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Massive networks of fake accounts found on Twitter

bbc.com

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Re: Massive networks of fake accounts found on Twitter

#81

Post by cookiecaper »

jashkenas wrote: post #28

I would imagine that it's possible that some of the people reading these comments might already know a lot more detail about Twitter/Facebook bots than this story goes into. Although you fine folks might remember me from a few other projects, I'm currently a Graphics Editor at The New York Times. We're actively curious and interested in pursuing lines of inquiry about this sort of behavior, and if any HN'ers have any…

Online marketing is completely dominated by this type of activity. I tried to market through legitimate means only (paid ads, word of mouth, fair, legitimately-earned reviews and press coverage). A competitor showed up and exceeded our 1 year+ head start in two months with spammy tactics, including fake social media reviews.

It's impossible to win a competitive SEO game without a PBN for link manufacturing, a bunch of lackeys and bots posting on astroturfed accounts, and so forth. I learned that if I'm going to do another business that depends on traffic, there will be no option but to spam and turf aggressively.

Google's dirty secret is that it's been completely and thoroughly gamed for a long time now. People are just used to sorting through the crap.

Re: Massive networks of fake accounts found on Twitter

#82

Post by syntheticnature »

ceedan wrote: post #25

- messages being posted only from Windows phones The smoking gun. What real person still has one of those. Disclaimer: I owned a Nokia Lumia 920 for > 2 years.

A good friend of mine, who is a real, dyed-in-the-wool, oldschool Microsoft fanatic (it's an amusing quirk to me) still has and uses his.

That said, swarms of Windows Phones does smell funny.

Re: Massive networks of fake accounts found on Twitter

#83

Post by pilsetnieks »

puranjay wrote: post #49
OliverJones wrote: post #20

Huh. The landline telephone business has, for a long time now, been compromised by spammers and bots (telemarketing calls and robocalls). I canceled my land line about four years ago after going for three months without receiving a single call I wanted. It seems the commercial social networks are headed for the same fate. And, they're headed for hardnosed and unpleasant regulation by governments. They probably need t…

Twitter is extremely forgiving with its account creation. An internet marketing buddy showed me how he could make 20+ accounts on the same IP address without Twitter throwing the ban hammer.

An IP address alone isn't really that good of an indicator. With carrier grade NAT one address could be used by thousands of people.

Re: Massive networks of fake accounts found on Twitter

#85

Post by Steeeve »

jashkenas wrote: post #28

I would imagine that it's possible that some of the people reading these comments might already know a lot more detail about Twitter/Facebook bots than this story goes into. Although you fine folks might remember me from a few other projects, I'm currently a Graphics Editor at The New York Times. We're actively curious and interested in pursuing lines of inquiry about this sort of behavior, and if any HN'ers have any…

You may as well have just reported that the sky is blue or that there is a lot of trash in the ocean.

You haven't found a massive network of fake accounts. You found a script kiddy or two who didn't know enough to mask their activity or didn't care.

Re: Massive networks of fake accounts found on Twitter

#86

Post by Balgair »

jashkenas wrote: post #28

I would imagine that it's possible that some of the people reading these comments might already know a lot more detail about Twitter/Facebook bots than this story goes into. Although you fine folks might remember me from a few other projects, I'm currently a Graphics Editor at The New York Times. We're actively curious and interested in pursuing lines of inquiry about this sort of behavior, and if any HN'ers have any…

Semi-related aside, but fun:

Every April Fool's Day I love to mess with family members. A (hypothetically) good effort:effect ratio I have found is Craigslist: Go into some large city's section (NYC, Austin, Sf, etc) and put up a listing for a 'free xbone' or a 'free PSS1', or something similarly typo'd. Explain that you are giving your kids' Xbone away because of a failing grade, you are moving overseas, your boyfriend cheated on you, etc. Then put down the number of the person to be pranked as the contact info. Now, here is the magic part: Specify that the callers for the free stuff must open the call with a Wookie sound, must text back in only haikus about salmon, must only refer to the xbox-one as a sausage, etc. It'll take the prank-ee a few hours to clear that mess up. This works wonders for April 1st day jokes, is fairly harmless, and generates a lot of fun stories.

The thing I am trying to say to the dear NYT reporter, is that you don't necessarily need bots to do this work for you, and not really even money either, just the promise of something for the low price of the time it takes to make a phone call is usually enough. Greed, I guess, works for a very low commission.

Re: Massive networks of fake accounts found on Twitter

#87

Post by wmil »

andai wrote: post #53
problems wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone with $10 can go buy tens of thousands of followers. And they work. And stay for a fair while. I've done this a few times myself, it really doesn't take any more than a quick google search.

Would you mind sharing why you did it? I've been curious about this for a while.

I've bought fake followers before. It's actually fun. You'd be surprised how much of the "chattering class" will check your follower count before they decide if they should read and respond to your comments.

If you enjoy chiming in on national conversations then it's a cheap way to appear prestigious. Of course, you need to be able to argue well enough to not out yourself as some random joe.

Re: Massive networks of fake accounts found on Twitter

#88

Post by joezydeco »

jashkenas wrote: post #28

I would imagine that it's possible that some of the people reading these comments might already know a lot more detail about Twitter/Facebook bots than this story goes into. Although you fine folks might remember me from a few other projects, I'm currently a Graphics Editor at The New York Times. We're actively curious and interested in pursuing lines of inquiry about this sort of behavior, and if any HN'ers have any…

Keep up the good fight, NY Times, and I hope you get a lot closer to the truth soon

e.g.: http://freebeacon.com/politics/trumps-twitter-followed-milli...

Re: Massive networks of fake accounts found on Twitter

#89

Post by problems »

andai wrote: post #53
problems wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone with $10 can go buy tens of thousands of followers. And they work. And stay for a fair while. I've done this a few times myself, it really doesn't take any more than a quick google search.

Would you mind sharing why you did it? I've been curious about this for a while.

The answer probably isn't satisfying - pranks on friends, it's cheap and is usually a good laugh. 20k followers for around $10 found on a blackhat SEO site. 19.5k of which are still around after about a year.

You could totally use it for business purposes too - as a really shitty form of advertising or just to make your popularity look higher. I doubt it'd be too effective, but hey, it's cheap.

Re: Massive networks of fake accounts found on Twitter

#90

Post by ascagnel_ »

ceedan wrote: post #25

- messages being posted only from Windows phones The smoking gun. What real person still has one of those. Disclaimer: I owned a Nokia Lumia 920 for > 2 years.

Maybe the OAuth token for a popular WP app got leaked, and now anyone can authenticate with it?
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