The Ups and Downs of Being a Twitter Fraudster 101
Barence writes "PC Pro has a feature examining the psychology and motivation of people who create fake or parody Twitter accounts. The feature reveals how people behind some of the most popular parodies — such as @MrsStephenFry — have gone on to earn commercial success, while others are altogether more sinister. The man behind @Lord_Credo managed to convince many that he was a personal adviser to British Prime Minister, David Cameron, and wormed his way into political circles. He allegedly conned some out of money, took advantage of the hospitality of others, and left the professional reputation of at least one 'in tatters.' He even fabricated a malignant brain tumor, leaving one young member of the group 'utterly distraught.'"
That's what happens when... (Score:5, Funny)
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Yeah everyone knows, if you want a +5 Troll, you get it by adding underrated mods, not labeled positive mods...
Dangerous (Score:2)
If you sign someones key you are actually revealing yours.
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The horror! They could send me encrypted messages or verify messages signed by me. Really dangerous.
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FTFY (Score:2)
Sorry, but that's incorrect. Here's a picture to clear it up for you. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Public_key_signing.svg [wikipedia.org]
Fraudsters? (Score:5, Insightful)
Uhm, it doesn't seem very fair to lump actual fraudsters in the same group as relatively innocent parodists. Once you start making people part with their money, it's a completely different situation.
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I plan to plan Dutch course in The Hague [taaltaal.nl]
Err, what?
Ok, it's a tagline but it's more entertaining than the story anyway.
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Well to be honest, this is /. where people can't tell the difference between someone being a troll, and someone being funny.
Re:Fraudsters? (Score:5, Informative)
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I personally believe it's because people only read the words in front of them, not the context of the entire discussion at hand. Poe's law is fine and all that, but even someone like me who has the sense of humor of a 27,000 year old dessicated corpse can tell the difference.
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Church Of SubGenius [subgenius.com]
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Hell, people can't tell the difference between Funny and Insightful, either.
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Hell, people can't tell the difference between Funny and Insightful, either.
Ha, that was rather funny!
Or insightful?
Are you trying to confuse me? Stupid troll!
Unless it's David Cameron & Friends (Score:2)
Then it's a public service.
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One guy apparently scammed his former gf for 15k. That's not parody.
On a more remarkable note ...
Did he submit the plans so other makers can copy it [makezine.com]?
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If it's not obviously a parody, it's fraud.
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Poe's law makes this distinction pragmatically impossible.
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There is a difference between subtle humour and trying to impersonate an individual, even if you think it is a joke.
Re:Fraudsters? (Score:5, Insightful)
Mind you, it's very much possible to be a parodist and make someone part with their money (such as by buying your wonderful book on a certain noodly heavenly father). It's really a matter of whether or not you do it ethically.
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From the article:
From the comment:
It also doesn't seem very fair to lump those in "political circles" with actual people.
Remember, these are folks who probably consider themselves pa
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They're smart enough to run the world but not smart enough to pick up the fucking phone and actually confirm before they start writing checks and getting freaked out about brain tumors?
Smart people do not run the world. Democracy ensures that liars run the world.
Sigh (Score:5, Informative)
This is why you shouldn't believe everything you read on teh interwibbles.
Second thoughts, s/everything/anything/
Its disgusting (Score:5, Funny)
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Why can't they behave like us on slashdot, where everyone is exactly who they say they are?
Would have been a lot funnier if you had posted this AC
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For a moment I thought your reply was of epic proportions, when I misread your account name as "Christ".
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You're modded as funny, but sometimes there's a reason to remain semi-anonymous. I signed up for Slashdot a long time ago when I didn't think twice about using my real name in online communications. When I signed up for Twitter, though, I decided to use a pseudonym. Now, I find myself under assault by someone who claims I'm the made-up identity of someone else. I could reveal my real name, but that won't really help. This person claims God told her about my "fraud". You can guess how successful presen
Re:Its disgusting (Score:4, Funny)
(I'm being vague enough in my post here that I'm comfortable that she won't track down this post and connect the two.)
Sure, until God rats you out again. ;)
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God is too busy providing 4th quarter miracles to Tim Tebow.
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Re:u should deceive those u can (Score:5, Interesting)
On a somewhat related topic: In the book The Big Short [wikipedia.org] (about the derivatives crash), Lewis describes a fund manager that suffers from Asperger syndrome. A very smart guy, but not susceptible to the back-slapping and other bullshit typically used to push questionable investment products in the industry. He kept asking for numbers to back up the bankers' claims. When note were forthcoming, he did his own research and, as a result, shorted many of the derivative products on the market. He earned billions of dollars for his fund.
Sometimes, a touch of Asperger helps. Or at least one can step back and observe the social interactions*.
*I hang around with a group of behavioral psychologists. When we go out to a bar, its funny to sit and watch them observe and classify social interactions around themselves as if they were watching a cage with a bunch of chimpanzees in an experiment.
Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)
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*I hang around with a group of behavioral psychologists. When we go out to a bar, its funny to sit and watch them observe and classify social interactions around themselves as if they were watching a cage with a bunch of chimpanzees in an experiment.
Whoah dude. That's seriously meta, right there.
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Whoosh. Also does semi-insulting random strangers on the Internet make you feel better about yourself?
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This is actually more common to people in general, rather than just behavioral psychologists. I love people watching. Go to the local mal or McDonalds early on Sunday, and you will see a bunch of older folk, planted at a bench/seat, doing just that. It also us
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This is actually more common to people in general, rather than just behavioral psychologists. I love people watching.
So, what do you consider to be a proxy for poo-flinging?
Re:u should deceive those u can (Score:5, Funny)
This is actually more common to people in general, rather than just behavioral psychologists. I love people watching.
So, what do you consider to be a proxy for poo-flinging?
Tweeting
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One time a bunch of us software and hardware geeks were sitting in the company cafeteria, and some were rating the ladies going by. One of us remarked, "Hah - I just realized, this is a bunch of 3s and 4s, rating 6s and 7s!" :D
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u can not decieve a matematician, surgeon, musicist or any other who work in practical fields that require a rational head and vigorous study.
lol Whoever told you that, DEFINITELY deceived you. This is social engineering, not parametric equations.
Re:u should deceive those u can (Score:5, Funny)
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that u may not respect me is by my design, but if u care to answer please stay on topic.
Truly I don't respect you, but only because your words aren't respectable. If you chose to write in an unrespectable way, it's probably as a psychological cover for that fact that no one respected you in the first place. So now you can blame that on your method of writing, instead of on the actual words.
now, i am fucking imploring u with this task: pick a fucking field, and make me belive that u are som hotshot in it. this is tha topic, yes?
Maybe I can't, maybe you will choose to believe nothing. Which is sad. But I am in fact, easily in the top 5% of programmers. I can disassemble other programmer's binaries in cases when I can't get the sourc
Re:u should deceive those u can (Score:5, Funny)
I will then assume that you are indeed the respectable expert that you claim to be, and speak to you accordingly.
HA! I tricked you! I am not actually a programmer, I just play one on Slashdot.
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You see, I come to this forum to read the posts of low UID users
Are you f'in crazy?
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Re:u should deceive those u can (Score:5, Funny)
Scene: a mathematical conference.
First Mathematician: Who's the spacker in the tin-foil hat over there?
Second Mathematician: Oh, that's just zugendneb, our tame lolcat. We keep him because he can sniff out social engineers and destroy them with his wit and repartee. He can't write English worth a shit, but his texting skills are a legend in his own lunchtime.
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It's been some time since I've actually laughed to tears, thank you :D
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Re:u should deceive those u can (Score:4, Funny)
u can decieve the trash that live entirely in "people space": many politicians, psycologists, theatre people, generally "social sciences" kind of people... why?
Other people can. You couldn't. A minimum level of literacy is required.
Sorry (Score:1)
There have been documented cases of impostors who've been able to pose as e.g. doctors/surgeons(!), airline pilots (etc.) for years and years.
Those are certainly fields which require "a rational head and vigorous study".
The easiest people to fool are those who think they cannot be fooled... such as yourself.
Raise your hand (Score:3, Interesting)
If you're sick of the verb "tweet".
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Lord_Credo? (Score:3, Funny)
What a pity, he sounded like a guy you could believe in.
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That is the first thing I thought. It looks like, because of his name, that he just started out as a very obvious parodyist. He was probably very surprised when people actually believed him.
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I don't trust him. I just get the feeling he's going to turn into some flying supernatural creature and we'll need to fight with giant swords.
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Not the best example (Score:1)
My experience with a parody account (Score:2, Interesting)
Having seen no comments yet from anyone who's actually done this...
I run a fake twitter feed, lampooning a guy known in several wide social circles known for his... lets say "interesting" personality. He's not exactly widely loved or widely hated (maybe polarizing though), but he can be counted on to have an unexpected viewpoint on basically anything. (It might be Aspergers, we don't know.) The actual guy doesn't seem to mind, because I take care to not say anything mean.
The account has turned out to be a d
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But it makes 80 people's lives, and mine, an iota better.
Without making anyone else's worse. And that, I feel, is the important distinction.