Observations: the recent blacklisting of @andriannasteemCreated with Sketch.

in #steemit7 years ago (edited)

Sherlock Holmes Header

This is not a concluded case with undeniable evidence.
The following observations are merely some facts I could find concerning current events.

The Situation:

Just recently a few artist's steemit accounts have been blacklisted and @cheetah banned. If you are not aware of the situation, I believe @inber's recent VLOG does a good job outlining the current drama.

@andrianna, one of the blacklisted accounts, has gone all the way in an effort to prove her authenticity and she presents her side of the story in her latest post. I have been approached by multiple people who were eager to hear what I could say about the situation, I have even been accused of being responsible for getting her blacklisted, which I want to reiterate, I am not!

So here is my summary of where we stand up to here:

@andrianna's account has most likely been blacklisted due to it's financial ties to known scammers in the past, most notably @yanik.

In response to the blacklisting @andrianna has verified her twitter and vk profiles and also claims, that she bought her account from a dodgy reseller on April, 16. She resorted to such a "black market" purchase due to the claimed impossibility of using the regular site-registration from within Russia at that time.

I have taken the time to do my due-diligence on the facts, and I have spoken with @andrianna directly, to discuss my observations with her.

My Observations:

First of all, @andrianna's account was not new to me.

The network of accounts with relation to @yanik is rather big, it branches off and connects with other clusters and these connections show up during my investigations all over the place. Luckily most of those clusters are inactive and have been discovered in the past, but quite a few accounts remain active.

@andrianna's account is such an active account. Now, I have looked at her profile before, and the authenticity of her as a real person and as the creator of her original artwork is beyond doubt.

I will say this right ahead: Alyona Bessonova, is real, and she is a talented artist!

So, all that remains questionable here, are some financial ties in the account history, hence I must assume that to be the reason for her being blacklisted.

Now, @andrianna, in her latest posts, has brought forth an explanation for these connections, albeit rather implicitly:

She had purchased her steemit account from a seller on vk.com, Artur Yuryevich and the steemit account came with an accompanying bittrex account. If that is indeed the case, these connections would be unrelated to her personally.

Her side of the story wasn't perfectly clear to me, but I was able to confirm the details with her directly (first on vk.com, later on steemit.chat).

The most important question first: When exactly did Alyona gain control over the @andrianna account?

I have not used this account before [April] 16
Because the person from whom I bought it, gave the password only on April 17

I am not going to look further into the aforementioned financial ties, which do continue beyond the named purchase date, but as Alyona says, she doesn't really understand these things, so we won't be able to clarify much about that with her. Let's look at her content instead.

I am sure something must have changed drastically after she finally got a hold of her steemit account, the account which she was so eager to acquire that she bought it for $50 from some shady guy on vk.com. (Even though it had at that time already been blacklisted and downvoted, a pretty bad deal.)

But, by all means, I fail to see a difference that would be worth mentioning! No, instead I do see some obvious similarities that are worth mentioning.

Her commenting, before and after the "purchase" of her account is eerily similar, below is a screenshot of her consecutive comments at two given time-frames:

Comments

But that alone doesn't prove much, lets look at her actual content. I present, a post from April, 13 (right), next to one from April, 17, the day when Alyona herself supposedly took control over her steemit account.

Unoriginal Posts before and after purchase

I'd say the fact that these two images are from the same source is undeniable, @andrianna however has failed to explain to me how this was possible, allthough she does affirm that none of these are her original work.

No of course that they are not mine!
You've seen my style of drawing and this child's picture

So, let's look a little further yet again, because after learning her account continued posting work other than her own after it had been purchased, it will surprise us even more that the account did share her original work before the purchase.

Here's a post by Alyona on vk, that was also posted to steemit, before she admittedly "owned" the account:

Original Posts before purchase

So, apart from those shady connections, hidden deep down in the blockchain, there's also some rather obvious facts that simply do not align well with the story @andrianna has presented to us. Unfortunately she also wasn't able to explain these inconsitencies to me directly.

@andrianna stands firm on not knowing what is wrong with her account or how this history can be explained. She also affirmed to me that the purchase date is correct, multiple times. The only explanation she gives: she did not change her password after the purchase.

So implicitly, that all must be the work of her account-seller, who also had precognitive abilities when he stole her original work and posted it on the account before selling it to her? Sorry, but I couldn't keep the sarcasm to myself here!

The Conclusion

Alyona Bessonova is a real person and the real creator of her artwork!

But the story surrounding her steemit account does not make sense.

Either she was really un-lucky and something is terribly strange and coincidental here.

Or her side of the story is incomplete and/or inaccurate.

I have contacted the mysterious seller on vk.com and I am open to more suggestion as to what might have really happened.

Maybe you find something I haven't?

I'll keep you updated should I learn more, but for now, that's all I can report.

yours,
Sherlock

P.S.: Also, in an unrelated case, I had a scammer who admitted to signing up multiple accounts with fake Russian cellphone numbers right in the middle of April, but it is hard for me to judge whether there really was a problem with registering from Russia at that time. So let's just take that as truth.


THIS IS NOT A CALL FOR FLAGGING!!!

I want to encourage You to discussing the situation as a community!

How would You interpret the story?

Should @andrianna be un-banned?

Sort:  

I already said a lot about the topic, but will say a few more words. The beginning of the story is complicated, but we all definitely know that @andrianna is a real person and is the creator of all her content. Valuable, original content, and I must admit that it's what only about 50% of all steemians do at the moment.
When I filmed my blog I didn't know the story with bought account, I just thought cheetah went insane. But even now, seeing all this I still ask steemians to support her. It's really obvious that she didn't knew that she was buying from a fraud, everyone can make a mistake.

Thank you for support! You help me a lot in a difficult situation! I appreciate it!

My conversion!

Where did this video go?

Posted using Partiko Android

Thanks for your correspondence earlier and thanks for leaving your side to the story here as well.

Let's hope we can find out more eventually!

Excellent work as always sherlock.

I stumbled upon this case earlier today and saw that plenty of whales were on top of it and chiming in so I let it go.

She should be un-banned, innocent until proven guilty and all that. As if my vote means anything. Guilt by association is a path I would want to avoid going down if at all possible. There are language barrier issues to consider as well.

If a more obvious connection to the scammer presents itself, I would adjust. There are other very blatant scammers/spammers to attend to in the meantime. She's now adding original content, right? Doesn't seem right to ban her at this point.

Thank you for your trust! I really appreciate it!

Guilt by association is a path I would want to avoid going down if at all possible.

Yes, that is something we need to avoid!

She's now adding original content, right?

Absolutely!

I'm don't know if I fully understood what have happened but, since we are already sure that she is a real person, and she is still producing her art content I would totally say that she deserve to be have this trust chance of being un-banned. She have the right to keep producing her content without being downvoted and accused of being a Id thief in all her posts. if some new evidence that there is in fact something wrong proving that her actions might be really harming someone, than it is a different story.

I believe that if there isn't a victim therefore there is no crime and one should not be punished for his/her actions.

I think It was a great Idea to add this "THIS IS NOT A CALL FOR FLAGGING!!!" message at the end of your post, sometimes people can miss interpret something and feel motivated to flag without think straight about it.

Once again congratulation on your great and meaningful work to the steemit community! I hope you keep always motivated to keep it up!

PS: I just loved the Sherlock using the computer image XD

Thanks for sharing your stance on the situation!

Let's hope this can inspire some more meaningful discussion.

I will remain neutral, and yes, innocent until proven guilty!

Eventually, the community will have to judge on what serves as proof, I can only try to help and make the factual evidence visible. Unfortunately there are a lot of contradictions in her account.

Hello! thank you for your trust! In my turn I will prove that I am not a fraud! I'm really going to a meeting with Steemit!
And I want to preserve my name and reputation!
And I'm wildly apologizing to Steemitt for everything that's happening!
But I'm not to blame! I just do not understand all your questions. I'm an artist, I'm not a programmer! Please pay attention to me!
I changed all my passwords! So that no one can have access to my data!

I used to follow @andrianna and have seen her latest explanation which does not add up. Was she formerly banned and then reinvented herself using her real identity?

If you followed me! You should have seen my posts! There where I always share a photo with a logotype of Steem! But the fact that I was fooled by a fraudster - so this could happen to everyone! Sorry I'm not 40 years old. I'm 19, and I'm learning from my mistakes! I wish good luck to Steemit

@sherlockholmes invited discussion. Clearly there are unanswered questions relating to the period when you took over the account, regardless of how talented you may be as an artist. It has nothing to do with your age or mine.

That sounds like a valid theory, but it does not explain her account's connection to instances of fraud dating back to 2016.

It is really puzzling to see a genuinely talented artist entangled in such shady things, more so as she brings forward an even stranger story as an explanation.

But yes, the account did get banned before the "purchase" and was immediately un-banned afterwards, as @andrianna confirmed her vk.com profile.

Why exactly she did get banned again recently, I have no confirmation for that as of yet.

Alena is an excellent artist and I would like to see Alena's art in Steemit and I hope the good people help him prove his innocence, SHE SO CUTE!
I wish her to quickly solve this problem and continue to please us with his amazing drawings (^_^)

Thank you for appreciating my work! I try to please you with new pictures. I'm very sorry that Team Steemit turned away from me! But I will try to prove that I'm not a fraud! I'm sorry that I believed the swindler and bought a page from him on Steemit with a purse!

I know that you're not a fraud, how can such a sweet girl be a fraud - it's not possible!
Fans of your work with you till the end!!@andrianna

Yes @andrianna is a real person and also a good friend of mine,and i am 100% sure that someone have her steemit key or he/she try to harm my friend's Reputation and steemit Account .

Thank you friend! I always knew that you would not doubt me !!!
In turn, I will fight for justice! After all, everyone can get into my situation! Moreover, I did not know that I was going to a deal with a fraudster!

I can understand this dear and this will be happens with anyone so thanks to you now many other users saved and i am with you in your fight of justice don't worry :)

I have been following @andrianna since two months and without doubt i can say that she is a real person and the creator of all her art work. I think that @cheetah is wrong about thief identity because @andrianna has provided all evidence that's she is a real person. I don't know why @cheetah keep ignoring these. This talented artist deserve a second chance because she was not aware that the seller of this account is a crook. @andrianna is a wonderful person which is appreciated by the steemit community and everyone likes her for her kindness and her amazing support to minnows. You have full support of the community @andrianna to get your account back. Please do needful to restore her account.

Hello! Many thanks! I am very pleased that you trust me! I appreciate it! In turn, I will not stop! I will fight to the end! I'm for justice! I do not want anyone else to suffer at the hands of the fraudster!

OMG!

So not only did I comment on a post about this yesterday @sherlockholmes took the time to ping me about this post, I can only assume (I hate the word assume) that he saw my comment(s) yesterday?
P.S. I can't seem to access steemit.chat this morning? Weird.

The comments to this post are awesome I could respond to so many of them but I don't want to look argumentative. :-(

Alyona Bessonova aka @andrianna is a real person so let's all move on from that, it is not important anymore!

For me personally, in this instance, I don't care if she's attractive. I don't care if she's a talented artist. I don't care if she's perceived to be a wonderful human being with the ability to bring warmth and love into my life, which would be nice but I digress. What is important is the actions and deeds of Alyona Bessonova.

I'm not as clever as sherlockholmes or many others on Steemit, I don't know how (Actually I'm not interested) to interrogate the blockchain for all this 'evidence' what I do know is:

  • There are two types of people that buy FREE accounts. Nieve inpatient people or dodgy people.
  • As far as I know in my short time on Steemit @cheetah can make mistakes but they're usually rectified if you have a good solid case. I suspect in this instance, although I have no evidence of it, Alyona is either being evasive or simply is not giving solid answers to refute these accusations which beg's the question "Why?"
  • Given Alyona has, by the looks of it, spoken to or at least contacted a lot of English speaking people, I'm sure someone could write her appeal for her so this Language barrier is a tenuous excuse IMO.

    Some side observations/thoughts.

  • Holding a picture up doesn't actually prove it's your's you could have printed that off for all I know.
  • If you look at the picture of the dog and the Japanese woman you can see the same finial on the top of the same mirror under both pictures. I would also argue that the green with red flowers on the dog picture is the same section underneath the picture of the Japanese woman.
  • And finally if you look at the top and slightly to the right there's a black square with what looks like a brown arrow clearly visible in both pictures. If that was a fingerprint analysis you'd be nicked with three markers like that. lol
  • Some side observations/thoughts.
    "No of course that they are not mine!
    You've seen my style of drawing and this child's picture"
    These 2 pictures are not mine! Read carefully!
    In vain they spent time to compare!
    If you decided to write a comment, you just had to read the text! And do not compare children's pictures!

    You're not helping yourself you know. You need allies.

    I don't care about the quality of the paintings The quality of the paintings are irrelevant. Reading what you wrote is irrelevant! The features I pointed out are indisputable. You will notice I never made any reference to the style or quality of the paintings just the duplication of features in both photos this leads me to surmise that both photographs were taken in the same location.

    I would suggest less aggression and more engagement in trying to clear the mist and mud that seems to be associated with your account.

    I'm going to break with the norm and set each statement as a separate paragraph so that you can digest each Individual point as I make it.

    So you might not want to hear it and it is not meant to be demeaning of any artistic work that you've done but the quality is not the issue and I'm afraid is not evidence either. Nobody, at the moment, cares if you only draw matchstick men with a child's crayon.

    Reading between the lines the general feeling is the andrianna account was producing posts with similar content to other (Social Media) accounts you hold/control long before the date you say you gained access to the andrianna account. This is a problem.

    Some people strongly believe that you have always had the andrianna account or that someone you know had the account prior to the date you say you took control of it, their evidence for this accusation is the fact that the andrianna account was showing work that is either yours or incredibly similar to yours long before the date you say you were given the account.

    There is a second accusation, which I hasten to add I know nothing about the details of, that the andrianna account has some very strong links in the past to some pretty bad people, people involved in spamming accounts, scamming people out of money and potential ID theft charges as well. The problem with this is

    "If you have in fact always had the andrianna account then you are linked/involved with those historical activities."

    Now I'm not saying you are, for all I know you may well be a lovely girl who got duped by some evil parasite. I honestly don't know. Sadly the damning evidence is the similarity of stuff from your various accounts on the Internet to those on the steemit account which has been pointed out by @sherlockholmes

    I suspect the first step is to somehow prove that these similar historic works and comments are not yours, simply saying they are not is not good enough. If you can prove that then the accusation that you have always had the account goes away which also means that the accusation that you are associated with spammers, scammers and ID thieves potentially goes away. I say potentially because there maybe one or two that will try and say you are involved with them and that this is why you bought the account.

    I have not made any judgements about you, and I still don't. I'm not happy that you bought an account because I believe nobody should be able to buy accounts. There's a verification system for a very good reason and the problems you are experiencing demonstrate that.

    You need to spend some time in the help chatroom and calmly present your case, backed up by facts and I'm sure those with the power will help you.

    Thank you for this elaborate statement, yes, I saw your comment on @andrianna's post and thought your input may contribute to the discussion over here. I see I wasn't wrong about that!

    ^5

    I will throw my hat into the ring and also declare that @andrianna is authentic. I've noticed her from her beginning here on steemit and I'll vouch for her.

    And fantastic work @sherlockholmes. I've now noticed you!

    I am glad to see you! Thank you very much for your support! I really appreciate your confidence!
    I will fight further thanks to your support!
    With great respect for you and your blog, after viewing which I eat at night =)

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