sick of fakes

[iamtheone1999]

i have attempted to download 2 torrents, twice each now and all four times they were fakes. who is distributing these fakes and why?

[jewelisheaven]

Depends on the content they allegedly contain :/

Unfortunately if there is no "direct" method to access the source, it is up to you to spot certain characteristics of fakes...

If you are looking for a podcast for example, any extension other than .mp3 or .mp4 is suspect. If you're looking for a video, .zip and .exe files should be avoided like the (bubonic) plague.

Also, OBVIOUS plays on well-known tracker addresses should be a giveaway that it is not on the up-and-up.

:/ Other than that there is no way to ensure something is what you want it to be except to download it. If you downloaded the torrents from an index site, be sure to rate/comment the item down... if they have an observant staff which also has "report" button, you can tag it as a fake (not what it is advertised as) and they will probably deal with it.

Edit: Also, if you are looking for regularly scheduled items such as a weekly news report, if it hasn't been a week since the last release, that's probably fake. And, remember if it's a well-known release, it may not ALL be fake. There are torrent clients which accept bad data as input... if that data (say the first OR last 3 files of a 12 file torrent) is bad, the rest can be verified GOOD if you try it from another source... It is usually up to the user to find good torrents though.

[Switeck]

Any half-decent website should have some sort of feedback system (message forum or comments) for each torrent to at least let the NEXT person know that a certain torrent is a dud.