@contentjunkie I think you misunderstood me a bit. A con-artist is someone who scams people into giving him their money without giving anything in return. This is not the case with @dollarvigilante as you have absolute freedom to believe his information and to buy his services or not. Free, voluntary market transaction by definition can not be a con or a scam.
Your emotions and your ability to comprehend information that is presented to you is on you. You can't really blame others for not doing your research.
In the case of the curation bots, you just stated yourself that this is a problem with the platform, not the authors, so then your original point is neither here nor there. This author brought in a lot of new members who are obviously happy with his services and are upvoting his content because it adds value to their life.
The real con is the Federal Reserve, not people who expose them.