Fraud
"Fraud affects everyone regardless of age or ethnicity. Fraudsters develop elaborate stories and scenarios in an effort to make you believe they are legitimate." ~ Edmonton Police
Fraud on the Steem blockchain comes in many forms. The most common one is plagiarism; the misrepresentation of someone else's work as your own, either through copy/pasting it without due credit or through modifying it or recreating it, also without due credit. The second most prevalent is identity theft and deception; the blatant appropriation of someone else's identity or the creation of an identity using the features, photos or names of individuals other than ourselves.
Holistically speaking, we see these types of fraud again and again, so much that we have trained ourselves as Steem users and curators to screen for it. We reverse search images, lookup snippets of text, and question everything that is well-written. Oftentimes, our hunches are correct. And unfortunately, more times than not, the person we thought was a creative blogger, writer, poet or artist turn out to be not what they seem and we feel duped. Sometimes we don't want to believe that a person who we thought was a talented friend is lying to us. When that happens, it hurts.
The prime focus of the @Steemcleaners team is to identify and halt all fraud on the Steem blockchain. That's how Steemcleaners first started and our mission still stands true today.
There are many reasons why individuals turn to fraud. Maybe they feel they lack the talent to create original content themselves. Maybe they think that using the photograph of an attractive person will get them better curation. There are myriad such "maybe's".
Plagiarism
Plagiarism, as mentioned above, is the act of presenting the work of someone else while directly or indirectly claiming or insinuating it is yours. We discussed Plagiarism in detail in this previous post. Plagiarism comes in many forms, many of which are covered in the aforementioned link.
Identity Deception
Unsplash: Masks by Llanydd Lloyd
What we commonly find as profiles of attractive persons who write well and warmly engage with everyone who upvotes and comments is very often not all it seems. These are a version of one of the most common type of ID-based scams; Romance Scams. These profiles are intended to entice the curator and tell him or her anything they want to hear in order to receive the biggest upvote. They can keep up the charade for years.
Commonly, these profiles rely on "proof" of ownership by posting photos with the username and a person holding it. This is not always a reliable way of gauging ownership. Over the years, we have seen account owners use people on the street, college students, family, even children, to hold signs. They are usually paid or asked for a favour. In cases of family, they may be privy to the scheme. In cases of people on the street, they are usually non-English speakers and have no way of understanding that they are being used.
Sometimes the Identity Deception is not malicious. For example, we had a case where a female blogger edited her posts to use a model after her boyfriend found out that she had shared her real photos. Inadvertent cases of deception are uncommon as most users fall into the category of either striving to remain anonymous or sharing their real persona. Those who practice deception tend to do so knowingly and with a fraudulent intent.
Identity Theft
Unfortunately, too many opportunistic scammers see the need to impersonate a person they either feel may be successful or just someone who has content out there that can be easily copied.
The original post by @Anyx regarding identity theft may be found here. It was written three years ago but the facts haven't changed. We are still dealing with the same type of identity theft attempts now three years later.
A total of 72 cases of Identity Deception or Identity Theft have been processed by the @Steemcleaners team in 2019 so far. The total for 2018 currently stands at 225 and while we hope we won't see those numbers again, chances are we will get close to them by the end of the year.
Example of Identity Theft
See the full post here. It is one of several featuring the same model (blond lady on the left) and insinuating that the account owner is her. The lady in the picture is https://www.instagram.com/internetxdoll.
When we emailed the model, she had no idea an account was created with images of her and insinuating she was its owner.
No matter how you think of photos or information on the internet, no person deserves to have their identity or work stolen. Remember, they are human beings too. They work hard on building up their profiles, modelling, writing, etc. There is a real victim behind every case of identity theft.
Re-posts as if New
Pixabay: Recycling by Gerd Altmann
Some users feel that reposting old content that has already been monetised is a good way to keep their blog full. Self-plagiarism is still plagiarism.
Simply rearranging parts of a post or adding a few words here and there is not sufficient. Steem users know when they are being deceived.
Re-posting for re-monetisation is considered self-plagiarism and will result in a @Steemcleaners comment/downvote or even a @Cheetah ban.
We have seen accounts edit to delete old content prior to re-posting, thinking that this will wipe all traces. Fortunately, all transactions on the Steem blockchain are permanently etched into it. Their malicious intent to deceive their followers and curators is never hidden for long.
You Can Combat Fraud
Unsplash: Boxer by Dylan Nolte
The best way to combat abuse and fraud on the Steem blockchain is to anonymously report your suspicions and findings to the @Steemcleaners team. We will process all reports and respond accordingly.
We have had community leaders and curators come back to us after reflecting on the facts they were presented with and thank us. They realised that they were being maliciously taken advantage of by someone who said all the right things to them. When the rose-coloured glasses came off they were grateful to know the truth.
Remember that just because you want to believe an account you follow is on the up and up, it doesn't mean they are. Scammers rely on you being a good, honest, and trusting person. Be open to new findings and facts.