Dr. TLK _ From Steemit Life _ @bellyrub Bid Bot SCAM! Who is Next?
@bellyrub and its owner @zeartul has made their exit (powered-down) from steemit, taking with them a huge amount of funds that belonged to many steemians. All the while @zeartul is pretending that his accounts have been hacked...!!
The funny (or not so much) thing is that I used that bot 2 days ago (Stupid me of course) when it was powering down. Their website (which is inactive now) stated that the bot was down for technical errors and so the window of the bid lasted for hours longer than it was supposed to be.
Of course, that means more bidders will join the same bidding window "possibly" not knowing and everyone will lose. Just as I showed in my previous post about bid-bots abuse
It is also funny that I had a hunch that this abuse could be done by the bot developer and I wrote it down, but then deleted it as I didn't want to throw stones at people who may be innocent.
The good part is that I got my (0.1$) [Now I remember it was actually 1$] thankfully, as I was upvoted 1.1%. But since bot tracker showed that my vote value should have been 2.6%, I went complaining to @bellyrub and was mainly answered by @svashta who was protecting @bellyrub from me who wanted (0.2$ instead of 0.1$) [2$ instead of 1$]
Added note: @svashta, I am glad we both met at that moment and learned a lesson there. So, all is good between us now :D
When I read the news from @themarkymark which was written 2 days ago (approximately at the time of my bid and complains), I was like...
SHIT!!!
and then...
Thank God I got my hard earned 0.1$ [1$] back. LOLZ
There are people who lost thousands of steem and SBD using both @bellyrub and @bellyrubbank (which I had no idea existed until this moment, and I still have no idea what it is). Other people didn't get their upvotes at all. SO, I am very thankful to the Universe for giving me back my little hard earned money. I was quite lucky I must admit!
Here are the posts that have more info about @bellyrub and @zeartul scam:
By @themarkymark: https://steemit.com/bellyrub/@themarkymark/bellyrub-gone-full-evil-double-selling-votes-self-voting-trying-to-get-40k-from-users
By @neoxian: https://steemit.com/scam/@neoxian/scam-warning-zeartul-bellyrub-bellyrubbank
By @kingscrown for those affected by @zeartul scam, they can go and unite their complains with others: https://steemit.com/steemit/@kingscrown/victims-of-zeartul-bellyrub-bellyrubbank-unite-here
Who is next to play this scam game?
Anyone
The take-home message (to self and others):
Use bid-bots with caution or...
DON'T use them at all.
...Till Next Episode!
Dr. The Leaping Koala :D
Logo by @orcheva
Stupid move on my part, indeed. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Also didn't want to "defend bellyrub", just wanted to express my feelings toward bot trackers (having used those a couple of times myself, and ending up being hyped for profits only to then be disappointed by the last minute 10 SBD bid by a random Steemian ._." *Bummer).. Anyways, I was a douche, especially based on the "tone" of my comment which was far from kind, so please accept my deepest apologies. I'll admit I deserve the loss (3SBD) I took from @bellyrub. I believe I learned my lesson. Mostly not to be d#ckhead to people for absolutely no reason. After all, it's not just me who can suffer a bad day, as much as we sometimes forget that~...
Sorry again and wish you have a great day! ^.^
Thanks for the visit, comment and apology my dear @svashta,
Again I am sorry you lost 3SBD to @bellyrub, no one deserves to lose their hard-earned money.
I understand you upset about bot-tracker, because I had seen what people do with these bid-bots. I wrote about it a couple of times actually.
I was complaining about @bellyrub as proof of concept. As you can see, I don't really bid with lots of SBD. Actually, now I remember, it was 1SBD not 0.1$ Sine @bellyrub dont accept less than 1 SBD minimum bid.
But anyway, I try to be cautious about these bots.
Although I felt irritated by your comments, when I heard about the scam I found the whole coincidence very funny. Especially that my complains were at a time when something serious was cooking.
Anyhow, as far as I am concerned, we are on good terms. I hope you will gain more than your 3SBD and I am glad you learned something valuable in the process :D
Hugs "from and older Qurite sister" ;D
A fortunate side effect of my principled stance on votebots is that I am immune to any such scams.
Sorry you got took!
Haha! Thanks a lot.
I was actually lucky as I got back my money. I just didn't get extra.
I feel sorry for the many others that invested heavily in this scam. Hope they learn a good lesson :)
i have use this bot a few times, lucky i can say that I have a good profit of it, because I always keep track of the bidder and voting power. And with this explanation, I understand why the Vtoing power has gone into 97%, whice most of the bidbot will start at more than 98%.
Good you can have the sbd back., : )
Agree with your smart move. I try to do the same as well. Also try to refrain from bidding when I see the ROI for other bidders reaching a minimum (I personally wouldn't want to go beyond if I was one of them)
Cheers to being careful and smart :D
Dear me. New scandal.
Thanks for letting us know.
Being away for a little while and I did not know all about this.
Hi dear,
Glad this was helpful to you. hope you didn't lose anything in this scam.
take care and be careful with your hard earned money.
Hugs <3
I have stopped using them - they are/or have the very good potential of -just being a ponzi scheme.
Create confidence in a bot - the on the last one, strip all of the money..
Hi @lucylin,
Thank you for the comment!
You were right, at least one of them turned to be a scam.
Hate to think of people as scammers though, but apparently it is better than being mugged!!
Thanks again :)
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Wow, this turned into quite the scandal, didn't it!!? I'm still trying to trace down the beginnings of it so I can understand it better, but from what I have so far ... this is so far from how I would ever treat people I'm having trouble getting my mind around it. Being an avid student of psychology, I'm always looking for motives and causes and all kinds of strange and existential stuff.
So I haven't yet decided if this started out as a misunderstanding / malfunction that went totally off the rails and he panicked. Or if this was originally a good idea he didn't think through well at all. ( @berniesanders was saying this looked like an accident waiting to happen -- for good reasons!!) Or if this guy got in some kind of bad financial trouble and needed money right away for his own purposes -- and came up with this as a possible remedy. Or if he was planning something like this for a long time. Or if he saw a real self-serving opportunity and just went for it.
Was the whole "I sold @bellyrub" story just a lie from the start? And since it seems he lives in The Netherlands, is there anything legally that can be done about him? Since this is all cryptocurrency, is this even considered "something of value" that he made off with? Since there were so many "victims" -- with relatively small amounts involved from each, who, if anyone has the standing to bring legal action against him -- if even such a thing is possible?
These are all interesting questions for the Steemit legal community -- and what a terrible mess to have to unravel here in the end-of-year holiday season. I'm glad you weren't hurt worse. I feel terrible for the ones who were. I know evil exists in the world, but it feels really creepy when you meet it face to face. To those bot owners who have always played fair with their clients (or at least sincerely tried to), take this as a cautionary tale ... and remember your Karma. That principle is real, and if @zeartul did this thing out of pure nastiness, I wouldn't want to be him tonight.
I love your spirit, @theleapingkoala. Whatever you do, don't let this experience discourage you from staying here. Steemit needs the contribution of your counter-balance. I'm sure you know what I mean.
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