTALL OR RUN ANY OF THE FOLLOWING.

3WPlayer

AbcCodec

AccessKeyGenerator

AccessMediaDownload

AccessMediaSetup

BitGrabber

BitRoll

BlackCodec

CityCodec

DemoCodec

divocodec

divxmovienow

DOMPlayer

Dvd Access

Dvd Codec

Emcodec

eMedia Codec

EndCodec

GalaPlayer

GameCodec

Go Media Decoder

HeroCodec

Hificodec

HQ Codec

iCodecPack

IMCodec

IntCodec

iMediaCodec

ivideocodec

IxCodec

JetCodec

KeyCodec

LightCodec

Megazcodec

Media-Codec

MediaCodec

MediaTubeCodec

MedCodec

MMediaCodec

MovieCodec

Moviecsodec

MovieXplayer

MPCODEC

NetPumper

Newvidscodec

NiceCodec

nvidcodec

PCODEC

Perfect Codec

Player_Flash

PlayerCodec

PlayersCodec

PlayCodecs

playvix player

PowerCodec

PornPass Manager

PornMag Pass

Qvee Player

Setup.exe

SiteTicket

SiteKeyMaker

Siteentrances

SoftCodec

StormCodec

strCodec

svideocodec

TrueCodec

TsCodec

TvCodec

TvsCodec

Tvs-Codec

UinCodec

Unpack_Movie.exe

v-codec

VaxObject

Vccodec

VCodec2007

VideosAccess

VideoCompressionCodec

VideoKeyCodec

Videoscash

VideosCodec

vidscodec

WinZix

WebSoftCodec

WebVideoSetup

WinMediaCodec

WMcodec

X3 Player/Codec

X Password Generator

X Password Manager

XeroCodec

XXXmediaCodec

XVod Decoder

ZipCodec

Zcodec

ZLOB Show

Or any other "'special Player/Decoder (Codec)/Downloader" They are Trojans (SCAM/FAKE) and probably not even the file stated in the .torrent. If you download something requiring any of these delete them and Don't Seed them.

If VLC Media Player , KMPlayer , Or GMPlayer wont play them they are probably FAKE and/or Windows Media Player will play most things with the Vista Codec Pack , CCCP (Combined Community Codec Pack), or the K lite codec pack .

(Only install one codec pack as installing more than one will cause conflicts)

You can install AC3 Filter along with a codec pack though.

File Size
The .torrent File size is not even close to what it should be for the given .torrent. (A movie/game is 7MB when it should be 700MB)

Download Stuck at 98%
There are a couple of reasons this can happen.

The main reason you get stuck at 98% these days: sometimes people upload torrents that are bogus. They purposefully make sure the whole file is not there. or they put spam files in there etc. Or the tracker is reporting false information to mislead you. They are Scam/Fake (like saying there's seeds when there really aren't).

(Also, if things seem to be crawling then check the ip address of the peers. If a lot belong to the same subnet range (this is easy to spot) then it is possible the seed isn't a fake but is being intentionally hammered to deny access to the seed by real downloaders such as yourself).

Or there are just not any people that have 100% of the file.
(See Picture below)

Just try and play it a lot of times it will work anyway

Crap Websites
Torrents with crap websites posted all over the .torrent notes (Crap sites post crap .torrents).

Stay away from the following scam/phishing sites!

AskMu.com
cryptoguardian.com
downloads.torrentsu.com
DownloadTo.com (Hosts domplayer)
hdmi2.com
media-codec.com
mediaprovider.info
megazcodec.com
missing-codecs.com
PlayMP3z.biz
playon.domplayer.com
playon.play3w.com
seonomad.com
torrentm8.com
torrentmovie-help.com
torrentportal.com (Allows Fake/Scam torrents to be uploaded by it's members)
torrentq.com
tvcodec.com
uploadvid.net
vidscentral.net
enjoyyourself.info
DirectGameKeys.com
spynova.org (Pay for membership (yearly) only site)

Release Date

Torrents released before the movie/game is released. (Keeping in mind that there are sometimes different release dates for different countries)

DVD releases while the movie is still at theaters. (exceptions DVD Screeners are sometimes released, But not always)

Check VCDQuality to see if the file is released yet. (scene release news site)

Scan all Downloads
Install a good (up-to-date) virus/spyware scanner like AVG or Avast (Are some free ones) and scan before opening!

Helping Others
Leave a comment for good or bad .torrents and flag bad ones if needed, Or Just Say Thanks for sharing a great file. For any torrent you download On isohunt's comment and ratings system. (That way other users will know if it is a good or bad .torrent). Very Happy

When you leave comments just beware of the fact that any problem could be yours.

If there is no sound, it's more likely that you don't have the right codec installed than that the sound is actually missing. Vista Codec Pack , CCCP (Combined Community Codec Pack). are the best , But if you must use the K lite codec pack it will work, Although the AC3 Filter is one that people typically over look and fall over.

(Only install one codec pack as installing more than one will cause conflicts excluding the AC3 Filter as it is not a codec pack (you can install it together with a codec pack))

Likewise, if the video or audio is choppy, make sure your codecs are OK before flaming the uploader. (In fact, never flame, just explain calmly and clearly the problems you are having).

If your downloaded application is flagged by your AV, check whether it is the p*tch exe which has been detected. Technically, this is a program which modifies another .exe file--ie. it's "'suspicious", which is why it was flagged. But you want it to do that.

k*yg*ns also get falsely flagged as bad by AV software a lot of times though about 8 out of 10 times they are safe.

(For more protection you can run the k*ygen in SandBoxie which will Isolate it just in case it is a Virus/Trojan so it can't infect you system)

When you are reading comments, be aware that the people who left them might not have been aware of these things listed above.

Direct link to this post:

http://isohunt.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=246497

Know something that I don't PM me and I will add it. Wink

The blue words are links. Click on them

isohunt Does not condone or promote the downloading of copyrighted Material this guide is for informational purposes only.

_________________

Little addition.

We try to do our best to get rid of fake uploads here on TBox.
That means when a fake uploader uploads his/her trash here and we find it then we will delete it.

So when you download somewhere from the net a torrent and it has the TBox tracker in it then look if you have an error message in your torrent client behind the TBox tracker.

	Code:
	http://tracker.torrentbox.com:'2710/announce Failure:'Requested download is not authorized for use with this tracker.

Some other tracker can also give you an idea when a torrent is fake

	Code:
	http://inferno.demonoid.me:<'some port>/announce Torrent deleted or not in pool yet. Go to Demonoid.com and read the FAQ for more info

If so then you must ask yourself why are these trackers added to the torrents while they refuse the torrent?
It CAN be a sign that the torrent is fake but NOT necessary.

_________________

Check torrents here mytorrentinfotool

Also large multiple RAR torrents are generally OK, they are origionally dispersed in this way from "'Topsiites", the idea is if you get any corrupt data, you only need get that 1 RAR file rather than download the whole lot.
There is a FTP website dedicated just to this purpose, but with torrents it's even easier, just start the download again with all but the one you want unticked within your client.
Personally I wish all large downloads were still in this format. Cool

_________________
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