There are times when I wonder whether I am just incredibly jaded and cynical... or other people are just incredibly gullible and stupid.

Even when I'm a total newcomer to something-- like Steemit, for example-- I tend to view every story and promise with skepticism till I can personally vest and confirm their validity. Most people, however, don't bother... and it can be costly, and disappointing.

These are some of my observations, after some 8 months, 350 original blog posts and almost 7000 comments.

The Resteem and Upvote "Programs"

Sunset
Washington state sunset

As I started doing my morning rounds on Steemit, I came across a fresh batch of "offers," presumably just aimed at innocent newcomers:

"I'll re-steem your post to 10,000+ Followers!"
"Our group of 250 loyal Steemians will upvote your post! Just 5SBD for $15.00 worth of upvotes!"

This stuff mostly shows up as "wallet spam." Fortunately, I see relatively little of it... I think because the "providers" search for "upvote beggars," whom I generally avoid and don't follow.

But just how stupid do they think we are? Stop and think, for a moment.

I've been on Steemit practically every day for about eight months... and I am barely reaching 2,000 followers as a result of thousands of direct engagements with other members. Now this person suddenly has 9,000 followers after having started less than two months ago?

Like HELL they do!

Here's How it Works, and Why it Won't Work for YOU:

A lot of people-- especially when new to Steemit-- automatically "follow back" when someone follows them.

Columbines, Colorado

So you create a bot that gets your account to follow every single person who has been active (voted, commented, posted) in the last 90 days. Maybe you end up with 60,000 or so accounts. Maybe 15% of them follow back "automatically." So now your bot account has 9,000 "followers." Then you UN-follow about 55,000 people... and now it looks like you have a really BIG account that has 9,000 followers and follows 5,000 people.

Impressive, yes?

But guess what? Not a single one (well, maybe a handful) of those "followers" actually ever looked at a single post or even the profile page of the"bot person" who followed them.

So sure, they have 9,000 followers, but how effective do you think that is?

Just even the most basic checking would tell you volumes: Why would someone who's allegedly followed by 9,000 people only be getting $0.27 for the average post they create? Conversely, why would someone like me-- with far fewer followers and no "gimmicks" often get $7.00-$30.00 for their posts?

Moreover, if they have 9,000 followers but only get 13 upvotes per post... what does that tell you about the QUALITY and ENGAGEMENT level of those followers?

And what do you think you're going to get, when you send your 3 SBD? That's right... $0.27... on a good day!

My advice: Services that are offered through wallet spam are not worth your while! They exist purely to prey on the inexperienced user who knows no better.

The "Secret" and "Glitch" Scams

Pink rhododendron

This is a relatively new scam that's going around. This can actually be dangerous, so make note!

You'll come across a post with a title like "The Secret to Steemit Success!" or "I have Found the Glitch in Steemit!" It may even have been re-steemed by a friend.

BE VERY CAREFUL! This is a PASSWORD PHISHING SCAM!

What you'll find there is a post that'll start to tell you about this great "secret" that will help you make lots of money on Steemit by exploting some "loophole"... and then the post will end with something like:

"Click here to read part 2 of this story!"

So you click there, and suddenly you're faced with what looks like the Steemit Login dialog box.

STOP RIGHT THERE!

If you are logged into Steemit, you will NEVER get a dialog box asking you to log in again if you're just clicking on a link to another post! Even if-- somehow-- your connection was broken and you're on some strange proxy server that uses masked rotating IP addresses, you would still only have to log in if you were trying to upvote or comment, NEVER if you were clicking on a link!

Here's How it Works, and Why it Will COST You:

Even though it may look like you're still on Steemit, you've actually been redirected to a site outside Steemit.

JoshuaTree
Joshua Tree National Park, California

A clever person with rudimentary programming skills can easily create a page that "looks like" Steemit, but isn't.

The "scam" is that you'll give up your Steemit master key to "continue," and when you do, you'll end up straight back on a legitimate Steemit page as if nothing happened... except the thief now has your master key and can long into your account and (A) withdraw all your rewards and (B) use your account to endlessly re-steem the original scam post.

Be aware that the "fake Steemit page" may try to "trap" you, and not allow you to even close the tab. Your only real option then is to shut down your browser completely; you may even have to do a "forced shutdown."

Elsewhere on the Web

"If something seems too good to be true, it probably is."

Flowers
Spring flowers

I sometimes find myself wondering where people get their sense of reality from.

Although this is primarily an article about Steemit, I wanted to take a moment to look at the greater web, as well. Maybe it's because we belong to a cryptocurrency based web community, but I find that I get more and more ads relating to cryptocurrency "investments."

I'm surprised by just how many of these promotions are absolutely absurd.

"Earn 50% daily; 500% weekly!"

On what planet is that even part of reality?

STOP for a moment! Think about this: Even your really "bad credit" credit cards charge 29% per year. And the worst of all-- a "rich uncle" paycheck loan charges 7-10% for a two week to a month term.

Do you honestly think that if it were ACTUALLY possible to earn 500% weekly on an investment, would there be a single person on the planet actually going to work for a wage? Think about it, for a moment.

It doesn't work that way!

Desperation + Greed ==> Money For Nothing = Stupidity?

There are a lot of desperate people in the world who are willing to do almost anything-- including engaging in various types of deception and cheating-- to make even a few dollars.

Heather
Close-up of purple heather

Meanwhile, there are also a lot of people who are just outright greedy. Even if they can legitimately make $100, they will cheat and manipulate to make $200 by taking advantage of others.

Both of these types of people tend to be drawn to any kind of "money for nothing" promises that may pop up. For the most part, however, that's a mindset that's more likely to separate them from their investment, than add to it.

I know it's a trite and overused cliché, but if it sounds too good to be true... it IS.

The number of people who actually get in as a "ground level opportunity" and make it rich... it's a tiny, tiny, tiny percentage, and expecting it is more like playing the lottery than working on an opportunity.

What do YOU think? Are upvote and resteem services mostly a waste of time? Have you encountered any scams, here on Steemit? Or services offered, where the results were basically a small fraction of the required investment? Do you think these plans mostly take advantage of those who don't know better? Leave a comment-- share your experiences and feedback-- be part of the conversation!

If you found this useful, and you think others would benefit from these cautionary notes, please resteem!

(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Published 20170926 12:38 PDT