Case 12: @rtdcs is growing a gang of sock-puppets

Accusation:

About three weeks ago I received the following message:

https://steemit.com/@rtdcs
check who upvote for him
this guy can make ~100 accounts in 2 weeks...
idk man I just want to give you that pointer... i wish to remain anonymous please...

A brief look at the account back then immediately revealed that indeed, @rtdcs had created himself a small gang of sock-puppets to upvote his posts exclusively.

The Findings:

In the meantime, @rtdcs has not been lazy.

His gang has tripled in size and still faithfully votes on his continuous stream of uncommented youtube-videos, mainly from infowars.com and a selection of Portuguese vlogs.

But let's start from the beginning.

@rtdcs seems to have started as a real new user.

He identifies as "Robson", a "futurist", an "aspiring innovator and science communicator" from Brazil, who is "passionate about math, physics, computing, cryptocurrency and fintech".

When he signed up on June, 13, the first things he did was reading up on steemit tutorials. For a whole day he looked like a genuine new user on the platform, upvoting old tutorials and finding out how this all works.

The formula seemed easy enough. Content gets votes, votes make money.

Up next: plagiarized content and comment spam.

Ok, content, yeah, that's simple enough, right?!

@rtdcs' first post was a collection of generic but shiny pictures found around the internet, titled "My trip to Rio de Janeiro". Just hours later, still just on his second day on steemit, @rtdcs suddenly had the pleasure of meeting @cheetah when he plagiarized a post from viralnova.com.

@rtdcs knew what he was doing there, but he wasn't going to let some stray kitten talk down to him, just mute that annoying fur-ball and get on with comment spam instead.

Unfortunately, no luck again, people didn't appreciate him posting the same comment over and over and he received negative feedback swiftly.

The message should have been loud and clear, post original content and have real interactions if you want to make it on steemit.

But despite calling himself an "aspiring innovator and science communicator", Robson himself just doesn't seem to have much to say. For several weeks he simply continued posting various types of youtube videos without any words of his own to accompany them. At least @cheetah would leave him alone and @randowhale allowed him to make a few bucks in rewards.

Sock-puppets to the rescue

Ok, let's recall that simple formula from the beginning: Content gets votes, votes make money.

We have established that content isn't @rtdcs' strong side, but what if he could just create the votes by himself, though?

And that's exactly how he changed the game when he opened up his first four fake-accounts on August, 25. @adepto, @scobra, @daniel35 and @laminesonko started trailing his posts with upvotes immediately and have continued to do so exclusively until today.

@rtdcs must have felt encouraged by the success and ease of this.

A week later he opened ten more accounts, four more on the day after that, two days later another 14, another ten accounts the next day, and the next day, and so on.

He has opened new accounts at least every 2 days, with up to 30 new accounts being created in one sitting. The latest batch of accounts is barely 2 days old now and @rtdcs has created at least 303 sock-puppets so far.

List of all identified fake-accounts:

@adepto, @scobra, @daniel35, @laminesonko, @timesoness, @mylunchs, @greatman, @somewhere2336, @jerryhenry, @tradingblock, @kingsnow, @davidhill, @josephclimber, @gilmen, @alienman, @ricmen, @niallcarson, @enochjun, @pensfut, @brandoleofric, @pedroper, @gervascirillo, @normanagnar, @philibert, @frankian, @paulrobert, @adep2017, @scob, @metar, @timesones1, @paulfrag, @timesone, @rikguy, @lipefre, @laminesonko21, @adeptos, @stacobra, @memes2018, @timesones, @timesoness1, @gilgilbert, @richil, @greatman1, @pierluigipiazzi, @laminesonko2, @poundman, @richardolsen, @firstman, @ivanmendes, @tisantana, @powerworld, @greatman2, @maximusvinicius, @pedrohenrique, @flanklima, @laminesonko3, @pauladepto, @supercobra, @starzan, @timers, @timestwo, @onetime, @richmans2017, @greatman3, @maximusvinicius1, @pedrohenrique1, @erikcartman, @paulwatson, @jacksnake, @metatrader, @textnow, @superposts, @rihappy, @supergoku, @awesomeguy, @maxvin, @pedhen, @airplan, @gifsbieber, @jerrybear, @h2osuho, @historiasavulsas, @espaniolabulga, @deldash, @benitobarco, @darkday, @lamisok, @adep, @metdata, @thack, @haever, @hillman, @btcmoney, @gguy, @maviu, @pedpedreira, @airpower, @justinbieberfan, @mrbean, @limsonk, @adapting, @cobras, @tarman, @mondays, @timeismoney, @greatests, @richbtc2017, @btcworld, @ethmaniac, @pedrhenr, @ltcflight, @realworlds, @jerrylewis, @paulwats, @michaeljordans, @felipeferreira, @tiagosantana, @ednasc, @paulwalker, @tiagsan, @paulrober, @palaker, @superphone, @investors2017, @stevensnow, @phonenumber, @silverproject, @powerwindow, @glasswater, @ricg, @janeperry, @justintaylor, @darrylstephens, @brandonlopestri, @danielsmith, @tonyhaile, @alexanderseaman, @robertsteele, @stevenbennett, @lewishenderson, @mathewweaver, @emilled, @kennetharana, @joying, @moneys, @herndon, @kline, @lcope, @michaelburke, @dennisgin, @karenjac, @gustavop, @andyra, @margaretw, @hazelg, @sylviabrown, @robertgrant, @peggylong, @robertwhaley, @deanmoultry, @nathanmor, @gwendolyns, @ronaldreece, @charissestrayer, @roxxanegonzalez, @crystalmos, @heathersimpson, @charleswatson, @kennybethel, @robertgood, @debbiesaxton, @gladysbaker, @arlenejohnson, @louishodges, @phillipspady, @catherinehudson, @donnabrown, @bettyriddle, @lauraabeyta, @luisabe, @fredbrady, @carmenlyle, @barbarabrown, @peterclarke, @lousantiago, @margpark, @josephgarcia, @ralphring, @larybarr, @lisatarbell, @susiebishop, @mariabeck, @leslieroberts, @ashleighval, @tommyward, @melvinwood, @stephaniegut, @chesterwri, @donaldalmazan, @stacymarrys, @emogenegray, @tatianaoliver, @jamesmcgu, @victormcc, @drewervin, @kristenclain, @franceskahn, @davievans, @rogergreen, @lisabozek, @donnychap, @nicholaslansing, @barbarastelly, @donaldfarris, @adamrosado, @johnhills, @susanowens, @charlesherrera, @valeriewalker, @williamirons, @jamesthom, @ronaldandrews, @katrinashafer, @thomasbutt, @starrdefalco, @tonyacastillo, @angmorr, @michaelhayward, @joyceforbes, @suzannemurch, @bettyreed, @verdaforrest, @enidtipton, @markford, @pajose, @micjod, @felper, @tiasant, @eduanasc, @rtcr, @michellethomp, @margaretscu, @jacksilv, @beverlykemp, @samanthadr, @laso, @lennaburt, @ptos, @kellyshock, @scobras, @maryge, @metarz, @rogerfect, @veronicawill, @suzgodin, @josguz, @isibrek, @tareva, @davhunt, @thomaswash, @teste, @barbriv, @martys, @prisluc, @roncol, @veryou, @stegrif, @gerath, @cathmurr, @willfow, @doroma, @ellenlan, @carlosbar, @aprilrob, @mayrob, @francon, @bettros, @delmun, @garthay, @beattay, @patlop, @wiholl, @jozar, @robstr, @rhic, @fritzd, @terrim, @rodolfoarm, @barbfink, @heathermull, @mpear, @francescook, @nicolenel, @moracars, @dianbow, @howardtoo, @pilarduran, @jabo, @ruthtuller, @melwhite, @ambermarch, @carlboyd, @ralphkline

It's reasonable to assume that he's already opening a dozen new accounts while I am still typing this post.

Bottom line:

I have started flagging away some of the pending rewards on his posts, but my voting power is by far not enough to counteract the dollar his 303 sockpuppets create on each post.

Also, he has managed to rise to a 61 reputation score already. It will require an even more reputable account flagging him in order to reduce this certainly undeserved score.

Your help will be much appreciated, either by removing a few cents in rewards on hist posts younger than 7 days, or, if you have the means, by leaving a dent in his reputation.

yours,
Sherlock

P.S.: I had contacted @rtdcs ~36 hours before releasing this post when I first started flagging him. I notified him again after it was published and in the meantime he did get in touch. Of course, he claims that he does not own these fake accounts. In contrast to most other cheaters I have accused before, he was actually civilized, reasonable and pleasant to talk to about it. He claims to be the victim and not the source of his voting trail. Despite the already more than obvious situation, I did check a few loose ends to see if maybe the account creation cluster's history lends some credibility to this, could someone be creating bots, trailing an innocent steemian, just to troll them and misdirect community vigilance? If that was indeed the case, then @rtdcs would be an exclusive victim. The account creation clusters are sound and consistent and don't show any suspicious "sibling" clusters. If he was targeted with this by someone else, then he would be the only victim. Let alone the facts that he is using his own posting rhythm and style to maximize the efficiency of his voting trail, stopped using voting-bots just prior to growing his own trail, etc, etc. After all, I am still convinced this is his own work at play.

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