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What TF is happening with army twitter, how you could be affected and why it's possibly dangerous - an explanation thread! No need to be stressed, but read it all.
1st. WHAT IS THE PROBLEM/SCAM and why is it dangerous?
• A group of army have been very suspicious of some big accounts and fanbases recently. They have been encouraging their followers to join scammy giveaways. Those GAs are being sponsored by various suspicious accounts, including crypto currency accounts.
• Big accs offer a GA and tell their followers to follow the @ of the sponsors and themselves. That way, these accs grow their own following and also the scammy sponsor's following. Those sponsors can do data mining - stealing your acc data and analyzing/targetting army.
• Some of those sponsors tell big account followers to follow other "sponsor" accounts as well. Some of which post and expose minor army to adult content, which is very dangerous. In conclusion, the sponsors are extremely SKETCHY to say the least.
• Once these accounts gain lots of army followers, they are usually sold for money (!!!). They are using army to basically buy followers. Just recently, a big army account (70k+ followers) was sold to crypto influencer. @FortuneZMarkets is their new @ but they used to be an army
• They all work in groups and are ALL CONNECTED. The big accounts/fanbases collab with each other and with all these sponsors. When one of them is "exposed" or has their account suspended, the others cover it up or attack the accounts exposing them.
• They control a bunch of bots and people who have army profiles. These fake profiles can be also used as the giveaway winners. They even have weird crypto hashtags on their bios. Some of the GAs are real, some are not.
2. HOW was it "uncovered"/ very reasonable proofs?
• It started getting real when this group of army pressed @jeonbubbles for answers. They tweeted that NOT only they were partnering up with these sketchy GAs, but they were being PAID (!!!) as well. AKA they were making money from the crypto people. https://twitter.com/honeymoonjoon/status/1358804596735500293?s=20
• This is when shit hit the fan for all other big fan accounts who were doing giveaways. Were all of them getting paid and not disclosing it with their followers? (Which by the way is illegal in the US and many other countries) A lot of them, YES.
• @BTS_History613 started to feel pressured. They admitted being sponsored but didn't reveal that they were profiting off of their followers so we again started to ask again. https://twitter.com/honeymoonjoon/status/1358832438009614336?s=20
• Word came out that @/bts_history613 had a FIXED rate for sponsorships. Just like an influencer, but they didn't say that to their followers. Also related to crypt0 currency and sponsors with bios that said "sponsor a giveaway to grow" 
https://twitter.com/honeymoonjoon/status/1358835138109595649?s=20
https://twitter.com/honeymoonjoon/status/1358835138109595649?s=20
• Not only them though, but many side accounts also created by them were also involved in this GA system. A whole system of big accounts that were designed to get followers fast and grow using GAs. (Those can be sold too)
• Anyways, that's when you encounter @taebokkiii, @taehyungjd_ , @pjmluv95s, @hopiaback / @ayusuijin, @9295dolls, @kthjjktwt all working together to promote each other, telling their followers to follow their accounts AND the SAME crypto sponsors.
• Yesterday, taebokkiii came forward and finally admitted to getting paid by the sponsors. By the way, they have something like 10-15 GAs per week, so imagine the money... They used the excuse that they donated (some? all?) of their profit to charity. No receipts so far though.
• THIS IS STILL NOT a reasonable excuse to exploit their followers and expose them to weird crypto / GA accounts. Telling them to follow sketchy sponsors blindly. Complete lack of transparency = THIS is the main issue. Make money all you want, but you have to be CLEAR.
• Many of those "trusted" sponsors were already suspended by twitter. If that doesn't tell you it's sketchy, I don't know what will. These are also the same that contribute for solo fanbase "mixtape" funds. https://twitter.com/honeymoonjoon/status/1358874884668076032?s=20
Find more fanbases included in this here: https://twitter.com/prodsonyeondan/status/1359578273362161670?s=20
• That brings us to today. A LOT of information was uncovered. Including that this huge network of crypto accounts know each other. They often use the same symbols and hashtags. https://twitter.com/jinniesnotes/status/1359536821160595463?s=20
• The cryptos, seeing that army were discovering it all, started to attack AND harass accounts exposing it. Some of them trying to guilt-trip them. Calling them fake army??? Immature? THEM, weird crypto, telling us what army and BTS stand for? https://twitter.com/taesmybestie/status/1359585060144492554?s=20
• These sponsors use army/kpop profile pictures and have cute bios. They've been infiltrating our fandom for months now. https://twitter.com/JJKBTS14/status/1359587411257405443?s=20
THEY ARE CREEPY!! https://twitter.com/ladyplscalmdown/status/1359548118442733575?s=20
This weirdo here is even more sus. He is also someone who tried to leak BE. This is definitely not a coincidence. https://twitter.com/omermeroz/status/1359591588331204608?s=20
• Once exposed, these big accounts are using the same explanations, excuses and proofs. Most accounts mentioned in the thread are using the SAME LANGUAGE to address all of the situation. Is it organized? https://twitter.com/echo_inthesoop/status/1359622405942087683?s=20
• Here is an explanation by our Comp Sci and Security ARMY account about why this whole thing can be dangerous. https://twitter.com/ArmyCompsci/status/1359232143025729538?s=20
• Another resource on why this can be dangerous: https://twitter.com/starkindler1/status/1359081538948911106?s=20
• I am NOT here to cancel accounts. However, as an army I feel LOST and this is sketchy. Before jeonbubbles admitted getting paid, we HAD NO IDEA that all of this was happening. I am not telling you to unfollow these accounts, each one of us needs to do THEIR OWN research.
• With that said, I made this thread to organize all the information we have available so far, so that it's all in one place. So that it's easier for each one of us to make a judgement.
• Giveaways are NOT inherently bad. Army have been doing it for YEARS. Army who can't afford albums should have the right to participate in the GAs! The problem is the lack of transparency. If the GA is promoted by an acc that isn't doing this for self promo, it's probably okay.
• I AM NOT against giveaways. I hope you can understand that I just created this thread because I genuinely don't want our fandom to get targeted. Also, these same people are already branching outside of our fandom to infiltrate in kpop in general.
• I HAVE **NOT** personally checked ALL accounts on this tweet that I'm linking now -> but please make your own research to double-check which accounts are working with weird sponsors. https://twitter.com/taexjiminxkookx/status/1359603919845019654?s=20
• If our fanbases come out and regularize their GAs, it's good. We just NEED HONESTY and TRANSPARENCY. I would NEVER encourage the following of anyone for a GA without proper research, though.
ALSO, here is some more information on how click/follow/retweet farms work. ***I, me, myself *** personally think this is the end goal they have by growing the accounts. AGAIN, I urge YOU to think critically + do your own research. https://twitter.com/TwentyFiveFor7/status/1359597733078683650?s=20
I may have made mistakes in the thread. Message me if there's something wrong or if there's a misunderstanding so I can make corrections.
Idk about y'all but I did not know about this. It seems like a lot of you also didn't. IMO it's the responsibility of the big accounts promoting GAs to make sure we are safe. Oh well... we have different standards of cyber safety. https://twitter.com/enbyk00ki/status/1359629241911037956?s=20
Many big army accounts have received offers to be bought! Be careful with who you follow! Army is THE BIGGEST fandom now, we have crazy engagement. Don't let the scammers use you! https://twitter.com/jesussunbaes/status/1359603427232288771?s=20
I know it is a lot of work, but if you know army who speak another language, PLEASE ask them to translate the thread or at least spread the information! This is happening to ALL of us around the world.
An army sent an infographic, in case it’s easier to understand like this
• Examples of how the crypto accounts benefit from army. They use us to boost their own currency’s engagement. This is why they need the follows. See how the circled crypto accounts drop from the chart once the GAs stop? https://twitter.com/smallchimchim/status/1359195931393032197
