elliotn
Member of DD Central
Posts: 3,063
Likes: 2,681
|
Post by elliotn on Apr 5, 2017 9:48:06 GMT
Collateral Rep recently MT had to do a review of loan purchases and identified activity that did not look like reasonable manual use ofthe platform. MT had to warn the users and were investigating ways to interrupt such behaviour. These were new users and is symptomatic of a platform's increasing success whereby some users try to gain an unfair advantage over others. (This has also arisen in a wider context for online purchases and there are international moves to criminalise this activity so it may also be required to meet future regulatory requirements.) I have been particularly imoressed as to how users such as e********m can make multiple purchasess often for the same amount before I immediately move from refresh to loan details. Could you please conduct periodical reviews of purchase activity and reassure the community that Coll is not yet suffering from the use of automated scripts that other platforms have suffered from. Many thanks.
|
|
hantsowl
Member of DD Central
Posts: 672 
Likes: 546
|
Post by hantsowl on Apr 5, 2017 10:40:48 GMT
Collateral Rep recently MT had to do a review of loan purchases and identified activity that did not look like reasonable manual use ofthe platform. MT had to warn the users and were investigating ways to interrupt such behaviour. These were new users and is symptomatic of a platform's increasing success whereby some users try to gain an unfair advantage over others. (This has also arisen in a wider context for online purchases and there are international moves to criminalise this activity so it may also be required to meet future regulatory requirements.) I have been particularly imoressed as to how users such as e********m can make multiple purchasess often for the same amount before I immediately move from refresh to loan details. Could you please conduct periodical reviews of purchase activity and reassure the community that Coll is not yet suffering from the use of automated scripts that other platforms have suffered from. Many thanks. I have also noticed the same super-FFF activity from e********m and missed out on a number of loan parts that I had assumed could only be to a bot.
|
|
star dust
Member of DD Central
Posts: 2,998
Likes: 3,531
|
Post by star dust on Apr 5, 2017 17:20:31 GMT
Oh, so that’s not elliot botm then?  Seriously, I am pleased I got into Collateral when I did as I’ve managed to build up a reasonably well diversified loan book primarily because I could buy on the SM when I first joined, but also aided by pre-funding now. I have not managed to buy anything on the SM this year, and have only managed a few renewals where there was an untypical four figure sum available. I accept that Collateral has become far more popular since I joined, that there are people with faster connections, and faster fingers than me but I would be fairly sure with increased popularity comes a greater chance of bot use and so anything that Collateral can do to mitigate against them (apart from possibly re-captcha’s  ) would be more than welcome. Otherwise, my concern is that a pre-funding bot war at listing may prevent me (and doubtless many botless others) from staying well (or at all) invested in Collateral in the future. |
|
elliotn
Member of DD Central
Posts: 3,063
Likes: 2,681
|
Post by elliotn on Apr 12, 2017 9:06:16 GMT
Hi Collateral Rep, could you please update on how your platform review is progressing - MT was able quickly to provide a snapshot of regularly inhuman purchases and proposed their couse of action - I see the same 2-3 names are recurring again on the SM ahead of the latest loan go-live, many thanks. |
|
GeorgeT
Member of DD Central
Posts: 1,321
Likes: 1,575
|
Post by GeorgeT on May 29, 2017 10:44:37 GMT
Can anyone update please?
I have an existing collateral account but after some test use a year ago did not progress with it owing to concerns about the newness of the platform, teething troubles and IT software glitches. However I am undertaking a root and branch review of my P2P investments and considering becoming a collateral user.
If there is one thing that infuriates me it is people using bots and automated scripts to gain unfair advantages on websites. I believe it is very clear to identify who these abusers are from the user names and in my opinion the accounts should be immediately banned and their monies returned to them.
Is there any progress on the Collateral website as regards it being used by these cheats - have they been eliminated or are they prospering.
|
|
elliotn
Member of DD Central
Posts: 3,063
Likes: 2,681
|
Post by elliotn on May 29, 2017 11:51:32 GMT
The recent glut seems to have freed up a bit more opportunity to bid for pawn so possibly the most frequent users noted above may now be at platform limits or have used vailable funds. The underlying issue was ignored by Collateral Rep (at least in providing investors with any update) so this could return again once the SM is tighter. |
|
|
|
Post by bobthebuilder on Jun 30, 2017 8:26:46 GMT
Collateral Rep This seems to have become an issue again. On this morning's bling renewals user D********p somehow managed to acquire loan parts in all of BB538, 539 and 540 and I do not see how that is humanly possible given how long the three loans were available in total. Could you investigate please?
|
|
|
|
Post by dan1 on Jun 30, 2017 8:55:19 GMT
Collateral Rep This seems to have become an issue again. On this morning's bling renewals user D********p somehow managed to acquire loan parts in all of BB538, 539 and 540 and I do not see how that is humanly possible given how long the three loans were available in total. Could you investigate please? - at the risk of releasing part of my identity, that was me - I acquired the final £13.53 in 540. I'm not using a bot, and I'm using an old laptop. All I can say is that it is possible but I was surprised that all three succeeded, given that 90% of the time I'm not successful on all that I try and purchase.
|
|
|
|
Post by bobthebuilder on Jun 30, 2017 9:29:56 GMT
Collateral Rep This seems to have become an issue again. On this morning's bling renewals user D********p somehow managed to acquire loan parts in all of BB538, 539 and 540 and I do not see how that is humanly possible given how long the three loans were available in total. Could you investigate please? - at the risk of releasing part of my identity, that was me - I acquired the final £13.53 in 540. I'm not using a bot, and I'm using an old laptop. All I can say is that it is possible but I was surprised that all three succeeded, given that 90% of the time I'm not successful on all that I try and purchase. Well, apologies for doubting your humanity! My own approach was to ignore BB538 completely as there was no way I was going to be one of only three successful bidders, and to focus on BB540 and BB539 in that order, hoping that there would still be some BB539 left after I had bid for BB540. I don't think I have the slowest fingers in the world, but I never got beyond BB540. The effort we have to make to invest £25 these days if we want to avoid property 
|
|
|
|
Post by dan1 on Jun 30, 2017 9:59:32 GMT
bobthebuilder tbh I was flattered to be thought of as a bot😀 I've used your technique in the past but for some reason I thought what the heck.
|
|
dermot
Member of DD Central
Posts: 862
Likes: 517
|
Post by dermot on Jun 30, 2017 11:24:06 GMT
I'm using a 4GHz Core i7 pc on a 200Mbit connection, even so, snagging a non-property loan part is often only by the skin of my teeth - I'm wondering if browser / OS might have an impact on refresh speed at busy times - next renewal, I might try using an Ubuntu machine and see if it is faster than Win7 / Chrome, as there is so much crud bolted on to windows these days.
All that said, I suspect much of the problem is that the lender base on CO has increased quite a bit since the "old days" when it was relatively easy to snap bits up.
|
|
theshape
Member of DD Central
Posts: 153
Likes: 109
|
Post by theshape on Jun 30, 2017 12:03:11 GMT
bobthebuilder - at the risk of releasing part of my identity, that was me - I acquired the final £13.53 in 540. I'm not using a bot, and I'm using an old laptop. All I can say is that it is possible but I was surprised that all three succeeded, given that 90% of the time I'm not successful on all that I try and purchase. Well, apologies for doubting your humanity! My own approach was to ignore BB538 completely as there was no way I was going to be one of only three successful bidders, and to focus on BB540 and BB539 in that order, hoping that there would still be some BB539 left after I had bid for BB540. I don't think I have the slowest fingers in the world, but I never got beyond BB540. The effort we have to make to invest £25 these days if we want to avoid property 539 then 540 was my strategy too. It took quite a while to confirm the investment so 540 was gone by the time 539 was purchased. Won't be easy to reinvest tomorrow's interest payments in non-property loans.
|
|
nick
Member of DD Central
Posts: 1,055
Likes: 825
|
Post by nick on Jul 4, 2017 13:06:08 GMT
I'm using a 4GHz Core i7 pc on a 200Mbit connection, even so, snagging a non-property loan part is often only by the skin of my teeth - I'm wondering if browser / OS might have an impact on refresh speed at busy times - next renewal, I might try using an Ubuntu machine and see if it is faster than Win7 / Chrome, as there is so much crud bolted on to windows these days. All that said, I suspect much of the problem is that the lender base on CO has increased quite a bit since the "old days" when it was relatively easy to snap bits up. Getting a low latency connection is more important than bandwidth - maybe move closer to CO's servers...............
|
|
michaelc
Member of DD Central
Posts: 4,861
Likes: 2,762
|
Post by michaelc on Jul 26, 2017 16:00:27 GMT
Is there anything in their t&c that prevent bot usage?
|
|
elliotn
Member of DD Central
Posts: 3,063
Likes: 2,681
|
Post by elliotn on Jul 26, 2017 16:05:31 GMT
Users must abide by fair usage.
|
|
) would be more than welcome. Otherwise, my concern is that a pre-funding bot war at listing may prevent me (and doubtless many botless others) from staying well (or at all) invested in Collateral in the future.
