Hey, Steemians!

Lately, there were several reports of abnormal voting behavior. Various accounts are flagging random Steemit posts without any reason. 

<center>![abuse.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmXkCLPUa3pK6VZH3E6YYGGghAS6gwEqYX5ThFVpT4Nn6t/abuse.jpg)
<a href="learnpac.co.uk">Source</a></center>

It is each and every user's responsibility to report such behavior as it has the power to affect Steemit's reputation and eventually your activity and earnings on Steemit.

**What happened?**
One unhappy Steemit user created more than 70 accounts, usually having a very low delegated amount.  Afterwards randomly started flagging/downvoting content for no reason using those accounts.

**How you can identify them?**
The reported accounts have some common characteristics: 
- low reputation(usually 25);
- no posts created; 
- not following anyone; 
- no followers;
- downvoting behavior - down votes with -100% which generates a low VP.
- sometimes they downvote also very old content, which is no longer subject to payout. 

So far, I have seen active only a couple of them - @nice-steemer and @superfipo.

To see if you got a downvote, check the status of your account on https://steemd.com/@username(replace username with your own account name). 

Usually the downvote value is very low,  so if you have more than 20 votes you won't be able to see the account which downvoted your post directly on Steemit, hence you will need to check the status via steemd.com.  If you have less than 20 votes for a particular post, you can see the downvote also under votes section of your post. 

**What you can do?**
If you identify such behavior, report it. Steemit developers are aware of the issues and are working on removing the delegation for the reported abusive accounts. For some of them, the delegation was already removed. 

You can contact @steemcleaners  or @guiltyparties to report such accounts.  @guiltyparties put together a list of the abusive accounts. You can check their article - <a href="https://steemit.com/flag/@guiltyparties/the-flag-ring#@alinabarbu/re-guiltyparties-the-flag-ring-20180714t124618325z"> The Flag Ring</a>.  

As the VP, reputation and delegated SP of these accounts are very low, this behavior affects mainly the new users and their earnings, jeopardizing Steemit's growth. 

It's up to each and everyone of us to keep the ecosystem safe! 
Keep an eye on abnormal behavior and report it!

Thank you for reading & Steem on!