This one is going to be a bit funny, in a sad way.
The Situation:
It's now a little over a week ago that I had posted about a rather ridiculous case of impersonation.
The accounts of @ravenrillay and @rashidminhas were putting on quite the show, almost too absurd to be taken serious, built on sockpuppet accounts, plagiarized content and false identities.
Since then, or so the story goes, someone told the real Rashid Minhas what happened, and he himself decided to sign up for steemit. He even made sure to give us full proof and went to lengths to verified himself in a DTube video!
Now isn't that great news for once?
Well no, unfortunately not.
My Observations:
I'll tell this story exactly how it unfolded itself to me.
It all started just a few hours ago.
"Ding-Dong"
A sound that has already become all too familiar. I hear it several times throughout the day whenever another concerned steemian opens a new conversation with me on steemit.chat.
So what is it this time? Something interesting maybe? No, it appears to be just another referral link post, nothing special or alarming, actually something that I myself don't have much of an opinion about at all. I kindly pointed the messenger towards the #steemcleaners-public channel for that he may discuss his concerns further over there.
I continued minding my own business, filing old leads, classifying new ones and checking for something to reveal itself from within my open files. The usual detective work.
A few uneventful hours passed.
"Bleep!"
The concerned steemian from earlier was back. This time he notified me about a proper serious spammer, @tijnski. That account had been posting the exact same pointless post over and over for three weeks already, nice catch! Albeit, yet again, nothing that looked like it needed any further investigations by myself.
But, before I would just send this onwards to the @steemcleaners again, who was this zealous steemian, so busy blowing the whistle today?
I was quite surprised to see:
@uzairalone was the real Rashid Minhas
He had the legacy facebook profile to prove it, and he even uploaded a verification video to DTube!
I'll be honest, I felt quite flattered at first.
Did my recent post really miraculously end up in the hands of the actual victim? Remember, I wasn't able to locate Rashid's facebook account back then and didn't notify him myself.
In Rashid's introduction post, he said that someone had sent him a WhatsApp message about the whole situation, and that had brought him here. Yes, that might actually be possible. After all, despite not finding his facebook profile, I was at least able to identify his identity and show a link to the "real" Rashid Minhas' business listing in my post.
A sense of pride and awe struck me.
But, the moment didn't last.
It's all a bit too good to be true isn't it?
When you talk to scammers a lot, you develop a certain kind of cynical skepticism.
What caught my eye immediatly, @uzairalone should be a complete steemit beginner, yet he's already posting his verification straight to DTube and uses the full set of voting-bot support by randowhale, minnowbooster, discordia, minnowsupport, minnowpond, nettybot, more than I could have named from the top of my head. Somebody must be a quick learner here, he's a mind-reader after all, right?
But a brief look into @uzairalone's account history on steemd.com gave it away instantly. First, this account is a day older than my original post unmasking the "imposter", next, look at this:
@uzairalone originally labelled himself to be a "photographer graphic designer traveler" accompanied by a profile picture showing a boy with a camera. His first two comments, before even making a post of his own, were already upvoted by none other than the infamous duo @ravenrillay and @rashidminhas.
He then suddenly changed his profile information to reflect the mind-reader Rashid Minhas we already know. You might have guessed it already, in the meantime I had posted my Cookie Crumbs unmasking his previous self.
What was he thinking?
I have absolutely no Idea!
I tried to play along for a while and continued chatting with @uzairalone.
After I expressed my "joy" over the situation, Rashid thanked me several times for catching his imposter and soon enough asked me to verify his identity for the greater public.
It was time to confront Rashid with his own idiocy. He tried making some excuses and twisted the story for a while, but when I showed him exactly what I had gathered so easily in his account history, he only said:
Oh
I must say, I've not had many chances to get a good laugh in my occupation here so far, but here it was.
After this he asked me to give him another chance. He even had the audacity to ask me to write a post for him so he could then share it. Yeah, I have no idea how that's supposed to work like.
In a way I feel sorry for this guy, something is clearly not right with him, but I don't think we need to be nice to pathological liars here.
Reveal spoiler
The Conclusion
A verification just doesn't tell the whole story.
You can draw steemit logos next to your username as many times as you want. If your account tells a different story than you, something probably isn't right.
yours,
Sherlock
P.S.: By the way, the spammer @tijnski, correctly identified by @uzairalone, could still need some flags, too!
Actions speak louder than verifications and the blockchain does not twist facts.
Just because a person is real, it does not make them genuine!
I don't get it, why impersonate this guy?
Is he famous in Pakistan?
No, he is that guy.
He previously started an account with his real name @rashidminhas, but then soon changed face and profession on that account while also creating a fake @ravenrillay account impersonating the adult actress.
When those accounts were busted, he switched to this account, and came up with the story how his identity was stolen before (by himself actually though).
It's probably to absurd to make sense.
Haha!
It's very strange.
Are you going to investigate this or do you want me to explain it for you?
Are you going to investigate this or do you want me to explain it for you?
Sad..so sad.
Well, I helped spank..uh.flag tij... a bit. Hopefully that account will shut up for a while!
Carry on.
Thanks for your support!
tips hat
Are you going to investigate this or do you want me to explain it for you?
Hi, Can you weigh in on a little controversy! Apologies if this is not the right method to contact you. But it was suggested you might want to weigh in on a little issue. https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@cryptick/help-me-report-the-all-in-one-social-networks-aios-is-an-ico-scam
Thanks, any method of contact is appropriate.
Indeed I want to thank you very much for pointing this out to me. It is a great addition to one of my bigger files I've been carrying for a while now!
I will take a look later and weigh in if I feel I can say something on the matter!
These are actually very good reads. You make Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Steemit proud! Keep up the good work Holmes!
Thanks!
tips hat
Are you going to investigate this or do you want me to explain it for you?
Ahahaha
You know, there's been a few times I've seen so called 'New Users' who have an incredible grasp of Steemit and the associated support programs given they've supposedly only joined that day or at best a couple of days ago. I've been on here since April and I'm still struggling with all the features.
I was always "Well how the hell did they know to stick themselves in #introduceyourself" on their very first day? Now I know. LOL
Oh, and I always sneer at these people who photoshop their photos and video's to sport the Steemit logo, "You couldn't even be bothered to buy an actual Steemit tee-shirt. Just paste the logo over your photo and wait for the gullible to upvote it."
Rant Over. :-)
Yes, if you want to catch some cheaters, just go to #introduceyourself and look around. That seems to be a haystack made from needles lately!
I'm flagging a few people in that tag feed who are constantly abusing it. They can't say they didn't know it was wrong as they have been warned
LOL
Are you going to investigate this or do you want me to explain it for you?
Always fascinating to see what people do with their free time. Thanks for another entertaining and informative post @sherlockholmes!
Apparently this clown thinks he's Prof. Moriarty trying to outwit Sherlock at his own game. Good thing he's rich because he sure as hell isn't smart.
As always keep up the good work Sherlock. The real community here at steemit appreciates it. Especially when it's good for a laugh.
Well said! Thanks for the support!
I think it is the first time I've had someone ask to ban themselves on another account!
"Sorry, could you please flag my past lies so that I have room for making up new ones? Yes, that would be nice!"
I wonder what kind of magic tricks he'll come up with for the next round.
Good job bud..keep it up. My nly support is to throw in good posts about your work here.
I referenced you in my latest post about flag / downvoting war in steemit-feel free to check it out
Hey Sherlock, thanks for great posts!
Not sure if it's the right place to report, but I recently noticed a strange guy @svyatoslavv whos Russian posts are utter nonsense and likely automated posting. No links, just unrelated cuts from some large text with no begining or end. There's visible upvoting activity, so it might be reward farming. As a guy who likes mysteries, you might be interested :)
Holy, there's a lot of them! @ientid @dmilovaru @kalaterna @staskrutov @klavdosia @petrioska
Thanks, filed in backlog!
Hello. I have some interesting cheating accounts that earn a lot of rewards. There is @qura service - pay for upvote. Users pay and tranfer sbd and link to @qura which they want to be upvoted in contest. They always get highest upvote and win on @jerrybanfield contests 10 sbd each. Please check rewarded curator @qura wallet transfers with winners from this upvotable contest. He/she upvoted users that tranfered money in his wallet days ago. Upvoting them with big steem power and to the top of visibility. Received 53 sbd from @kelvanis and some sbd from @imagicnation and user @zkalemiss. All 4 of them rewarded here on this upvotable. 5th User @genuinty transfer conection from this group with kelvanis also upvoted and rewarded in this upvotable.. @qura also got 20 sbd reward for being top curator which is easy cuz he has strongest worth upvote. You can check users profile wallet. @jerrybanfield picks top visibility posts with highest upvote.
Thanks, I've filed the lead and will check it if I find the time.
Thank you!
You know what.. when i originally stumbled upon your account and initiative. I was afraid to read your posts, and did the regrettable thing of not following you. I was afraid reading your posts only make me depressed at the state of abuse Steemit suffers and foolishly turns a blind eye.
But man!! reading your story was fun!! I was wrong to not follow you!
I want in on grabbing the pitchfork after you did your work!
Thanks!
Just remember: Think first - then grab pitchfork!
Lol...oh ... I have 3 weird accounts created today and all spam commented on my last post . Am going to send you the names now...
They upvote you, resteem you too...
Filed in backlog, thanks!
glad I can help!
I'm glad you like doing this stuff, and I'm glad you got a good chuckle out of this one. It makes my head spin.
So, I guess we should conclude that mind reading doesn't work so well on a blockchain? ;) Or, maybe mind reading is no match for good ole detective work?
Usually, I'm all for second chances but not this time, these guys just don't belong here, if he wanted to make friends he should go outside instead.
I always love your findings sherlock, huge fans! you were also in one of my fiction about la la land and this finding has given an idea to write about the next chapter of la la land
keep doing what you love ! have a great day and don't forget your caffeine patch xD
Caffeine intake: check!
Nice to know my work is inspiring to you. I'll have to check that post when I have some more time.
He's so far lost from the purpose of Steemit that I'm taken aback.. and a little saddened... I loved the way you kept it civil :)
Thanks for the support, I shall always try to keep it civil around here!
Always enjoy your reports... this one was really pretty bizarre. Sometimes I find myself pondering why so many of these incidents are associated with certain geography... and I don't just mean here, but also on about a dozen previous user driven content sites I've been on.
This is indeed an observation I have made myself, too. I would argue that the global economic disparity makes it just that much more tempting to put time and effort into scamming a few dollars for those living in the less wealthy regions.
In a way, it might just be an indicator on how technological advancement is so far ahead of the social and economic development we have achieved?!
Explain to me why you investigated anyone you could find associated with us while claiming not to take sides while not investitgating this blatant abuse of power:
Are you going to investigate this or do you want me to explain it for you?
Yes, please explain, I am really not sure what you are trying to point out with the data structure in the screenshot.
could you please also elaborate whom you are referring to as "us"? I am not quite sure which "sides" you are trying to associate me with.
Is this still relating to the @transisto & @newsflash thing?
Also, I'd appreciate if you didn't spam this screenshot, I think it is quite visible that I take time to see and respond to all commenters, so there really wasn't any necessity to post this 10 times over.
P.S.: Thanks for the downvote. Great way to communicate with me!
Did you ever find out what this screenshot was supposed to mean. I am curious and sad now.
see @jphenderson's reply to this thread
Thanks
Well, I've also finally been able to speak with him on discord. But I am not much smarter from it. I've received the encouragement to fuck myself multiple times and for some reason he thinks I investigate people close to him?!
In essence it still seems to be about this comment tread under one of my early posts.
Apparently the screenshot is supposed to show how a comment, in which ownership of an account was denied, has been deleted?! But since we are looking at the column structure for a DB mirror of steemit accounts... oh well.
You clearly chose a side by investigating anyone close to us at all and not investigating them at all. You're sherlockholmes, you figure out why this is fucked up. Hint: look at the left side qualifications and how the right side doesn't comply. If you're really interested this is the database entry where transisto denied knowing newsflash that magically disappeared. But I'm sure you already knew that. You've already exposed your "side" and it's clearly not the truth.
Your screenshot shows an SQL DB, so I still do not know what you are looking at there, it certainly isn't real blockchain data.
If you are implying that someone deleted something from some database, you should be more specific.
Deleting evidence on the blockchain should by no means be possible!
Also, that "owner" thing you are highlighting contains child elements, you are highlighting the parent level and it's properties, not the content. Even if someone deleted the contents here, the owner signature of the account would be gone, making the account invalid. so yeah?!? What is this even supposed to be about?
What "side" is that you put me on?!
Lovin that @sherlockholmes deductive reasoning!
I came across a weird one today. Submitted it in steemcleaners link drop.
https://steemit.com/dtube/@bukkots.com/kb09ngs2
I don't even know what they are trying to accomplish there.
Looks like they are spamming the post body for, let's say "search engine optimization".
Good catch and nice to see he's being flagged already!
Thanks @sherlockholmes. Great writing and wisdom.
Sherlock strikes again. Well spotted Sire!
You are really good at what you do
I try to live up to my name.
good work, actualy
great post ! l like it
The speed at which you read all these great posts is truly mind blowing!
Oh wait, that was probably just spam!
Curiosity is always a good thing, it reaches us the details of things in life