I have a suggestion for analysis - user "zer0hedge".
He's been copy-pasting articles for a while now, and I've noticed within a few minutes of him posting one, he immediately gets 30 - 40 upvotes in a very short period of time.
Either this is totally automated, or at worst he's vote "farming" with his own sockpuppet accounts.
I'd be interested in the results if you felt like taking it on.
I have looked at this and submitted to @steemcleaners for further investigation. Barring the user being able to confirm rights to publish content from the source site you are correct in your assessment.
there are a lot of posts that get bots right away... i don't know how it works, exactly like 30-40