Did this bot steal from me?

in #steemit6 years ago (edited)

Hi all,

I am trying to understand a weird but small transaction that I did not authorize. At first glance, it looks like 0.001 SBD was transferred from my account to hugewhale. (When I received SBD, it said 0.002 SBD to @laurawhite, not from @laurawhite. Maybe this is just a matter of semantics.)


(Sorry for the low quality of this screenshot -- you can see the name of the account if you zoom in.)

I then went to the hugewhale account and saw that there was a transfer to me, not from me:
Screen Shot 2018-03-26 at 12.14.58 PM.png

Okay, so here's what I think is going on: I think that whatever person or bot is running this account is trying to get newbies like myself to send SBD to it in order to get more views. In exchange for some visibility, he/she/it is resteeming all sorts of posts and transferring bits of steem to others in order to get attention. Here's the problem: the account has a reputation score of 25 (as I write this), and that is false advertising. A user with this score hasn't built much trust yet and doesn't have much influence in the Steemit community, so stating that it's a platform on which to "promote" your post is misleading.

That's my take on this, but if a more seasoned member of Steemit has insight into what is happening here, that would be appreciated.

In the meantime, I will say to others who are new here: engage with bots with caution, if at all. The best way to establish yourself on Steemit is to connect with other Steemians. Post your content and leave comments for others. If you do this every day for a week, you will gradually see your reputation score climb. An account with a reputation score of 25 will not likely help you get seen, so I'd suggest researching this thoroughly if you've been pinged by this bot.

Sort:  

This is actually you receiving 0.001 and attached is a memo.

Basically bots use it as a way to advertise, you get 0.001 and they get you to read some spam message. Be careful though these "gifts" can often contain scam attempts.

You can also send private messages in the same way, if you start the message with a #.

Good to know -- thank you for your insights. It feels scammy, so I will steer clear.

i didn't understand how to send private mess. thx

It's pretty easy. You need at least 0.001 SBD to send a message. I just tested two private messages to @kirkins: one with 0.001 SBD. That went through. There was a transaction error, however, when I tried to send a message with 0.000 SBD.

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