Am I An Idiot Or is Someone Stealing My Votes?!!
This is not really a blog per se, but a question.
Today, I noticed two 100% upvotes on my account that I'm pretty sure I did not make. Needless to say I was irritated, but I calmed down a bit and ran through my mind the possibilities.
I actually made the votes, either purposefully (and forgot) or accidentally by hitting the vote button and then the vote button again.
I have given an automation service (i.e. SteemAuto) posting permission to automatically upvote these posts.
An automated voting service has made an error in which posts they upvote for me.
I inadvertently have used my posting private key somewhere that is using it to vote for what they want.
Someone (or something--bot) has gotten my posting key surreptitiously and is using it.
Now, I don't really like to jump to malice, but I am a paranoid person :-)
#1 I think is highly unlikely. Both recipients are unheard of by me before today. I rarely vote 100%, so I would have had to click the upvote button, moved the slider to 100%, and then clicked the vote confirm button. Just not likely unless I am getting early Alzheimer's (I am oldish, but not that old) :-0
#2 is possible?? I have all of my automation through Steemauto and am pretty sure that only big name groups are upvoted (SBI,Magic Dice, wherein, SteemMonsters, etc.). Also seems unlikely.
#3 Possible, but difficult for me to find out.
#4 Quite possible, as when I was new I went all kinds of places and did a lot of likely stupid things (like giving posting keys on sites).
#5 Possible, but i don't really know how this could happen without me giving out the key. Can it happen??
The one thing that bothers me is that this happened right after I made a very big (for me) Steem power-up. Seems fishy.
I really just want to know others experiences with this. Has it happened to you?
Any advice would be great for the future. I have already changed my password and will probably go without automation for now, though that is disappointing.
Oh yeah, here are the posts I "upvoted" (without the leading steemit.com):
/@adamthedude/20190206t220725299z-the-alpha-level
/@georgontech/steemvotes-io-a-quick-report
I am in no way, accusing either of these accounts of any wrongdoing, but maybe someone knows yay or nay.
Oh yeah, if I am being an idiot, please let me know :-)
Thanks,
steemstreems