Today I was greeted with an odd Gina notification:
Seeing my name mentioned by @rondon was a bit of a shock, so I went to investigate. As luck would have it, they copy/pasted a post of mine where I mention myself so I was able to find it immediately.
This led me to investigate further. Where did these accounts come from? Who is behind them? Looking at hiveblocks.com I found @esteemapp had created the account, and @gandalfthedark had delegated to it. Upon further inspection, that account delegated to a host of fake names resembling real steem users, such as @the-marky-mark, @roelanpd, @yabapmat, @someguy456, and so on.
There are about 77 accounts total, and after checking each one individually, I have found only 17 posts so far that have been made:
https://peakd.com/@monstersralph/steemmonsters-battle-vs-ferjart
https://peakd.com/@monstersralph/first-steemmonsters-battle-against-waltersan
https://peakd.com/@bestb00m/the-latest-us-state-of-missouri-reports-first-virus-case
https://peakd.com/@cannapals/pineapple-og-indica-sweet-and-relaxing-buzz
https://peakd.com/@mummamonza/my-20th-month-on-steem-was-a-month-of-milestones
https://peakd.com/@abh12345-sports/tribe-analysis-for-the-month-sportstalk
https://peakd.com/@berge1mirsenpai/unlock-a-big-gift-pack-from-partiko-dlw4dlbh
https://peakd.com/@cu1gin/a-look-at-the-various-markets-now
https://peakd.com/@steve-jhuggett/sunset-challenge-update-by-steve-j-huggett
https://peakd.com/@ch00girl/mmrl1db4a
https://peakd.com/@eliezer-floyd/ecce-homo
https://peakd.com/@dude0ntheweb/2557e33dfe83e8fcb1c449edcb3004aa-vimmtv
https://peakd.com/@appreciat0r/daily-quality-content-rewards-566
https://peakd.com/@t0ric0/resistance-is-futile
https://peakd.com/@rondon/hybrid-animal
https://peakd.com/@h0w0/first-post-on-hive-and-some-news-on-my-proposal
https://peakd.com/@rondon/town-hall-march-7-2020
I encourage everyone here to watch the accounts listed on:
https://hiveblocks.com/@gandalfthedark
and downvote any posts you see from them.
I guess I should be somewhat flattered to be imitated along with some of the most notable names on the platform, but not enough to put up with scammers. Please do some diligence when curating the new page, as I'm sure we'll be seeing more posts from people you might think you recognize. Check the reputation, if it's 25, then get suspicious and verify before voting on them.
EDIT: It looks like @appreciator has nuked all the accounts that have posted, and @hivecleaners has blacklisted them all, so hopefully they don't fool anyone into voting for them now. Keep an eye on that list, as there are still more that haven't posted and had a chance to get their rep nuked.
EDIT 2: If you want to find the extent of the group so far, check out @themarkymark's newest post:
https://peakd.com/anti-abuse/@themarkymark/new-hive-spam-network
If you like what I do and want to support a backup witness dedicated to the HIVE blockchain, please vote for me on https://peakd.com/me/witnesses or by clicking here
Wow, that's crazy. I see they created accounts to imitate a few people I follow, but obviously I won't follow them. I guess they could mention people have hope to get a vote out of it. Need to flag to negativity so it's obvious they are fake.
@appreciator got most of them to 0, but I'm seeing some more posting now, so it's not over yet. I'll check again tomorrow and update this post with more links so all of them can be nuked.
I appreciate the heads up, and appreciate you identifying yourself as a witness. I am utilizing peakd follower list tool to add all witnesses I run across for future evaluation when it comes time to select witnesses. (I know I could just go to the witness list, but you and a few of the others that post will be some of my first picks, I am also following the @hiveio account and listening in on the dev chats to find those that are involved behind the scenes).
Not even three weeks and already it begins. So funny I just got through a couple of hours ago listening to @howo recording that was listed on the last @hiveio post two days ago about development and the HF 24, SMT's, and other nice little tid-bits even for a non technical person, I found it interesting and am looking forward to the next one on the 20th.
Also a reminder for those that are not aware, @hiveio is the "Official account for the Hive Blockchain A blockchain built for the community, by the community. #HiveIsAlive, so if you are not following them please do.
Thanks !
Just became a victim of this myself! Would appreciate anyone’s help in nuking and blacklisting @bryanimhoff.
It looks like @esteemapps signup is being heavily exploited for this and really needs to be looked at.
I'll be going through all the new ones and updating this post today. Thanks for the heads up on this, it will be taken care of.
I knocked the rep down a little more. This is real scumbag behaviour by someone trying to make Hive look bad.
So, you have your witness back up and running again? I'll go give it a vote.
This is the exact type of thing the blacklist is for, right?
I kinda figured people may make names similar to whales just to hopefully catch the spoils of a misspelled name when someone's transferring funds. ie thenarkymark theycallmedam etc. But I didn't think they'd straight up steal content lmao
And the band plays on,...
We need more flaggers.
Good to know the pros got on it so quick.
Yea I just saw some of mine old posts under a fakes asher account ...
Which account is that? Can you link the post?
https://hive.blog/sportstalk/@abh12345-sports/tribe-analysis-for-the-month-sportstalk#@xyzashu/q8hf8w
Its on your list ... and downvoted allready .... the diference in the name .... dash instead of dot
Ah, ok thanks. Wasn't sure who asher was, but now it makes sense.
Lol, now I remember why I have 'soyrosa' as a GINA notification :D Enjoy your Hive Alter Ego R0n!
Downvote mode, initiate
lel keks
Pretty stupid move by mentioning your name... 🤦♂️
Yeah, they're not very bright. Not sure what they were trying to accomplish here.
Kind of moronic really
Thanks for mentioning Esteem app. Kindly join our Discord or Telegram channels to learn more about Esteem, don't miss our amazing updates.
Follow @esteemapp as well!
I like this much. You deserve all the HIVEs!