We Need Your Help - Latest Deals is under Attack!
Latest Deals
Hi Latest Dealers, The Latest Deals point rewards are being abused (potentially by AI agents) and we need your help! We’re receiving a huge volume of low quality posts, comments, and rates all designed to maximise points and Amazon vouchers. As a tiny company (currently 4 employees) we’re just unable to support this. Latest Deals was created from our passion for deal hunting, and points were created to reward posts that help others. We’re doing everything we can to identify and prevent points abuse - blocking any accounts we find. However, with the rise of AI agents it’s becoming almost impossible to detect. So we ask you - how could we change points to better reward quality over quantity? We want to reward members for posts that others find genuinely helpful. We’re more than happy to give even more points for this! What we can’t afford is to give points for every post regardless of how helpful they are - there is no other company on Earth that we are aware of that does this. How do you think we could adjust the points system to help the community? Instead of 100 points per deal no matter what, is there something else we could do? When should a deal get even more points? When should a deal get less? Please share your opinion. Together, we hope we can find the best answer!
Sorry to read your post. I’ve noticed some obviously unreal bargains when rating today eg pears and bananas for 2p.
Pjran I saw that and can’t open to check it out , just seen lemons 2p as an example
jillylovesyou I saw 10p Onions at Lidl too, but couldn't open that one either, I'm having a bit of a funny day, apart from all this!! 
I believe one of the first things you can do is increase the threshold of the first reward on new accounts - if it’s still 5k to get the first voucher, then hike it up to 10k or even 20k - you ultimately want longevity over people who want to make a quick buck (even though your USP on this site was how easy it was to get rewarded - but that probably needs to change as you’ve grown so much)
Probably use the rating system to award points for deal posts - not sure if it’s motivating to be only awarded 1 point for 1 like, so that needs consideration, but that will be some form of QC
Can’t the AI bot you’re already using for comments detect AI responses? I don’t know about you, but I can tell by reading responses which are genuine posts vs those generated by some kind of bot - so surely AI can figure it out?
I’ve been on here a long, long time - so whatever changes happen, I’ll support it
hspexy Thank you for your suggestions, really appreciate it.
"Can’t the AI bot you’re already using for comments detect AI responses?"
To some extent, yes. However it's not 100% fool proof and can lead to false positives. We really don't want the system to wrongly accuse as that's not nice.
I have 2 suggestions
- All vouchers should include all the criteria as set out originally: Company name- showing either the weblink address or the logo as well as the voucher showing an actual discount.
- A screenshot to show when an offer has expired to reduce time for your team to check manually with full details as per voucher rules listed above. For which we get slightly increased points
- The discount on deals should be set at a minimum ie 20%.
jillylovesyou thank you for your suggestions - and your ongoing mega voucher contributions! I appreciate how much effort you put into it with all the checking and screenshots, and that's the kind of posts we're looking to continue to reward.
Tom There's a lot of fake voucher codes or codes posted against the guidelines which are being rewarded with points, I keep reporting them but recently they're just being expired and the user gets to keep the points instead of them being removed and the points deducted, I've sent an email regarding this via the contact form as well. Screenshots (example below) only showing the voucher code and nothing else should not be allowed at all as the code could be for any site...
sunshinemum I saw one the other day the code was sent by email but the code didn’t work at that time however it was still posted by Q. It wasn’t live until 3 hours later!
Tom here’s another couple been posted in the last hour, neither work Save up to 5% Off
How about points based on genuine deals via votes / comments etc rather than just posting a deal. Example: just 10pts for posting a deal but extra points given when a certain number of people like / vote etc the deal? Then only decent / genuine deals are being fully rewarded. Also increase the number needed for 1st rewards & find ways to reward long term / genuine members & deals. I'm not particulary interested in points tbh so even if you scraped them all together id still use the site.
Glitterandgold thank you for your suggestions that’s helpful. I guess we‘d need to consider whether comments and votes are positive / negative
Glitterandgold You might not be interested in points, but many here use LDs as a lifeline, I remember reading in the past, people saving up the vouchers and using them to buy Christmas and Birthday presents for a start.
Just off the top of my head; and I have no idea how many people you are paying out each day or how much time it takes to pay everyone but if it was me and it could be done I would stop the points altogether and I would set up the system to reward members a 25%(?) commission from the commission on any deals they share that pay a commission, but not give people the money. I would only allow them to claim it in Amazon gift cards past a threshold. I would still have a limit in place for the amount of deals people could share, or earn from. If people are sharing deals (such as the people on here who share anything they see from a sales section one after the other) and aren't receiving a commission I'd like to think they would stop after a while.
That's just me and it may kill the website but then I'd probably just set up a discount code website and maintain that instead, and if it were popular enough, perhaps have a community forum for people to discuss and share deals they have found as well as request deals.
There have been people on here since 2016/2017 who do not care what they are sharing and attempting to (or have been) hit the maximum points every day. The constant fake comments from people drive me nuts so I don't really bother to engage even with the few real comments on anything that I share now.
^I was about to hit post on this comment and this may sound dumb but I thought what if you could apply the commission to the points instead. No points for comments or posts, to stop the abuse, but convert the commission into points from the commission of the sales.
AnotherLondoner hey, when Latest Deals first launched this is actually what we did. All members got half the commission we earned!
After a year or so, following lots of community discussion, it was found that it was too complicated to understand for most people (because we don’t actually get paid that commission for months and much of it gets declined). So we introduced points instead.
This was much more positively received as it means everyone gets immediate rewards and it is simple to understand.
So your suggestion is a good one and was actually our very first version of the site back in 2016. 
AnotherLondoner I think LDs has got to give it very serious thought before anything is put in place, anything too drastic, that makes it harder for members to earn money and cash in, is going to get the usual expected reaction of, it used to be good here, but it's not now, I'm going to get to cash in and then find something else, and we don't want people leaving do we!
JoTarpley yes I think you're exactly right which is why we really want to get everyone's ideas and feedback. Ultimately, we have to do something as the cost of points from the volume we give is already unsustainable. What we're trying to figure out is how to protect - and even reward with more points - members who's contributions others find genuinely helpful.
For example, if an account is posting lots and no one finds them useful - no clicks, likes, comments, purchases etc. - then it could get fewer points. If an account posts something that lots of people find helpful then it gets more points.
Personally, I'll be pleased when something is done about the points for comments! Using words out the OP's posting, and then quoting the obvious original price and then reduction, is not a genuine way to earn points, it's like all the ridiculous re-posts under freebies, only the original poster, who took time to find the freebie in the first place, genuinely earned those points, everyone else just 'copies homework like at school' and puts absolutely no effort in themselves to actually find a freebie to post!
Tom Sorry, I had to nip out a couple of times, this is a couple of quick examples, I've had to edit them so it's not obvious who they are, I've had far worse, it's just finding them on the spur of the moment, instead of reading them at the time
I post this
OHS Foldable Trolley - Black
Available from OnlineHomeShop
£4
£13
and get this
From OnlineHomeShop this OHS Foldable Trolley - Black is a great peace of kit and is a really good deal down from £13 to £4. Thank you for sharing this deal.
Or I post this
2 Person Camping Set. Tent + 2 Sleeping Bags +2 Chairs + £3 P&P Clubcard Price
Available from Tesco
£49.99
£99.99
Then someone tells me it's a camping set.....It’s a great price at £49.99 down from £99.99, an amazing saving of £50.00. I like the fact it comes with chairs and sleeping bags......
Finish Powerball Ultimate Plus All In 1 Fresh Dishwasher Tablets 29 Capsules
This is a really good price saving for these quality branded 29 Capsules Dishwasher Tablets. Very good and helpful for dishwashing. Great value and £1.99 price reduced from £10. Thank you for posting.
Apart from this it's the re-post of freebies, month after month, year after year, I knew it was bad, as certain ones just stick in your head and you groan not again, but when I saw the split photo pick & mix perfume samples with I think £3 P&P posted about 7 times, I thought how ridiculous it was, we are meant to earn legitimate points, but just re-posting and re-posting other peoples finds, is far from it to me, there is no effort that goes into it, and you are just awarding points for a copy of a copy, in my opinion, it's like the television being cluttered with old repeats 
JoTarpley that was mine and the perfume selection changes every month, I always screenshot an updated range and if you check it will be different every month. However I appreciate your comment
jillylovesyou I'm sure it wasn't yours, I'll check, but I'm sure it's not 
, well done on getting such a positive comment from Tom though, I've noticed myself that you do put in a lot of effort!!
Update, no it's not yours 
the pic really bugs me now 
JoTarpley oh my apologies I thought you meant Penhaligons, thanks for your compliments. I am trying to spend less time on here as everything takes up so much time!
jillylovesyou Noooo! You're pretty spot on and thorough with most things from what I can see, so if I ever manage to spot a very rare mistake you've make, then I think I will deserve a prize 
JoTarpley The AI told me I should put the prices on it. I do understand that I repeated the offer but it kept correcting me on numerous things. I didn’t report it because I would be spending more time bothering admin then having a life . Not really fit for purpose.
Loads of repeated deals as well .
, it's certainly causing ructions all this isn't it, once LDs had relatively happy members.............I also think there should be a maximum put back on voucher posting per day, not as low as before but maybe not unlimited. If anything it will curb my addiction!! 
I think the issues started when you introduced AI to mark our comments. We will put a decent comment on an item or on a topic chat and get low points so of course people are trying to ‘beat’ AI because the AI you’re using is not working. In my opinion I think it’s quite lazy of you to use AI instead of paying real people to check people’s comments. Yes you only have 4 people on your team but why not employ more instead of robots? The AI suggests how we should improve our comments which then makes them a low quality comment, AI is turning us into robots.
Tom have another suggestion, the bigger the discount on a deal the higher the points. Will need to include a FULL screenshot showing the full RRP versus the discounted price in the description box. You could use your AI to scan each offer and give the points in per portion to what the deal is worth?
Jerseydrew thank you that's nice to hear. Any suggestions or ideas on what we can do to protect it?
Here are my 3 ideas that might help 
- Maybe a monthly reward system instead depending on contributions etc. It might be easier to manage than daily rewards.
- Limit the voucher codes / deals you get rewarded for to 3/5 per day so there is some vouchers for others to share as i struggle to find some and then some people find and post about 20+. (no hate for those that do i'm just slow at finding them
) - Have a button to report comments you feel are AI in the comment area making it easy for members to flag / report.
Tom Hi Tom 
Thinking about it now it's a hard one as i'm not sure how you would measure quality posts really as you must get so many.
- In my opinion i would limit the vouchers per day that are rewarded the same as deals are. This wouldn't stop people who were posting 20+ deals if they wanted to but would limit the rewards and i was imagine those posting 20+ would be less likely to post so many so others had a chance to find some ( again i am slow at finding them so this is why i'm suggesting this)
- Maybe if deals or vouchers are voted down by a % of people then the reward is removed so anyone posting none deals or vouchers wouldn't be rewarded.
- Another probably unpopular one would be remove rewards per posts etc and have weekly or monthly draws where members can win amazon vouchers etc. Maybe popular posts etc could gain people extra entries. This might reduce activity and you might loose members though but this would probably be a cheaper idea to run.
Freebies is definitely one they are stupid a free booklet or a free magazine for Smyths seriously??
Tom free samples or anything birthday treats stuff like that not a catalogue of toys when you get them in-store whenever you go into Smyth's most people know booklets and catalogues are free nowadays everything is looked up online anyway like the free underwear too I seen it none stop in freebies when it's a subscription another thing how is it free when you have to pay p&p?
So you brought Ai into the game, it wasn't needed, and these are the consequences of it, I don't see the point in freebies, site is flooded with duplicate voucher codes, most of which are expired or don't work, I enjoyed the site a lot more a couple of years ago than I do now
This makes a lot of sense now especially about the 10p fruit/veg or the ridiculously priced ones when rating.
I enjoy coming on here and have had moments (like others) where I've thought twice about commenting or joining in. I am sure we are all to some degree wanting the perks and rewards of our contributions. In my eyes it's like a really nice thank you for the time it takes to do the daily "tasks". I actually see it as part of a community/ job that I do every day even if it's not for long.
To me the vouchers aren't working, every day I find so many that don't work or aren't as described. I used to report them until I kept having messages and points deducted (even when it didn't work). I now click it doesn't work instead but find they appear again the next day etc. I also comment when they aren't as described but the user still gets the points. So changes to this could help save quite a bit.
Deals aren't what they used to be years ago so nowadays they don't always look that great but actually to some of us they are. Times have definitely changed since the start when I was a silent member. I wonder if you could add a certain percentage off before the deal could be submitted. This way it could avoid the really bad ones that are just for the points.
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