It was a crazy night, though there are some that are related to my work in the corporate field the main highlight is the stolen identity case and blog post copied from other people.
The stolen identity
Photo by sebastiaan stam on Unsplash
one of the folks that we had onboarded from Readcash dropped a link to an introduction post from a user called
in the Hiveph server he mentioned that the intro was fake and the original user their co-blogger in read.cash who recently joined hive which is under the username of
,
also confirmed that it was not hers.
After bringing it to the attention of the folks, no drastic action was made yet. The scammer isn't reprimanded yet as confirmation from cherry isn't received yet. The introduction post reward will be released in a few hours so timing is important.
The Rabbit Hole
After getting short information on a possible identity theft claim, for sure that there's more to that. Since the user's posting daily content and being upvoted by multiple people you think that she is a legit Filipino. I mean, who uses the words Tama ka jan sis. Napakafresh din ang simoy ng hangin. to comment on someone who left a mark on her post appreciating the blog post that she posted here in Hive. But apparently somethings off already as when I looked closely at the uploaded image, I saw a familiar face it was the husband of . I checked the other blog post and confirmed the case it really a stolen post as the image of the child was Matti her son. I downvoted the post and called Junebride and after leaving a comment I immediately got muted by the user.
Technically speaking, the introduction post was an article stolen from CC and the succeeding articles are from Junebride including the one that she posted from bitlanders a different writing site that gives cryptocurrency too.
The Action Taken
Since all cards are in play, people from the Hiveph server were requested to put a downvote mark on the post created by the scammer and they did! The community account was also used to downvote the said post and friends from different communities started to downvote all of the content made. The rewards aren't that high as it was not earning more than $10.00 but still, no amount should be given to those cheaters. The pending reward got nulled and the account rep has been down to -3
Scammers are Getting More and More Tricky
I can say that this isn't an isolated case anymore, multiple accounts are created in Hive and the introduction post is a sweet honey for those who yearn for small gains. There was a bot created by which we use mainly for curation and other stuff that filters post in the #post-stream channel of Hiveph. Each time that a tag of hiveph, Philippines, tagalogtrail is used it will automatically be showing in the items that the resident curators can review and even the community can check it further. But for the 1st case aside from that it was posted in the OCD there's no other tag used and the other stolen blogs are just posted in the community and no additional tags are used.
Most probably the perpetrator knows that if additional tags will be used some of the people will be alerted.
Is it foolproof? Definitely, it isn't as there are multiple instances wherein the account looks legit and no possible issues may arise.
Reverse image search and article spinning review aren't that helpful anymore or maybe the free apps that we use are not that powerful anymore ( that I do not know.)
The Power of Peer Review
The surge of new people, actively interacting on the server it becomes an additional barrier for everyone to double-check new people who join the blockchain as there's a chance that they know the person who created the post.
Back then it was a ghost server and the active ones are just the staff and a few souls dropping to say hi or just dropping their post in the #post-promotion channel before some changes happened.
Right now, as an added wall of verification, we do ask for their public social media account such as Facebook. A newbie cannot respond back the soonest in most cases that we caught due to Resource Credit issues but if they are a Filipino around 90% chance that they have a Facebook account that they use and a simple message verifying it was theirs in our Hiveph Facebook Account will be needed.
Your Downvote Button Matters
Back when I was starting on this platform, I stay away from using this button as I felt that it was a direct attack on the person. Plus there are things in my mind like what if they retaliate and downvoted me too? So what I do is to report them to Hivewatchers / it was Steemcleaners before and we are getting good rewards from reporting the perpetrators. But now, as part of the staff of Hiveph and a moderator, I somehow felt that I need to step up my game and show that I am not just lurking somewhere in the shadow and telling the evil guy to do the dirty work.
Each time that I feel that there's something fishy about the content, I comment and then ask to verify and if no response is received I hit the downvote button after a few hours/days depending on the severity. If it is a fresh intro post, I hit the downvote button immediately, as on my mind chances of getting a good reward will be easier as newbies are showered with love and affection from the community. ( I might be an evil guy with that part but I guess I need to)
To be honest, we are expecting more of these cases to happen - desperate people will try to get low for the sake of small rewards as there's no amount too small for them as long as it is rewarded.
If in case that you want to join the battle please do not die in the process.
Tp