Accusation:
While digging up information about @elena2017's case I was in close contact and had tremendous support from the real Ekaterina
She had the initial hunch and was essential to pulling the account @annart into the spotlight!
The Findings:
@annart is an account operated by the real person portraied under that blog.
What isn't portrayed, though, is the fact that she is also impersonating a few other artists!
First there are @katrinart and @elena2017, who had been identified as fakes in case 4 and case 5. You can read all the details over there.
Next we have two more fake artists:
- @nellyhandmade - impersonating nellyhandmade on vk.com
- @juliyahandwork - impersonating Yulia Kurikhina on vk.com
But what kind of proof do we have to say @annart is behind this?
@annart isn't new to this game. She received initial funding from an account that has been unmasked 11 months ago: @nataliadobrick, who, coincidentally, also transfers funds to that same bittrex wallet until today!
Not convinced yet? While all other artists have confirmed to me that they are unaware of their steemit presence, Anna's vk profile completely refuses communication, and so does @annart over here.
Need more? Check the activity times of the accounts, you will find a strange synchronicity in claiming rewards. If you check the voting behavior between these accounts, the connection is just as obvious! The tools by @steemreports will help you do this easily.
Also, Anna has been the one commissioning the paintings of @sjennon and @stellabelle from the real Elena for (hold your breath) $15 each!! We have proof in form of screenshots of her conversation with the real Elena. Unfortunately Elena has requested these to not be released! You'll have to trust me on this one. I am willing to show them to a trusted member of the community if necessary.
We do not know who was commissioned to do the portrait of @tj4real that has also been published under @elena2017, but it is revealing that Elena never took a selfie with this one, but did so with the other two.
There are more steemit accounts who are possibly connected to @annart, these accounts belong to her husband and a married couple they are friends with. I will not state their accounts here directly, as we cannot proof they do in fact have knowledge about this, however likely that is!
There are potentially many more artist profiles on steemit that are running like this, just see the case of @iconzbranding that I started my work with here.
So please, be extra vigilant when you see profiles like these. Use some scrutiny and execute a reverse image search on google, it's often as easy as that!
Please also be aware that the same scam is being executed, not only on steemit.com, but also on the russian fork called golos. If you know someone over there, they should probably check this out!
yours,
Sherlock
Have you witnessed similar things yourself?
Don't just ignore it and move on... let me know!
Good on you, well met and good job, came here from Stella's blog.
I'm not sure how things are going in golos, but you will have a field day here, there are probably fakes left and right. Probably thousands of accounts are bots, so supposedly there could be hundreds of fake accounts.
Yeah, I try to be open about my methods. Only if the community as a whole, curation services like @curie, and especially whales start being a bit more vigilante, will we be able to rid ourselves from those scammers!
So, it is wise now to flag @annart?
Hell yea!!! I'm fumming right now!!! It's enough proof for me. The blockchain don't lie!! From now on if you don't have an intro post with the steem logo and date time stamp you suspect in my book. Keep up the good work @stellabelle
I wouldn't put all my faith in somebody holding a piece of paper in front of a camera. It has been faked before. There are two instances I'm aware of. One time it was a photoshop job by an account of a fake girl posting naked pics. And the other situation (it happened before my arrival on Steemit but I read about it) was a guy paying a pretty girl on the net in exchange for a picture of her with a Steem logo & date so that he could pretend to be her.
Yea I'll just have to be more careful of who I follow and support.
Me too. I had followed and upvoted some of the profiles revolving around Case 6.
in my humble opinion: absolutely!
yeah, i just also checked the bittrex account for all these, and indeed they are the same! Thanks for doing this. They will not be lasting long now. I am about to get @cheetah involved too.
Thanks for the impersonation warning
Excellent work once again!
Phenomenal work @sherlockholmes! When I know I spend a great deal of time and energy on my posts, AND I'm out there on the streets promoting steemit, its annoying to discover that the reward pool for people who are keenly trying their best to publish great content (not just artists but everyone) is being drained by dirty little scams like this. Thanks for the great work.
How do I report stuff to you for you to have a look at? I think I've found something iffy but I'd prefer to DM you. busy.org dosen't seems to like your account.
you can contact me on steemit.chat - @sherlockholmes
I've sent you a DM (Hopefully) :-D
Good work @sherlockholmes
Well done you . Which of course means well done to us the collective .
WOW! Good detective work!!! It's important to get the REAL artists paid and recognized! Shame on the impostors!!
I also got approached by the Facebook account of the real Elena asking me for help but unfortunately couldn't help as much as I wanted. I will keep a close eye on this.
What I did notice was the way this person writes and posts. The type of posts (less text, not longer than 500 words or so) and a lot of random )) midsentence. Also the lack of English grammar stands out.
I noticed that all the accounts have delegates SP. Would be cool to see where this is coming from - we could probably figure out the root of this. I also noticed that all accounts seem to resteem eachother. This means that we could also probably figure out more accounts operated by this person.
@uacobra also seems to transfer to the same Bittrex account you mentioned above.
I would love to see the chats between Elena and the scammer though..
You can ask the real Elena on Facebook, she has them!
I have not received them from her directly but through a middleman, she herself did say this:
I am honoring this.
I found more accounts sending funds to the same Bittrex accounts:
@TatyanaSV
@unlovedgirl
I also came across another account which has already been flagged down: @uneducated @svetlanaart
yes, and there's a bunch more.
take a look at this: https://steemit.com/art/@katrinart/hello-steemit-have-a-great-weekend#@predator/re-annart-re-stellabelle-re-katrinart-hello-steemit-have-a-great-weekend-20170804t124949648z
Oh wow. This person is pretty hardcore at scamming.
I just checked that link and got. "This post was hidden due to low ratings."
yes, because it has already been downvoted, there's a button that let's you reveal the content, though!
We can't do much though. All we can do is flag the account and posts down - but the account will keep on existing on the platform. :l
yes, unfortunately so, as the account @nataliadobrick shows very well.
no, once @cheetah has them on it's blacklist, they will be doomed.
Yes ofcourse, but literally blocking it isn't possible is all I am saying :)
Once an account reputation is destroyed, then the account basically ceases to exist. There have been people who are reformed, so it is possible......Steemit uses reputation and community involvement to bring social change. Banning is done by centralized corps. We use the community to bring about punishment
Steemit, I am told, does have centralized means of actually blocking accounts. I am told by a party (who I will not name, as I have no confidence in them whatsoever, due to their acts) that Steemit has blocked them from an account.
I have no more information than this, but I do believe that websites aren't able to be rendered immune from such controls. It is simply the nature of code that, on a site served from servers under the control of Stinc, the users of that site can be censored.
This is the only instance I have heard of it being done. I also cannot certify that it happened, clearly, as I do not have access to the server logs.
However, I can see no impediment to it being done, particularly in cases which create a threat to Steemit itself.
Generally, I believe that Stinc does not do this, and you are correct that the community itself is self-correcting. That does not make it impossible that censoring is both possible, and has been undertaken, at least once., by Stinc.
She could have been honest and present the work of this artist. You can't go around trying to impersonate people. From what it looks like she paid more than what her post generated.
Yeah I know - that's why I find it so weird that she did another post about it.
Thats what I always think... But it isnt fair either to the many folk on here who struggle with English as a second language but remain honest.
You can browse through the blockchain history to find who delegated on https://steemd.com/@username. However when you register on steemit, you're delegated 27SP to help you get started.
Ah, I can't seem to find the delegation so far but the account of Elena has been around for quite some time, so the new user delegation shouldn't apply to her.
I am contacting the real Elena now in Facebook. We will get this resolved.
Shocked!
Upvoted, Resteemed and Randowhaled!!
wow! tips hat
You deserve it. I have a feeling your going to be a dolphin in no time.
Wow!!! You are doing amazing work! I saw one post and then read through almost all the others. I am happy to folliw your account! Here's ro a LOT more exposure of abuse!!!
Nice detecting. Resteemed and upped
Great work @sherlockholmes! 🕵🏻
Is there a way to contact you off the blockchain? I have a clear fake I'd like to report to you. Nothing as huge and elaborate as what you already have going on, but I feel attention needs to be drawn to it anyways.
you can contact me on steemit.chat - @sherlockholmes
Oh shit. Katrinart is fake? You good!
Great to see people like you looking into or trying to find fake accounts. Present the evidence and let the community decide!! :) Thanks again! upvoted!
yes, that's the idea!
thanks for your support.
I want to submit 2 names in the list how i can do this ?
steemit.chat @sherlockholmes if you want to stay anonynmous!
drop them in a comment if you don't mind standing behind your suspicion publicly, this also gives the hive-mind a chance to look at it.
my list of suspects is quite long already!
@transisto and @newsflash this 2 acounts are used to troll , flag and harash people . You can see the huge steem power in them both but there was not any intro post who this people are ................and even if they are reall people ! I will undarstand if you disagree to investigate this ...............scared from the potential harm they can do to you personal . I dont need to be anounimous , but seems this 2 people want to be !
What kind of trolling or harassment are you talking about specifically?
The accounts are obviously busy with "reward pool protection" executed by their own means. Downvoting what they subjectively feel are over-rewarded low-value posts with too much votes behind them. I suppose that's what they are intrinsically allowed to do with their stake by the way steemit is designed...
I see the accounts are most likely run by the same person, but that's nothing out of the usual. They are not making any gains from their behavior.
could you elaborate what kind of misconduct you see?
I have the suspicion, the fact that you and @jphenderson are spending almost half your voting power either on yourself or the other (that's of course also perfectly legit use for your stake, but ethically subjective) while also being heavily supported by fuzzy has dragged you in their target zone?!
Hmm intresting answer same like the one acount deny every conection with the other but wallet history sayd he send over 350 000 steem power ? But this make me also clear about your identity :) and aculsng about spend voting power need a pruve please add one ! I will love to see how i spend all my voting power on miself .
You seem to be quite unhappy with my reply.
I was merely trying to find out which kind of trolling and harassment you were trying to point out.
I also openly shared my impression of the accounts you wanted to be investigated after briefly looking at them.
That brief glance also showed you and @jphenderson somehow struggeling with them, so I checked your voting quotas on steemreports.com and shared that observation also.
I was trying to be neutral, like I should be!
Do they? This would maybe be rather interesting.
Hmm intresting and maybe you need investigate yourself first ? What you have to hide ?
what makes you say that?
Maby the fact no one know who you are ? And yes i am disapointed , this people flag a lot in steemit and they never sayd who they are or how they get this power . AND most important WHO give them the right to decide the posts value ?
The coment about conection the acounts was changed , i am not tech person but you probably are . The visual fact is pink mark on this comment this is everyting i can say . Its up to you cheking this . About the voting i will chek everyting you say make analyse and posted as a post ....................... ! My voting patern !!!!!What about this peple voting patern ?
I'm on your side. I would like these 2 to be investigated
Hmm this wont ever hapand .... people on big places dont want this !
There is one account named sadkitten, whose delegatee is transisito. It's used to flag users who upvote their own posts. Good/bad idk
Ohh so let me be clear i payd 200 steem for 5000 delegated power , i vote 2 my posts dayly and i am the bad guy ? Wow ....................Make the calculation alone ...
Good/bad idk, I said
What! Tanks for investigating. We should all stand together to fight. Its not the idea of the steem platform.
J
This post received a 2.8% upvote from @randowhale thanks to @alao! For more information, click here!
Help my post vote me
lol
Yep! Agreed.
You can look at @katrinart... her intro is a girl holding a paper-of-proof
take a look at @annart's "real" vk.com profile, you might see a familiar face ;)
oh! Last time I checked it was still accessible.
All the attention wasn't what she wanted after all I guess.
Check her Golos: https://golos.io/ru--zhiznx/@ann/s-dobrym-utrom