The Flag Ring
If you received a flag from some random account or list of accounts, some of which named after the @steemcleaners or other services, chances are you got hit by the "Steemit Defense League".
What is that?
It's a guy who got disillusioned with Steemit and decided to go around flagging. Whether he intended to flag only abusers or those he deemed as abusers to begin with is unclear. He degenerated into random flagging and then mostly-random resteeming on his 70 or so accounts.
Wrongdoing?
You did nothing wrong if you got a flag or several from them. These in no way indicate any wrongdoing on your part and it's just that you are a random or not-so-random target. It's not your fault and no one should stop curating any individual who received these flags.
What can you do?
Ignore his flags and if they hide or damage your post, ask your friends or the Freezepeach team for help at https://discord.gg/3DpG2CF 
If you see a fellow Steemian whose posts have been negatively impacted, give them an upvote.
What's the witnesses and Steemit doing about it?
Ourselves (@guiltyparties) and @themarkymark are updating and compiling the list. This is a contribution for the betterment of the ecosystem.
Steemit Inc and its developers know about it, already removed part of the delegation, and will remove the rest of it. The flagger can try all he wants to make these faucet abuse accounts but they will all lose their delegation, making them useless.
It's not an instant button we can flip to remove delegation but it is happening in the normal workflow of things and everyone is aware and acting on it.
List of accounts
Adding the working copy list. This list is backed up.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QgQRvRVXzpBXgAr7vsbWe92fSpeFu_Xc9JR3-tJEanM/edit?usp=sharing
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So far I've been visited by @trucmipo and @jetenculeprofond, apparently they are targeting artists now. I see @trucmipo has been flagging many people voted by the @curie trail which I follow in steemauto. I only have 1 account and use no bots and find it personally very insulting to be flagged by bullies that claim to flag abusers and trolls...
Besides it wastes my time and yours also.
Let me make a suggestion: perhaps it would be good to implement a system that no one could use votes/flags before having posted a few times? Both @trucmipo and @jetenculeprofond have zero posts, why are accounts that contribute nothing to the platform be allowed to vote/flag? Maybe it could discourage this type of childish behavior in the future.
Ignoring them will only make them bolder...
A big hug to all that are working to fix this. ❤ ❤ ❤
The ones I have looked at that have flagged me were all less than 10 days old, had made no posts or comments, their only activity was downvoting dozens of seemingly random posts.
Yes apparently that's their life mission: downvoting dozens of seemingly random posts!
Similar note, make it reputation based. Just something simple, like you have to reach 30 rep before you can upvote (so the bots can't upvote eachother to get higher rep as soon as they are made), and then 35 to downvote.
I shared your idea with other witnesses/developers. Definitely a good one and would make automated account creation/farm rings more difficult.
Thank you! At least would make them to have to work a bit until they could start pestering legitimate users :).
I have muted all the accounts that follow or are followed by these bots I reported but would be nice if it could also be implemented a block feature so users could block all contact with and from these types of accounts. That would also put them a step near oblivion and make the creation of those types of accounts meaningless as probably all they want is feed off the drama this type of behavior creates...
And it would save everyone else a lot of time.
Have a great weekend ! ❤
That's not possible unfortunately as that would allow scammers to block flags from anti-abuse accounts.
Ohh... didn't thought about that, too bad... on another note, I've been visited again, this time by @sesamcrs and @cleversteem.
The number of people/bots following them... they are multiplying really fast...
This continuous type of nonsense will bring nothing good to this platform...
Hugs! ❤
another idea I have is including where you have to pick why you're flagging a post, I feel this can cut down on false flagging. And add the little Capatch thing when you sign up, as I feel these are bots doing the down voting
They're interacting directly with the blockchain. Poorly at that. Half the time they flag month-old posts.
Only thing is it won't hurt since they already got the payout for said post
I got my two down votes from these Flaggerson a post that was curied! Such garbage...
I think some of these flagging bots are targeting users voted by the curie trail... or/and that follow the curie trail in steemauto.
I wonder who is behind these flagging accounts and what the real purpose of it is... seems odd to go to such great lengths just to annoy legitimate users.
@dfinney celebrate your curie vote, yay! To you and everyone else here: have a great weekend! ❤
I completely agree. One of my posts that was downvoted was in written in honour of someone who had recently died. Really upset me.
I'm sorry!
There's too many people being bullied...
Hugs! ❤
Back at you @elisea! Thank you. Although I have to say that this feels nothing like it did when I was phished and hacked earlier this year. Equally awful.
You're welcome! That must have been truly awful! ❤
It was. It did have some upsides, though. I wrote about it here
https://steemit.com/phishing/@fionasfavourites/a-rollercoaster-ride-courtesy-of-phishers-of-men
Feel free to share even if it is an old post - as long as folk know how to protect themselves and recover from it. Sadly, there are lots of nasties out there.
You know, one of my flaws as a person is that I hold grudges. But Jesus Christ...making 70 accounts?!? At least my grudges are against people I know irl, and I've never gone that far off the deep end.
How does one even get 70 accounts? I suppose he buys them?
And actually, I may have some very interesting insight about this. I work some online, in particular on a site called Microworkers, to make some money on the side. There was some guy on there who was paying people to create, and then turn over the passwords for, Steemit accounts. I think he got up to about 70-90 before they shut it down. I'll look into it and see if there are any records remaining.
Update: @guiltyparties I think I have something really good here. I have screenshots and an explanation of this job on Microworkers. The timing, number of accounts made, and the country the user is from all add up. I am almost certain this is how the Steemit "Defense" League accounts were made: https://steemit.com/abuse/@pirateofthedtube/exposing-the-steemit-defense-league-bought-accounts-on-microworkers-w-screenshot
I just saw your post, that's very interesting. That's going way beyond the usual account spawning with free numbers and emails. That's also a new level of laziness amongst assholes.
I was curious as to how they made so many accounts, since Steemit takes 1-2 weeks to approve you, unless you pay. idk how much Steemit charges, but they sure had a lot of money to make a crap ton of account to flag people
Well @aaliyahholt if you see my latest article I think I have a pretty good explanation for how the accounts could be made quickly and cheaply. Microworkers doesn't charge that much (although they technically don't allow campaigns to pay people to turn over existing account login info, this guy got away with it for a while before being caught). It still would have cost him some money, but we are probably talking less than $100 total. Maybe even less than $50. I believe to make an alt on Steemit (officially) it costs 5 SBD, or maybe 5 Steem. Either way that would be many times more expensive than the Microworkers campaign I found.
I saw what you meant about the Microworkers, this was saying before I found your posts, how were these people able to create so many accounts just to down vote people.
To create these accounts all you need is a phone number and email address, both of which can be gotten for free. The guy just has nothing better to do and is a douchebag.
I had to use my mom's phone when I made my backup account. I don't see how they got so many e-mails and phone numbers, how the obtained them so quickly. I guess when you go after someone, you don't care about the means to get to it
Just had a discord conversation with @dfinney about it today! Thanks for great work you guys are doing to keep it positive around here.
Thanks man, it's been an ongoing source of questions.
Im still getting hit really bad on every post i post and now its moving into my comments as well...
I was just starting to compile a list myself, might as well hand it over:
These are all auto-flag accounts. One thing to note, he, she, it, is using links to other innocent Steemians in their profile page, I assume to have people turn against them. No need to panic, these are 15 SP accounts and their VP is blown out. No harm done except for the annoyance.
@zartyo
@poritoza
@carlosmagnus
@icebergbitos
@steempolki
@botmaxu745
@petitzob
@usertelor
@topfrsteemer
@dertluc
@topfongo1
@charlesdeherstal is the one that got me, same deal, 15 SP 8% VP
Yep, and since they're all 25 rep, it's just a fart in the wind.
Added two we didn't have, thanks.
Same one as got @senstless flagged me a few days ago, https://busy.org/@charlesdeherstal
@zorralarousse is another one, it use the same scheme
On the list. I just added that list into the post here for everyone.
I was just downvoted by @jupitersaturn, @superfipo and @christisthebest apparently for no reason :D
I have no idea if they belong to the same group or why they're doing this, because they have no power and their downvote can't really do any damage to people (except bothering them).
Thank you for this post anyway :)
Thanks for this. I got hit with one but I was able to undo the dammage with a self-upvote (which I generally don't like doing) the thing that worries me is that a lot of very small accounts (not that mine is big but smaller than mine) are getting hit and this is discouraging a lot of new or undiscovered users. For example, a friend of mine @exhibique got three on a recent post.
"If you see a fellow Steemian whose posts have been negatively impacted, give them an upvote." I think that is the best suggestion. My vote is only worth like .01 but if I see someone getting screwed over, I will give it to them.
Thank you for what you are doing @guiltyparties! I got hit with three of them the other day, but cross referenced with your Google doc, and you've already got them listed :)
Thanks again!
Good to hear they're on the list. By the looks of it they didn't affect your posts.
Yes, I was fortunate in that respect. I've been sharing this post in a few discord channels as well; try and spread the word that help is on the way :)
Thanks again for taking this on!