Thievery, Deception and Dishonesty... "Because it WORKS?!?"
This morning, I was recipient of one of those spam/spoof calls we occasionally get:
"The IRS has filed suit against you. In order to stop the proceedings and settle this debt, please call this number immediately!"
Of course, these are not "real" calls, they are scams run in the hope that someone will get scared when they hear the tax authorities are involved, and thus give up their personal information... and discover they have been ripped off.
Meanwhile, here on Steemit...
A short while ago, I learned via @abh12345 that one of our community's most inspiring and upstanding citizens — @surfermarly — had falled victim to a criminal here in the community.
These are important posts...
Some unscrupulous individual named @sami100 had created some kind of datascraping bot that evidently searched the blockchain for misplaced account keys of enough authority to access people's funds. Somehow, Marly became a victim of this — thankfully not for very much, before the issue was discovered.
Whenever I see or hear of stuff like this — or even am directly affected, like the phone call — I always end up wondering WHY people do this.
The pat answer people always seem to toss at me is "because they are poor and desperate" but I call bullshit on that one. I have been homeless and "lived" on a bench at a municipal golf course, and I have had to live in my car. I have been at starvation and desperation's edge, but that didn't drive me to a life of crime.
So there's something else.
Some people argue that people do this stuff "because it works" and "because they can."
The other day, I had a brief exchange with a Facebook friend who suggested that in some cultures, not only is begging "acceptable behavior," deception is, as well.
Still leaves me with the question of how we can possibly call ourselves "civilized" and still engage in this sort of behavior?
What to DO about Criminal Behavior?
Limiting ourselves to the microcosm that is Steemit for a moment. what do we DO about this stuff?
How do we blow the horn on these...?
Quite a few scams and schemes are attempted here. Whereas the "collateral damage" is usually somewhat contained due to vigilant community members, we still seem to have limited tools.
We are very protective of our "freedom" on this platform, and the idea that we are "uncensored" here is held in esteem close to Universal Law.
Is that supposed to include that you have the "freedom" to be exposed to criminal activity, and we have no means to deal with these kinds of activities other than "be vigilant?"
Is the system that protects freedom of expression REALLY also meant to "protect" the freedom of thievery, deception and dishonesty?
What do YOU think? Should Steemit have some kind of tools to ban/shut down accounts that have engaged in PROVEN criminal activity, like theft? Have we gone too far in protecting "freedom? I know this may be a "hot potato" topic, but I'd love to hear your opinion. Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!
created by @zord189
(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Created at 180521 17:21 PDT
Some may argue against this but I'll give you one word "Psychopathy". Some people are just born bad seeds. I have done extensive research on Sociopaths and Psychopaths from serial killers to white collar crimes of cheating,stealing , and manipulating.
A lot has to do with an abusive and disconnected environment people are brought up in and also with genetics they are born with ( certain neuro- structures of the brain like the Amygdala that have been either damaged or malformed). All this is a lethal combo
There are so many poor people who do not do this. The ones who do just have no conscious.
Which is the main ingredient that makes a sociopath.
Personally, I would love to tar and feather the culprits ;) But I know that is not a possibility.
I am hoping our decentralized community will come up with a centralized way of cracking down on this. But maybe that will defeat our whole Mission here ???
Interesting angle with Sociopaths and Psychopaths; I've known a few in my time. My wife made an interesting observation (she's a therapist and used to work in profiling in Federal law enforcement) that it's very hard to detect a sociopath's lies because they are not aware that they are lying; they are fully convinced that their lies are "the truth."
The challenge with the decentralized structure is this thing that we pride ourselves on "no laws" and "no censorship." But surely the community — as a work of consensus — should be able to have some kind of way to deal with those who engage in things like theft. Sure, we can flag the heck out of them, but they can still prey on newcomers who know no better.
Being poor or having nothing to eat is an excuse of being bad. A person who use it as an excuse has a psychological disorder.
I have been poor and homeless, and it definitely did NOT turn me into a thief or criminal. So yes, it is "just an excuse."
Yes, I think that steemit should have some tool to control the entry of people at risk of being scammers, but even more, I think that the same platform should block any transaction that violates any private account. It is assumed that the new technologies are oriented to offer greater security in the data. Good approach!
I am in favor of some form of controls being put in place when it comes to things like outright theft. Especially since it is so readily documentable here, thanks to the transparency of the blockchain.
I agree, especially because the new blockchain technologies are just being promoted as guarantors of speed and safety. regards
It's really sad that there are people joining Steemit who have to go to these lengths just to earn money instead of the tried and tested approach of working hard and earning well with experience.
It is a great shame, indeed. But it seems to be true that wherever an opportunity of offered, crooks will show up to try to exploit it.
Public safety has been always used as a justification for limiting people freedom and accessing their personal data. I believe that enjoying freedom with some risks to be better than losing your freedom and be safe. But to be practical there should be some balance to allow people to enjoy their freedom while keeping them safe. The balance should be maintained by an carefully elected committee.
The concept that people become criminals out of poverty is partially correct specially at third-world's very poor countries.
On the other side people, Some people resort to criminal behavior in order to feed their greed for more of everything.
Lots of rats running around steemit trying loot its plunders. I just read a blog where the guy took a dozen or so articles and combined them into one post. I wish that was worst offender I’ve found in past 48 hours. Sadly the bots of stealing are coming and they will spam us with their stolen YouTube videos, twitch streams, and blogs they pull in off other sites.
The reputation was supposed to be at least in my eyes a way to help us work out what is what. Sadly you can buy reputation 60 in under a week if you are willing to spend some money. We need something new to try and solve the issue but that would be exploited as well. Far to many will try and look legit till they have gained trust and then they become scum bags.
Oh, I didn't realise rep could be bought. Sheesh, that's disappointing.
Some buy votes and when they spend hundreds a week it adds up to a lot of rep that comes along with it.
Yeah, okay. I thought yiu meant there was some direct way for people to bypass the system, which set off alarm bells :)
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I think the idea of "freedom" begins to be sullied when people are rigid in their ideology around it. I don't think a ruleless space is advisable just because we value freedom and want to keep it all pristine up on a shelf. Nothing stays pristine when it comes to organising a society and to me, a refusal to put safeguards in place is because people can become so addicted to the ideal of freedom that it backfires when you get down to the nitty gritty mess and pain and reality of a group of people organising themselves and needing to safeguard against those people who don't realise we are all one,
What about the freedom of people to go about their business on here without being thieved by shady characters?
Why on earth would you not ban people who have been stealing? If we value freedom as highly as we should, that must also include some aspects that protect the freedom of others, surely? It's much messier in the practical outworking than sitting on the shelf as an ideal unfortunately. Heartbreaking stuff, to be sure :)
I think it's a good idea that steemit creates a tool for that, there are many people who have suffered from theft in their purses and others who even lost their account. so creating a tool to avoid situations is great as well as preventing people from falling into scams, meow!