PSA:
Been digging on a network of scam knife sellers that is targeting patriot accounts on X with fake US locations, sock-puppet "happy customers," and DM-only Cash App sales.
Grok Bot was invaluable on this and did a lot of the heavy lifting. It mapped 49 linked accounts tied together by shared phone numbers, shop links, and word-for-word copied posts.
The hub appears to be @forgedusa1, posing as a Colorado maker. Its phone number shows up in other "sellers'" bios too. Others like @knivesmaker786, @Malone_Edgework, and @hakcutlery post identical ads, down to "HRC: 58 to 60." Two "different" shops even share the same store link.
Red flags: brand-new accounts, "DM me for price," Cash App only, fake reviews quoted as "Another Happy Customer!", and giveaway bait like "reply 'I'm human' to win a blade." Credit to @syskusa and @PMRuckus, who flagged this first.
I dug through this from multiple angles, using different entry points and it seems that @forgedusa1 is the likely temporary center of this, but it's like playing whack a mole.... They just keep popping up.
And apologies to anyone that got pulled into this unknowingly... I trimmed off a good number of accounts that likely just reposted something they thought was cool. Means a few bad accounts likely made it off the list but also a few non bad actors may be listed.
Basically, these are the accounts most likely to be associated with the central hub... Directly or by accident.
I do have questions about ladyvet and a few others, but this is to show the overall network that is linked, not necessarily say that each of these accounts was actively and wantonly participating in the scam