Phishing reported - Scammers use account's profile

I can relate to that. It seems like I’m spending more time in the steemcleaners channel, writing awareness posts and helping people to recover their account and rep than anything else.
But that way, at least I don’t feel completely frustrated about the fact that nothing can be done to stop this..

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1 vote

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glenalbrethsen (68) 7 years ago

This is getting out of hand. I'm grateful for all you do and your updates, and those of others who come across these phishing schemes, but is there truly nothing else that can be done? If these folks aren't brought up on charges for attempting to steal or actually succeeding in hacking accounts, they will continue to come back.

I've heard that accounts can't be shut down. Is that an ethical standard, or is that code? Surely, if the former, phishing reaches whatever standard there must be for shutting down accounts. If the code won't allow, then we need to seriously petition for it to be added for criminal activity.

These folks will just become bolder and more sophisticated in what they do. They will always be one step ahead, and they will only have to win once. There's no way we can expect all of us to be 100% vigilant, especially the newbies. Without some kind of central alert system, these warnings go largely unseen by even the regularly active users.

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2 votes

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arcange (73) 7 years ago

Hello @glenalbrethsen, thank you for your comment.

I've heard that accounts can't be shut down.

Unfortunately, this is not true. We are working on top of a blockchain where code is law. The is no mechanism implemented to ban or disable an account. This would require some kind of centralized authority and could lead to censorship.

There's no way we can expect all of us to be 100% vigilant, especially the newbies.

True, but doing nothing would be worse. I try to do my best to inform and educate people, I and hope it will slow down the proliferation of scam attempts.

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1 vote

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glenalbrethsen (68) 7 years ago

Definitely believe the education and information should continue. And I can see how any action that shuts down an account today over criminal activity could lead to something like censorship, because the door is open and there's always going to be someone who takes advantage of the code.

So, what about prosecution of criminal acts? And barring that, what about an alert that pops up when you sign on? Some kind of alert system that goes out to every logged in account? That wouldn't seem to be that hard to implement. Or would that lead to some other kind of centralization?

Kind of frustrating when we're trying to keep things decentralized and also secure. Open and private. They don't seem to play together very well, at least not in some instances. :)

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arcange (73) 7 years ago

So, what about prosecution of criminal acts?

You have to look at things separately.

On one side there is the blockchain, which is decentralized and which has its own activity, controlled by the code. Since this part is really decent, it is up to the victim of malicious actions to file a complaint.

On the other side, there are different clients (steemit.com, busy.org, esteem, ...) that are used to access blockchain information and to manage the activity of their own account. These customers are centralized and it is up to them to take the necessary security measures to protect their users.

Concerning the possibility of complaints, it is unfortunately difficult to prove which client has been used to perform actions. And hacking has often been made possible due to the negligence of the user.

Finally, it is hard to clearly identify the criminals.

It is therefore likely to be a legal puzzle.

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1 vote

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bashadow (65) 7 years ago

One of the most useful tool in combating the schemers and scammers is your alerts. Thank you @shasta and @simplymike for your resteems and alerting me, now my turn to alert my followers.