@ats-david, this is an important topic... and I think it's great that you brought it up because Steemit is a "young" community and we'd probably benefit from examining things like this. As we grow-- and I believe we WILL-- this is going to happen again, in many different colors, stripes and shapes.

But let's forget about Steemit for a moment and talk about LIFE and COMMUNITIES. I'm going to borrow a bit from a lengthy comment I just left on @dwinblood's reply post to your post here... "water chooses the path of least resistance." In this case, we could substitute in "money" for "water."

What I know from communities in life is that if an "undesirable element" moves into the community and remains unaddressed and is allowed to spread unchecked, the community goes into decline. And when the community decays... "quality" tends to flow out, leaving behind mainly the "garbage," with a few pockets of "goodness" entrenched behind tall barbed wire fences.

On the other hand, if the community stands together and runs the undesirable element out of town in tar and feathers. the community tends to not only thrive, but it strengthens the community bonds. Of course, this assumes a community where the majority share a similar vision for the community.

But let's return to Steemit... this was part of my response elsewhere:

What do we DO here? What is the Steemit social content platform about?

Well, it's a place for content creation... and then the community serves as "peer curators."

What is "Curation?" Let's think about it, absent Steemit for moment. It's basically a process finding, organizing and highlighting worthy content. My wife and I have an art gallery. We curate the content of our gallery... we seek out of feature excellence, help the "nearly there" on their way, encourage the pretty hopeless to practice and send the shyster and hucksters on their way.

As a community, those of us who care about that community are-- by extension-- tasked with the well-being and continued health and growth of the community. It's no different from a local town... if hooligans move in and start spraying graffiti steps are taken to keep them from doing so. Scammers are just another color of vandal.

From where I am sitting, I agree there may be "logistics issues" in dealing with these situations on Steemit and the blockchain... BUT... water chooses the path of least resistance, no matter where it is.

Even if someone is very determined to break through the system... you have to ask yourself WHY they would persist in investing lots of time, money and resources in getting into a community that is determined to make it an eternal uphill (and costly!) battle for them... especially when there are lots of other options out there where people only give a very minor $hit.

But there are no easy answers....