I Abused Minnow Support Out of Desperation, I Regret It (cont'd)

in #minnowsupport7 years ago

I am making this post to give more details about my previous post. After @fraenk's post here, some of you may still believe me, some of you may not. I'm not blaming you for that. It's entirely my fault. So let me tell you the whole story.

Before Steemit

I met @renepaolo / @aut0matic in a local forum. When he found out about my condition and me being a Filipino too, he introduced me to Steemit. He even told me that since he doesn't need the money from his small earnings on Steemit, he promised to give it all to me as a friendly help/gift to aid in my grandfather's hospital bills. This is in exchange to some of the articles I made for him. All his earnings went to my Bittrex account. He got none of it.

I registered to Steemit, however, it took 1-2 days before I got my account approved. Since I was in a hurry and needed some really quick cash, he let me use his @aut0matic account so I can earn while waiting for my account to be approved. He also said that he will be focusing on his main account @renepaolo. This is the same time when I discovered about @minnowsupport's upvotes which still gives around $1.40 at that time.

During Steemit

I wanted to make a really heart-touching introductory post. I was thinking of telling the story about my grandfather's hospital bills, however, I thought that inventing a more serious condition will help me get the money I need. So I lied. I was desperate. When I figured that my introductory post did not earn the money I needed, I resorted to abusing @minnowsupport.

At first, my plan is to create a lot of Steemit and Discord accounts. My planned ratio for that is 1:1. However, when I forgot that I already registered the same Steemit account to a Discord account, I was amazed when I found out that I can register one Steemit account to multiple Discord accounts. And that's what I did.

For people asking how I registered my accounts, I simply went incognito, registered the accounts, asked my friends to receive text message confirmations, and that' it. To be honest, I lost count of how many Steemit accounts I have today.

I used my friend's @aut0matic account to send my meme accounts the Steem needed to register in the PALNet.

My work schedule became like this:

  1. Post 6 memes per account in the morning
  2. Upvote as many as I can using @minnowsupport
  3. Go to my day job
  4. Go to my part-time job
  5. Post another 6 memes per account in the evening
  6. Upvote as many as I can
  7. Repeat the next day

It was a few days ago, when my friend told me that @fraenk sent him a message about one of my accounts. My friend knew I have some accounts but I told him that I will be using it for different niches. He replied once to fraenk but when fraenk got a little aggressive, he decided not to reply anymore. He then confronted me and told me to stop running the meme accounts as it was not healthy for the community.

I then contacted @aggroed when I saw his comments on my posts and confessed what I did.

With all honesty, if @fraenk did not send my friend a message, if @renepaolo did not confront me, if @aggroed did not comment on my posts, I will still be running my scheme until I get enough money to pay for my grandfather's hospital bills. That's how desperate I am. I really need it.

Yesterday, I received several messages from my friend telling me that he was being accused of something he didn't do. My heart was broken into pieces.

I messed up big time.

I ruined the reputation and credibility of my friend who has done nothing but good to me. He gave his support but I ruined it all for my selfish reasons. I never realized the true value of friendship until yesterday. He confronted me again and told me to fix it.

So here I am, telling the whole story.

I'm writing this to set things straight. I'm writing this to make it right. I knew that there is a possibility that no one will believe in me after lying in my introductory post. I completely understand. It's my fault. But I can still do something.

To @fraenk, I am not, in any way, mad at you. I know that you are just doing your share in this community. When you sent my friend a message, I knew that it was the end of my scheme but it was the beginning of my repentance. With all my heart, I am sorry and I would like to thank you for helping me realize my mistakes.

To @renepaolo, you are a true friend. You're the greatest friend anyone can have. I'm sorry for messing your life. I'll understand if, at one point, you won't consider me as a friend anymore. You're mad at me and I don't blame you for that. Despite your anger, you still assured me that you will still help me with my grandfather's hospital bills. With that, I am sorry and I would like to thank you for still being there.

To @aggroed, you are just and fair when deciding. Honestly, when my friend sent me messages yesterday, I was expecting to be nuked already. I was expecting you to be very mad at me. But I was wrong, you didn't. Instead, you still told me to make things right. I am sorry for the abuses I did to the Peace, Abundance, Liberty Network. I would also like to thank you for still listening to both sides of the story, even when the odds are not in my favor. With that, I am sorry and thank you.

To the Peace, Abundance, Liberty Network, I am sorry for what I did. I will make it up to you. As of now, I cannot return the SBD I got from the community. I need all the money I have left. But what I can do now at least is to help how we can avoid future abuses in the system. I'll also keep an eye on possible abuses and do my investigations, like what @fraenk did.

To the whole Steemit community, I may have disappointed a lot of you. I told you lies. I am sorry. After this experience, I have learned and became a better person. Soon, I will be starting my new journey here on Steemit. Rest assured, that there will be no spamming of memes, or any abuses this time. I am making things right. I'll be creating a new account, and will let all of you know when I do. I will also be using the earnings from my new account to give it back to the PALNetwork as a payment for what I took.

After Steemit

The end of the month is getting near. I have some hospital bills to pay, and several other bills to settle. I might give up my internet connection and use it to pay for the other bills. I just sold my smartphone yesterday for $50 and bought a $15 basic phone with a keypad. I'm also planning to sell this computer, and other furniture we don't usually use.

As of the moment, I have a full-time job, a part-time job, and a home-made perfume business. I have my grandfather who is still here at my side. And I also have my friends who are still helping me no matter what.

With that, I can say that I am still blessed.

There are times in my life when I just wanna give up. This is one of those times. But I'm choosing not to, for the sake of my grandfather. I will do what is right this time.

If there is a need for me to hustle on my offline jobs more, then I will. I won't give up.

Some will judge me because of my mistakes, and I don't blame them for that. But here I am today, making things right and promising never to do it or anything similar to it again.

I may have made some mistakes, but it won't stop me from becoming a new and changed man starting today.

Life doesn't end when you make mistakes, instead, it asks you to start a better life without them.

Sort:  

but when fraenk got a little aggressive

sorry... but when was I ever "aggressive"?!

To @fraenk, I am not, in any way, mad at you. I know that you are just doing your share in this community. When you sent my friend a message, I knew that it was the end of my scheme but it was the beginning of my repentance.

that doesn't match up with the train of events you're actually describing

To me, it looks like you are still dragging on a story here. The similarities of what your "friend" @renepaolo just sent me over discord and this post right here are also quite stunning.

I don't want to drag this on forever, but I still don't believe you... and if you don't man up and publish proof for the train of events (like what forum did you meet? screenshot some PMs maybe?) and your own list of accounts used in the scheme I don't see why anyone should believe you.

Is it me who has to publish the details so that everyone can know which accounts exactly are fake here and on discord?

edit: also this btw

I wanted to make a really heart-touching introductory post. I was thinking of telling the story about my grandfather's hospital bills, however, I thought that inventing a more serious condition will help me get the money I need.

doesnt make sense... when you had registered the username @hundreddays before... and that's what the sob-story is about, so the intention was clear before even signing up for that account!

it's insulting how you try to drag this on and not give any credible evidence of your story, nor a proper account of what you did!

edit:
I have just released my final thoughts on the issue, including the list of accounts I could with certainty connect to his scheme.

Due to your findings, I have gone through and found a TON of abuse from different users that can't just enjoy having a basically free guaranteed upvote and they turn it into greed. At least 4 other users have been found completely separate from this fellow.

What makes this even worse is that they only see the $$ the bots offer and miss that the monetary value of them PALES in comparison to how their accounts could be if they used the same effort to network and help others.

yeah, I am sure there are many more!

make sure to gather the evidence you have, we should really weed out all these cheaters!

have you notified anyone about this? please drop by the PALnet Discord and let us know what you found in the #msp-abuse channel

Heh. Yes. I'm one of the mods on there, so it's been discussed.

You guys are doing great work in improving this community and flushing out these kinds of scammers. Thanks.

heh... lol, ok ;)

It sounded genuine until I read your comments, I'm inclined to believe you knowing and reading about the research you did on these 'sock puppet' accounts.

BTW could you name those account for us to stop following/supporting, I'm sure there are many who would want to do this and make the scamming end.
Thank you for your diligence on this scammer.

yes, I had hoped he would come forward and release a list of the accounts he used himself... I don't really enjoy the thought of it being me who publishes a blacklist... but if he continues to drag this charade on I'll probably have to!

Will you go ahead and release the big list of his 'sock puppet' accounts....it will be a huge benefit to those who want to unfollow/mute or in any way stop supporting that kind of BS.

I'm sure many Steemians would support the release of 'the list'.

yes, I was still talking to him on discord until yesterday, he made some promises about donating the rest of the rewards to minnowsupport and such, but I saw the last payouts have been immediatly transferred to bittrex again.

I'll probably release a post-mortem on the situation and it WILL contain the list of steemit and discord accounts that have been used. The community has the right to know! I was just hoping he could be convinced to eventually come clean himself.

It seems obvious that wont happen (meaning donating the rewards), that persons accounts are just taking the rewards and runnning away with them. Stealing from the rewards pool.
Steemit community need to know the accounts to possibly flag to oblivion so there are no rewards for those accounts if they are still posting.

Thank you for your work about this.

I have just released my final thoughts on the issue, including the list of accounts I could with certainty connect to his scheme.

Thanks. Totally agree that we deserve to know. I'd rather my upvotes go to people putting in genuine effort than this kind of lowlife preying on people's good natures with outright lies.

As a fairly significant member of MSP, I am sure glad I caught this thread before I resteemed the lie. Thanks for following up.

if you're interested, after his initial "apology" I reported my side to the story and how I stumbled over his scheme:

🕵 Catching a Minnowsupport Abuser - Blockchain Sherlock Eats Copy Pasta for Breakfast

Not really a drama chaser. I'll keep all this on ignore. thanks anyway.

I hear you! Even despite being generously rewarded for it... it's annoying to be involved in this now, but since I was the one who discovered it, it has also become somewhat of a mission for me to get the word out...

It'll blow over soon and I need to take things more easy maybe.

Maybe

I'm kind of famous in the Minnow Support Group for all at once being considered one of the most prolific guides of new minnows coming into the group and one of the harshest and meanest people the "users, schemers and cheaters" who cross our threshold will ever encounter on discord. LOL, Somebody has to keep it between the lines around this community, and guess what, only the real leaders will step up and do it.

KEEP UP THE GOOD FIGHT! (but only fight for good!)

This guy is horrible for our community. I can't believe he is accepting money for an "apology" about steeling money!
Everyone of his posts should be down voted and any sock puppet we can find. If he wants to START ALL OVER again from the beginning and actually contribute something of value then MAYBE he deserves an up vote.

This scammer is almost certainly Rene Paolo. The writing style is very similar to his other content. http://renepaolo.com/

Normally I wouldn't care so much, but he created this Steemit account to scam users with a terminal brain cancer story. I find this particularly malevolent.

Fake cancer stories place more scrutiny on people who truly have the life-threatening disease and need the community's support. @darthnava comes to mind.

This second apology sounds like it was written to protect the reputation of Rene Paolo, and bilk users out of more money.

I'll just leave this here, in honor of those memes

At least have the balls to make a real apology instead of trying to scam everyone again and blame others. Also pretending that the @renepaolo account isn't yours is the final nail in the coffin for your reputation here. Expect some big flags on your next posts there.

It is awesome that you came clean!

what's convincing about this?

Honestly? To a passerby unfamiliar with the story, it's very elaborately convincing, UNTIL you see your follow up comments above.

thanks for taking a stance, and yeah... maybe without being aware of the developments, it does sound convincing.

What do we learn? Always tell the truth...

yeah... or at least eventually tell the truth...

I don't see where he is telling anything truthful! His claims would be easy to back-up... and owning up to what he did would include revealing his fake accounts to us... which he doesnt... because he doesnt know how many they are... yet has been using them all until it was revealed 3 days ago... now suddenly he can't remember...

sigh

Okay..You got caught, you apologized privately and publicly, You are still here and obviously forgiven...Others will learn from your mistakes..so forgive your self, move on with honesty and integrity and keep on steemin!! upvoting and resteeming..

Or maybe not so forgiven?? Either way, others will learn from this and I feel certain many are checking your posts and accounts to ensure you are sincere and truthful . Trust has to be earned and can't be bought...do I believe you, not my place to judge..that is what we have witnesses and moderators for. The true meaning of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Get out the poor me mode and write a new chapter in your life.

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