I generally don't vote for them any more unless they are something exceptional and have verification. I made a mistake initially upvoting this one since it did seem exceptional but thankfully @jamtaylor did a better job of vetting it than I did.
I do agree that the high consistent payouts on introduceyourself posts were a magnet for scammers and the scammers area clearly here now.
You should certainly be rewarded and I have upvoted you. The @ricegum posts slipped by me because I was familiar with that poster and was tricked by her earlier verification (which may have been real or not, but even if so, it doesn't excuse plagiarism). That said, we don't know for sure that she isn't the author of those other posts, do we?
Generally speaking, I've greatly reduced my voting on introduceyourself posts as I do feel that the consistent rewards have become a magnet for professional scammers. It is unfortunate that what was a nice vehicle for welcoming people to the community and distributing coins has now become an incubator of abuse, but that is how things work on the Internet, so we must adapt and move forward.