Mass Account Creation - consequences

in #abuse6 years ago




Relating to post on my main account (polish language) @niepoprawny, I would like to address some stuff.

Since last day I have found and reported 360+ mass created accounts. All of those cases were passed to @steemcleaners. Some of them being blacklisted as we speak.

Some of You asked – what are the consequences of this actions. Why mass account creation is bad for steem platform. So let’s dive into possible scenarios.

Number One

This actions made difficult for ordinary people to ask for account. Waiting time prolongs. So this create fake scarcity, which produces demand. Parties with those mass created account can offer them and sell them for any price. By allowing this kind of behaviour, we are creating black/grey market. This is not much damaging if this accounts are sold to creators. But we can relate this to another point.

Number Two

Owner of large number of accounts can make them into bots. This bots can upvote specific accounts. And single fresh account with 15 SP delegation is not a problem (vote weighs 0.00$), but amassed couple of hundreds of them can make a difference in reward pool. Imagine two hundred accounts with 15 SP upvoting one account, couple times a day. Again, if this upvoted account create quality content – not so damaging. But if this is just spam account, we have some reward poll rape on our hands.

Number Three

Those bots from “Number Two”, can be also used to flag posts. For large users with huge following, this might not be threating, but for new users, with hopes and aspirations – this is very discouraging. Receiving couple of flags on your first post can be deadly to new user. Those mass created bots can be used to censor specific views or content which owners of them find in disagreement. Of course, community can help in this kind of situations, but it’s better to prevent, than heal the wounds.

Number Four

Clearly, mass account can be also used to spam platform with many possible content. Imagine 200 accounts, spamming every tag with advertisements. With nearly 1 million registered users (data from Wikipedia) this is great target for advertisement agencies and just spammers.

Number Five

Those account can be used for phishing and account takeovers. Spamming comments, making transfers with links in memo. We could see massive increase of this kind of behaviours.


So as you can see, we have some possible outcomes with this occurrence. Therefore I feel that we should be vigilante with this kind of actions on this platform.


What do You think? Can You find any other threats? Or maybe I’m exaggerating.



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