#TheResistance

Hello, everyone.

Today I would like to talk about how accounts are hacked, captured, and then sold on the open market. I know this is a dark subject, but I feel it is important knowledge.

#TaterTotsNotTwitterBots #Resist #Enough

We will be going over the life-cycle of several bots, with concrete examples, and a case-study: a so-called resister who in the past has made large purchases of these bots. #RiseUp

Likely, you have seen recently a DM such as this one:

To explain as simply as possible, this is an elaborate phishing scam. Do not click on links such as these, they will attempt to take your account.

If they cannot take your account, then, they install an app, and have your account send out automated DMs to others, increasing the reach of their malware geometrically. As such, if you are ever caught, please revoke all access to all apps.

If they do succeed in capturing your account, Twitter can help. But, inevitably, they do get away with a few accounts like this one:

Then, it is sold as a bot follower to bad-faith accounts like in the photo on the right:

Now, time for our full case study:

@/sassygirlboss , after my analysis of her account, I can attest to a purchase from her of at least 12,971 bot followers. For example, please look below. I circled good accounts in green:

Sylvie claims to be a Playboy Cover model, which she is not, we actually asked @Playboy themselves. Left photo is her claiming to be a model, right is an un-altered cover of the magazine she claims to have appeared in.

Here she is claiming to be modeling in Aruba, but, that photo actually first appeared on the IG account of one McKenna Bleu. Link to an Archive here: http://archive.is/S9sw8 

And Ms. Bleu's original IG is here: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bucm_oPBudp/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

I can assure you, there is a massive wealth of drama about Sylvie and her personal life here on Twitter. None of that interests me at all. Her account as an, instructive tool about the dangers of purchasing bots, does interest me, though.

Back to the above sample of her followers:

Actually, @mollylyons and I are old friends here on twitter, and she is a lovely person you should all follow. I don't know this Kathleen person, but she seems like good folk.

The rest in the photo are bots.

The bot circled in Red is dangerous. It is deeply connected with a known Turkish botnet. The branch of the botnet that account is connected to is tasked with supporting one Adnan Oktar, a far-right cult leader in Turkey awaiting trial. https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-inside-the-muslim-sex-cult-whose-leader-is-embraced-by-israeli-figures-1.5961420

We strongly recommend a block in this case.

And yes, Sylvie did follow back the Turkish bot. In fact, she was an early supporter, among the bot's first 200 followers.
*Begins sarcastic slow-clap*

The above sample of Sylvie's followers is actually rather kind to her; there are good accounts present. However, most of Sylvie's earliest 20,000 followers are bots.
We traced the purchase of bots to a site called SmmFollowers[.]com. We strongly recommend blacklisting this site.

The site works as something of a marketplace for automated internet activity. They sell all sorts of services, even automated views of YouTube videos for your monetized channel. Which, by the way, is an act of fraud, kids.

Not only can people buy twitter follows, but also interactions.

We have no evidence Sylvie ever purchased Likes or RTs, but, we did archive her followers earlier in the month. Archives will be made available later next week, in case anyone wants to check our work

Let's continue to look at the followers she purchased:

Circled in red is "Sty" and their bio simply says: "acct theft." In the second photo, we see Phil saying: "I was hacked."

And in a third case, we see that @/HackedFam at least was able to maintain a sense of humor about what was happening to their account.

All three of these accounts followed Sylvie in the early days of her account, alongside thousands of other bots.

To be clear, not all bots like these are captured accounts, but, for every person that cries for help, there are thousands and thousands of others who never get that opportunity.

We now come full-circle back to the recent spam DMs. This is a business, folks, it all runs on money

And for what? so that we can be lied to by people acting in bad-faith? So that they can attempt to sate their insatiable lust for internet fame?

These are real people, with real accounts.

This thread is not about Sylvie.

It is about Sty, Phil, and er. . . Fam

Maybe they clicked on a bad link. Maybe their password was weak. But, they are the real story here.

#TheResistance is in part, supposed to be an organic network no automated system could even touch.

I don't care if your account has 1.2 million followers, or 12 followers. I will do what's in my power to help you if someone is trying to take your account like this. https://twitter.com/horridpoplyrics/status/1164745423128428544

If you purchase followers, you are literally giving money to our enemies, and you are harming innocent twitter users.

That is all. #TaterTotsNotTwitterBots

I totally forgot the soundtrack here.

Since I just saw Hamilton, and since I seem to be completely incapable of taking a single day off, this does seem appropriate: