I thought it was a one-off when I saw this post by @maverickinvictus. But it's not just an isolated phishing case. See the screenshot he posted:
But it's not only @digitalp, check these out that mentioned me today:
So it is @digitalp, @dmitrov10, @baby32
AND WHO KNOWS HOW MANY OTHERS!
They change their texts, the style of the URLs, and they all ask you to click a link that takes you to a certain bit.ly and then to sleemit.com <---- notice that it's sLeemit and not sTeemit.
They take posts done by others and ask for feedback, use their titles or links and lead readers astray into scam sites that will definitely steal your password.
Be careful of this pattern, find all of those and report them, comment under them to warn the readers that this is a scam. If a bot could be made for this it would be great, to follow them around and warn people of their existence.
Protect yourself and protect others.
I don’t know why the bad choooose to be bad. Threse scanners are smart , and if they use such tine and effoet in a Good way they would, for sure, make more money !
Hi @cryptosharon
Thanks for spreading the word about this one.
I was stupid enough to get my account hacked 2 weeks ago. Once the hackers got control over my site, they used it to send out a huge number of their phishing messages to others. For protection, all those comments were flagged by Steemcleaners, so they would become invisible. As a result, my reputation dropped to -1.
I consider myself as one of the fortunate few, because I got my account ánd reputation score back.
Once I had regained access to my account, I had to manually edit all the phishing comments the hackers sent out in order to make them harmless. Once that was done, I was happy that Steemcleaners and all individuals that flagged my comments, were prepared to take their flags away, so my reputation score went back up to where it was before the hack.
Ever since, I’m trying to raise awareness. Not only about the phishing messages itself, but also about how to get your account back once it has been hacked - I’ll leave a link to my guide at the bottom. If you know anyone that has been scammed, please send him/her to it, before they ruin their account by taking the wrong steps. I promise, the link is legit ;0)
Another important message I’m trying to spread is that most (not all) phishing messages are sent out through hacked accounts. I’ve seen loads of messages in which people openly accuse others for being a scammer, while this person was only a victim, and was stupid enough to get his account hacked.
Again, some accounts are from real scammers, but that’s a minority.
That’s why I’d like to ask people like @onepercentbetter and @martin.mikes, who both commented below, to keep an eye on the comment they have flagged. There’s a chance the users will regain access to their account, and work for hours to edit the comments one by one to make them harmless, just like I did. Once you see this happen, please be kind enough to take a away your flag. By doing so, you’re giving this user a chance to get the reputation score he has worked so hard for back.
Here’s the link to my story, and a guide on how to recover after getting hacked:
https://steemit.com/mapsters/@simplymike/got-hacked-here-s-how-to-get-your-account-and-reputation-score-back
Thanks for tagging me on this one, @spiritualmax!
By the way, If I got it right, @anyx is working on a detection/warning bot, that will hopefully reduce the damage that is being done now.
the one i flagged most likely is a spam account.
Yes, I've also seen many who are rep 25, no profile picture, no messages, only phishing comments. They could still be new users, but regardless many are blank accounts.
yeah exactly.
Wooooooo
Amazing how the whole system is responding to it. I hope that anyx's bot brings much more safety to Steem. I would also do one but I'm a newbie with this. I still need more experience and more set up for a successful Steem bot.
Thanks for this message, Mike. I'll pass it on to whoever gets their account hacked. It must be horrible for the person.
May I ask how they got access to your "site" through your Steem password? Or do you refer to your account and by extension the Steem blog and commenting features?
I simply made a stupid mistake. After spending the last 20 years online, I should have known bettter...
I received a ‘grumpy cat’ flag on my post. (I think I was one if the first, so there were no warning messages yet)
I didn’t do anything wrong, so I clicked the ‘learn more’ link. I was asked to log in. So I did - SteemIt had been acting up, so having to log in was not new. I was using my phone, so didn’t properly checked the URL. SteemiL it was...
On top of that no one ever told me that your ‘password’ isn’t supposed to be used as your password, that you should lock it away in some safe place and use your private posting key to log in instead...
The moment I had logged in to this fake site they had everything...
If I’m not mistaking, the bot is called @ guard
Yes, this seems to be Anyx's bot. Link to intro post
Getting over bots commenting on my posts!
These look a bit more sophisticated so thanks for the heads up :) Most are very obvious
Sadly, I know many new people who can't identify these bots that seem so obvious to me and they go and thank them for the information and promise to read what they propose. New people are too trusting.
so scary! thanks for the heads up!
You're welcome! We need to stay together to fight the surge of scams and phishing more effectively.
Yeah I have seen some who use URL shorteners to try to avoid detection.
Wish there was a way you could block their IP!
I think bookmarking Steemit in your browser is also Good so not to miss the original page With the other scammy ones. I think we need more blogs about safety targeting the new steemians. Exactly like the new crypto on how to keep their wallets safe. We need them also to be short and not so much technical coz many people don’t like to immerse in long articles .
I'm sure that even though the blockchain is decentralized and uncensorable, Steemit itself could create an IP detection to at least warn users or censor abusers within the site, then create a shared list for other sites. It would suck for political action, but it would be great toward this.
I don't know if we can defend this.
Yep ! That’s a really very nice Idea .. IP detection like on Many exchanges
👍🏼✊
@CryptoSharon 😭😭😭
Steemit is now getting scary.
This is pure wickedness
Yeah O.O They used my name! It's so bad.
This loooks as a great strategy lool. I hope there will be more development on the platform to avoid this kinds of spam.
We really need a huge development to be taken into account so millions will and the platform will hit the highs
I don't know what kind of technology development would help with this, but someone will figure it out eventually.
You got a 36.70% upvote from @allaz courtesy of @cryptosharon!
Thanks for using Bid Voting Bot @allaz service and Steem Upvote Bot Tracker
I want to introduce you to my new friend @monsterbit in order to give additional thanks!
Do you know who is @monsterbit is? My friend, you can miss a lot. I highly recommend checking him with introduceyourself. He is going to hold interesting contests with cash prizes and promises to tell a lot of interesting stories!
I hate this kinds of accounts. thanks for letting us know.
Me too! It's horrible :c
i got it yesterday on one of my post, thought it's a spam comment and just flag and ignore it. came across ya post then i notice yeah the link actually mask itself to appear 'legit' How do i report tat account ?
Go to https://steemcleaners.org
thanks 雪人
good one. i will definitly write a post on same topic as i got one today...
quote
blacklady (0) · 16 hours ago
Hello friend, excellent post,
Thanks for sharing and hopefully you will be more successful for your work.
You can check my article https://stееmit.com/@cryptocurency/billionaire-jack-dorsey-bets-on-blockchain-as-bitcoin-price-dips and give me your feedback!
I will follow you
unqoute
the rep was 25 when i got and replied advising the user to stop such post and next time the acc was flagged to zero.
lets keep watch for such. thanks for sharing and lets keep in touch
Notice that when you copy these links, the st is separated from eemit. That happened to me too. I think they use a special character instead of t or s or something like that. A weird ASCII character.
Wow. We need to ensure they don't succeed. Steemit has many spammers but we will win. 😋
Thanks a lot, I have already seen one on my new friends account. I rather gave him flag immidiately.
Excellent! Since not everyone realizes the level of threat, we have to protect each other. Do your flags grey out the comments? (To say "this comment has been hidden due to low ratings")
Thank you for the information.
updated a post on same topic and cited your work as we have to expose them. hope you dont mind. sadly bots thought i shared spam and some even flagged me and or removed my bot funds with no refund. anyways, lets keep steemit safe!
I saw it on Maverick's post... really sad that people are losing their accounts in this scam... glad our pal @simplymike could get hers back.