Jeeesh, I just went through this one too @palikari123 , good details, thanks. Ending up following the breadcrumbs onto @v4vapid 's post about the circle jerk puppets. This is some serious bullshit...glad I have a greater awareness now and will do my best to draw attention to this problem/report to steemcleaners when i see it.
Ugh, and the rewards pool raping too...I hope the steemit devs are keeping their heads up, planning some counters. This sort of rot could literally destroy the platform before it gets out of beta.
I'm sure the devs are working on it. The best and only solution for the moment, is to report the obvious abusers and scammers to steemcleaners. Some of the whale flag wars that are going on are completely insane!