The issue with this sort of abuse in large chunks is that it stands out, denting the moral/conceptual goals of the Merit System.
The good news is that this (I believe) is a practice that is less common as time goes by (for multiple reasons). Infact, it is getting to be rather uncommon to see posts merited with 20 or over sMerits in a single TX.
If we take a look at the period of time going from the 1st of July 2018 until the 13th of July 2018 (to focus on a recent window), these are the TXs for 20 sMerits or above:
amount converted_date FromId FromName ToId ToName post_title PostURL
50 2018-07-02 01:41:21.000 176810 benthach 1208438 thenextking Re: What are the potential risk in joining an airdrop? https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2375142.msg24228465#msg24228465
50 2018-07-12 19:42:11.000 21577 Ente 24140 qwk Re: Bitcoin & die Steuer - FAQ https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1976285.msg19673755#msg19673755
50 2018-07-01 06:23:34.000 648651 fanatic26 392563 chandra12 [AIRDROP] YOYOW [BOUNTY]✅✅✅✅ https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3139057.msg41217165#msg41217165
50 2018-07-01 15:02:43.000 315650 Dogedigital 2188816 nessie.io Nessie.io - Exchange with Seamless Access to Digital Wallet & Gaming Services https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4438798.msg39657876#msg39657876
50 2018-07-04 19:36:23.000 202602 chek2fire 1267993 Leteravian Πρότυπo δημιoυργίας πίνακα https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4596709.msg41487910#msg41487910
46 2018-07-11 08:04:26.000 1320011 Jeremiesaranza 965234 dumbtool45 Re: [ANN] [ICO] SCRINIUM🔥 The future of portfolio investment https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2484536.msg37902368#msg37902368
46 2018-07-04 12:54:02.000 176128 bgpsq 1320011 Jeremiesaranza Re: What are the most common uses of Bitcoin? https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2281388.msg34650713#msg34650713
45 2018-07-02 23:53:02.000 905193 Napole0n 921087 Tukang Becak Re: what is the future of virtual currency like bitcoin ? https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2413780.msg39634835#msg39634835
36 2018-07-11 09:02:07.000 1393407 JaoBadjap 1509249 Dyanggok Re: Newbie Welcome Thread https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1358010.msg28317972#msg28317972
32 2018-07-03 00:52:35.000 934658 Konthol Ngaceng 921087 Tukang Becak Re: Is Bitcoin price ready to touch the moon..?? https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3295344.msg40667764#msg40667764
31 2018-07-05 22:02:57.000 367083 minerx117 927785 EWBF_ Re: EWBF's Cuda Equihash Miner https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4466962.msg40058212#msg40058212
28 2018-07-02 23:51:03.000 916082 _Legendary_ 921087 Tukang Becak Re: How foolish are people who invest in Bitcoin? https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2589880.msg39142728#msg39142728
27 2018-07-04 00:53:45.000 921229 King Sastro 921087 Tukang Becak Re: Money for school fees. Invested in bitcoin. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2832349.msg39142907#msg39142907
26 2018-07-04 04:32:18.000 929505 Bondho Kompeni 921087 Tukang Becak Re: Government and Bitcoin https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1035614.msg38238340#msg38238340
25 2018-07-01 15:09:23.000 316957 AcoinL.L.C 338580 CrazyCraig Re: Moneypot: Powered by Monster Byte https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2345394.msg40683210#msg40683210
25 2018-07-04 12:52:05.000 392563 chandra12 1320011 Jeremiesaranza Re: Why you Still believe in Bitcoin? https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3206467.msg34192008#msg34192008
25 2018-07-04 04:30:17.000 908780 Senja Kemuning 921087 Tukang Becak Re: its not about how much you invested, its when you should invest? https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3267595.msg39140799#msg39140799
25 2018-07-08 19:26:09.000 255027 criptix 2189580 anunymint https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4579834.msg41317345#msg41317345
24 2018-07-12 21:29:20.000 346449 botany 321816 belcher Re: [ANN] Joinmarket - Coinjoin that people will actually use https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=919116.msg10096489#msg10096489
24 2018-07-01 15:07:30.000 338580 CrazyCraig 2188816 nessie.io Nessie.io - Exchange with Seamless Access to Digital Wallet & Gaming Services https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4438798.msg39657876#msg39657876
23 2018-07-04 12:26:27.000 916051 Sir Paijoe 921087 Tukang Becak Re: 7 REASONS WHY: which one are you? https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3766385.msg37533176#msg37533176
22 2018-07-11 09:03:31.000 1509249 Dyanggok 1393407 JaoBadjap Re: Newbie Welcome Thread https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1358010.msg26055138#msg26055138
20 2018-07-10 06:27:04.000 902444 vivland 1320011 Jeremiesaranza Re: Bitcoin will hit 25k by the end of this Year? https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3313706.msg34724425#msg34724425
20 2018-07-07 20:24:43.000 234771 suchmoon 334783 seoincorporation Re: I've just invented dMerits. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4619367.msg41711944#msg41711944
20 2018-07-11 00:42:26.000 255027 criptix 134226 Nestade https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4638379.msg41921753#msg41921753
20 2018-07-04 05:05:15.000 661316 mandica 2180275 XSPEC-team Re: [ANN] Spectrecoin (XSPEC) | Untraceable Tx | Tor Integration https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4434053.msg39594362#msg39594362
20 2018-07-11 11:11:56.000 98986 TMAN 1000199 krogothmanhattan Re: [REFERENCE] BREACHED or SCAM COINMAKERS LIST https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3315347.msg34617121#msg34617121
20 2018-07-11 11:12:17.000 98986 TMAN 346731 minerjones Re: [INFO] Looking for all maker's public address lists https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2022902.msg20155309#msg20155309
20 2018-07-01 21:24:15.000 405889 SyGambler 764113 Bit-Exo.com Re: [ANN] [PoS] BXO BitExo Casino-⚡PoW Ended⚡🚀🚀 https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2296264.msg23299007#msg23299007
20 2018-07-01 21:23:17.000 405889 SyGambler 764113 Bit-Exo.com Re: █~★~█ Bit-Exo.com █~★~█ Dice,Plinko,Roulette Moneypot powered Bitcoin casinohttps://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1359320.msg13834689#msg13834689
The quantity is small, being that of 30 TXs for 20 or more sMerits. Amongst the above list, there a completely legit cases and merit abuse cases I’ve seen reported on other threads.
The overall TX merit distribution for the same period (the 1st of July 2018 until the 13th of July 2018) is:
50 5
[40..49] 3
[30..39] 3
[20..29] 19
[10..19] 82
[5..9] 294
[1..4] 2944
So all in all, individual TXs of a high amount are very few cases, so those TXs that are constituent of merit abuse are a drag by comparison, but small in the overall scheme of things.