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 !