It was only recently that I discovered a new blockchain based social network - I hadn't heard of it before despite it running for nearly 2 years and I have never posted any content there. I post my content exclusively on Steemit.com and if my content appears elsewhere, then it does so without my consent.

Random Free Image From Pixabay for Post Thumbnail

And this is how I discovered Voilk. Voilk boasts of having over 300,000 registered users (or at least it did before Steemit banned then for spreading false hacking claims), a vibrant community and with 3 to 4 new posts appearing every minute, who would question these numbers?

On top of that, a small number of wealthy users have invested.

One user boasted buying 3 million:

Which at the time of writing, would have cost them $6m

Another boasts to have bought $50k worth with the intention of buying $50k more...

Wow! Vibrant community, big investors and better yet, the top posts are earning over $1,000 each with just 3 votes...

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What's the Catch?

None of it's real.

The content is scraped from Steemit, all of which is done without the author's consent and posted to random accounts. The appearance of activity is nothing but mass copyright infringement.

I mentioned earlier that I post exclusively to Steemit, I am not alone in this respect and as such, use the #steemexclusive tag to demonstrate this, as do many others. So there's no reason for #steemexclusive to appear on Voilk.

Which also makes it easy to find the original content on Steemit.

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Why Not Ask Them To Stop Stealing Your Content?

Well, that was my first port of call. I sent them a polite message requesting them to do so and received 3 not so polite replies. 2 have since been removed but their most incriminating one remains:

Voilk is a free platform, everyone is allowed to copy posts, from where ever they want, and share with the voilk users.
We don't believe in cyber crimes, or content piracy. you are not among the founders or the voilk team, hence you don't have the power to define the company's policy.
Every user of the platform, is free to share whatever they want.

So the Copyright Infringement isn't an honest oversight, it's a website feature and is condoned. At least in this message I wasn't sworn at.

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Why Are They Doing This?

The simple answer is Fraud. They are using the website and promise of rewards in an attempt to attract unsuspecting victims into investing their money. Unfortunately for those that make this mistake, their accounts are blocked when they try to access their money or question whether the site is a scam. One such user believed that he had earned over $150,000 and his account is now unavailable "for legal reasons" - https://social.voilk.com/@acostaeladio.

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What Do I Do?

The site has already been reported to numerous anti-fraud agencies in the hope that the perpetrators are caught and punished (their identity is well known) but this takes time and is dependant upon the authorities in Pakistan taking action.

The website and app however can be removed with the assistance of their hosting provider (Contabo) (a complaint can be submitted here) and Google (https://support.google.com/legal/troubleshooter/1114905?hl=en).

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Why Am I Writing This Post

I am writing this as I like to remain anonymous and my hope is that Contabo will read this and take action. I have little doubt that this post will also appear on Voilk, against my wishes.

My Previous Post also illegally copied to Voilk

I hope that this is sufficient for Contabo to take action and suspend the domain name voilk.com