Scammers and dishonest P2P individuals use false torrents to phish people's identities, bilk them for money, or vandalize their computers through trojan infections.


General

Confirm Both the Torrent and the Movie Release Date
For brand new movie torrents, take a minute to visit these two sites:

IMDb to check release dates
VCDQ to confirm that the new movie exists as a torrent
If the torrent does not exist at VCDQ, and/or is released before the actual movie date, then do not trust it.


Read Comments

Comments can give you a sense of how legit the file is.
If you see no comments on a file, and you think is it fake dont report it. Check the location of the torrent and check if is got comments there.
If you see any negative comments on the file like FAKE don't report it yet. only if you are 100% sure is it fake.
Have seen alot anonymous comments there says is it Fake but the torrent is legit. So don't report it if it got an anonymous comments comment. Try check the location of the torrent again.
Many times the torrent got removed from the Site it got uploaded to. If it have that can it be because is it Fake.
But the user can also have removed it.

A Disportionate Number of Thousands of Seeds, but No Comments

Abusive uploaders will falsify the number of seeds and peers.
Abusers will make their torrents look like 10,000+ users are sharing it. If you see these massively large seed/peer numbers, but there are no user comments on the file, then avoid the file! Any true torrent that has more than a few thousand seeds should also have positive user comments.

Check for 'Verified' Status on the Torrent

Here on the site we got the Verified Uploader status, If the torrent comes from them is it almost allways Fine. But i can still be fake if the uploaders Account got hacked.
Verified Uploader's Torrent is automatic verified.
Torrents can also be Verified by a Mod or higher ranked user. We will mostly Verified them if they comes from a Trusted uploader. Or if is it tested clean.
A Verified Torrent can still be fake. It can have been Verified if a Mod clicked the wrong button to delete a Torrent. So if you find a Fake torrent there got Verified. Report it and we will be sure is it fake.

Media Player?

Many fakes want you to download a special Media player to watch the movie. Don't download it.
I would recommend VLC player it can play anything. can be downloaded Here

Windows 7 and Vista’s Preview pane and Video’s

Open the folder that you download to and keep an eye on the thumbnail a lot of time it will show a preview with only a few percentage of the file downloaded as in the picture below with only 2% done. This may work in XP also for the thumbnail (Not the preview pane as XP doesn’t have it) .

For this to work you must set priority to the first and last pieces in µtorrent In Preferences under the advanced tab.


Text Files
Any .torrent that has a text file named " Important read me first ", " important unlocking instructions ", " Unrar Instructions ", " Movieurl ", " Password.txt ", " Password.nfo " , any html file , Or something similar. It is probably a Fake/Scam . (A single readme or .nfo file is OK)
When you download a .torrent at first only download the .txt/.nfo file By Unselecting everything except the .txt/.nfo file if there is one included to see if it is a SCAM or not You will know if there is a link that says something like (Go here to unlock or view this file)

In µtorrent There are 2 ways to do this.



In Vuze you need to look in the “Files” (iirc) section of Options and deselect the auto download option. Then when you start a new torrent you will get the prompt to select what directory to save too as well as being able to select which files to download. While you’re in there deselect the option to save to last directory or you may find all your crap being saved to a folder you don’t want them to.



Formats

Trust .AVI, .MKV and MP4 Files; Avoid .WMA and .WMV Files

For the most part, true movie files have this formats .avi (audio video interleave), .mkv (Matroska files) or MP4 (MPEG-4 Part 14) format. Conversely, the great majority of .wma and .wmv files are fake. While there are some authentic examples, most .wma and .wmv files will link to other sites to get paid codecs or malware downloads.


.rar .7z .ace .tar .gz .arc .dar .pea .sit etc

Yes, while there are legit uploaders who use .rar archives to share files but mostly they got alot .rar files and not a single .rar file.
But for movies and music, the majority of rar and archive files are fake.
Abusers use the rar format to conceal trojans and codec scam files.
Video is already compressed, so there is no need to compress further.
If you see an attractive torrent movie file that is in .rar .7z .ace .tar .gz .arc .dar .pea .sit etc format, distrust it and examine its listed file contents before you download. If there is no list of the contents, do not trust it. If the file list is disclosed, but the file list includes an .exe executable file, or text files with the words 'password' or 'download instructions', do not trust it.

Stay away from


Password Instructions, Special Instructions, or Exe Files Are Included

If you see a file in the movie/music torrent that says 'password', 'special instructions', 'codec instructions', 'unrar instructions, 'important read me first', 'download instructions here', then the torrent is quite likely a scam fake. These suspicious files are telltale signs that someone is trying to sneak malware onto your computer! Futhermore: if there is an exe executable file included, then avoid that download! For movies and music, there is no need for an executable file to be present, nor should there be any passwords or any special download instructions.


Special Players/Decoders for Video files.
DO NOT INSTALL OR RUN ANY OF THE FOLLOWING.
3WPlayer, AbcCodec, AccessKeyGenerator, AccessMediaDownload, AccessMediaSetup, BitGrabber, BitRoll, BlackCodec, CityCodec, DemoCodec, divocodec, divxmovienow, DOMPlayer, Dvd Access, Dvd Codec, Emcodec, eMedia Codec, EndCodec, GalaPlayer, GameCodec, Go Media Decoder, HeroCodec, Hificodec, HQ Codec, iCodecPack, IMCodec, IntCodec, iMediaCodec, ivideocodec, IxCodec, JetCodec, KeyCodec, LightCodec, Megazcodec, Media-Codec, MediaCodec, MediaTubeCodec, MedCodec, MMediaCodec, MovieCodec, Moviecsodec, MovieXplayer, MPCODEC, NetPumper, Newvidscodec, NiceCodec, nvidcodec, PCODEC, Perfect Codec, Player_Flash, PlayerCodec, PlayersCodec, PlayCodecs, playvix player, PowerCodec, PornPass Manager, PornMag Pass, Qvee Player, SiteTicket, SiteKeyMaker, Siteentrances, SoftCodec, StormCodec, strCodec, svideocodec, TrueCodec, TsCodec, TvCodec, TvsCodec, Tvs-Codec, UinCodec, Unpack_Movie.exe, v-codec, VaxObject, Vccodec, VCodec2007, VideosAccess, VideoCompressionCodec, VideoKeyCodec, Videoscash, VideosCodec, vidscodec, WinZix, WebSoftCodec, WebVideoSetup, WinMediaCodec, WMcodec, X Password Generator, X Password Manager, XeroCodec, XXXmediaCodec, XVod Decoder, ZipCodec, Zcodec, ZLOB Show

Or any other “special Player/Decoder (Codec)/Downloader” They are Trojans (SCAM/FAKE) and probably not even the file stated in the .torrent. If you download something requiring any of these delete them.

Antivirus Programs


Scan all Downloads

Install a good (up-to-date) virus/spyware scanner like AVG or Avast (Are some free ones) and scan before opening!

Antivirus program
If you got downloaded some % of a .avi file can you scan it with your antivirus and it can catch embeded script that directs to codec site


Online Virus Scanner
If you don't have a Virus program. And if you have downloaded something and you are not if its clean.
Then you can use an online virus scanner like VirusTotal.
On VirusTotal can you scan a file up to 20 MB

Information about Uploader

Uploader Names
If an uploader has a name that is a randomly genereated name, it is most likely a fake.
[Examples: fhghgih,ityopou,klklkliyy,frttyui, etc...]

Uploader's History
If the uploader has 35 torrents posted, all of which were posted with in 8 minutes of each other, then it is most likely a fake.

Uploaders File Sizes
If an uploader has 15 files and 13 of them are all 701 MB, and the ther two are 703 MB, then odds are it is a fake.

Uploaders Torrent names/Titles
If an uploader has a title that has not been released yet.
[Example:If the new hot movie title right now that everyone wants is Fast Five, and their is a Uploader posting a DVDRip of Fast Five it is probably fake, seeing as the movie is new, a DVDRip is near impossible.]

But remember
When you are looking at these torrents and trying to determine if they are fake or not, you cannot judge it by only one of above said features, they all go hand in hand with each other.
[Example: If you are looking at a torrent, and 19 comments say fake, you cannot assume it is fake right away, you would have to look at the file size, see if it is appropriate, then look at the seeds, and the description and chek the name and title, and by the time you are all done looking at these things, you will know if it is a fake or not, using the steps above.]

I hope this helps you guys out a little on trying to spot a fake uploader / fake torrents, and I hope it gave you some insight on how to go about doing this.

Tutorial with Pictures can be found here: [Tutorial] How to Spot Fake Torrent Files.

great thread......very informative....thank you

mine torrent information is on next level now..

Thanx for keeping it real

Great job, tks man!

Hey thanks man........

Thanks, very useful.

Thanks it's useful

thanks man very helpful!!!