Scammers and Spammers and Extortionists, OH MY!
I have not come up with any kind of a consistent theme for posting here on steemit, which I think is OK for now. There is something on my mind which I thought I should weigh in on, since it's important.
Incredible Cosmic Power
We have a tremendous platform on our hands here. Whether in the context of the steemit community, STEEM more generally, or even the intenet as a whole, there is incredible power which rests in the hands of an enormous group of people - the citizens of the world, for the most part. We have the ability to communicate globally, for very little cost. We are building and participating in economic systems which will establish the future of human interaction for a long time to come.
This is a grand experiment, and it is a tremendous privilege to be able to take part in it. As they say, however, with great power comes great responsibility.
One of the best features of a permissionless innovation system is that it gives everyone freedom to experiment with their own version of "what works". For many people, that is an opportunity to build things that are useful. We have seen an explosion in such tools since the internet came about. The growth in adoption and usefulness of our communication platforms has been increasing exponentially, and that ever-accelerating growth is still happening today.
While I am hopeful, overall, about our future as a species there are some obvious areas for improvement. Freedom to express ourselves and to innovate with our tools and social systems does not come without costs. One of the costs which we have not yet effectively mitigated is that of spammers, scammers and griefers. While a vast majority of the users of our systems seem to have good intentions and helpful attitudes, some do not. This phenomenon is not exclusive to the environs of cyberspace, it happens in "meatspace" as well. To some extent, it seems inevitable that any system which involves humans will include some proportion of actors with dysfunctional goals. In meatspace, we have a lot of experience with people who see the whole environment as an opportunity to take rather than to give. There are those who cannot seem to grasp the idea of building things for mutual benefit. Whether con artists, or thieves, or vandals, there are some who mostly experiment with ways to either enrich themselves by doing very little helpful work, or to just destroy things because they can.
So that is where we find ourselves, whether we like it or not. Humanity has come up with a number of ways to attempt to mitigate against those who wish to harm others. I say attempt, because these countermeasures have proven to be somewhat ineffective. I'm not saying we shouldn't lock our doors, we should. It helps. That particular mechanism only goes so far, however, since you will still be vulnerable to some degree. Perfect security is an illusion, and a goal with diminishing returns as you put more and more effort into it. Ideally, this quest to protect ourselves from other humans would not be necessary. Unfortunately, it is. We simply cannot trust each other.
Now, you could look at my view of humanity and think that it's pretty negative and gloomy. I want to apologize if I've given you that impression. I only want to be realistic, as we work together to build things that benefit everyone. It's a hard problem, creating systems and communities which are resilient to attack. I think we will continue to improve. STEEM is a system which attempts to improve on these problems in important ways. There are still problems. Like all systems there are vulnerabilities and bad people can do bad things. The good news is that we have a lot of tools and a lot of people with the proper motivations and a system that is flexible enough that we can learn from our failures and keep improving.
The Actual Point
That is a bit of a long-winded introduction to what I really want to say. I'm at risk of burying the lede with this, so I'll stop now and just get to the point. Many people come to this platform with honest good intentions and a skeptical untrusting attitude. That is awesome. Many others arrive here with the intention of using the system to benefit primarily themselves, or just to wreak havoc for the lulz. That is despicable. Still others find themselves in this environment with the correct intentions and attitude, but without the necessary degress of skepticism, or sometimes also technical acumen, to protect themselves. Just so this doesn't sound too elitist, it's worth keeping in mind that we are all to one degree or another, vulenerable.
Because there are scammers and spammers and extortionists and bad actors in our world, we must come together and protect each other to whatever reasonable extent we can. There is not a lot that I take strong positions on and adamantly rage about, however, it infuriates me to see people who take without giving and harm others because they can. We should all seek to become more informed about the ways in which people can be taken advantage of. This is helpful in a couple of ways. It is enlightened self-interest. The more I know about how to protect myself, the safer I will be. Beyond that quasi-selfish motivation, it also puts me in a better place to warn others and to work for solutions to protect us all. Please do the same, as your time and experience allows. Trust me, those that would steal and plunder are skillful and spend plenty of time figuring this stuff out.
While you will not be entirely safe by doing these things, it is worth putting in the effort to protect yourself and your community. The better we are at protecting ourselves, the safer we all are. It's worth keeping in mind that something like "herd immunity" is at play here. Similar to vaccinating against viruses in meatspace, innoculating ourselves against scammers and thieves and extortionists online makes the endeavor less profitable. The more we can raise the bar and the more we can deny success, the less likely these things are to be pursued in the first place.
Stuff to look out for
Here is a very incomplete list of things which we should all think carefully about, be very skeptical when asked to share these things, and do what we can to expose those who would cause problems:
- Private Keys
- Passwords
- ID cards
- Nude photos
- SBD/STEEM/ETH/BTC, etc
- Fiat money
If you are so lucky as to have only encountered decent, honest people online, please take a moment to consider HOW people get taken advantage of by scammers and then DON'T FALL FOR IT. The best scams are friendly and sympathetic. Most scams appeal to basic human emotion (greed, sympathy, outrage, etc...).
Also, as an observation, most scammers and extortionists and beggars and such work very hard to not be exposed. Don't fall for that either. Speak up when someone is doing bad things. There are lots of people who are more than willing to help, because we know the stakes of this game. The community is your best defense. Learn to trust those who prove themselves trustworthy. As they said so many times on Hill Street Blues after they got the latest rundown of the bad things going on, "Let's be careful out there".
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very good extensive post. That was one heck of an intro lol
Just showing some love from one CPG member to another. Good work bud, hope u find your niche.
Could not agree more. We have to stand together against greed on this platform.
Thanks @gray00, I appreciate the vote of confidence. It's kind of crazy, the things some people try to pull. I'm sure you could tell, but a fair amount of this post was inspired by the various goings on in steemspeak as well as the onelovedtube discord. I'm encouraged to see that there are communities willing to speak up and do something to make this platform great. Particularly @whatsup and @fyrstikken seem to be taking on bad actors with a vengance. My voice doesn't have that kind of weight, but I want to chime in where it makes sense to support that kind of positive action.
There has been a spike in the scammers in recent weeks, I find, sending links via messages or comments that lead to bogus sites. I always ignore them and never click the links. Being aware allows us to distinguish the bad actors from the good ones more easily.
Good point. Thanks for commenting @binkyprod. I didn't really say much about not clicking on links, but that's definitely good advice. When in doubt, it's always better to get there some other way. Phishing attacks are sometimes difficult to recognize, and can be devastating if you give up important info.
So true. There was an email going around to everyone who owned EOS tokens and the website was almost identical and looked really legit. There as one small difference in the website address that distinguished it and if we click too quily before observing, it's not always after 3 or 4 clicks that they have access, sometimes it's through the first one. Though to be fair, most phishing scam sites ask for our credentials, so that's the major clue right there.
Great article Todd, it’s a shame we have these people in such a great community.
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Agreed that it's a shame. I guess, looking on the bright side, some people can learn. Unfortunately not all. Thanks for commenting Alex :)
Yeah there’s really no other solution than education. On the plus side this community attracts much less nasty comments etc
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You are perfectly on point with this post my friend, glad you took the time to share your views. I think you may have found a niche in raising awareness? Always love reading what you write, very eloquent yet factual.
Many people do not understand the nature of decentralization, in short I break it down to no control and relate it to the Wild West for those not understanding.... don’t buy the miracle cure snake skin oil cause its most likely riddled with poison so you cannot come back to complain.
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Thanks for the interesting analogy. It always helps to have a good story to make a point seem relevant. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is :)
I don't know if I've found a niche, I'm still working hard to figure out how things really work on STEEM. I do think there's a vast opportunity to help people to understand and find their way in this system. It's quite complex. I'm very grateful for the many people here on steemit who have shared their insights and knowledge so freely with me, and I feel an obligation to do likewise.
Your quite welcome my friend, I have many a good analogy for trying to explain the ins and outs of this platform.
I do think that you will gain much attention if you keep writing articles like this, each time you find yourself diving down the rabbit hole write about it and share your findings basically that is all I have ever done! Your way with words will make you a great success, all of us walk a fine line between contributing and spamming. With quality writing like this I say your further over that line towards the contribution side then you may realize.
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TrufflePigI agree let’s make it happen guys!
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