Reference data for future abuse tracking:
Friday last week, 6286 users had received 1 Merit.
One week earlier, 6237 users had received 1 Merit.
One more week back, 6190 users had received 1 Merit.
That's an increase of less than 50 per week. I wouldn't be surprised if there are 500 new users with 1 Merit next Friday.
(quote slightly edited)
This morning, 7626 users had received 1 Merit. That's 1340 more than last week, and the increase is about 2500% larger than the previous weeks. Many of those will be legitimate, as many users and Merit sources are focussing more on Newbies, but many will also be the result of Merit trading.