Case 3: Don't Fall for Fake-Whales
Accusation:
@sighanchi is running a network of fake accounts upvoting spam&plagiarism.
An anonymous steemian reported about the account on discord. I went out to investigate!
The Findings:
The evidence is supporting the claims!
but there's a more sinister thing under the rugs!
Again, we shall not even look at the accusation of plagiarism too much, there will be some more devious things to be discovered than just that.
As per usual, let's look at the suspects financial history:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
case: @sighanchi - running 'benevolent' bot to enrich himself
- @sighanchi | created 2017-06-14 04:17:33
received initial 0.002 SBD from @gnocdepatat
sends funds to sponsor alt accounts: @indianwolf; @sicontractor; @treachya; @seveide; @kyhar; @ibearith; @astaetram; @galarellan; @afeliseth; @adwiar; @steemdolphin; @whalepower; @whalegonewild
Following the trail of the sponsor has not been fruitful. I have to give the benefit of doubt to @gnocdepatat, the initial sponsoring was likely in fact just helping benevolently with a MinnowSupport registration.
So let's look at all the accounts @sighanchihas sponsored:
The 1st batch of accounts have been involved with cheating on the minnowsupport network (exploiting multi-registration vulnerability) and are all creating repetitive spam-posts, mainly pictures of sports cars:
====
[partially attempted] MSP abuse; delegate to @steemdolphin; transfer to @sighanchi; spam-posting:
- @indianwolf | created 2017-06-17 15:06:57
- @sicontractor | created 2017-06-18 06:49:12
- @treachya | created 2017-06-20 08:13:39
- @seveide | created 2017-06-23 04:19:21
- @kyhar | created 2017-06-24 09:49:39
- @ibearith | created 2017-06-26 05:44:24
- @astaetram | created 2017-06-26 05:48:00
- @galarellan | created 2017-06-26 05:51:24
- @afeliseth | created 2017-06-24 15:59:30
- @adwiar | created 2017-06-29 11:36:15
Not only are these accounts all transferring their ill-gotten rewards back to @sighanchi, they are also delegating power to the other sockpuppet @steemdolphin.
Now this is where the real scam starts:
++fakewhales:
- @steemdolphin | created 2017-06-30 10:29:30 - only self-funding from alts so far; already downvoted
- @whalegonewild | created 2017-06-30 10:21:51 - scammed numerous people, never upvoted; tx-out to @sighanchi; already downvoted
- @whalepower | created 2017-06-30 10:25:39 - scammed(?) money from @bi5h0p, @rencong; ; tx-out to @blocktrades -> RUNNING!
Two of these accounts have already seen retaliation and are being downvoted.
The last one in the list, @whalepower, is still operational... beware!
This concludes my findings.
May the community be the judge!
yours,
Sherlock
DISCLAIMER: All the account names have intentionally been mentioned without linking. I am just starting and lack both the reputation and the voting power to do something about this. A flag war would sink my ship in the blink of an eye! If YOU feel something needs to be done... be my guest! But be careful, if your reputation score is lower than theirs, you won't impact them and they will be able to stomp you in the ground!
Have you witnessed similar things yourself?
Don't just ignore it and move on... let me know!
Good work @sherlockholmes! very very happy with the investigation findings - the REAL #whalepower please stand up - @bullionstackers!! Do remember to follow the right crowd!!
Yep. I've been aware of this since the moment I first made this mistake. I got scammed for 1 SBD by this @whalepower. The real #whalepower is @bullionstackers. I had previously sent him SBD's before and I get great results from him. There was one time when, by accident, I put "@whalepower" in the "Send To" section and I lost my one dollar. Oh well, live and learn. That's a small price for me to pay for a good lesson. I notified the real #whalepower curators of this fact immediately, because I immediately noticed my mistake. Scammers need to be blasted off of the blockchain by bigger fish than me. Thanks for your post. Upvoted and Resteemed!
Now, let's just think about something: How much time and effort did this fake @whalepower have to spend to get my $1 SBD. A few hours? A few days & weeks of learning how to set up false accounts, etc. The funny thing is - he could have spent the same amount of time & energy on actually making a good blog, and he would have made a LOT more money. I have a saying for people like this, "THIS GUY IS SO DUMB, HE CAN'T EVEN DO WRONG, RIGHT." If he would have just made a post, asking me for 1 SBD, and spent some small amount of time being funny or creative - there's a very good chance I would just have given him 1 SBD.
Good! I just wanted to bring this to your attention. Especially since it was possible to implicitly connect the perpetrating account.
You are right, it's a small fish and the energy going in to this could have probably been much more fruitful if applied to a more constructive endeavor.
Thank you very much for the support!
So I hear, @bi5h0p
He's a great indicator of how our community responds to such things, so they are offering a serve despite their schemes. Truth will set you free, they could benefit far more from simply being honest than by scamming, scamming only works for a short period of time on steemit, never short enough.
Name impersonators really bum me out.
Yeah, talk about the greatest fraud of all time:
courtesy of http://annavonreitz.com/
thanks Sherlock - good to know - i will check to see i am not following him anywhere and i appreciate your investigation - i followed you to see if you come up with more great insights of suspect behaviour -- i am not sure about this guy - he invited me to his group by sending a message to my wallet a few days ago, and he made insinuations that he was a dolphin and that he would upvote me - as you will see his account is worthless and it seems to me that he is probably a scammer "anahowa210" -- i am not sure so i apologise if i am wasting your time --all the best-David
That is why we shouldn't be that gullible we have to be wise all the time ... it doeant mean everything that is being posted are real or true we should always think before we click !
@sherlockholmes
Scammers Link click Here
If you need any assistant , please contact
@bullionstackers - #whalepower Curator/ Moderator
Help Desk Direct Line Steemit.Chat @bullionstackers
Good! So you did know about this!
Thanks for the support!
Do you know my profile?
Been here long enough to know everything / everyone.
Hi. I am a volunteer bot for @resteembot that upvoted you.
Your post was chosen at random, as part of the advertisment campaign for @resteembot.
@resteembot is meant to help minnows get noticed by re-steeming their posts
To use the bot, one must follow it for at least 3 hours, and then make a transaction where the memo is the url of the post.
If you want to learn more - read the introduction post of @resteembot.
If you want help spread the word - read the advertisment program post.
Steem ON!
paging @bi5h0p, @rencong