[Busted!] Observing One Hell of a Steem (Commentator) Miner! 💰

in #steemit7 years ago (edited)

So I am not sure whether I should be impressed or upset, although I am pretty sure that if the people who kept upvoting the same guy (or woman), that they would probably not like it too much...

Before I continue this post I want to say I can't actually proof anything and that this is all based on my own observation, make your own conclusions!

So what did I find?

In the past few days I have been actively commentating instead of working on my own content, which I probably will be continuing to do so (at least for a while). As it is something Steemit really seems to be needing and in more than one way is rewarding. Now while I was doing this I started to notice something very odd. What I saw was the same people often posting on the same posts, also posts, in which the blogger usually rewards their commentators greatly. Now this could have been nothing more than a coincidence, like they found the same people through their blogs. But like I will be showing you in a moment, there is some very similar behaviours in these accounts. Actually, I think the person using those accounts might have even more. O well, let's start this thing!


The accounts in question are: @adnanrabbani, @shencoin, @maryambibi, @kellyrose (those four stood out the most for me) and 4 more: @tayab, @marygrac, @atechforu, @robrowe.

So yes, I think those 8 accounts are all from the same person.

Now the next accounts are from the bloggers! I hope some of them will have a look at this post to see it for themselves! As they are the ones being potentially ripped off...
(Just to note, these aren't all of them.)

@janusface, @alexpfeiffer, @broncnutz, @btcunchained, @camilla, @creadordelfuturo, @cryptoctopus, @davidp, @elyaque, @exyle, @gamer00, @greatpath, @jamesallen, @kouhei-gahaku, @neoxian, @onceuponatime, @pollux.one, @reddust, @ryn, @officialfuzzy, @surpassinggoogle, @donkeypong, @crypt0, @awgbibb.

Alright, I will end my list here. But to clarify, these are the bloggers on which the same accounts (same person) would be commenting on.

So lets continue shall we.

Let me share a few pics with you from a few posts that simply stood out.

Let's play a drinking game, can you spot the "sir" ?

4 same accounts under each other.png

one post busted, part1.png

one post busted, part2.png

another part1.png

another part2.png

The last one actually has all 8 accounts in one post! Link HERE

Some more examples can be found here, you just have to scroll through the comments and look for those 8 accounts I pointed out above:

https://steemit.com/travel/@camilla/just-walking-around-in-a

https://steemit.com/colorchallenge/@creadordelfuturo/colorchallenge-greenthursday-las-fuentes-del-algar-natural-park-in-alicante-spain

https://steemit.com/question/@cryptoctopus/4000-followers-please-answer

https://steemit.com/central/@davidp/central-banks-in-the-west-will-miss-it

https://steemit.com/music/@neoxian/house-techno-music-tigerlilly-by-layton-giordani

https://steemit.com/art/@reddust/spicebush-swallowtail-background-wip

https://steemit.com/central/@davidp/central-banks-in-the-west-will-miss-it#@shencoin/re-davidp-central-banks-in-the-west-will-miss-it-20170820t124520889z

https://steemit.com/piano/@crypt0/piano-covers-of-music-from-the-2000-s#@shencoin/re-crypt0-piano-covers-of-music-from-the-2000-s-20170820t071847373z


So, except for the same accounts commenting, why do I think it is one person?

For one, the "sir," it is just too easy to spot. For that matter, the person is also often addressed with @(Steemit name). And I bet ya, that if this person reads this post he will take notice of it. Secondly, the writing. Actually, if it was a more articulated writer, I would have never spotted it in the first place. The very distinctive writing is so similar. On some accounts there are no punctuation marks at all, on others they seem to be excessively used. This could be on purpose to make some distinction between the accounts. However, the lack of english and the spoken language looks way too much the same.

same comments part1.png

same comments part2.png

Another thing, a lot of the accounts are made around the same time; July, some in august, thinking it whasn't enough... Also, the times of not commenting for a longer period (sleeping time ~8 hours) they are very similar (at least noticable with the accounts being used the most). Check @adnanrabbani, @shencoin and @maryambibi at their comments, and look for the gap of circa 8hours, notice how similar they are?

As for their own blog, most of them do mostly resteems, I think @adnanrabbani is the main account. As he seems to have some legit postings of his own. For example @shencoin, I saw some original posts but in no way was originally written by her, just look at this post and how it is written https://steemit.com/photography/@shencoin/california-high-water-river-rafting-with-all-oudoors. The articular words used are by no doubt a changed version from a re-writed official article.

So to sum up why I think those accounts are one and the same

  • Sir this, sir that
  • Often addressing the person by name (@Steemit name)
  • Same similar use of language, lack of english
  • Some accounts have no punctuations at all (others do but are still very similar on the points above)
  • Same date of joining Steemit; July (some august)
  • Same sleep cycles (~8 hours of not commenting in same period)

So, what do you think? Same person or not?

Sort:  

Just found a 9th account... Which hasn't been used for 3 weeks. But if you click some of the comments you can find the same other accounts commenting on the posts. https://steemit.com/@shahzaib/comments

Yes, he even admits that somewhere how this is his previous account.

Who? @adnanrabbani, cause if so, I would be very happy to see that comment. The chosen name of @shahzaib is shencoins so it is for sure linked to @shencoin.

I saw @shencoin mentioned that his account is @shahzaib

By the way he stoped using "sir" in his comments lol and he is still spaming with his accounts on @reddust post

@reddust knows about it, don't think she upvotes the same accounts all at once anymore either. It's still a difficult thing to do I presume, seeing as you can never ben 100% sure in this case if all 9 accounts are connected to the same person.

Very interesting. I see these regularly all commenting together.

I have noticed them behaving a bit differently since I made this post. And it seems to help when people don't upvote them all together with the same velocity.

Is it enough to just I mute those accounts comments not to show under my posts anymore?

Nope, there currently is no function in Steemit doing that. Muting someone only removes the person from your sight, so it will still be visible for others.

I just don't have enough time to track the scammers when upvoting commenters under my posts.

Yeah, most people don't, they can be hard to notice anyways. I just hate seeing people abuse other's good will...

You have good investigation skills! Nice find! It does kinda sound like the same person to me. Just the way they type and everything, lots of similarities.
I'm going to spend a little more time reading others posts too. It's time consuming to post long posts and then I don't get to read others as much. Thanks for the investigative work! :-)

Thanks :) I like to see myself as an observer. Though when I first came to Steemit (and till just recently) I spent most of my time on my own work, which helped me to learn and express myself a lot. But now that I actually went to actively look around reading other people's work and interact with them, I can tell it is very rewarding!

🤔 Quite possibly, dear! It really seemed a little strange to me that sir is addressed to me. And this is done by several people in the blog! Given that I'm a woman! I thought it was not important! I do not speak English well myself and I decided that this is probably a form of appeal, permissible in certain circles for any unknown or indefinite person! 🙄😞😘😗😙🤗

It's not the lack of english I am concerned with, but the exploit of ones good intentions like yourself. If it is really the same person (which I am pretty sure of) he/she searches actively for people that are upvoting comments, and then uses multiple accounts to be upvoted multiple times.

Those on your list give upvote! There are others who come constantly and never give upvote. short comment only! These are real parasites! What do you suggest! Ignore them? 😘😗😙😗😘🤗

It's up to you, they are your upvotes. I don't think their upvotes really matter that much seeing as they are just newly made accounts, (not that I usually upvote that high...) but it doesn't always say that much. I think in this case its done as a way to show like "hey, I am upvoting you, I have concern," while in fact I don't think he/she does...

Not bots, it is an actual person, but still bot-like behaviour...

Well it does seem to be the same person using those different accounts, I'm sure just alone from the typing no matter how different they try to make it be , there is so much similarity that just screams out I'm one person.
I can be wrong though , however if it is one person I think instead of spamming one person's account so much of times etc better just comment on a way the author feels honored u read and understood her / his post to upvote u , or create good content that will catch people's attention in the good way.

In the long term to build up your own audience definitely. But this person seems to make quite some money out of it. I'v seen posts where the same accounts got multiple upvotes getting like 5 dollar from a single post, which otherwise would just been a dollar. I just hope this post gets some attention as it is an important matter.

This is interesting, sometimes I don't even know when I'm chatting with a bot and a human. It gets that confusing here.

It is not a bot, it is still a human talking, just using multiple accounts for it to increase the reward on one post.

That's some dedication right there. Running all those accounts must be tiring. The lengths people go to hack the system :)

Yeah I agree, that's why I started my topic with not being sure whether I should be impressed or upset ^^

I see, I've noticed these people also seem to be very much alike...thanks for validating my guess @droucil! I will stop upvoting comments and see what happens.

My bet is that with a few posts later they stop commentating (maybe one account per post will continue for a while).

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