There are times when I wonder whether I am just incredibly jaded and cynical... or other people are just incredibly gullible and stupid.
Even when I'm a total newcomer to something-- like Steemit, for example-- I tend to view every story and promise with skepticism till I can personally vest and confirm their validity. Most people, however, don't bother... and it can be costly, and disappointing.
These are some of my observations, after some 8 months, 350 original blog posts and almost 7000 comments.
The Resteem and Upvote "Programs"
Washington state sunset
As I started doing my morning rounds on Steemit, I came across a fresh batch of "offers," presumably just aimed at innocent newcomers:
"I'll re-steem your post to 10,000+ Followers!"
"Our group of 250 loyal Steemians will upvote your post! Just 5SBD for $15.00 worth of upvotes!"
This stuff mostly shows up as "wallet spam." Fortunately, I see relatively little of it... I think because the "providers" search for "upvote beggars," whom I generally avoid and don't follow.
But just how stupid do they think we are? Stop and think, for a moment.
I've been on Steemit practically every day for about eight months... and I am barely reaching 2,000 followers as a result of thousands of direct engagements with other members. Now this person suddenly has 9,000 followers after having started less than two months ago?
Like HELL they do!
Here's How it Works, and Why it Won't Work for YOU:
A lot of people-- especially when new to Steemit-- automatically "follow back" when someone follows them.
Columbines, Colorado
So you create a bot that gets your account to follow every single person who has been active (voted, commented, posted) in the last 90 days. Maybe you end up with 60,000 or so accounts. Maybe 15% of them follow back "automatically." So now your bot account has 9,000 "followers." Then you UN-follow about 55,000 people... and now it looks like you have a really BIG account that has 9,000 followers and follows 5,000 people.
Impressive, yes?
But guess what? Not a single one (well, maybe a handful) of those "followers" actually ever looked at a single post or even the profile page of the"bot person" who followed them.
So sure, they have 9,000 followers, but how effective do you think that is?
Just even the most basic checking would tell you volumes: Why would someone who's allegedly followed by 9,000 people only be getting $0.27 for the average post they create? Conversely, why would someone like me-- with far fewer followers and no "gimmicks" often get $7.00-$30.00 for their posts?
Moreover, if they have 9,000 followers but only get 13 upvotes per post... what does that tell you about the QUALITY and ENGAGEMENT level of those followers?
And what do you think you're going to get, when you send your 3 SBD? That's right... $0.27... on a good day!
My advice: Services that are offered through wallet spam are not worth your while! They exist purely to prey on the inexperienced user who knows no better.
The "Secret" and "Glitch" Scams
Pink rhododendron
This is a relatively new scam that's going around. This can actually be dangerous, so make note!
You'll come across a post with a title like "The Secret to Steemit Success!" or "I have Found the Glitch in Steemit!" It may even have been re-steemed by a friend.
BE VERY CAREFUL! This is a PASSWORD PHISHING SCAM!
What you'll find there is a post that'll start to tell you about this great "secret" that will help you make lots of money on Steemit by exploting some "loophole"... and then the post will end with something like:
"Click here to read part 2 of this story!"
So you click there, and suddenly you're faced with what looks like the Steemit Login dialog box.
STOP RIGHT THERE!
If you are logged into Steemit, you will NEVER get a dialog box asking you to log in again if you're just clicking on a link to another post! Even if-- somehow-- your connection was broken and you're on some strange proxy server that uses masked rotating IP addresses, you would still only have to log in if you were trying to upvote or comment, NEVER if you were clicking on a link!
Here's How it Works, and Why it Will COST You:
Even though it may look like you're still on Steemit, you've actually been redirected to a site outside Steemit.
Joshua Tree National Park, California
A clever person with rudimentary programming skills can easily create a page that "looks like" Steemit, but isn't.
The "scam" is that you'll give up your Steemit master key to "continue," and when you do, you'll end up straight back on a legitimate Steemit page as if nothing happened... except the thief now has your master key and can long into your account and (A) withdraw all your rewards and (B) use your account to endlessly re-steem the original scam post.
Be aware that the "fake Steemit page" may try to "trap" you, and not allow you to even close the tab. Your only real option then is to shut down your browser completely; you may even have to do a "forced shutdown."
Elsewhere on the Web
"If something seems too good to be true, it probably is."
Spring flowers
I sometimes find myself wondering where people get their sense of reality from.
Although this is primarily an article about Steemit, I wanted to take a moment to look at the greater web, as well. Maybe it's because we belong to a cryptocurrency based web community, but I find that I get more and more ads relating to cryptocurrency "investments."
I'm surprised by just how many of these promotions are absolutely absurd.
"Earn 50% daily; 500% weekly!"
On what planet is that even part of reality?
STOP for a moment! Think about this: Even your really "bad credit" credit cards charge 29% per year. And the worst of all-- a "rich uncle" paycheck loan charges 7-10% for a two week to a month term.
Do you honestly think that if it were ACTUALLY possible to earn 500% weekly on an investment, would there be a single person on the planet actually going to work for a wage? Think about it, for a moment.
It doesn't work that way!
Desperation + Greed ==> Money For Nothing = Stupidity?
There are a lot of desperate people in the world who are willing to do almost anything-- including engaging in various types of deception and cheating-- to make even a few dollars.
Close-up of purple heather
Meanwhile, there are also a lot of people who are just outright greedy. Even if they can legitimately make $100, they will cheat and manipulate to make $200 by taking advantage of others.
Both of these types of people tend to be drawn to any kind of "money for nothing" promises that may pop up. For the most part, however, that's a mindset that's more likely to separate them from their investment, than add to it.
I know it's a trite and overused cliché, but if it sounds too good to be true... it IS.
The number of people who actually get in as a "ground level opportunity" and make it rich... it's a tiny, tiny, tiny percentage, and expecting it is more like playing the lottery than working on an opportunity.
What do YOU think? Are upvote and resteem services mostly a waste of time? Have you encountered any scams, here on Steemit? Or services offered, where the results were basically a small fraction of the required investment? Do you think these plans mostly take advantage of those who don't know better? Leave a comment-- share your experiences and feedback-- be part of the conversation!
If you found this useful, and you think others would benefit from these cautionary notes, please resteem!
(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Published 20170926 12:38 PDT
A truly outstanding article @denmarkguy. I could not agree with you more.
I found much of what you stated to be true. In my short time on here, I worked hard to get invovled with others by commenting and being interactive. It takes a lot of time but relationships are forged. I have roughly 600 followers but I know most of them are people who simply followed me back. Like you, while not the same money, I get a very low percentage of my total followers upvoting me. That is okay since I know that only a small percentage of the site in general is actually engaged.
It is amazing how people do not use their heads. The world of crypto can provide spectacular returns. It can also offer some total duds. I would hypothesize that the latter is far more common yet people get sucked in to the offers of incredible returns. I say that believing that many of the major coins do have tremendous upside. I can see $25,000 Bitcoin at some point...I have a tough time seeing $500K or $1M. That said, even if BTC goes on the exponential curve, that doesnt mean every hair brained offer out there is the golden nugget that will change your life. BTC went through a lot in the last 7 or 8 years and still has more obstacles ahead.
I gave this a re-steem since it is important for people to read what you wrote here.
Thanks for the kind words, and the support!
I think we live in the age of the "lottery effect." More and more look at life and see it as a place where you need to make "none big score" and then you're set for life... rather than the traditional way of :dedicated work over time."
I don't quite know where to lay the blame... or of there is even blame TO be laid... but the "shortening" of everything probably has part of the responsibility. Instead of "articles" we communicate in 140 character tweets. Everything happens in smaller and smaller bits... including (it seems) how people think they can create wealth.
Nothing is for free. Grandiose promises are just what they seem, empty and hollow. To get anywhere in life, you need to put in the time and the effort. Pay your dues. Nobody is going to hand you anything on a silver platter. They are going to keep it for themselves...
I agree 100%. And yet it seems like more and more people are chasing "magic pills" and fewer and fewer are actually putting in the effort... sometimes I worry about where that will end, for the world as a whole.
One day the world will hit a reset button...
if someone 'offers me something' , 'begs that I give them something' or 'demands that I do something' I generally don't. If something seems to be too good to be true...it usually is.
I always think of those nutjobs who call: "You've won a free trip to the Bahamas! All we need is your credit card to hold your place!"
Yeah, in your dreams.
It begs one to wonder how some folks make it through the day...
I wonder about that, at times. I look at what people tell me is "a great idea" and quietly think to myself "How did you get to be 40 years old?" Then I start wondering if there's something wrong with the entire gene pool...
Indeed. I think its a matter of naive hope springs eternal!
Great job educating Steemians and exposing the latest Scam.
Thank you @prakashghai, the best we can do is have as much information as possible.
Beautifully written @denmarkguy ... you've covered so many things that people, especially new people, need to watch out for. Most of it is common sense but sometimes people need to be told before they hear.
Thank you-- I think a lot of people (unfortunately) live in worlds made up mostly of "wishful thinking," so they fall for these schemes.
Upvoted for quality content and shared for others!
Common sense is not so common anymore....
Sometimes it feels to me like there is nothing "common" about sense, at all! Thanks for the support.
They remove it in schools ;-)
Good information!
love the picture, @lakshmi, so appropriate to this post.
Thank you @watertoncafe!
Thanks.... funny cartoon, too... thanks for the laugh!
My pleasure!
Thank you for warning about scam
You're welcome! The more people know, the better.
Thanks for that post, this is useful!
Glad you found it useful!
@denmarkguy - resteemed for visibility.
I just posted on this subject too. Then a long string of greyed out posts showed up on someones account when I traced it back (the cheetah bot caught it). Do you know if there's any way victims can get their account back? Decentralization means that no one is in control of course, so no authority to consult. But sometimes forking the protocol on large scams like the one that happened to ethereum a year ago work. Not sure if there's any other options.
What about when someone writes an awesome post and I feel compelled to give him a 100% upvote, a resteem, and a follow?? Oh wait, that's how Steemit is supposed to work Lol! Great article!
I saw that "glitch" post and saw that it was like two lines and a link. I did not click on the link, because my immediate thought was, why would you direct people away from Steemit? I'm new here, but I just thought, no.
Then i looked at the comments, two of which were people warning it was scammy. So I muted the original poster.
It was a good thing, because the feed had like ten posts from her, practically all in a row, some of them duplicates. She had a decent reputation, so I bet it was someone whose account got taken over in this way. :(
Frikkin' scammers. Always trying to screw people over. Ya know, if I had some amazing hacker skills, I'd be, call me crazy, trying to help people. I've always said, one day, Anonymous is going to erase everyone's student loan debt and then we'll be dancing in the streets. ;)
One day I was bored, I started going through my followers. I didn't get very far, but started muting all the resteem only accounts. I found very few people whose names I didn't recognize that looked worth following. Has anyone made a tool for this? Something to make it easier to track followers? And does muting scammers actually do anything? I don't go looking for upvotes, but I do get a lot of the stupid wallet scams. But at least they pay me to spam me!
Well done!
Thanks
I dropped my resteem count, however this is an important message from experience, and I am grateful that you've chosen to write this piece on scamming today- resteemed~
People like instant gratification, however, Steemit thrives on those that take the time and energy to gain an organic following. You can have all the followers in the world, but unless they followed you because they respect your engagements and posts, they won't upvote you, and your account will fall into the abyss of spam.
This is why I like weighted votes, people can't game the system- and even the very few that do, end up getting caught and have to put much more effort than someone properly using the platform.
The best use of a person's time on Steemit is spent by improving ourselves and the quality of others. If people can do that, their followers and post payout will slowly climb, but indefinitely.
Gimmicks can be cool, if they are used in a creative way- but it doesn't outweigh the dedication and effort to improve, and that goes for everywhere, not just on Steemit. Love all your insights :3
I have resteemed your post to warn any decent steemian out there.
I too noticed all the greyed out scam posts and immediately realised that it couldn't possibly be from the account owner...she would never post garbage like that. As soon as I saw the title I suspected she'd been hacked.
I daresay we can expect scammers, hackers and the like, there is always that element out there trying to dupe others.
Like you said, if it sounds too good to be true then it is. You won't make any money or gain true followers for zero effort. It isn't all about the number of followers you have....it's about people who enjoy reading your posts, and appreciating them.
If I click on a post, I will read through all of it if it is interesting. Then I will upvote for effort and enjoyment.
I never answer a "I followed you and upvoted you, now follow me" or "Hi, follow me and upvote and I will upvote you"...with a link. Occasionally I have just looked at their posts which are usually resteems of other people's work with no effort of their own.
Great post. I'm new here as well-and see the scams too. Same thing happens on YouTube. People will buy comments, likes, and subscribers ...and I had no clue. Let's make our accounts mean something-to really change the way social media is done ...for the better. Again, great post 👍🏾
Some people are just greedy and desperate as you have stated later on. A lot of people on this platform live off a couple dollars a day. So you can see the huge upside these people see when we in a “gift economy” that well they will be gifted more then they need for a week just for a small cost naturally…
When I tried to freelance online a few years ago I just flat out gave up. I could not even compete at other peoples price level. Even if I was willing to only work for $8 they could hire someone better skilled for $2 an hour. Even worse not all of them claimed to be living overseas a few claimed to be a caretaker just needing a few extra bucks. Which I always doubted and suspected used stolen information to verify they were US citizen. So even when there was a requirement for a US worker they showed up as “US worker for $2 an hour.”
I just wish people check their following list more often and removed the power of these spammers resteemers selling it as a service by not having anyone that is active anymore following them anymore. Then all they will have is their upvote bot networks creating this falseness that people must be “reading and upvoting” after paying for it.
Having just joined Steemit days ago, I really appreciate your cautionary article. While I am an eternal optimist, it is always good to remember some things are 'too good to be true'. Cheers!
This article was an eye-opener for me. Thank you! I may have fallen prey to "the secret" scam. I'll see what I can do about that.
My compliments @denmarkguy. I see this article as an attempt to shake certain people, trying to awake them and reminding us all the true meaning of Steemit. I think that monetising valuable contents, like Steemit does, is an interesting social-behavioural experiment. Time will tell how this experiment will develope, I'm very curious to see what's next. I wish that this place will become a selection of great content and a melting pot which is interesting by its own, economical side apart. Talking about followers, I tried and am trying to create my own community talking about Steemit between my real life friends, sadly with no huge results so far, generally it's considered too little entertaining and too complex. I think I will endure here, but writing original articles is quite demanding and time consuming (at least I'm practicing my English), especially if you are then watched by just 10-15 ppl. I noticed that posting my articles on linkedin spreads them a lot more, and maybe could be a good way to let the platform be known too. One question: do you think that the steemit option of promoting your article is a good one? Keep up the good work! (upvoted and resteemed for its helpful content)
you ruined my day @denmarkguy, here I am new to Steemit, spending my time trying to figure out how to make my millions by next month by learning the shortcuts and you pop my bubble :) thanks, great post!
Thanks a million. I'm new to this and it's invaluable info to have in what seems like the Wild West.