Daily Dose of Sultnpapper 05/02/18> How to screw yourself on steemit for newbies, here is one way….
Every morning I like to log on to steemit and while drinking my morning coffee take a look around and see what is new in the platform. Some mornings I’ll check in over at a couple discord channels I hang out in but for the most part I am looking at content and new folks on the platform in the introduce yourself tags.
Tuesday morning I somehow found my way onto a blog post that had some spam comments that had been flagged. Spam and coffee can make for a good breakfast so I looked at this one particular spam comment. It was the typical “vote me , I vote you” type spam, but what I noticed was that the link that was in the spam comment to go up vote didn’t have the same name as was on the link.
I am leery of clicking on anything that is in spam type comments, and if you are not you should be too, instead of clicking the link I wrote the account name down and then did a search on the account. I ended up on the page of @cryptopaparazzi . This account is nine days old now and from what I can tell, this account has fallen victim to enthusiasm and inexperience of the steemosphere.
First let me say that I might very well have done the same if I had thought that I actually could write. I knew I didn’t have any talent and I had to force myself to actually start writing my daily dose, that is why it is posted at night , I made a pact with myself that I wouldn’t end my day without writing at least a paragraph for my daily dose.
@cryptopaparazzi made their first post and made a typical newbie error, using open source pictures but failed to cite the source. That summoned the good old steemcleaner bot to let them know the error of their ways. The reply by @cryptopaparazzi was encouraging to read, they told the bot that it was 100% correct and explained that they didn’t realize that even with open source photos that the photos need to be cited. Other than the picture issue it was a really well written and constructed post. So that inexperience issue could be overcome for sure, we all make mistakes.
The enthusiasm is sometimes hard to control and @cryptopaparazzi evidently decided to use a “service” to help promote the post and their account. This involved giving the service access to @cryptopaparazzi ‘s posting key. That led to a flood of the spam going out with their account name attached, so far at least 600 or more spam comments have been sent out from that account. Needless to say the account REP has gone to shit; people are slamming this person left and right in the comments of that first post. @cryptopaparazzi was asking for some help on how to correct the issue but it wasn’t offered up as far as I could see. I don’t have the knowledge to offer up a sure fire solution.
I did decide to look around and found a second post that @cryptopaparazzi made, a really well written story that has to do with man, woman and sex, complete with all the steamy details of … and an ending that even the main character, “Nina”, in the story didn’t see coming. Pictures were used in that story, and not cited, but they more than likely are the author’s since steemcleaners hadn’t shown up and paid another visit. I will also tell you that this post was sitting at over $75.00 in earnings this morning and over 140 up votes.
Some of these were bought votes; I peaked in the history of @upmyvote and found an up vote of 17.19% which has a value of around $14.67. Cryptopaparazzi had sent $10.00 to @umyvote to pay for the up vote service. The transaction doesn’t show up in the “wallet history” on @cryptopaparazzi’s page in transaction history, I don’t know why that is, but it doesn’t. The Jerry Banfield account also up voted this post but I didn’t go research it, but you can bet that was bought also.
The story is really good and it has a killer ending, I don’t care much for these kinds of stories but I will admit this author has talent and a REP of 2 that is no doubt because of a poor decision that was most likely made because of enthusiasm.
The service that is being used is promoting this story using an account with the name “steemboy9” and I can’t see that any connection seems to exist other than the link for @cryptopaparazzi’s story is in the spam. The steemboy9 account was started in March and Cryptopaparazzi account came about 9 days ago.
While I know that there is a website called steembottracker.com , which is @upmyvote, I did see in some of the comments, from the first post that @cryptopaparazzi made, there was a similar named service that solicited @cryptopaparazzi that had the exact name except there was an extra “r” on the end of “tracker”, most likely to confuse people or gain some business using the similarity / confusion to their advantage.
I can’t say for sure this is the account that has caused this person the problem but it more than likely is. So the lesson is to be sure of who you are dealing with when it comes to services and bots. I also noticed this evening that @upmyvote has suspended its services of up voting in the last day or so, I don’t know what is up with that.
I made comment on the second post and asked @cryptopaparazzi to reveal what the service name was that they used and if I hear back I will surely include it or make an update to this post. My gut tells that this person, who I believe is a young lady, is probably a legit person who just got caught up with the enthusiasm and the potential to earn some steem and made an uninformed decision. You can check out the second story, that is doing well, for yourself at the following link: https://steemit.com/life/@cryptopaparazzi/chapter-one-let-there-be-the-man-and-there-was-a-man-let-there-be-a-woman-and-there-was-sex
I will tell you that I did up vote this post and story because I honestly believe that it was an honest mistake on her part in using the service and everyone deserves a second chance, and it looks like several others do as well, or else they just totally enjoy a steamy sex story.
The lesson is keep your keys safe or be prepared to be screwed.
Until next time,
@sultnpapper
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Thank you . I am joyed to be included as a passenger stop for your readers.
its a sketchy world out there... and unlike starting 1 or a dozen facebook acounts or gmail...or whatever. this is a wallet. i think people just dont always fully get what they are getting into with steemit. i too didnt realize fully when i started how permanent my choices were, thus my ridiculous buttcoins name...that i have now grown to love but regretted a bit in those first months. i had a friend say something to me the other day. he said you know that steemit is hitting a new stage in its growth when there are more scammers than spammers. The last 2 months or so i have noticed a dramatic increase in scammers.... maybe steemit is getting to some threshold that makes it more attractive to the scam fuckers. and us krill just get swallowed up in it all.
Yes, when the scammers show up it probably means there is potential here and we all need to pay attention, all it takes is one screw up and everything you have worked for on here can be gone, and can't really do anything to stop it once that happens.
Sex sells...
True story. But that is beside the point. Probably a noob mistake. It happens. I know I did a few strange things when I first came here, and I did buy a few upvotes. But I felt my time here should have a certain self-imposed integrity- not to blame or fault anyone who uses bidbots because I certainly do not care nor judge.
I hereby dub you Inspector Papper. Great investigative work, Sir!
I'll pass on being the inspector. Some things sometimes just catch my eye and I end up taking a deeper look. I think that it was too much enthusiasm and not knowing enough about the platform.
I've gotten that post link as a spam comment before. She can fix it by renewing her password/ master key. This also resets the other keys and as far as I know will disable any external services using her keys.
Yes, that would do it and probably the best thing she could do. It will be a long row to hoe to build the REP but that is the price you have to pay for trying to short cut the system. According to @schrosct her post took a big hit as a whale dropped her payout to $0.00 with a big down vote. Hopefully this can be a learning lesson for not only her but others on how not to go about things on steemit.
This would be devastating to have a rep score wiped out because of a password mishap. I have to admit when I first signed up to Steemit I had no idea just how important it was to keep login keys safe.
When I signed up I figured that if the people handing out the keys said if you loose them you are screwed it was all I needed to know, I've done my best to protect my stuff. Thanks for dropping in and taking the time to read and comment on this daily dose of mine, very much appreciated. I see that you are a member of @thesteemengine so welcome aboard the train.
I help out with @greetersguild and I try really hard to find new users and kindly give them advice when needed before anyone comes and flags them. If they listen after I try to help, that is soley up to them. It does sound like this person was excited. Plenty of new users come on with so much power behind them but they haven't taken the time to learn the Steemit "rules". I did read the story and although I don't typically read stuff like that, it really was written well.
I don't normally read those types of stories either but I was more interested in the technical aspects of the post than the actual story of getting it up the poop chute for Nina. Have to admit though, never saw the ending coming as it did.
Either the writer has a great imagination or some prior experience would be my guess.
Yea poor Nina, I wasn't expecting that ending either. Thanks for the big laugh out loud I just did! I would guess prior experience too which I guess worked out for them when it comes to story time. It is a shame to see anyone come on to Steemit so excited that they give out their posting key. Should be common sense but again, that excitement for some is so powerful.
The person did respond back to me overnight. They said that their friend found something on Fiverr that said they would promote steemit accounts or something to that effect and that is how the spam mess started for them by responding and signing up over on Fiverr , they didn't have the exact name but it doesn't surprise me one bit that people are running such scams over there as well.
An account @james1122 is still spamming this out to basically as many posts as its bandwidth will allow.
This is smart. If you don't know what the link is then don't click it, go to a trusted site and do a search. When I first saw the spam (it was in the form of a bit.ly link) I assumed it was a phishing link and was already in defense mode. I opted to check the headers of the url to see where it went:
I saw 37.475 SBD spent from their wallet to buy votes for their story post. A USD equivalent of about $129.228.
Currently their story post is set to earn 73.01 STU which has a USD equivalent currently of $121.791.
I consider it a good thing that they'll lose about $7.437 from this experience.
Hopefully lesson learned, don't spam.
They could lose a lot more if more people get upset. (and the spam continues as I post this)
Well thanks for filling in some of the missing details, the girl who is @cryptopaparazzi says that her friend hooked her up with some service using an app on her phone to promote her post and she had to give them her posting key in order to do it, that she said was over on Fiverr , that would explain the spamming. Buying votes is her own business, but the numbers prove here and in a lot of cases, it is a losing proposition financially.
Thanks for taking the time to look at it further.
Welcome! Hunting plagiarists/spammers is a healthy outlet for some of my less socially acceptable emotional problems.
/me puts on his safari hat and treks back into /hot/photography looking for a new target of hate.
Enjoy the hunt, I have to renew my hunting license before I venture back out there looking for more.
someone dropped cryptopaparazzi's post to $0.00
Imagine losing $125 because you spammed too much.
Expensive lessons , but that is what happens when you think you are smarter than you really are. I hadn't looked at it after my original post , so thanks for the update.
Good lesson for both newbies and spammers.
Excellent detective work! And an important warning too. I avoid anything that says it will be able to post for me, and I would never hand over private keys, even when I was a newbie. It took me a long time to trust SteemConnect. I think you've given this account more promotion that the bot ever could!
It is just a good example of how things can go really bad real quick if you don't pay attention to what you are doing and only see dollar signs. I might have out performed the bots on this one, maybe I should change my name to botnpapper.
Hahaha! No, sultnpapper sounds much botter... I mean, better. Bots don't have critical thinking skills, and I suppose they are also lacking in people in too much of a hurry.
Not sure that I have the skills either, but I have some common sense.
A part of a problem is that people don't take 5 minutes to ask. If they could do it, the troubles could be avoided.
Very true. Thanks for dropping in and sharing your thoughts.
How can you afford Soo much time, just to figure something.. On who's payroll are you? :))
Looks like great work... You will get it... 👌
There wasn't a good poker game last night so I had plenty of time, it really didn't take that much time either tracking down the up vote stuff. Just had to scroll back using steemblock explorer on the @upmyvote account to find where the vote was cast. The actual account of the writer did't have much in the history either, only like 9 days worth of stuff.