If you're looking for fake followers that cannot get there until five thirty, this botnet's for you. #Spamtastic
cc: @ZellaQuixote
This fake follower botnet consists of 23965 accounts created between August 3rd and August 7th, 2022. None of these accounts has ever tweeted or liked a tweet. All use the same naming scheme and most have repetitive biographies.
In addition to the aforementioned repetitive biographies, this fake follower botnet also uses the same profile pics on multiple accounts.
The accounts in this botnet follow a variety of English and Arabic-language accounts. Most are promotional accounts, with cryptocurrency/NFTs/Web 3 being a recurring theme. Every account in the botnet also follows both @elonmusk and @Twitter.
Since all of the accounts in the botnet were created in a relatively short span of them, they are easy to detect on follow-order-by-creation-date plots for the accounts they followed en masse, where they show up as horizontal streaks (highlighted in red).
In a wacky coincidence, this botnet follows many of the same accounts as a group of spammy cryptocurrency accounts that recently expressed irritation with a thread about other spammy cryptocurrency accounts that were being sold on a dodgy website:
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