Incredibly obvious alt account; "sweetheart trading"

[Blutarch Mann]

Nation Links: https://politicsandwar.com/nation/id=181410 https://politicsandwar.com/nation/id=186239

Ruler Names: Dead_inside, Neko

Nature of Violation:

Neko has sent 1,000,000 food, 30,000 fuel, 50,000 bullets, 20,000 steel, and 20,000 aluminum to the nation ruled by dead_inside. It is a clear alt account. All the "trades" were done at $1 PPU, a clear sweetheart trade. These are the ONLY trades the nation has. No other personal trades have occured on dead_inside's nation.
https://web.archive.org/web/20200105124049/https://politicsandwar.com/nation/id=181410&display=trade
Archived the website in case they try to delete their alt account to cover their tracks.

https://web.archive.org/web/20200105124223/https://politicsandwar.com/nation/id=181410&display=bank
The resources were immediately dumped into the alliance bank. Note the complete lack of any activity since their initial founding on 10/10/2019 followed by the immediate starter package from North Point until 10/18. On 10/18, their nation stopped doing ANYTHING. No new cities, no new infrastructure, did not build military when attacked, did not attempt to fight back in wars. The nation remained 100% stagnant until today, when an obvious set of 4 sweetheart trades occurred.

It is blatant that they are an alt account.

But Blutarch, 11/24/2019 is when Nekoville was founded! They're a new player!

They are not a new player. This is a re-roll of a previous player. I will not disclose who this previous player is because it is irrelevant, but the Administrator, @Alex knows who it is. This player has been around a much longer time than 11/24/2019. It is therefore entirely feasible that the account is an old sleeper alt of Neko.

But Blutarch, the unique IDs aren't the same!

Unique IDs are not hard to spoof. There are many ways of doing this that the Administrator is well aware of, which is why a unique ID match is not a clear sign of being an alt. However, obvious "sweetheart trades" are.

I have made a video of the trades to further archive matters.
https://file.house/vxTm.mp4

Edited January 5, 2020 by Blutarch Mann

[Alex]

Upon review, it does not appear that @Neko has created a multi here, but rather that this nation https://politicsandwar.com/nation/id=167772 has created a multi here https://politicsandwar.com/nation/id=181410.

@Neko's nation had a very unusual login (different device, browser, and IP address [particularly the IP location]) on 1/5/20 when the trades were made from their nation to nation with ID 181410. The IP and device and browser all matched one used by 167772.

That, in itself, could be a fluke or accident as a result of dynamic IP address assignment (although very unlikely.) However, upon further review, the money taken from @Neko's nation was deposited into the "Aposlate" alliance bank https://politicsandwar.com/alliance/id=6366 which was then transferred to the Morningstar Bank, the same alliance of nation with ID 167772. Furthermore, previous transfers by 181410 from the Aposlate bank were earmarked specifically for nation with ID 167772.

So, it is clear that the player in charge of nation 167772 created a multi (181410) and then logged into @Neko's nation, traded the money and resources to the multi nation, and then created an alliance bank to transfer the funds from the multi ultimately back to the original nation (167772).

There is no evidence anyone's account information, passwords, etc. were compromised. We run a very secure server thanks to @ss23. As you'll see here, there is an explanation for how someone would have obtained the login / password of @Neko's nation:

The money and resources remain in the Morningstar bank currently (at the time of writing.) The amounts are $1,000,000, 30,000 Gasoline, 50,000 Munitions, 20,000 Steel, and 20,000 Aluminum.

So, concluding this investigation, the nations of 167772 and 181410 are going to be banned, and the money/resources noted above will be transferred back from the Morningstar Bank to @Neko's nation.

I hope that this clears up the incident, and addresses any questions/concerns about the investigation process and follow-through. Thanks for the report.