This is my silent investigation.
I would also like to refer to the text written by @themarkymark - Steemit creates accounts for scammers... and nobody else? which mentioned the abuse of spamming accounts and lack of control by Steem when registering spammer accounts.
How is it that there are so many spammer accounts registering all series, and real people and friends - are waiting for several weeks?
Maybe that is why - steem and steemit - is so little recognizable, because the number of registered accounts of real people - is overwhelmed by false accounts?
@ausbitbank wrote in the commentary even:
I create at least a dozen accounts a week for legit content creators (usually journalists with a decent social media following) that have been waiting on their registration for weeks with no response. Seeing the faucet mass register obvious bot accounts is infuriating and makes me wonder why I bother. Fix this bullshit STINC
So in the conclusions - I will continue - What solutions can be taken... and
I will pass now - to show you - what I discovered and what should be stopped as soon as possible.
The scheme of operation - spammers. Carousel of voters.
The spammer creates accounts manually or via the appropriate bot
(looking at the number of accounts created - there is a risk that there is an automation)
After creating several dozen - several hundred or several thousands accounts - "fun" begins - and a nightmare for us users.
- Spammers create accounts A, B, C, D, E ... etc - just like on the graph.
- The spammer creates a post - as you can see from the examples - these are nonsensical sentences! - they have no value - so most likely it was created by software.
Sometimes it can be a photo, but - I'm afraid - it could be a picture stolen from the internet. (plagiarism) - Other spaming accounts - in the number of hundreds - start voting on this spam (on the graph - it corresponds to the arrows) - as a result:
- spammer gets paid - for total nonsense content, spam or plagiarism
- users - get so much less - for their work put in valuable content from - the general steem pool - so it's users (all of us) problem - who are robbed.
- the reputation of these accounts is growing - and some users may - take somebody on this trick - for example - when publishing photos of someone's authorship illegally.
Examples of spam and abuse.
Prokto - from him I saw that it could be the tip of the iceberg.
- my two views and... Post gets - 319 votes Is this normal?
I made note "Bełkot" - It means ... Nonsense. The words are translated/ wrote in Polish, but they are without syntax, no punctuation, no sense - chosen as if it were random. Some of them do not exist. So for steem - it's is no value.
Here a had confirmation - that this is fake account.
Somebody even made a flag - very good - but this account should get flag on all posts, and should send it to @steemcleaners Now is to late.
Do you remember my graph - how looks "carousel of voters" ?
Here is one example - most of this this accounts are fake.
Next example of possible spamming activity:
Spam and probable plagiarism.
Look at the number of views and the number of votes - very similar to the previous example -. Accounts had to be - hooked up under the bot - and make votes without going to a blog note.
I will end with examples related to spam and plagiarism.
And here I will do a small pause. At this point - I thought the problem - ended only ... on spam and carousel voters.
How wrong I was.
Follow the money.
I spent a few hours - not browsing creatively and spam - from these accounts, but I was interested in transactions and transfers.
I discovered something REALLY BIG.
The account are making transfers. Tons of account - make transfer...
and the money goes to... tard
Look about Vests - this looks strange - So lets check this !
number of connected accounts with that account - giving me signal - this is important account thread like piggybank for this spammers.They are using VESTS from mass accounts - to generate huge rewards.
Let's check what the accounts look like - which were passed to VESTS for tard
and this,
and this, do you see something similar?
Low, reputation, 0-several posts, lot of votes out and transfers out... threaten like farms.
On screen bellow - you see number of sites - of such accounts - this may be thousands of fake accounts - robing pool everyday.
So what about our "old example" - prokto ?
Exactly the same - like others.. This is farming.
My search - they reach a new piggy bank of spammers.
Not one piggy bank - a "tard" now at least two - takes money.
Meet dart.
Remember - follow the money. !
Bingo! dart is a piggybank. Farms transfer SBD to => dart - and he transfer to outside exchange or transfer to tard - for different exchange.
and more.
Prokto - is old and because - steem - undelegate this account - not used in voting.
So they create another group of accounts.
WHY is so hard to create new account on steemit? Here is an answer.
They changed now strategy - less spaming - only voting (mixed for themselves and to random posts - so farms rape curration)
This is new working farm. @steemcleaners now can find more.
What you see - the amount of money stolen from the system - is enormous. These are thousands of dollars. Your money.
But this is not the end my friend. I will show you more.
How big this is? We will check tard transfers. [farms transfers SBD and steem - to this 2nd piggybank ]
The problem stems - from the system
Do you know the myth of Lernaean Hydra deriving from Greek mythology?
The multi-headed monster - which Hercules had to face (12 Hercules' works) Unfortunately - cutting his head - caused two or three more to be replaced.
Just like here. Currently - the problem of SPAM on steemit - are dealt with by @steemcleaners. It's not like they do nothing - THEY DO A LOT. I see their work, because I check if there is any reaction, only - there are more and more problems, and they have limited time resources.
I thought the problem would only concern ... the carousel of voting, spam and plagiarism. Unfortunately - with the time when I started to study it - the problem seems to be ... System and without your reaction - the whole community that can influence steemit inc. - you can not jump it.
Designers / Developers - they did not foresee - such a situation?
Approaching the end of my post.
I would like to propose solutions (short-term):
If Steemit - wants to keep a free registration - it should - definitely make it difficult to set up a new account.
This can be:
- more capcha + temporary ban on IP in case of errors.
- more levels of verification.
- have a document and / or a confirmed profile
This should definitely hinder the bot - registration.
For a man - it will be 1-3 minutes longer registration - it will not be an obstacle to setting up an account.
In addition, the fight against already registered accounts - farms - fast - undelegate, and not after 2-3 months.
There are still accounts of "piggy banks" - they should be examined, because they take part in the precedent ... Reduction of reputation and control.
It is not for me, it is for YOU and YOUR friends. That is why I am showing this.
This user - has previously made steem transfers to the platform.
However - taking part in farming [creating spam, plagiarism, carousels voting] - hundreds or thousands of accounts - this is a sufficient violation to stigmatize such behavior and ban such users.
The creation of further fake accounts by spammers - it will be harder - and for steemit - easier to overcome the problem.
It will also be good for steem - because more valuable content will be created,
More REAL Users will get a chance to register here.
I am not a judge to adjudge on someone's guilt - but the facts are what they are. Let the responsible people get interested - especially with steemit inc.
To information: (I will not use bidbots)
@jesta @gtg @roelandp @good-karma @timcliff @someguy123 @ausbitbank @clayop @thecryptodrive @anyx @followbtcnews @pharesim @xeldal @jerrybanfield @pfunk @furion @smooth @therealwolf @drakos @themarkymark @patrice @steemit @steem
Peace !
I am glad there are more and more people who are doing their part in identifying and exposing scammers. Bot farmers and abuse rings are Steemit single biggest threat and we need to expose this bt putting the spotlight on it.
I wrote a post which covers aspects of this and the roles of voting bots in this perspective.
Really great work! I've uncovered some small rings of plagiarism of @steemcleaners - 20-30 accounts, bit nothing like this.
I wonder how many of our approximately 60,000 daily users are these sort of accounts? If it's 6000, that's 10%! Now that's something investors won't want to hear.
That was my point. There are a lot people who invest in steem - huge money.
Just show how their money get out from network - to ... spammers.
They may don't like it.
But truth is better than sweet lie.
Dwa tygodnie temu sygnalizowałem masowe zakładanie kont do @steemcleaners. Z dwóch dni obserwacji znalazłem i zgłosiłem ponad 300 kont zakładanych i potem o nich wspominał także @themarkymark. Jak widać sprawa ma kilka wątków, które dopiero teraz się rozwijają.
Two weeks ago I've pointed mass account creation to @steemcleaners. Within two days observation I've found and reported more than 300 accounts created and then they were mentioned by @themarkymark. As we can see, this has some more to it and it's unfolding now.
coś w tym jest. Piszesz posta i dostajesz nagle +5 czy 10 albo więcej nowych followersów, bez upvoutów bez żadnej aktywności. Podejrzane
Thank you for shining a light on these underhanded, shady tactics. People who don't play fairly and exploit the system should be exposed and shut down! All of the spam and bid bots will have a very detrimental effect on the entire Steemit platform if things are allowed to continue unchecked. Appropriate regulations must be implemented to protect the integrity of the entire platform. Keep up the great work! Followed, upvoted and resteemed!
Thank you,
All the time - I wonder - what solution would be good.
On the one hand - we want to leave it as it is - on the other - we want to bring down their activities.
Spam - on such a platform as steemit - can not be profitable ... - if you will reward valuable content - spam - will never leave. If - we will have conscious users - they will sink using flags - spam messages
The problem - with farming - should not be underestimated - because it is related to this spam.
There is a certain number of characters in the nickname. That's how they nick their nickname,
And these accounts are used to rob the pool from the STEEM currency - even if it is 0.3% or less - you can not accept it.
Then - the steem price - it will correspond to people's activity - it will be less detached from reality.
There is an easier solution. Cooperation between Steemit and the exchanges. It'll be worthless for them if they won't be able to get the money out.
Myślę, że utrudniona rejestracja nowych kont częściowo rozwiązałaby problem. Aktualnie wystarczy tylko email i numer telefonu. Może dobrze, że mniej na start dostaje się teraz Steem i SP w delegacji od Steemit.
Tworzenie kont jest dostatecznie nieprzyjemne i zniechęca nowych użytkowników, a mamy przecież zachęcać wartościowych ludzi na Steemit.
jest nieprzyjemne, bo bardzo długo się czeka, ale można by np. blokować zakładanie multikont z jednego adresu IP, jeśli kilka osób mieszka pod jednym dachem i korzysta z jednego IP to wtedy trzeba by np. napisać do Steemit
Excellent investigation. It's such a sad thing that with a decentralized platform these type of actions are harder to fight with. I hope community will manage to do something about it, otherwise this site will never be huge as it can be.
tipuvote! 2
Hi @marekkaminski! You have received 2.0 SBD @tipU upvote
from @cardboard !
@tipU! upvotes with 200% profit and pays 100% profit + 50% curation rewards to investors :)
jestem totalnie powalona!
odwaliłeś kawał niezłej roboty!!
"(Bełkot" - It means ... Nonsense :))
Początkowo miał to być dla polskiego steemit... ale jak to z każdym etapem - odkrywałem... sama widzisz - robiłem screeny i jechałem dalej - a temat tylko zarysowałem - jak wygląda schemat...
Co z tego, że zablokuje się 200 czy 300 kont, jak za kilka-kilkanaście dni - będą tu ponownie nowe?
Widocznie numer telefonu - to nie jest zabezpieczenie dla oszustów.
Initially, it was supposed to be for the Polish steemit ... but as with every stage - I discovered ... you see - I did screenshots and kept going - and the subject was just outlined - what the scheme looks like ...
What about the fact that 200 or 300 accounts will be blocked, as in a few dozen days - will they be here again?
Apparently the phone number - this is not a security for cheaters.
dokładnie, świetna robota!
poza tym to tylko wybrane konta, na które akurat trafiłeś..
super, że o tym sygnalizujesz. i to w szerszych kręgach niż tylko polskie.
czasami ogarnia mnie tu zniechęcenie..
jeden uczciwą i czasochłonną pracą próbuje zapełniać przestrzeń sensowną wartością
i często nie jest to w żaden sposób -nawet nie że "doceniane", ale w ogóle "nie dostrzegalne",
a drugi na oszustwie buduje imperia..
(całkiem jak w życiu :(
Niestety - tak właśnie jest. Szara rzeczywistość.
Pójść na łatwiznę jest łatwo...
Bardzo mi się odechciewa promowania w ten sposób steemita i steema.
Szkoda tylko, że osoby co wkładają tak dużo siły w tworzenie obejść - jakby włożyli 30% tych sił w tworzenie zamiast niszczenie - to mieliby dużo więcej - niż mają teraz.
Widzę to trochę tak, że Ci którzy niszczą są w pewnym sensie potrzebni. To oni pokazują słabość platformy. To jest bardzo ważne, żeby potencjalne luki ukazać i załatać. To właśnie akcje takich ludzi jak Ty pozwalają ją ulepszać wraz z czasem, kawał świetnej roboty! Dzięki.
Przewaga jest taka, że dawno nie widziałem tyle osób które walczy o ulepszenie czegoś i nad tym rzeczywiście pracuje. Jest to młody projekt.. Jeśli mogę tak powiedzieć, więc wydaje mi się, że im wiecej czsasu upłynie tym skuteczniejsza będzie walka z takimi zjawiskami. Osobiście jestem tu rekreacyjnie, szukałem dla siebie miejsca w sieci ale nie widzałem tylu pasjonatów działających na rzecz systemu czy danej platformy.
Now I know a little more about what to look for. You always see things that are questionable but if one isn't computer savvy how do they tell. Simply pointing out that the number of views versus the number of votes indicates something may be amiss is very helpful. Thank you.
Wow- I'm impressed at your investigative work! I've even peeked at spammer's wallets to get a hint of what's going on, but never saw the full pattern like this...
I'm also in shock. People invest a lot of money here. The question is - can steemit - stop this somehow - or make it harder?
Congratulations @marekkaminski! You have completed some achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click on any badge to view your own Board of Honor on SteemitBoard.
To support your work, I also upvoted your post!
For more information about SteemitBoard, click here
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOP