why do samsung allow cheating on samsunghealth challenges

[davert123]

trying to understand why Samsung provide a service like global step challenge and then allow cheats to dominate the board every month.. it's not rocket science that if someone dies 200000 steps a day they are cheating or if on average they have done 2 steps a second , every second eithout sleep since the challenge opened they are cheating. why don't Samsung care about this and stop it ? it puts a lot of people off using the service

[Maximus_Rufus]

I agree! I do not think any member of Samsung support has answered this question for now. There does not seem to be any interest for clients!

[DanielSeeker]

Yes they must be banned!

[bukshee]

If you try to contact Samsung regarding the issue of repeated cheaters on the Samsung Health global challenges then the response will be that you are envious of people above you in the leaderboard and that it is entirely possible to walk/run 10KM per hour every hour for 24 hours a day consistently for a month.

They will point out (even though you never mention it) that the challenges are started at the beginning of the month and that no steps are carried over from previous challenges.

They will claim that an 'algorithm' will weed out the cheaters and place them in a 'Samsung Health Jail', which of course, even if true, doesn't work as you will consistently see these apparent fitness unicorns completing the challenge within 24 hours and continue to  increase in step count persistently until the end of the challenge.

Samsung will not do anything to correct the problem (who knows, maybe I will be proven wrong eventually) and they do not seem concerned in the slightest. They will simply tell you to try harder and not focus on the obvious problem with the challenge as it doesn't really matter. The attitude towards this makes me wonder why they bothered to create a global challenge in the first place.

I know my response to this is generally quite a negative one but in all, I really do like the app overall. It is fun to run the challenge alongside friends and the other features make it a useful addition to smart technology. I just think that this one particular function is hugely disappointing and it is a shame that nobody wants to do anything about it.

[Erichtx]

Funny thing happened today.  I was messaged by user NODSH to a 10k challenge.  I friended the user and when i logged back in an hour later, the name changed to 365ppp.  The user had over 1m steps alteady in.  Are there bots in this app that are causing all the cheating?

[bukshee]

Considering the amount of 'users' that are using the Global Health challenge to promote political interests, social media presence or the birthday of their favourite celebrity (???) I find the possibility of bots quite likely although I don't know how the mechanics of this would work on this platform. No matter what the reason, cheating is clear and until Samsung acknowledge and take a more heavy handed approach to this issue, absolutely nothing will change. They simply don't want to provide any resources to combat this particular issue.

[RM81]

I simply don't do the community stuff anymore.

I also had an invite to a 10k challenge, it was late at night where I was and also where the requester was, so I expected a fair challenge. 30mins later I noticed the challenger had won. I doubt it was a bot, simply someone who deliberately didn't sync their stats until after the challenge started, which is the same as the other cheaters in my book.

I won't do the monthly challenges nor take part in individual community challenges either.  It's was fun. It's no longer fun. I will just stick to training for my own personal gain, which was always the goal anyways, the community was just a bit of fun with like minded people.

[Ozzie513]

I see the current leader claims the equivalent of 500 miles in a day. Might at least have the decencey to not be such an unbelievable liar

[bukshee]

There is no need for decency when there is absolutely nothing stopping them from doing it. It is unfortunate but that is how it will be until Samsung decide to do something about it. Notice the 'winner' of the last challenge has 3 identical accounts with different profile pictures (at least from what I have noticed so far). They will take turns at gaining 1st place. Bit of a joke really.

[Cym]

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@Erichtx wrote:

Funny thing happened today.  I was messaged by user NODSH to a 10k challenge.  I friended the user and when i logged back in an hour later, the name changed to 365ppp.  The user had over 1m steps alteady in.  Are there bots in this app that are causing all the cheating?

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That's a very good question. I have never heard how they do these totally impossible feats, And I really don't see the point. It's not like we win anything other than our own satisfaction.  But someone points out political interest and that may be it.  But I wish it would stop!  

[Goran89]

Is Samsung going to do something about it, and where do we complain? Beacuse I can see that this is deffering people from using the app. Myslef included. I am pretty competative dude and I like to compete with peeps that are better than me, but how do you keep up with the cheaters? I dont really see whats the point in cheating. Yeah, I know... keep up and compete with the real ones, which I do. But the cheaters are just driving me mental!