CheaterExposer's blog

By CheaterExposer, 10 months ago, In English

After reading MikeMirzayanov's blog, I decided to investigate TimDee again and found even more accounts than I expected. (Previous blog about this issue)

Accounts that are likely his:

TimDee, TimaDegt, definitelynottimdee, IHatePaiu, AlinLoh420, RobertLoh420.

Some of these were created after the previous blog and participated in many contests, meaning he didn't feel any remorse.

Offenses I found (ordered by date):

Codeforces Round 890 (Div. 2) supported by Constructor Institute, (TimaDegt)

This is likely a case of multiple people using one account. Looking at the submission times and the codes (especially headers) reveals that while submissions for problems D {217324769} and E1 {217299337} were written by TimaDegt, submissions for problems A {217296384}, B {217302862}, C {217292141}, and E2 {217351566} were likely written by prvocislo. Even though the account was participating out-of-contest, I think it should still abide by the rules (if there is a rule that allows this, please let me know).

Submission Times

Codeforces Round 875 (Div. 2), (IHatePaiu)

Here, IHatePaiu ranked 3rd in the contest, which likely affected many participants.

The fact that he submitted the same codes after the contest shows that it is his account.

{207716387}, {207771011}, and {207622747} are the same.

{207716972} and {207658220} are the same.

Codeforces Round 812 (Div. 2), (TimDee, IHatePaiu)

Codeforces Round 797 (Div. 3), (TimDee, IHatePaiu)

Codeforces Round 791 (Div. 2), (TimDee, IHatePaiu)

Codeforces Global Round 20, (TimDee, IHatePaiu)

I hope this will help Codeforces design a system to detect people using multiple accounts. It seems like doing plagiarism testing on skipped submissions and adding a phone verification method could be useful.

I apologize for any errors I could have made. If you have any suggestions or objections, feel free to write them in the comments. Additionally, if you would like to report a difficult cheating case or would like to help with exposing cheaters, feel free to DM me.

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10 months ago, # |
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TimDee and TimaDegt participated in the Div. 1, but they seem unrated. (If anyone knows the reason, please write in the comments.)

They didn't participate, the submissions are from after the contest

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10 months ago, # |
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I want a grandmaster cp'er gf who helps me cheat in contests too :(

early-morning-dreams gm when???

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10 months ago, # |
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To be honest, I don't hope CodeForces will add phone verification. Because as middle school students at school, we are not comfortable using cell phones, and adding phone verification would prevent us from using CodeForces.

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    10 months ago, # ^ |
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    You can buy virtual number :)

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      10 months ago, # ^ |
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      then it would make codeforces paid for us, when it is a free website :((

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      10 months ago, # ^ |
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      This makes the use of CodeForces costly and removes the point of cell phone authentication. Because I can continue to sign up for tons of accounts by buying virtual cell phone numbers :(

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    10 months ago, # ^ |
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    It would only be required while creating an account. You may use your parents' phone numbers.

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      10 months ago, # ^ |
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      not everyone has parents bro 😔

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        10 months ago, # ^ |
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        Damn, hope you are well.

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        6 days ago, # ^ |
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        So sorry for your loss, stay strong.

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      10 months ago, # ^ |
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      **parent/guardian (or whoever supervises you if you're a minor)

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    10 months ago, # ^ |
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    Phone number verification isn't very useful anyway in this case (because it is not that expensive or difficult to get a few extra numbers). Phone verification makes sense if you want to prevent people from creating $$$10^5$$$ accounts, not if you want to prevent people from creating 2-3-4 accounts.

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10 months ago, # |
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You mentioned PuriceLoh420 being an alt of his. Last contest said account praticipated in was in 2017. I think TimDee was ~12 at that time. This doesn't really make sense. also, try playing the guitar if you're bored and have nothing better to do with your life than this

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    10 months ago, # ^ |
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    I don't know about his age but I guess you could be right, thanks. After finding AlinLoh420, I simply found the accounts with similar usernames and didn't look at the contest dates.

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10 months ago, # |
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Once again clear evidence although 1 or 2 of these accounts are likely owned by other users from Moldova, not his.

It is unfortunate to see people who are supposed to be seen as models act like that in a systemic way but unfortunately I doubt any action will be taken judging from the fact that at least to my knowledge no action has been taken after your first such blog.

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    10 months ago, # ^ |
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    I appreciate your concern, but I would like to clarify that Moldovans, per general, don't cheat. I see where the skepticism comes from, but I don't like for Moldova to be associated with a country of cheaters. Cheating is unacceptable and such actions should be punished respectively.

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      10 months ago, # ^ |
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      Where did I imply that Moldovans are cheaters? I just said that not all of his accounts are his, but are owned by different people.

      I know many of you and I can say that besides the subject of the blog, I don't have any accusation towards anyone else from Moldova.

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        10 months ago, # ^ |
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        Yes. You are right. But some may get the wrong idea, that's why I had the need to clarify. Also, in this case, I have reasons to believe that the alts belong only to one person.

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10 months ago, # |
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I think this person is a "friend" of TimDee and TimaDegt. he/she is seem to be jealous of their relationship because he/she doesn't have a bf/gf. That's why he/she has nothing better to do than to post these kinds of blogs about them.

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    10 months ago, # ^ |
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    you have some merit in your comment although you seem to be a simp as i doubt you would've defended this guy if he were to be single

    but hey it's not like most of the people defending cheaters around this blog aren't simps either so

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    10 months ago, # ^ |
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    Oh No
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    10 months ago, # ^ |
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    I am unfortunately too old to feel jealous. I simply want people to recognize their mistakes and attempt to fix them. Additionally, this isn't the only person I investigated. I have been responding to other reports in DMs.

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      10 months ago, # ^ |
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      but not too old to write these kind of blogs

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      10 months ago, # ^ |
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      they aren't gonna stop and you are simply wasting time

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        10 months ago, # ^ |
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        I am not aiming to get one or two cheaters banned. That would indeed be a waste of time.

        Look at the big picture.

        Experienced people cheat because they can get away with it. What if they couldn't get away with it? It would serve as a deterrent.

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          10 months ago, # ^ |
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          i think this submitting after contest thing is absolute bullshit, there are so many newbies who copy-paste submissions for some reason and it won't help catch at all, unless you keep wasting time to catch them manually

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10 months ago, # |
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Your previous blog was enough to ban him. He harmed other contestants in a round with prizes.

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10 months ago, # |
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the amount of cheaters making excuses for this is insane LOL. keep up the good work

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    10 months ago, # ^ |
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    You are absolutely right.

    Today, the majority of the comments against cheaters were downvoted, and some of the accounts mentioned in this blog were recently active. Can you see how this relates?

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10 months ago, # |
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Sir, I partly support your work. However, I do not really understand why are you targetting exactly one person, and why don't you post exposures about others. It looks like you have a personal grudge against him.

Also, I am curious of your cheater finding algorithm. If it is automated code that works with codeforces API, then why doesn't it find other cheaters? And if it is your manual work, then why do you post a second post about the same person (yes, to make them change, but posting a big post with cheaters would be much more useful, or small posts with different ones). I am sure that there are a lot of cheaters that take place higher than him, that are taking much more prizes.

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    10 months ago, # ^ |
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    If you support my work, would you like to assist with the investigations?

    While the procedure is mostly automated, determining whether someone is cheating is easier than locating any cheater. I wrote about him because he was the only serious cheater I discovered.

    That being said, I don't only post blogs. I also help others expose cheaters via DMs. This is why reporting cheaters to me is critical.

    I should mention that I received several reports following this blog, and I am actively investigating them. If I notice significant offenses, you can expect another blog.

    If you want to learn more, kindly read my older blog and comments.

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10 months ago, # |
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an honest question, what do lil bro's get out of doing this?

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10 months ago, # |
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I have heard that he doesn't consider cheating in unrated rounds bad as they are unrated for him and doesn't affect others. While to the best of my knowledge it is true (correct me if I am wrong), doing so just makes everyone see that you are doing it, and people will suspect that you do it on rated contests too. That's why I would heavily advise against it. If you want to do it for fun, you can do a virtual contest the next day.

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10 months ago, # |
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definitelynottimdee you copied my whole fucking flow! Word for word, bar for bar!

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10 months ago, # |
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Damn, hope you are well.