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Games

Pokemon Go Players Are Vandalizing Real Maps With Fake Data To Catch Rare Pokemon (404media.co) 59

An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: Pokemon Go players are creating a headache for members of the open source map tool OpenStreetMaps by adding fake beaches where they don't exist in hopes of more easily catching Wigletts, a Pokemon that only spawns on beaches. OpenStreetMaps is a free, open source map tool much like Google or Apple maps, but is maintained by a self-governing community of volunteers where anyone is welcome to contribute. An April 27 thread in the OpenStreetMap community forum first spotted the issue, flagging two users in Italy who began marking beaches in all sorts of locations where they don't actually exist.

The OpenStreetMap user who noticed the fictitious beaches immediately connected the dots: Pokemon Go, the mega popular mobile game where players catch Pokemon and can engage in different activities depending on their geolocation, introduced different "biomes" like beach, city, forest, and mountains. Each of these have a different look, and critically, some specific Pokemon will only spawn at specific biomes. Wiglett, for example, only spawns at beaches. Some video game sites quickly noticed that Pokemon Go's beaches were appearing in real world locations like golf courses, sports fields, and other places that are not real beaches. Pokemon Go uses OpenStreetMap for its map data, and is how the game knows players are near certain points of interest.

The OpenStreetMap user created a filter of OpenStreetMap that surfaced instances where "new mappers" added beaches to the map, revealing a number of clearly fake submissions. [...] It's not clear how often Pokemon Go updates the game with data from OpenStreetMaps, but in theory the people who are manipulating the data would have easier access to the beach biome the next time it does. The OpenStreetMap thread goes on to identify one repeat offender who added dozens of fake beaches. Some are near bodies of water, like lakes, rivers, or docks, and others are landlocked schools, parking lots, and random strips of land. If there was any doubt that some of these changes are being made by Pokemon Go players, the same repeat offender also marked the map with his handle, as well as a poke ball.

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Pokemon Go Players Are Vandalizing Real Maps With Fake Data To Catch Rare Pokemon

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  • Sue him for damages (Score:4, Interesting)

    by gnasher719 ( 869701 ) on Monday May 06, 2024 @07:12PM (#64452758)
    Just because it doesn't cost money, doesn't mean it's free. OpenStreetMap has tons of value from contributors, but also massive amounts of data from several governments who think it is higher priority to give their taxpayers maps then to make a bit of money.

    So they should try to catch these people and sue them for damages. At a rate of $100 per hour for fixing the damage they caused. Once the first Pokemon player gets a 5,000 dollar or euro fine, that kind of vandalism will stop.
    • by khchung ( 462899 )

      Are you sure you want to open the door to suing people contributing to open projects?

      • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        Are you sure you want to open the door to suing people contributing to open projects?

        Generally there's a difference between contribution and vandalism.

        Now, maybe it was harmless - or maybe it leads to real damages (e.g., someone packs up their family and heads off to the fictional beach)

        Given how unhinged some people are, it could even result in fatalities if someone went there expecting a beach then finds people telling them there's no beach and it's just a video game.

        • by khchung ( 462899 )

          Are you sure you want to open the door to suing people contributing to open projects?

          Generally there's a difference between contribution and vandalism.

          Unfortunately, when you sue, people must use the extremely costly option of trying to prove that in court.

          The road to hell is paved with good intentions, once a precedent is set for someone (anyone) having to pay $$ for their submission to open projects, you can cue the lawyers in corporations (whose *only* job is to identify legal risks in the company) to forbid anyone in the company to submit anything to open projects without approval. Next, cue bounty hunters who will scour open project submissions for

      • by arfonrg ( 81735 )

        Yes, Just like I want penalties for Jia Tan's 'contribution' to the XZ project.

        • Since Jia Tan the person (or people) behind the Jia Tan identity probably live(s) in Russia, Iran or Israel (most probably Russia) I don't think those penalties are going to be collected.

      • by gnasher719 ( 869701 ) on Tuesday May 07, 2024 @02:59AM (#64453272)
        Are you sure you want to open the door to suing people contributing to open projects?

        They are not contributing. They are vandalising. They are causing damage to a project that we all can benefit from without paying. It's not contributing, just like taking money out of a collection for starving children is not contributing.

        • And they are doing it on purpose - not by accident.

          If done accidentally / unintentionally, I think they will not have to be concerned about punishments.

    • What will get it to stop is if such games don't use a map their users can edit and feel a need to . Alternatively, there's 100x more Pokemon Go players as Open Street Maps contributors, and this could be an opportunity to start mapping "micro beaches" or other such features, if people on the verification team don't flee in horror.

      • by nasch ( 598556 )

        What will get it to stop is if such games don't use a map their users can edit and feel a need to .

        Sure, but that would necessitate spending more money.

  • When you link a game to real life, some people will try to game it in real life! Is anyone surprised?

    It is not even new, there are already places that attracts customer by advertising as a good location for catching pokemon. We are lucky that we do not yet have pedos/kidnappers trying to lure kids using the same strategy (or maybe it had already happened but we just didn't hear about it).

    • by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

      Nothing new for this specific pokemon game. Remember in its early days when flash mobs would cause all kinds of problems when word got out that certain location is a rare pokemon spawn?

    • Is being surprised required for reading/writing news articles?

      • by khchung ( 462899 )

        Is being surprised required for reading/writing news articles?

        Yes, otherwise how is "business as usual" being newsworthy?

  • The company that makes the game's entire business model is to monetize volunteer crowdsourced map data, especially after their AR features bombed. They also have a platform called Wayfarer that crowdsources collection and moderation of points of interest (eg random signs and graffiti) to build a database of GPS coordinates and AR scans that they can license to game devs trying to replicate the unique success of the Pokemon IP. They're infamous for ignoring feedback from their customers, the same ones who
    • by ghoul ( 157158 )
      OSM could ask Niantic to ban users who are doing this. If Niantic doesnt cooperate OSM could ban Niantic from using OSM data.
  • Assuming someone was into this shitty game and wanted to cheat then it would seem easier to just run a fake GPS app, or install the game in an emulator where fake GPS data can be fed in from debug tools.

    • That is not an easy task, Pokemon GO makes a lot of effort to identify and block the players running the game in an emulator or with fake GPS. Players doing that risk a permanent ban.

      • by DrXym ( 126579 )

        The same could be said for putting fake beaches into map data. Probably more so because if this company visualized where people "found" their pokemons on a map then people faking map data would stick out like a sore thumb. e.g. if they are supposed to be a beach and there will be a bunch of dots on maps that are conspicuously nowhere near beaches - welcome to banheim.

        As for GPS, I expect their main method of catching people using fake GPS is them traveling improbable distances or warping around. If the fake

        • by nasch ( 598556 )

          If they already had a map source that wasn't susceptible to vandalism, why wouldn't they just use that for the game?

  • This is the worst cyber attack of our time, perhaps of all time.
  • by nicubunu ( 242346 ) on Tuesday May 07, 2024 @06:02AM (#64453502) Homepage

    All this effort is futile. While is true Pokemon Go uses data from OSM, they do a bad job with that: data is synced once every few years, so people vandalizing OSM for beach biomes may see the effect 2-3 years from now and most likely that pokemon will be made available until then in a different way.

  • When you do violence upon others you invite violence on yourself, and when you mess with other people's data, you invite us to mess with yours. Find their phones, PCs, and social media accounts and wipe them all.
  • Allow everyone free access to anything and sooner or later someone will fuck it up.

    Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]
  • Find out where they live, then change all the navigation apps so they can't route there. You're welcome.

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