Verification Badges

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We are proud to announce a new initiative between ourselves and the @steemitboard. Some of you already noticed you got a new badge on your Steemitboard and in your comments.

What is the Steemitboard?

The Steemitboard is a service that grants users a variety of participation badges. These badgest can be found on each individual's board located at http://steemitboard.com/@steemcleaners. There are two parts to every board, the Awards on the left and the Personal on the right.

If you have taken the time to verify your profile with the @steemcleaners, your new badge either has appeared on the right Personal side or will soon appear on it.

What does it mean to be verified?

A verified user is an individual of any degree of notoriety who verifies their Steem account as in fact belonging to the person they claim to be. Due to numerous and increasing cases of ID theft and ID deception, every person who claims to be an individual with a digital presence will require verification.

Some examples of verified users:

• a website owner who links their Steem account from their website
• an Instagram blogger who adds the URL to their Steem account from their profile
• a YouTube vlogger who mentions their Steem account in a video

Getting verified is a simple and rewarding process. Not only are you letting the Steem community know that you are who you say you are, but you also get a badge to showcase now.

You can see all the other verified users by clicking on the badge link.

How does one get verified?

You can become verified either by replying to a @sariel request for verification or by contacting a member of the @steemcleaners team.

Remember, those @sariel comments aren't posted by bots! Reply to them to get verified and you will get your badge.

Failing to verify your account while claimining to be a person with a digital presence signifies to us and to the Steem community that you appropriated someone else's identity or fabricated your profile based on their information, work or photographs.

Does being verified mean that the user is a good Steemian who only posts original content?

No. Verification is only limited to the identity of the account-holder. Their conduct on the Steem blockchain is unrelated.

For example, if you see a Cheetah blacklist comment on a post by a user with a verification badge, that means they were caught for plagiarism, copy/pasting, image theft or some other serious string of abuses.

What is identity theft?

Identity theft is making a Steem account with the intent to assume the idenity of that individual. It is typically done in order to profit of another person's work, art, or reputation.

For example, pretending to be a known travel blogger is a common type of identity theft on Steem. Another very common form of identity theft is locating a social media profile for a young woman and making a Steem account based on her information and pictures.

Identity theft can have very serious implications on its victims.

What is identity deception?

Identity deception is fabricating a fake persona based on a combination of fiction and real information/pictures.

For example, identity deception is taking a picture of a random person or even friend and then creating a fake identity for them. Sometimes scammers went as far as tricking strangers to hold pieces of paper with "Steemit" written on it in order to create false profiles.

In some other cases, scammers take pictures of individuals who look similar to themselves and post them in order to create desirable content; for example, a post about working out at the gym.

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Do you have specific topics that you'd like @steemcleaners to address and clarify in our future posts? Let us know in the comments.