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Conspirador Norteño Profile picture
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20 Dec, 6 tweets, 4 min read
We took a quick look at a small online casino botnet that uses GAN-generated profile pics (similar to those produced by thispersondoesnotexist.com). #HolidayShenaninGANs

cc: @ZellaQuixote
This botnet consists of six accounts with GAN-generated profile pics, all created on August 11th, 2020. As is the case with all StyleGAN-generated face pics, the major facial features (particularly the eyes) line up when the images are blended/overlaid.
These six accounts tweet on nearly identical schedules and (allegedly) post all of their tweets via the Twitter Web App. Thus far, each accounts has sent exactly 10 tweets; with the exception of their first tweet, they always tweet within an hour of one another.
What is the purpose of this botnet? Judging by their tweets, they were created to promote the website timesofcasino(dot)com, which features news about online gambling. As always, be wary of visiting unknown websites promoted by spammy Twitter bots.
(more on GAN-generated profile pics and their use on Twitter here)
Update: the GAN pics used by the accounts in this botnet also show up on the "authors" page of the timesofcasino(dot)com site, accompanied by not-quite-grammatically correct "biographies". (Thanks @EJGibney for perusing the site and catching this.)

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More from @conspirator0

Conspirador Norteño Profile picture
22 Dec
Earlier today, Trump retweeted a @KMCRadio tweet that mostly demonstrates the author's poor understanding of differences in population density in various areas of the USA. This thread, however, is not about that tweet - the topic is @KMCRadio's fake followers.

cc: @ZellaQuixote Image
Although @KMCRadio's recent followers mostly look like organic #MAGA accounts, its early followers are anything but. Sometime in mid-2012, it was followed en masse by thousands of accounts created between 2009 and 2011 that have never liked a tweet (among other similarities). ImageImage
To find the remainder of this bulk follow network, we downloaded the followers of other accounts followed by @KMCRadio's early bogus followers, and repeated the process until we hit diminishing returns. (We didn't find many more - most of the network appears to follow @KMCRadio.) Image
Read 8 tweets
Conspirador Norteño Profile picture
20 Dec
What's up with these identical replies to a @gabry1090 coupon code tweet? #SaturdaySpam

cc: @ZellaQuixote
Answer: unsurprisingly, a botnet. We found 19 accounts that we believe are part of the network, created over the course of a little over an hour on December 7th, 2020. All their tweets thus far are replies sent via either "Mobile Web (M2)" or "Twitter Web Client".
The 19 accounts in this reply spam botnet operate on nearly identical schedules, and often send the same replies. Most replies are in Arabic, with the occasional English reply thrown in for good measure. (As always, take the Google translations with a grain of salt.)
Read 4 tweets
Conspirador Norteño Profile picture
19 Dec
In a bizarre coincidence, this hashtag-crammed @SorabNY tweet was retweeted by a bunch of accounts created in May 2014 with random-looking names. #FridayFeeling

cc: @ZellaQuixote
These accounts are part of a 29-account retweet botnet created on May 25th, 2014. All the accounts have names consisting of 11 or 12 lowercase letters, beginning with a consonant and followed by alternating vowels and consonants. We suspect the names were generated randomly.
The accounts in this botnet have thus far posted all of their tweets (allegedly) via "Twitter Web App". Despite being created back in 2014, we found no evidence any of them tweeted prior to September 2020, with most accounts activating for the first time on December 9th, 2020.
Read 5 tweets
Conspirador Norteño Profile picture
17 Dec
We've seen @justinsuntron turn up occasionally in our research on fake engagement networks, so we started perusing his followers to see what there is to see, and found an interesting little group of batch-created accounts.

cc: @ZellaQuixote
The botnet we found following @justinsuntron consists of 886 accounts created on September 24th and October 1st, 2020. Their initial wave of tweets was set via TweetDeck, and subsequent tweets were (allegedly) sent via the Twitter Web App. All have female names.
These accounts do four things:

• quote tweet cryptocurrency giveaway tweets (mostly from @justinsuntron)
• retweet cryptocurrency tweets
• reply "good" to a tweet from @OneSwap
• post original tweets composed of random nonsense
Read 6 tweets
Conspirador Norteño Profile picture
16 Dec
What's up with these accounts with German biographies retweeting "election fraud" conspiracy theories from Trump and his supporting cast? #Spamtastic

cc: @ZellaQuixote
Answer: they're part of a botnet, consisting of 12 accounts automated via a custom app called "TweetFoxx". Although they do have occasional organic tweets, the vast majority of their content (19802 of 20233 tweets since September 1st, 2020, or 97.9%) is automated.
The majority of accounts in this botnet operate on very similar schedules. The exception is @TaioSchmid , which is active for fewer hours a day and skips out on retweeting some of the tweets amplified by its compatriots.
Read 6 tweets
Conspirador Norteño Profile picture
15 Dec
What's up with all these accounts tweeting links to K-Pop news site soompi(dot)com and tagging @null (a suspended account)? #TuesdayThoughts

cc: @ZellaQuixote
We found a group of 22 accounts sending automated tweets linking to soompi(dot)com, created between 2010 and 2014. Although some have older organic tweets, all recent content was posted via automation service twittbot(dot)net.
What does this botnet do? It links soompi(dot)com, and does literally nothing else (or at least hasn't in the most recent ~3200 tweets from each account, every single one of which contains a link to soompi(dot)com).
Read 5 tweets

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