A lot of people often question the motive behind scams, they say since a person can be smart enough to create an intelligent scam, why not put all that brain into creating a positive brilliant innovation that can be authentic and original?
But generally, this isn't true,
scam pays better than hard work and I'll explain why this is so
I believe that irrespective of the fact that a scamming mind is capable of replicating genuine work, they'll still choose scam because of how less stressful it seems and because of their greed as well. It's more difficult to build than to destroy. When a person scams and makes money, they're destroying something to make that money. It means that the money they made off that scam is directly infringing on another person, entity, or organization, so they're destroying.
However, building is difficult, so many people do not think they have the fortitude to build, so they'll rather choose the easier way, even if it'll also require the same ingenuity as when they're building. The difference is laziness and greed.
Here, let me tell you a sophisticated identity theft scam that happened here recently
Wait for it
I was making some investigation on-chain, and I saw an account impersonating an Instagram model. This account was using the picture of this model to create picture contents on hive, centering their contents around this model. The model was living a lavish life, spending money, expensive cars, and living big, it was quite the difference for the account impersonating this model.
Here, The Scam Behavior Didn't Match The Style
This account was always selling all hive from their post reward even scraps as low as one hive. Someone who travels oversea and buys expensive things, wouldn't be so desperate as to sell as low as one hive.
For a person who depicts a rich lifestyle in their pictures, it's difficult for me to wrap my head around how they'll be scraping to sell one hive on a daily. Plus the funny thing is that it seemed the scam was even bigger than I thought, about four other accounts were orchestrating this scam with this identity theft account, and two were running the same scam, but the fourth account acted as a sort of bank, it collected the hive proceeds from this accounts and runs the money through deepcrypto8.
It gets even interesting
However the fourth account creates genuine content, I feel that the reason why this is so is that if the three other accounts were caught, he could claim deniability, saying he was only helping them with their transactions, this was smart too, I mean, sheer brilliance, a backup plan in case the other accounts were nabbed.
This plan worked well as the other accounts were caught and the fourth account claimed deniability The sophistication of the scam was how I knew the account was run by a man but this isn't all, there's also another unique reason why I felt the four accounts were orchestrated by one guy I'm not saying a woman cannot pull off a such scam, but the intent.
Apparently, the feminine appeal sells a lot.
In advertising, a beautiful woman is already content that creates engagement. I feel that this impersonator believed that creating content around the face of a beautiful woman would endear them to more rewards. It was a classic scam mindset; throw in the face of a woman and have all the drooling men send in their money. But of course, hive doesn't work that way, although, I'll admit the appeal might sell for some time, they'll be discovered when the charade runs for some time.
Complacency To Details Is The Key
A Scammer Can't Get It 100%
When I saw the introduction post of this supposed lady, she claimed to be a Ghanaian living in the US, but the pictures she uploaded weren't of either Ghana or US, the environment felt familiar to me and I shrugged it off, apparently when hivewatchers came for the account for identity theft, my suspicious was reaffirmed again. The model this account was impersonating was a Nigerian, which ethnic background is Yoruba, but the impersonator claims to be from Ghana.
Another thing was that the impersonator couldn't even replicate the name of the model on Instagram. But because no one noticed this, this impersonator continued farming rewards and became complacent over time, they made multiple mistakes, such as using the picture of entirely different people to depict them especially if the original model they steal their pictures hasn't posted any picture.
This person became comfortable with stealing other people's pictures on Instagram entirely and if you look at this profile you'll discover this person has used about three different identities/pictures to depict them. However, when this account was caught and branded, the first thing they did was to initiate a power-down instantly even if the account was told to prove they owned the Instagram account they were stealing from.
So if they owned it, why run? Why not prove it? I mean it's crazy. I've always told people to stay away from scammy tendencies. If one is too lazy to build, they'll easily embrace scams because of the need to make money.
Generally, this doesn't pay.
It's why I often tell people to look at the grander scheme, identity theft and plagiarism is already a huge crime in real life, I often wonder why people think they'll go scot-free because it's the internet. I get that Twitter, Instagram and Facebook might allow these things, and since they do, some people might push the narrative that they can do the same here too. This post is me asking you to be a good player here, do what's right, do your best, contribute your quota for the Blockchain and let's grow together.
Interested in some more of my works?
How To Be "THE" Content Creator You Always Desire
The Consequences Of Being Overly Assumptive About Money
A 1.6 Million Naira Use-case For iPhone 14
Free Money: What Will You Do With $216k Worth Of Crypto In Your Wallet? (2)
The 4 Ways Of Developing A Relevant Niche As A Content Creator
Tech & Gadget Sophistication; Picture & Aesthetics
I'd rather say here that a lot of people still don't realize they're value creators , but they're still going down that stupid Hollywood path of lying and stealing, which, after long scheming, ends in great destruction.
They're still going down that path like you've pointed out. It's not impossible to be original or do right by the chain. It's certainly not impossible. I hope sone people can do better.
But we can learn from this , we can learn how to find them fast :))
These identity theft is something that is common on Facebook and other social media. They steal a woman’s identity then pretends to collect Money from men through chat and all that.
Seeing the way Hive is constructed they would have felt it would be easy to replicate on Hive. Just steal a woman’s identity and write some random text to make some money for it. The think they could play the system.
It is quite annoying to have people who prefers to take the easy route by destroying something that belongs to others so that they can make something for themselves.
I like the way you analyze the situation felt like a documentary.
It's quite popular on Facebook these days. Stealing is a thing and I've seen so many yahoo boys try this logic you've just mentioned on Facebook.
Exactly, the guy was even feeling entitled, saying they're cheating them or their small reward, I was totally livid because stealing and wanting to keep the money is just too crazy. However, it's all there. I did my analysis and I found out how it worked.
Being creative might be challenging, but it's not impossible, I don't know why people chooses farming, identity theft and thievery.
I did my research for hours hahaha.
I am sure you could work as a detective if given the chance. And you would do excellently well.
If not that Nigerian Police Force is rubbish, I would have told you to consider it.
Well I wouldn't lie, I know how to do these investigations, unless I wasn't interested. Maybe in the future, I could establish my own investigative agency. Hahaha
Yeah. I hope you get to do it in future and I hope it would be fully funded by the government
Hmm, that was a really detailed explanation of the whole scenario, I actually thought you were a detective, you will make a great one you know 🙂.
I've seen so many activities on some accounts that feels strange especially those accounts that focus on sharing seductive images but I never really cared looking so deep to them, in fact I always try avoiding them.
I'm so happy that hive watchers were able to find out his brilliant scheme to defraud people. I wonder how someone just delights in causing pains to another, it's so heartbreaking but then we already know that the heart of man is filled with evil.
The easy way is always the favorite way for so many, only few choose to thread on thorns to get to their destination because they know they will benefit more if they endure for a while.
Thank you so much for sharing this with us, I will keep the lesson in mind 👌.
Thank you, yes you're right. I took my time to look into the whole scenario and what I saw was shocking though. I think it hurt me to extent to know that a lot of accounts like this are doing malicious things to milk the system which isn't good. It was one other guy that began the investigation and handed the situation to hivewatchers, I think guys like that guy are the real MVPs of this place. Because he really did well.
I hope we can establish an even better environment and everyone can become good actors.
You're welcome JJ. I'm so happy you took your time to do such research for the betterment of everyone. And for that other person, he did a great job too and I hope this will help others understand the importance of working hard for what they want.
I hope so too, like our president said, the change begins with me, so I will try my best to do what I should and I hope others do likewise.
Wao! This is deep tho, but things like this are not always scarce in a place like this. People are striving everyday to create a bad aspect of a good thing which is their own way of sustainability. It's a good thing they were nabbed, it would serve a lesson to some that might what to perpetrate such again
Yes, it is very deep, I was surprised myself, it's the length some people choose to go when they're trying to cultivate fraud.
Yeah, and you know that some don't care either they get caught or not. What they do want is getting to the pit of what they want
From what I've seen of scammers, they always want more. Enough is never enough. They also tend to lose a lot in the end. I suspect it's a lot more to do with their mindset than intelligence. Some are stupid, and others may very well possess genius. Truly, if they would put that initiative to use in a productive way, they could change their world and ours...
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Well the angle you've seen it is an entirely different angle and you're completely right. I guess there's no way to understand the anatomy of scammer, since their motive can be diverse. But as per being productive, it's quite difficult. Potential scammers really hates it..
That's what they have to change, so they'll stop scamming and start succeeding!
!PIZZA
Damn! I just felt like I watched a movie. 😄
People underrate how challenging it can be to be original and keep at it. This is why you can't say that people that are smart enough to be conniving can equally be creative to create original content: they are two different things.
Notwithstanding, being original and inclined to positive growth will always be the optimal path.
It took me about 5 hours to study the pattern and see the behavior, I've been here for five years, there's no way a person will try to scam the system that I wouldn't know. I give the person a kudos. The guy is still posting with the fourth account because there hasn't been concrete evidence by hivewatchers to nail him. But the other accounts are toast. It's crazy man.
Building is hard but if you can put your mind to it and taking one step at a time you will definitely achieve unthinkable. Most people looking for easy way out which doesn’t always end well for them.
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Exactly, building is hard, but it's honest work and I use to encourage others to actually try building legitimately, it pays better.
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People can be honest here and make their buck, but yes as you mention it is easier to do a scam and make a quick buck but they forget that these kind of actions are always short lived and cannot take them a long way.
I'm not sure they know anyone is looking, but they get angry and call this place scam for not letting them do the scam.
That's what happens when they get caught, they do reverse blaming to cover up their side
There are thieves everywhere. Hard work and using brain power is much harder than stealing stuff from others and claiming it to be their own. Happy that some thieves are caught and put to shame. Run away Hive is not the place for thieves like you - to whomsoever it may concern.
Well, the motivation is money at all time,
Being real and original is always a great way to use our natural intelligence. I always feel that lying is tough on the brain and stealing in any of its forms requires permutations and knowledge of the truth.
But then, like you mentioned, we'll be better off working and building something original than living off someone's original efforts and intellectual property.
Lying is tough, but it's more difficult than building. Thieves are scared of building because they're not certain if what they're building will make some massive sucess. So they take what's already there. However, hive doesn't tolerate thievery, most of these people gets salty because theft mostly goes unpunished on Facebook and other places except it comes to monetization
One was caught the other day and he threatened that he will create more new accounts and continue. I was really baffled he could say that. Farming seems to be his own business model
It's people like that that shouldn't be here. There was one I found out about last year. For the first time ever, I had to use my downvote to flag them..
¿Really? Holy shit! ¿Who would have thought?
Please, tell me more about this fairy tale.
Crazy stuff Jose! It is crazy how some will choose to be a thief in a place where there is abundance all that is required of you is tap genuinely tap into the resources. Reading this makes me appreciate the works of hivewatchers more, this place could have been uncontrollable if we don't have the likes of hivewatchers.
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It's crazy too, but the reality of the situation is that i don't know if these people ever considered that identify theft was even unethical and against everything we stand for, I don't just understand that and why. It's so crazy.
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Sincerely If not for the likes of hivewatchers here, I don't know how we'll be dealing with scams as this.
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You didn't tag them?! 🥲
Ahhh no, I didn't, I didn't want to give them that exposure. I like give the fourth account the benefit of a doubt, but I'd make sure not to curate them.
Good point 👍
Yow! These scams are crazy. Glad that you sussed them out and exposed them.
I didn't exposed them, never said that. They were found out.
Ah but in explaining the scam here it is important for us as a community to know what they are doing.
To me it a quick money stuff and less stressful just like as you said but it not an option to me
It might come a time when thievery might become difficult
This is worst. What a shame on the scammer. It should be taken action immediately.
It's common to see this happen and these people just prey on people until they get found out. It's tough because nobody really knows until later and it sucks to see people rip off other people's content. The verification step is one thing that I don't like as much but if you are a public influencer (or copying from online), it does make sense.
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Interesting! Something I always hold onto in life is that if you still do not realize your worth and that you could be the best in something, you will always misuse the advantage and in the end, you lose.
All the time one is busy impersonating and scamming, why not channel it into being real and do what is right? You will forever enjoy it than being caught along the way and it stops. I mean the benefit you could have just been enjoying for a lifetime will be cut short because of your inability to do the right thing and be the best for your own good.
These scammers think they can outsmart people but it's always not for long. With a keen eye, it becomes easy to discover a loose end and follow the thread from there. I think the same effort required to do good is the same effort that's required to do bad. It's the mentality that shifts between the two. Although in the latter one is taking a shortcut.
I am a real guy based in Austria Vienna. I am blogging real content :-) So yes maybe there are some scamer. But who cares. Go your way and make your own thing. The best way is always to be the original ... have a great time - happy x mas
From my personal research, I found out that such minds always claim to be wiser than the intelligent. But, at the end, crash and crushing awaits them. Also, despite seeing the outcome from other scammers experiences, they keeps on stealing what does not belong to them. Believing that we all have workable brains, let's make use of it. The reward is great!
Hi, it's the first time I see one of your posts, I was struck by the title (I use the translator to read the titles of trendingTopics) and I wanted to see what kind of scams someone would do inside HIVE.
And as I thought, I assumed it would be with some posts inside one of peakD, accumulate votes, and sell the HIVE. Even up to 1 single HIVE!!! I can't imagine the need for that person.
There is a reflection behind all this too, as you rightly said " Apparently attractive sells " will always be so, no exceptions. Overshadowing the people who are really creating original content and trying to grow little by little even without receiving a good vote :/ it's a controversial topic, although well, beyond that, very good post my friend and excellent research :D I will vote for you with my mighty 0.000 HIVE xD
First of all, I believe that identity theft is a very bad thing; Our identity is basically one of the most important things we have. Furthermore, here on Hive value is created and those who don't understand it are destined to fail and disappear. Only those who commit themselves, put quality into it and share something of value with the community will be able to reach the top. This is obviously my way of thinking, but I prefer to build relationships by donating content rather than cheating. Thanks for the food for thought and the nice post!
That's a well written interesting post! I totally agree that greed for 'easy' money is a big motivator in such practices.
!PIZZA
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Impersonation is everywhere even on Facebook.
A man will be pretending to be a lady to scam other guys of their hard earned money (yahoo).
But for how long will one keep lying and pretending to others?
I guess they bring this to hive and get angry at the system set in place for actually catching them.
@josediccus, pls I want to report one scammer. How do I go about it? The case is pure.
Ahhh okay you'll do that through hivewatchers. Search hivewatchers and tag them to the profile of the scammer
Alright. Thanks
This is amazing!!!