There was an earlier case of an activation claimed by a route that was no longer possible. Not many cases over twenty years, but hopefully they are not just the tip of the iceberg!
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If itās deliberate fraud, Iām puzzled. Whatās in it for the āphantom chaserā? No-one but themselves cares how many chaser points (or activator points) they have. So thereās no gain from deception.
Which leads me to suspect more carelessness / wishful thinking in confirming with whom theyāre having a QSO, rather than deliberate deception. There are certainly parts of the world I have had SOTA contacts with where chasers appear to have no tradition of repeating the other party callsign, nor reading-back of the report received, as would be normal here to allow the other party to confirm completion of a QSO. Nor hanging around to confirm that their report has been received correctly. All of which to me counts as poor operating and makes mistakes all the more likely to occur, but is not actively disingenuous.
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I think it is the feeling of power from achieving a successful con, sort of ālook at my score, envy my success, suckersā.
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Which certainly fits the kind of mindset thatād not give a monkeyās for the QRM they causeā¦ 
Possibly say something that many do not like.
During the year 2023 my activity in SOTA had declined significantly compared to the previous 3 years.
The reason? The reason was that some activators uploaded the alerts when they were already at the summit. Whatās the problem with doing it a few hours before? If the excuse were the weather, the alert is simply deleted and there is no problem.
I started to see this thing about uploading the alert shortly before activating it more during 2022 and 2023. What is the reason? That no one knows where you are? I donāt want to think badly but it seems like a practice that leads to suspicion and I want to believe in all the activators.
Another point is when I want to activate a summit with only one or a couple of activations and there is never (with rare exceptions) even a minimum of data about that summit activated. And when I start searching through satellite images or the excellent topographic map of Japan, it is almost impossible to find where to go up.
Is there any possibility of changing certain SOTA rules or being more strict regarding āAlertsā and āProof activationsā?
As some know, I am aware of a situation like this and the ācheaterā got a mere slap on the knuckles despite his blatant disregard for the rules AND eventual admission of his guilt !
IMHO in all walks of life there are cheaters, but as others have said, the people they are cheating most is themselves.
One of the many things that I like about SOTA is that it seems to be run on a trust basis with the assumption that we are all doing our best to comply with the rules etc.
Iām sure genuine mistakes are made from time to time on both sides, but Iād like to think that the percentage of participants minded to cheat must be tiny. I canāt really see what pleasure one would derive from that anyway!
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I think some of it is down to some of the shortcuts the system provides. The ability to log a spot from Sotawatch and a misclick or unfortunate timing with screen updates can lead to logging a different chase to what happened. Its not deliberate but accidental and the unfortunate accident that I know about led to the chaser possibly losing points as I (the activator ) was on a 1 pointer and their true chase may have been more (could not have been less).
The only niggle I see , and I see this from an SWL position where I may linger listening to a single activator for a little while rather than working them and moving on, is there are some activators who call for summit to summits with other activators and continue to do so when the activator (who probably didnāt hear them in the mele) works someone else and then they call again even over the called chasers transmissions.
I know the calling person wants to work the summit and move on, but Iāve not really noticed that this method actually achieves this. What I have observed that when one of the chaser mob picks up there is anther activator they will report this to the original activator who generally calls for them next. This works in both activator and chasers best interest as the chasers want to work both activators.
It actually amazes me, that people put such great store in summit to summit contacts as though they are rare and miraculous. I have often thought that (and I am talking HF here as for VHF and up it is almost certainly the case) that a summit to summit contact is more likely then a summit to shack contact. Barring a few chaser that have good home setups, the majority have 100W into some form of simple wire antenna or something without much gain or directionality from an urban location. Due to this they will also have a much higher noise floor (S7-S9 on 40m for me S9+60 when the xmas decorations go up). So, picking out a weak signal is much harder for the chaser in a shack than another activator on a summit with an S0 or S1 noise floor. This is obviously something for another topic, and would happily be proved wrong with theory or calculations. And yes before anyone mentions it, I can get caught up in chasing summits when out activating, but I couldnāt explain why chasing a summit from summit means more when from home I probably would barely be able to make them out would need to twiddle knobs and things to even get the SWL chase.
Ian
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I do both activating and chasing. But one thing that might help some chasers is if the activator would ID more often. Iām definitely guilty of this, calling CQ SOTA and perhaps working 2 or 3 or even 4 before throwing my callsign out there again. The problem with this is that many times (as a chaser) Iāve seen a POTA station on the same frequency as the SOTA activator. Many chasers hear the contacts being made, assume itās the SOTA station and make the contact, never hearing the callsign. In some cases they actually made a POTA contact and assumed it was the SOTA station.
This 
Itās /p sent over and over again, irregardless of active QSOs.
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Iām certainly guilty of this when activating on the key. Thanks for the reminder!
He has been allowed to continue in the program. But he is aware that heās under much closer scrutiny now. And we do allow people to be stupid once and they normally get one more chance. Though it does depend on just how they were breaking the rules.
The person permanently excluded had a long history of questionable activities in the MTās opinion. Heād already been caught operating from a car before.
What confirms to us these people were up to regular malpractice is when required to provide a photo they were at the summit, they give up activating. That is all that is needed to cast significant doubt on all their previous activities,
I think from time to time the vast majority of us activators are guilty of this at some time or another, regardless of the mode of transmission. In my own case it usually stems from a desire to speed up the process for my chasers. Getting through contacts quickly opens up the possibility of activating more bands and potentially working more chasers.
A couple of times recently when I have finished working a run of chasers and the frequency has gone quiet, someone comes on and sends QRZ? This is after I have put out a couple of CQs and.given my callsign and even, having got no respose, announced QRT on the band. Naturally I respond to the QRZ with my call and summit reference and then several chasers call in simultaneously. Now the chaser that called QRZ probably arrived on frequency when I had potentially finished on the band and hearing nothing put out the QRZ call, but what of the others that now call? Have they been listening to my contacts for a while yet have not bothered with having a contact themselves? Tis a mystery indeed. 
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There certainly is an occasional problem when people log using SOTAwatch. They work an activator and are about to click the log button when SOTAwatch scrolls the screen and they click on the same line but itās now a different activator. I know this happens because I have had some chasers who have what I consider impeccable operating standards have logged me in error. I drop them a line and they delete the QSO.
But we are talking here about 2 types of bad chasing.
- The poor operator. The type who calls in the pileup and believes they were in QSO even though they will have never heard their callsign given. They will argue till the heat death of the universe they āthoughtā or ābelievedā they heard enough of their call that they were being worked. Or worse still āI couldnāt hear the activator properlyā so why the figgy pudding were they calling then? You may call logging such activity cheating but really itās better described as dumbass operation. In a just world these people would not be allowed on the air till they could show competency as they normally end up being QRM for everyone else.
- Proper cheats. These people send their call a few times in the pileup or over the top of a QSO and then send a 73 signoff thanking the activator. They heard nothing and know they heard nothing but will log the chase anyway. We have a few people who do this on our radar, right now theyāre being given sufficient rope to hang themselves
I am reminded of a Police Patrol driver I know who says that he loves driving in an unmarked car as he sees people driving badly that he can pull over and deal with. When he drives in a high visibility police car he travels in a bubble of exceptional high quality driving. No speeding, bullying, aggressive tailgating etc. If he slows from the speed limit (say 60mph) by 5mph then all the cars around him slow down as well. The same thing tends to happen to members of the MT when we are operating. Iāve been chased by someone who is on the radar and the operation is always exemplary when itās quite often questionable for others.
Weāve had some poor operators in the past that the MT contacted and told them their operating was poor and they needed to improve or they would be excluded. And they all improved their operating standards quite markedly. In fact the improvement of one station is such that itās a delight to be chased and to work him nowadays.
Andy, youāve understood and summed up the situation nicely.
The last few months of the 10 m Challenge have suckered me into a Panamax-sized boat load of chasing, in addition to my occasional activating. Which has been great fun, but itās also given me ample opportunity to observe, and be negatively impacted by, some of the less savory things going on.
Thanks for the perceptive response, Brian.
And thank you both for dealing with these absurdities. Iāll start providing the MT, privately, select observations on dishonest and flagrantly poor operating practice.
I truly think reigning in the bad actors on the chasing side (who are few in number but disproportionately active) will do a lot to increase the collective enjoyment of the program.
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OT: I normally go QRT when I have reached some criteria (time, temperature, no chasers). I will have called CQ a few times after some time operating and think āOK, letās go home.ā Iām not one for sending QRT/SK messages, nobody was listening to the CQ so whatās the point sending anything. Just recently I have done so sending something like "MM0FMF/P now QRT SK . . " and receive one or more āTUā replies. I may have to signoff more often in future.
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When I have no more chasers and Iāve called CQ a few times (with no reply) I usually QSY to another band or switch off the rig to go QRT, But sometimes I leave the radio on whilst Iām packing stuff away and occasionally Iāll hear āQRZ?ā bang on frequency. I assume this is where someone has belatedly seen my spot and is testing to see if Iām still there. If Iāve not already stowed the paddles and headphones, Iāll usually reply with my callsign [if Iām not already frozen to the bone], otherwise Iām officially QRT.
I often donāt put alerts on for summits I activate on HF. Busy home and work life, disruptions that come from that. The last thing I need/want is to be tied to a timeline or summit for that matter. I often pick an area, take my radio gear, decide what route/hill/summit I might hike en route, then spot when I get there.
It might be unfair to those chasers that want my summit, other than that I donāt see much of an issue.
MM0ZFG
Same here!!! Can you imagine with my 14 years old son and me working, going to the market and doing the dinner?
I think that like many of us, we like to make S2S QSOs. When I started to notice this practice in some activators (approximately in the last 2 years) I found it quite frustrating (in addition to the other thing that I suspect in my main comment) since before knowing that the activator ĀØAĀØ or ĀØBĀØ are going to being at āXā summit I could go earlier or stay longer at the summit.
It happened to me several times that after preparing to leave the summit I saw a spot from someone who had not previously set an alert in advance. But well, if these practices are going to increase I will have to adapt or get off the boat.