One thing that I enjoy whilst reading content on Steemit is a bit of background music so please indulge me and enjoy this classic tune from Smash Hits '93 whilst you read along.

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I return once again with a well known tale... A once honest user working hard, establishing themselves and becoming well known across the Steemit platform before deciding that they want more, always more and following the not so honest path to get it.

With each telling of the story, the mistakes from previous versions are ironed out and the confidence in the accusation reduces so for this story, I'll refrain from using their usernames for now and you can let me know in the comments if you agree with me - that this is too much to be a coincidence. I'll do my best to keep the user's identity ambiguous but he/she will need a name, so we'll call him/her... "The Priest".

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Introducing The Priest

The priest joined before me and is working towards sextuple dolphin status with career earnings nearer to $10k than $5k. They receive regular curator support - nearly 50 steemcurator votes (10 of which were from steemcurator01 or steemcurator02) and another 10 booming votes in the last month. These are significant numbers, representing significant support - this user is well respected.

The booming votes aren't that surprising. The Priest is a moderator in multiple communities, many of which are in Tier 1 booming and the rest in Tier 2. They're well respected in their country and could well be a country representative - if not now, then certainly in the future. They've also applied to be a Community Curator and I'm fairly certain they've previously enjoyed this responsibility too.

They've worked hard, they're in a position of privilege and probably deserve their success. But what's next for The Priest? They've got the power and privilege now so let's use it.

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The Middleman

As a person of status within their country, The Priest can introduce users with ease. It's common knowledge now that in some countries, you can encourage somebody to stand and hold a piece of paper for a small fee. It could be somebody they know - some of them even interested in joining but soon becoming bored, and handing their account to their "introducer". Somebody that you can contact again should you need an updated photo for whatever reason. The exact details are not something that I know - the people who do this aren't the kind of people I tend to talk to.

This also provides The Priest with a plausible reason for a shared wallet. Of course they withdraw the money for them - they're new to Crypto and as a country representative, it's their duty to help them. So there's no fear in The Middleman referencing The Priest in their Achievement 1. A quick greeting in reply, followed by a thanks and then validation. A real person behind the profile - validated by telephone.

The Contest-Monkey

The Middleman then introduces the Contest-Monkey. Again with a mention in Achievement 1 with The Priest behind the scenes. The Contest-Monkey writes good content, obviously joins contests and the Steemit Engagement Challenges. They thank The Priest at every available opportunity - raising The Priest's profile further and again, justifying the shared wallets. The Contest-Monkey has hit the jackpot...

60 Posts in their first 2 months - 49 of which have received steemcurator01-09 support (5 of which were sc01 or sc02) and another 17 booming votes. 66 high value votes - for 60 posts. Their comments are limited to about 20 words - centred around "Thank you".

Goodbye Middleman

The Priest is doing great. They can enter the contests, they can run some contests (which the Contest-Monkey can win) and they're getting significant support. The Contest-Monkey is earning big time but The Middleman is disappointing in comparison. They all require the same effort so let's bin off The Middleman - now in the process of a full powerdown.

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The Wallets

The wallet used by The Priest has withdrawals totalling over 4000 STEEM from multiple users. Sometimes though, users go via another route - sometimes via huobi-pro / huobi-withdrawal but in one case, via poloniex. Hang on... if The Priest is doing their duty in helping somebody withdraw their funds... then why are they helping somebody who has their own trading account? That's odd isn't it? (This person doesn't currently have a nickname so let's call them "Polly".)

The Middleman's money doesn't go to exactly the same location though - it goes to the same platform which you can then withdraw from, so that one's not so clear cut.

The Contest-Monkey goes via huobi-pro / huobi-withdrawal to The Priest. Which is also a little odd since The Middleman was the person who introduced them and also has the ability to withdraw. And why go via huobi... other than to try and hide what they're doing.

It's all terribly suspicious but plausible deniability is just about available still. So the mistake that they'll correct next time...

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The Activity

For one reason or another, scammers like to cycle through their accounts and don't seem to stagger their activities so if The Priest, The Middleman and The Contest-Monkey are the same person, their activity should follow one-another without any overlap. So let's review a few days and see if that's the case...

As I mentioned, The Middleman's powering down so their activity is minimal and I can look at 8 days...

Day 1 - Morning - claim rewards and Mark Notifications as Read 10 minutes before the Contest-Monkey Posts.
Day 1 - Evening - claim rewards and withdraw funds either side of The Priest Marking Notifications as Read.
Day 2 - Morning - Mark notifications as read 1 minute before Contest-Monkey does the same - both during a 10 minute break by The Priest. Then withdraw to vesting once The Priest has finished commenting.
Day 3 - No Activity
Day 4 - Early evening "Set as Read" and "Claim Rewards" instantly after The Priest has "Set as Read".
Day 5 - Morning - "Claim Rewards" and "Transfer to Vesting" 45 minutes before The Priest entered the Steemit Engagement Challenge.
Day 6 - Afternoon - "Claim Rewards" 2 minutes after The Priest has completed their activity.
Day 7 - No Activity
Day 8 - No Activity

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That's pretty compelling in my opinion but could be a coincidence. So let's look at a couple of days worth of The Priest and The Contest-Monkey.

Day 1 - At an incredibly unsociable hour where the majority of the world will be in bed asleep (approximately 3am their time) - The Priest "Set as Read" then 1 minute later, The Contest-Monkey "Claims Rewards" and then "Set as Read". A late night for "both" with The Contest-Monkey entering a contest before throwing in some random upvotes (you've got to keep that CSI high for some of these contests & challenges) and then settling down for a few hours sleep.

Day 1 - After a short sleep, The Priest claims some rewards, "Sets as Read" and does some quick fire voting before going back to sleep. (Presumably they were rudely awaken by a housemate.)

Day 1 - Late morning - back to the grindstone - The Priest writes another post whilst The Contest-Monkey "Sets as Read" a couple of times - "coincidentally", 1 minute after The Priest "Sets as Read".

Day 1 is very much a day for The Priest. They throw in a few votes and Reward Claims until mid afternoon where they submit their Community Curator application. No wonder they were focused... this is an important post.

Day 1 - Early evening - A few hours later, The Priest "Sets as Read" which The Contest-Monkey copies 1 minute later. That's it for the Contest-Monkey today. Very little activity which coincided perfectly with The Priest. The Priest didn't feel like doing much more tonight either, claiming the rewards again and "Setting as Read" a few more times.

Day 2 - Again some activity at another antisocial hour (approx. 3am again). Nothing much of note - some more random votes and "Setting as Read" but again - "both" users are active at some stupidly early time.

Day 2 - Another early wakeup... The Priest "Set as Read", making a vote and The Contest-Monkey "Setting as Read" 1 minute later.

I'm sure you get the gist by now and it's somewhat exhausting typing it all out. In summary, their activity follows on from one-another perfectly. Any meaningful activity by one user is accompanied by "Set as Read" or "Claim Rewards" by the other.

Whilst it's possible that they share a computer, the reference to each other is that they "live in the same area" and no more.

Congratulations if you've been able to follow all of this and I'd love to hear any thoughts that you might have. To me, this is rather compelling and I'll be following The Priest and The Contest-Monkey to see if this "coincidental" behaviour continues. Whilst there now only appear to be 2 active accounts, it's certainly possible that there are more that I haven't had time to link up yet.

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👉 Continue to Episode 2