I am sick of all the cheating that goes on here. In one of my leagues, an obviously lopsided trade came up for review. I did some investigating, and found that the owners in question were in multiple leagues together and there were other trades where collusion was obvious. I tried to get the trade vetoed, but fell 1 vote short. I reported the owners in question of cheating, but nothing was ever done. This particular cheater is terrible, so he is in last place despite his cheating, so whatever I guess.
Now, in another of my leagues, I have found more very wide spread cheating. The trade in this league fleaflicker.com is Tom Brady, Steven Jackson, and Chad Ochocinco for Steelers D, Greg Jennings, and Jay Cutler. Seemed pretty fishy to me, so I did a little investigating. jrap9, owner of one of the teams in question, is in 30 leagues total. rjasper1028, the other owner in question, is in 11 of those leagues. I also found that the nickname MIT is an owner in 10 of his leagues. There are even a couple of leagues with all 3 of them.
There have been very fishy trades involving these 3 owners in multiple leagues that they have in common. The pattern seems to be when one of the teams is losing, it dumps its good players to the team that is winning. Some of the most ridiculous trades I found were Clinton Portis, Marques Colston, and Dwayne Bowe traded for Deion Branch, Miles Austin, and Brandon Jacobs... Andre Johnson and Kellen Winslow traded for 49'ers Defense and Cadillac Williams... Drew Brees and Larry Fitzgerald for Aaron Rodgers and Roddy White (this was done in the preseason, when Brees was #1 QB and Fitz was #1WR)...
He tries to structure the trades so that it isn't 100% obvious that it is collusion, so as to not raise suspicion, but there is always one team that is obviously getting a great deal. These same owners tried to put through a trade a little over a week ago of Steven Jackson and Larry Johnson for Darren Sproles and Jerome Harrison (after Jamal Lewis came back to reclaim the starting job).
This is an obvious case of someone using multiple screen names to cheat. I am sure these aren't the only names he is using. There are multiple names I suspect of being involved, but the only ones I am pretty sure of are ck142299, and eleroy.
Is there anything that can be done to stop these scumbags? I have tried calling it out to the league to try and get the trades vetoed, and I have tried reporting the owners for cheating, but as of yet this has yielded no results. Is there anything else we can do? Isn't there something you guys can do to stop this, like a system that would detect if an owner is in a large number of leagues with another owner so something could be done about them. I realize it would be impossible to stop them all, but when a guy is in 11 leagues with someone, and 10 leagues with someone else, and has multiple lopsided trades with those owners, it seems rather obvious that cheating is going on.
Well, I am in one league and that is it. There is one guy who is always complaining about me and unfair trades. He has had some unfair trades himself. It is really hard to judge because maybe one feels like the traded are going to get better in the future and are getting a sleeper. Or in my case, I have decent players already and have the extra player that are very good to trade and may trade down to help a friend. Cheating, not really sure that is cheating. You maybe dealing with a different case, but that is what the vetoes are for. Looks like others don't care or think that the trades are unfair. Some leagues don't even have veteos, so count yourself lucky that fleaflicker allows vetoing. There is nothing that says if I have an extra great RB on my bench and my buddies RB is on a bye, that I can trade my great bench RB for a no player for one week and trade back.
I don't necessarily take unfair trades as evidence of cheating. Some people have different values for some players than I do. If a trade seems suspicious, I investigate further. In this instance, I found out the same 2 owners are in 11 leagues together, and another 10 leagues with a 3rd person. That is too many to be a coincidence. And many of those leagues also had very lopsided trades.
After I posted a message on the league board, one of the owners in question responded by saying he was friends with the other owner, and then something about wanting to give me some competition since I am in 1st place and undefeated. He then dropped from the league. I highly doubt they are just friends though, as these are mostly public leagues. It is much more likely it is the same person using multiple screen names.
As for not allowing trades, I am not the commish, so I dont have that ability. These are just public leagues that I play for fun, but being cheated is not very fun.
I am a little perplexed by the lack of response from any admins. You would think that cheating on their site might get some kind of reaction...
bretherringWed 10/21/09 3:46 PM
I am sick of all the cheating that goes on here. In one of my leagues, an obviously lopsided trade came up for review. I did some investigating, and found that the owners in question were in multiple leagues together and there were other trades where collusion was obvious. I tried to get the trade vetoed, but fell 1 vote short. I reported the owners in question of cheating, but nothing was ever done. This particular cheater is terrible, so he is in last place despite his cheating, so whatever I guess.
Now, in another of my leagues, I have found more very wide spread cheating. The trade in this league fleaflicker.com is Tom Brady, Steven Jackson, and Chad Ochocinco for Steelers D, Greg Jennings, and Jay Cutler. Seemed pretty fishy to me, so I did a little investigating. jrap9, owner of one of the teams in question, is in 30 leagues total. rjasper1028, the other owner in question, is in 11 of those leagues. I also found that the nickname MIT is an owner in 10 of his leagues. There are even a couple of leagues with all 3 of them.
There have been very fishy trades involving these 3 owners in multiple leagues that they have in common. The pattern seems to be when one of the teams is losing, it dumps its good players to the team that is winning. Some of the most ridiculous trades I found were Clinton Portis, Marques Colston, and Dwayne Bowe traded for Deion Branch, Miles Austin, and Brandon Jacobs... Andre Johnson and Kellen Winslow traded for 49'ers Defense and Cadillac Williams... Drew Brees and Larry Fitzgerald for Aaron Rodgers and Roddy White (this was done in the preseason, when Brees was #1 QB and Fitz was #1WR)...
He tries to structure the trades so that it isn't 100% obvious that it is collusion, so as to not raise suspicion, but there is always one team that is obviously getting a great deal. These same owners tried to put through a trade a little over a week ago of Steven Jackson and Larry Johnson for Darren Sproles and Jerome Harrison (after Jamal Lewis came back to reclaim the starting job).
This is an obvious case of someone using multiple screen names to cheat. I am sure these aren't the only names he is using. There are multiple names I suspect of being involved, but the only ones I am pretty sure of are ck142299, and eleroy.
Is there anything that can be done to stop these scumbags? I have tried calling it out to the league to try and get the trades vetoed, and I have tried reporting the owners for cheating, but as of yet this has yielded no results. Is there anything else we can do? Isn't there something you guys can do to stop this, like a system that would detect if an owner is in a large number of leagues with another owner so something could be done about them. I realize it would be impossible to stop them all, but when a guy is in 11 leagues with someone, and 10 leagues with someone else, and has multiple lopsided trades with those owners, it seems rather obvious that cheating is going on.
ECoastThunderWed 10/21/09 4:09 PM
Well, I am in one league and that is it. There is one guy who is always complaining about me and unfair trades. He has had some unfair trades himself. It is really hard to judge because maybe one feels like the traded are going to get better in the future and are getting a sleeper. Or in my case, I have decent players already and have the extra player that are very good to trade and may trade down to help a friend. Cheating, not really sure that is cheating. You maybe dealing with a different case, but that is what the vetoes are for. Looks like others don't care or think that the trades are unfair. Some leagues don't even have veteos, so count yourself lucky that fleaflicker allows vetoing. There is nothing that says if I have an extra great RB on my bench and my buddies RB is on a bye, that I can trade my great bench RB for a no player for one week and trade back.
tu3188Wed 10/21/09 7:24 PM
Its simple...don't allow trading. I' ve done fantasy football for 15 years,
we tried trades the first year and had problems, so we never did it again.
bretherringWed 10/21/09 7:36 PM
I don't necessarily take unfair trades as evidence of cheating. Some people have different values for some players than I do. If a trade seems suspicious, I investigate further. In this instance, I found out the same 2 owners are in 11 leagues together, and another 10 leagues with a 3rd person. That is too many to be a coincidence. And many of those leagues also had very lopsided trades.
After I posted a message on the league board, one of the owners in question responded by saying he was friends with the other owner, and then something about wanting to give me some competition since I am in 1st place and undefeated. He then dropped from the league. I highly doubt they are just friends though, as these are mostly public leagues. It is much more likely it is the same person using multiple screen names.
As for not allowing trades, I am not the commish, so I dont have that ability. These are just public leagues that I play for fun, but being cheated is not very fun.
I am a little perplexed by the lack of response from any admins. You would think that cheating on their site might get some kind of reaction...