This article is currently published on Hackernoon, one of the most popular tech publications on Medium. For anyone interested in statistics, my articles on Medium get about 54,000 views per month. At the end of my articles, I always post "follow me on Steemit". I mostly write articles for Hackernoon, but not all my submissions are accepted, as the competition is getting stiffer. Hackernoon has experienced exponential growth in their readership, and last time I checked their numbers went from 20K to 100K in less than a year. It's a good place for Steemit to gain exposure.
Here goes:
Software is eating the world, but blockchains are kicking the asses of scammers.
If you haven’t heard about the blockchain by now, you’re likely living under a rock. Blockchain ICOs make Silicon Valley bros wet their pants and it’s like a new religion has been created overnight. Very few people understand what a blockchain is, let alone what a blockchain can do in the real world, but the story I’m about to tell you will hopefully illustrate it.
This is a crazy story I’m about to tell you.
It involves art, multiple identity thefts, the Ukraine, the Steem blockchain, myself and Sherlock Holmes. Well, it’s not the real Sherlock Holmes, but an account in Steemit named @sherlockholmes.
A number of weeks ago, a Steemit user named @elena2017 painted a very detailed portrait of myself. I didn’t know this user as she was not my friend at the time in Steemit. Here’s the portrait she painted of me (as my Steemicide Hotline character). It’s quite detailed and pretty good:
I upvoted her post which resulted in her gaining some Steem, reputation score increases and also name recognition in the community. After she painted my portrait, I began supporting and sharing more of her posts in Steemit. She began attracting more followers because her artistic talent was pretty impressive.
Here’s one of my favorites of hers:
Fast forward several weeks…..
A few days ago, a user named appropriately, @sherlockholmes, revealed his shocking findings about the account, @elena2017: it was a total fake. And he had the evidence to prove it. @elena2017 had stolen the identity of a real artist from the Ukraine named Elena Malva and had been posting her photos, paintings and drawings on Steemit for months. But how was my portrait painted, and who painted it? Who was the person holding the portrait of me? Someone painted my portrait, but who?
This is where the story gets super weird.
The scammer had contacted the real Elena (Elena Malva) and paid her $15 to create a portrait of me. The scammer had also requested that the real Elena take photos of herself holding the portrait of me. Here is a photo of the real Elena holding the portrait of me:
After the scammer had paid the real Elena to paint a picture of me, she posted it on Steemit and milked this thing like no tomorrow. The scammer wrote several posts that glorified me as “Steemit’s Best Blogger” and other stuff like that, which I naturally upvoted (manipulating my emotions and ego).
A quick visit to the real Elena’s Facebook page reveals the disturbing reality of being smack in the middle of an identity theft. She clearly states that she has never joined Steemit, and that someone has stolen her identity and is posting her artwork for monetary gain on Steemit:
Sherlock Holmes had also posted another update to his earlier post about Elena. It revealed that Elena Malva was not the only artist who was being impersonated. The scam ring extended to 4 other Ukrainian artists, and Sherlock was untangling the story behind each one. All of the identity theft artist accounts were tied to @annart, which is a real person. Sherlock had reached out to @annart both on Steemit and on vk.com (Russian Facebook) https://vk.com/id57240151 but unlike the artists whose identities were stolen, this person never responded back to Sherlock.
You can read @sherlockholmes’ full story here:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@sherlockholmes/case-6-busting-annart-s-ukrainian-fake-artist-ring
It was at this time I decided to do a little searching on the blockchain, just to ensure that all this information was correct. Since I had never heard of @sherlockholmes until recently, I wanted to make sure his evidence was rock solid.
How Money Flows In And Out of Steemit
It’s important to know how money flows in and out of Steemit. In order to withdraw your Steem from Steemit, you need to set up an account at one of the cryptocurrency exchanges, like Bittrex.com. Since this scammer used Bittrex, let’s go over how that works.
Every Bittrex account for Steem has a memo identification associated with it. So, each time you withdraw Steem from Steemit into your Bittrex account, you have to use your memo id. If you don’t use it, Bittrex will not know where to send your Steem, and you will lose your money.
The memo id is like your personal address in Bittrex. It’s your identification. These memo id’s show up in everyone’s account, and because Steemit runs on a blockchain, this data is available for everyone to study. This also means that everyone can see everyone’s account, as all wallets and money transactions are transparent. In fact, you can see all activity on the Steem blockchain, even deleted comments.
So, I took a look at @annart’s transactions on the Steem blockchain in order to find a memo id connected to her withdrawal to Bittrex:
If you’ve never seen a blockchain before, here’s your chance:
And here’s even a more in-depth look at the blockchain structure, when we click on the raw block data:
Next, I wanted to find a Bittrex memo id from the other accounts which Sherlock had accused of being run by @annart. Here’s a transaction from @elena2017 and sure enough, the memo id is exactly the same as @annart’s.
(notice the memo id: 462ccc1af1f64901aa8)
This means the money from these two Steemit accounts is going into the same Bittrex account. In fact, all the fake accounts: @elena2017, @nellyhandmade, @katrinart and @juliyahandwork use the exact same memo id, 462ccc1af1f64901aa8, as @annart does. The money from all 5 Steemit accounts is going into 1 Bittrex account. (The use of 1 Bittrex account does point to a very unsophisticated scammer.)
The expression, “Follow The Money” applies very well in this case.
Sherlock went the extra mile and hunted down all the artists on legacy social media sites (Facebook, Instagram, VK.com) whose identities were thought to be stolen to confirm that they were not on Steemit. All the artists in question told him they were not on Steemit. The @annart account was the only one which never replied to him.
It became crystal clear that an elaborate scam ring involving 4 identity thefts was being run by @annart.
I did a little extra investigating and discovered that all these accounts tended to upvote each other, too. This was to be expected since getting noticed in Steemit requires upvotes and comments.
After using the blockchain to confirm Sherlock’s evidence, I began flagging the posts made by these accounts, thereby taking away any monetary rewards they had made. I tend to avoid flagging people in Steemit unless it’s absolutely necessary, as in this case of an actual identity thief.
But my voting and flagging power doesn’t last forever. After flagging more than 15–20 different posts by @elena2017 on top of a regular day’s voting for authors, my voting strength was nearly wiped out. The algorithm that controls this voting strength behavior was created intentionally to prevent abuse from individuals.
In my case, because I’ve worked very hard for over a year in Steemit and gained the trust of many in the Steemit community, I wrote a post requesting the help of other whales (whales in steemit are those who have large accounts and the ability to remove monetary rewards plus lower the reputation of others.) After the news was spread that a scammer had been busted, others swooped in and began flagging the 5 accounts.
Without the blockchain (and because the scammer was unsophisticated), none of this fraudulent activity would be possible to know for certain. Having access to this immutable blockchain data makes it possible for ordinary citizens to investigate suspicious activity.
This is the real reason why everyone is wetting their pants about the blockchain right now.
This has never been possible before, because money transactions have always been hidden away from ordinary citizens……until now.
But make no mistake, the blockchain does not do the work of busting up a scam ring by itself.
The blockchain is only a tool.
The blockchain is a tool for humans.
The blockchain is a tool that can be utilized or ignored.
The blockchain is only as useful as the person using it.
If the world, and all the people in it stop giving a crap about deception, identity theft, scams, and corruption, guess what? Blockchains become useless. Moreover, if all of us don’t take responsibility for ourselves and society, and always think:
“Let someone else take care of it,”
blockchains will become useless.
One of my Facebook friends remarked after reading about the Ukrainian scam ring:
“Scammer from Ukraine? This stinks because there is no system there that will deal with her. Hope your Steem Team blast her!”
I answered:
“Scams exist everywhere but since all our transactions are transparent on the blockchain, frauds can easily be caught. There is a system: it’s called a passionate community.”
A passionate virtual community means people actually giving a shit what happens to people. I never had a tool like the blockchain before and I admit that this is a brand-new powerful combination:
Giving a shit + the blockchain = radical change to make society better.
It’s quite possible that someone like Trump wouldn’t even be able to coexist in the future world of blockchains.
The best part of this story is that Sherlock and I reached out to the real Elena to let her know that her scammer is being punished and will soon become a non-entity in Steemit. Furthermore, I have personally invited Elena to Steemit, and hopefully, when she joins, I’ll introduce her to the Steemit community, so people will know that she’s the real deal.
To see your own data on the Steem blockchain, go here: https://steemd.com/@stellabelle
Replace "@stellabelle" with your own Steemit user account. Watch the beauty of the Steem blockchain in real-time!
You can still enter my Steemfest2 Giveaway until August 31, 2017. Contest details here
Female travel bloggers seem to be the new hot trend to plagiarize now as everyone is trying to be the next @sweetsssj.
Just in the last few weeks we have busted-
https://steemit.com/@girlwhotravels
https://steemit.com/@kiersten
https://steemit.com/@michellethorne
https://steemit.com/@sweetsssjs
All taking posts word for word from various world traveling ladies. Granted, those last 3 accounts are all connected but I didn't feel like going back too far, those were just the most recent ones I recall off the top of my head. A number of those accounts still have pending payouts if you want to continue removing garbage posts from steemit :)
ok, wow, I didn't know about this, but I am not surprised at all.
I just wiped out the fake Sweetsssjs...no payout now.
michellethorne is at 1 reputation. i flagged everything. It is so obviously fake.
Thank you very much :) I knocked down the payouts I could with my 20 cent flags and appreciate the extra help
You're amazing. It was like a cross between the Catfish and Big Eyes documentaries.
2 quick morals I took away:
This is another real world example of blockchain having an effect culturally. This isn't just about money, it's about transparency and decentralization.
Steemit mirrors life. You can choose to be authentic or scam your way through. It's your path and there's unlimited opportunity for both.
Scamming is about the quick money and ends with a cold soul. Authenticity wins even when it doesn't make more money up front. Life pays people back in mysterious ways.
Cheers on your fantastic sleuthing. That was really cool.
This is such awesome detective work, it's almost like I'm reading a real Holmes novel. Great job on exposing the scammer, and I hope the original artists can get some kind of reward your of this too. Maybe they'll join steemit and earn the SBD's they do
Some have said they will join Steemit...
I agree with this. Hopefully after all of this, the artists learned that they can earn much more than $15 from a simple piece of art once they build a following on Steemit! :)
What a powerful story. The thing I love about a tight knit community is that we can take care of each other. This is also a reminder that Steemit is not supposed to be about the money - it's about the relationships we build. Keep up the awesome blog posts.
Hello @stellabelle
Technology does not change Human behaviour. One of the reason I love Steemit is because everything is open and no one can say he/she was falsely accused.
The blockchain is changing how we are living our lives and the potential disruption is massive and untapped.
I must also commend you of the work you are doing to promote Steemit to the outside, funny that my last post was about reinventing various form of content for Steemit promotion.
People have to be aware of scams that are ongoing in the cryptocurrency field, it is still new and most people fall for certain things due to ignorance. Thanks for your bitcoin school, it is an amazing initiative.
When the real Elena joins Steemit let us know so that we can welcome her, we need more talented people on Steemit.
@ogochukwu
thoughtful comment you created. I agree that it is definitely changing us, this new invention. For me, it has made me more active in life, because i think i had a tendency to be brainwashed by the central authority system. In here, we can do many different jobs: writer, teacher, student, helper, police, communicator, creator, idea machine, etc. Life should be filled with different roles. Humans are much more dimensional than the world has permitted in the past.
Wow Elena !!!! nice drawings. By the way I am also Ukrainian !!!;)
Your the real deal @stellabelle. You captured the entire blockchain and served it on a golden platter. Well done.
That is so scary. @stellabelle , why are people like this in the world ? Why can they not just make a name for themselves by working with honestly . I feel like greed really gets to some people and they do not stop until something actually happens , they take things to the next level and steal from others . I'm glad you found out and put your foot forward on this matter . Humanity needs to be restored , in loosing faith in it everyday
Wow this story was so crazy. Why do people do stuff like this. Greed and they are Fing crazy! Dam good work getting to the truth. @stellabelle. 🌞 Ttyl
Just imagine, How we missed opportunities by not buying BTC with small amounts of money." ... we could play that game with pretty much any investment that went huge, like investing in apple stock when it first went public. Bitcoin is especially painful though.Moral of it: Invest in BTC. right now. don't delay! A month ago (or was it less than that?) it was at 2700 and I was about to start my BTC IRA.
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Wow wonderful articular with cool photography @stellabelle keep posting and encouraging new joiny steemit members.
It seems you are the real Sherlock Holmes of Steemit.
I am sorry to see those things happening here... people should know that the truth will always be revealed
@sherlockholmes is the real Sherlock Holmes! I'm just an action taker, as I have zero tolerance for artists getting ripped off.
You have taken the right decision. I think the imposter will leave Steemit :D
It is deeply annoying me when people try to trick people and create a facade and a front, so they benefit only for themselves while doing no work. It was a pretty elaborate scam, and I can't believe the efforts the person went through just to suck some money out of the rewards pool for themselves.
It is amazing how everything on steemit and the blockchain is so transparent, so you know where everything goes without anything being hidden from the public. Blockchain technology is the future, and I can't wait for it to be implemented and used by the world some day. (I guess it already is in some perspectives.
At least we have people like @sherlockholmes and his trust sidekick @stellabelle shutting down these low lives haha
Regarding the steemit.chat do you make a new account or do you log in with your steemit details?
Also I'm liking the look of that new footer :)
you have to make an account, a new one for steemit chat. That way i can get your mailing address...in a private message..
can't say i'm surprised, if there is an opportunity to be gained certain individuals will always dive into grey areas, sadly.
A very good job at finding the scammer and linking all the 5 accounts together. Passionate community indeed. We all have to work together to make steemit big in the future. Scammers like this one can't be left unseen on Steemit :)
Thanks for sharing this experience with us,it's good portrait by the way.
ahahhhahahaha @stellabelle is new sherlock right now :D
Wow this story reads of something straight off of CNBC's American Greed docuseries. I'm glad you two put the effort in to find this. Its funny because I have done some digging myself and found certain users that send and receive money from some pretty unassuming accounts with the same memo and wallet address. I have yet to uncover a scam from my efforts, just dubious transactiins at best..thanks for sharing.
Wow what a story.. I still don't fully understand blockchain, but it's great that it's so much harder for these scammers to hide their tracks. Glad y'all found out what was going on
I read part of this history hours ago, I didn't read this post completely..I'll do it at night! but please Spoiler me! and tell me Who painted you at least in there? Becasue there are two paintings in whare you are in.... or am I wrong?
The scammer hired the artist whose identity she stole to paint me!!!!!!
ABSURD!
I am sure if the REAL artist joins Steemit, they would make 10x or more than the measly $15 bucks from the scammer.
That's weird! Check under your bed before sleep! :)
With respect, I bow my head to you on this one.
You did a terrific job, and I'm glad the cat is out of the bag now.
Re-steemed
Thanks for your nice compliment.
Great job @stellabelle
you really deboned the scammer
I did very little except act swiftly and tell the story in an exhaustive manner.
Therefor you could also say, The blockchain is a tool for humans to bust human tools.
:-) Nice work stellabelle, you are appreciated by many.
@stellabelle - wow super interesting post. This and the other one inspired me to make a new introduction and show me as real person. -- I think it is quite important
Awesome detective work @stellabella scammers beware your scam will be caught on the block chain...
Do you know if anyone reached out to Bittrex to see if they were interested in closing an account like that? Or would this be a useless attempt?
People can be desperate and so wicked, @stellabelle i salute your incredible intelligence and partnership with @sherlockholmes in rooting out all bad names on steemit that could give this platform a bad reputation in the outside world.
I wish i have enough steem power to get the idiot generation wiped out of steemit
perhaps you will.
very in-depth research and very well presented. thanks for sharing! upvoted, followed and resteemed!
Yep, the "get rich quick" people and scammers truly do not understand how it all works.
What about selling em hah?
Great job@stellabelle digging in and finding the evidence, really taking responsibility, and making a difference in our steemit community.
Thank you for also revealing some of what the blockchan is about.
Sherlock Holmes had an associate named Dr Watson, perhaps you could be Stella Watson. lol
well, I cannot take credit, because @sherlockholmes did all the digging.....I just took immediate action and wrote about it at length, wanting to get this story out to a wider audience, to know that Steemit is not a scam, and that many people in here fight for the correct things.
Sorry, my mis-speak. Investigating @annart’s transactions on the Steem blockchain is my intended meaning.
the problem is we cannot prevent to create her another 5 accounts, pick any artist on Instagram and post their artworks or photos as her own.
Now we find one schema. who know how many fake photographers or artists we now have
Just heartbreaking the lengths scammers are will to go to manipulate others to gain so little in life.
That person undervalued your trust and friendship. Whatever they were financially able to get out of it is nothing compared the actual value having those things with someone like you is worth-- priceless. Something people like that will truly never understand.
The blockchain being public makes it even a worse idea for anyone to commit identity theft, or run multiple accounts. It does take some serious sluething, but as you have shown it is possible to connect all of the dots. I do like the picture you received of yourself as a result.
thanks, it's weird to have my Steemicide Hotline character in the middle of a scam....quite hilarious actually.
Amazing story, I remember the first time I heard about blockchain, one told me it would soon revolution our lives more than when internet arrived. Your story is one of the first little example of it. When this philosophy of action and efficiency combined together, I have no doubt our society will get better and better. Hopes ON !
I read about this elaborate scam on sherlock's blog a few days ago. I can't believe someone would go through all of this to make the scam more believable! I'm so glad these accounts got caught and I'm happy we have our very own Sherlock Holmes now.
I've been busy flagging plagiarised posts aswell lately, though they are a bit more obvious. It's putting a real strain on my VP and I can't do much with my limited SP sadly. Today, I found another one who then decided to call me names because I called him out I wrote about it > here to ask for help and get his reputation down. His pending payout of $30 on one of his stolen posts is now down to $23, but his reputation is still at 40. I'm hoping more people will flag him, because literally all of his posts are straight copies from various sites.
There are more people like these on Steemit and it's hard to fight them all. Reporting them to Steemcleaners is the best I can do in most cases. I hope the entire community bands together to take these things seriously and show them we don't approve.
Good thing that there are some here who are after scammers so that they will be caught sooner or later.