Case 5: @elena2017 is just as fake as @katrinart

in #steemit7 years ago (edited)

Sherlock Holmes Header

Accusation:

The real Ekaterina (the artist being impersonated by @katrinart) notified a fellow artist on vk.com about her steemit case.

The account @elena2017 is running the same scam!

The Findings:

Are straight forward this time.

The real Elena Malva has already posted a statement on vk.com clearly stating that it is NOT herself here!

Elena Malva's Statement on vk.com

The russian of the OP translates to:

Dear friends! Help me find a thief and make him "ata-ta"! I was sent a personal link to my profile (and this is fake) in social network! Someone post from my face my drawings in the pseudo-social network Stimit !!! Account @ elena2017
SchA will be a very evil smile, I am indignant! 😠😾👈and even a cat is evil, that's it!
I hope the VOR SENSES OUR MISTAKE and DELETE this account!
Yes, I'm naive optimist, sho do it
Ato suddenly I have a full name, home address and even the card number of this person's private bank! Che, well, you never know, suddenly "

And then she comments humorously about this post

And I'm flying to Turkey for a week))) and I do not have a passport yet))))

I have not yet heard back why she drew the portrait for @stellabelle, maybe the impersonater comissioned the real Elena Malva for it?! And maybe we will be able to dig very deep on that one. Let's see!

For now I just wanted to get this information out quickly!

It is quite possible that many of the crafts and art posts resteemed between these accounts are fake, too. Be cautios, I'll keep digging!

Find the real Elena Malva on facebook, instagram or vk

yours,
Sherlock

edit: the real Elena confirms, that she did the steemian portraits as commissions:

Conversation with Elena Malva on vk.com

I have a good indication now about who might be behind all of this, stay tuned!


Have you witnessed similar things yourself?

Don't just ignore it and move on... let me know!

Resteem This For Visibility!

Sort:  

This scam was pretty elaborate. But to be honest, I tried to become friends with @elena2017 but was unsuccessful. I was fooled though into thinking that mayber her English was a bit difficult. This was really disgusting to learn, especially since she often would make posts in my honor. The person behind this account (or accounts) is trickier and more strategic than most, because of the scam of hiring the real artist to paint my portrait. It's truly disgusting to learn that the scammer would use Elena's real identity to profit. Thank you for your amazing service of investigating these scams. Steemit is very grateful to you! i have Resteemed, and Upvoted at my full strength (but since I just flagged all of @elena2017's posts, I am weak now!). Help is needed from the community to reduce the reputation of yet another scammer.

I had enough sp to bury her post of your painting

thanks. I visited the real Elena in Facebook and told her that her scammer is being destroyed right now. Thanks.

Hectic stuff hey..

Unbelievable what these people do to scam, missing a lot during vacation or other flag drama these days, glad the scammer is getting deserved down votes though @stellabelle

This was really a huge scam as my portrait was even made for me for free. I am really disappointed. I thought i had made a real friend. Thanks for sharing @sherlockholmes

I simply can't believe it!!! I was following "her" and upvoting. Amazing work anyway keep it up

Oh my gosh, I'm actually following this apparently fake account. I see lots is being done to destroy the account already. I'll just throw in a few flags for good measure aswell before unfollowing.

Well done on your investigative work!

I knew this stuff was happening on Steemit. It would be so easy to take material from a lesser known person, even photos and just screengrab them as scrub them of any details you eant to obscure and post them as your own. Then your entire STEEM-SCHEME is just to win followers and Upvotes and not to create content. Basically managing someone instead of being the creator and the manager all in one as, I assume, most of us are. I actually posted about this a while back, what if someone was posting plagiarized material, how would they be found out and I was told steemcleaner would find it. But as anyone with a B.S. would know all ypu have to do is read a journal and simply wrote put the same information in tour own style and you will not be seen to have any patterns similar with plagiarism. I suppose with art this is more obvious but still I think there is much plagiarism going on and leavin people to sinply game the system by focusing all energy on upvotes and SP. Perhaps this site is not as genuine as we all would like it to be. I also think all too often "popular" people on Steemit get huge upvotes by powerful people in return for vote reciprocity and their followers and their posts are very lacking in any really valuable material or content. Just a fan page of self-promoting at the benefit of those who have the SP and the followers. The minnows continue to suffer and upward mobility on this site has become nearly impossible. What a shame.

Wow! People are rude!! Thanks for helping sort this one out too!!

Very good work you are doing my friend! Thank you!

Well, that's a good trend. Maybe the art community will start hearing the news and crack down on STEEMit fakes, but then turn around and make their own REAL accounts.

Yes, Ekaterina is already signing up for steemit.com

yes, this is great! The real artists have value!!!! I can't wait to support the real ones!

ok, you found those and what? You cannot enforce anybody to close Steemit account.
So you post would work only as free advertising for those accounts

no... my posts work to educate the community and get those with enough voting power to eventually flag the scammers!

their accounts will be put on the @cheetah blacklist. They are doomed now.

How many people have read this post? 107?

Everyone who didn't see this post would continue to vote for them

I DO believe people read neither posts nor comments. 3/4 upvotes in steemit now are made with bots, trails and autovoters

This is really salt true about current Steemit
https://steemit.com/steemit/@allfabeta/steemit-platform-main-issue
https://steemit.com/steemit/@allfabeta/do-you-realize-how-steemit-is-strange-now-without-bots-and-trails

It' s easy to check - wait the next their post and check upvotes

I wrote a post about this, and linked yours to it.
I am now in contact with the real Elena.

Im kinda stunned :(

At least I saw the real Elenas work :D so there is that positive.