Meet @jessica05181, a Twitter account with 32K followers that ostensibly belongs to a @Guardian reporter by the name of "Jessica Claire". As is often the case, things are not as they seem.
A Google search of the Guardian's website for "Jessica Claire" turns up no articles written by anyone named "Jessica Claire", and although @jessica05181 has shared 111 @Guardian articles on Twitter, none of the authors have names remotely similar to "Jessica Claire".
As it turns out, @jessica05181 (permanent ID 1036130530666983425), wasn't always named @jessica05181. Previous names include @Adrian84474494 (which may be its original handle) and @thrawedmclag, and at least one early reply refers to it as "Adrian".
The only photograph posted thus far by @jessica05181 is an outdoor scene of grass and trees... and it is also a stock photo that has been used on a variety of websites.
Although the majority of @jessica05181's tweets are links to news sites), the account has espoused two political positions generally seen at opposite ends of the political spectrum:
• pro-Brexit tweets in early 2019
• anti-Guo/Bannon tweets in 2021
Finally, at least 5560 of @jessica05181's followers appear to have been gained via the "Round Year Fun" Twitter malware apps ("My Twitter Family", "My Twitter Crush", etc), which stealthily causes unwitting users to follow the customers of a site that sells Twitter followers.
More on Round Year Fun/"My Twitter Family" and the associated follower sales site realactivefollowers(dot)com in these threads:
It's New Year's Eve, and a bunch of politics enthusiasts with GAN-generated faces are enthusiastically replying to a variety of posts with similarly-worded replies. #NewYearShenaniGANs
cc: @ZellaQuixote
The politics enthusiasts are part of a spam network consisting of (at least) 575 accounts created between May and December 2023 with GAN-generated faces. Many of their handles, such as @Maairiuieinaaa and @eJooeiaAoneueer, contain long strings of vowels.
@Maairiuieinaaa @eJooeiaAoneueer All 575 of these accounts use StyleGAN-generated faces as profile images. Some of these, such as @MauMoiagaia's profile image, contain a tiny "StyleGAN 2 (Karras et al.)" watermark in the lower right corner.
It's a great day to look at a network of inauthentic accounts that post identical AI art images (with a side of good old fashioned T-shirt spam).
cc: @ZellaQuixote
This network consists of 24 X accounts. 12 of these accounts were created in the latter half of 2023 and have female avatars, while the other 12 were created in 2013 or earlier and have male avatars.
The 12 accounts with female avatars and 2023 creation dates regularly post AI-generated art images, and these image posts are quickly reposted by other accounts in the network (both female and male). The AI-generated images are often duplicated across accounts.
Meet @ImJamesMiller (permanent ID 1371651462153994242), an account with a GAN-generated face, 172K followers, and no tweets prior to two days ago. What's up with that?
cc: @ZellaQuixote
As it turns out, @ImJamesMiller wasn't always named @ImJamesMiller. In June, the account was named @/IamJimCaviezel in an apparent attempt to impersonate Sound of Freedom actor Jim Caviezel.
@ImJamesMiller Multiple prominent users appear to have accepted the fake Jim Caviezel account as legitimate, including Texas Congressman Brian Babin, right-wing influencer/ex-Game of Thrones blogger Jack Posobiec, and recently indicted ex-Assistant Attorney General Jeff Clark.
It's a great day to look at a network of Bluesky spam accounts with randomized names. #SundaySpam
cc: @ZellaQuixote
This spam network consists of (at least) 401 accounts, all of which were created (or added to the Bluesky app view) in August 2023. These accounts do not follow each other; rather, each one follows a small number of popular Bluesky accounts.
The accounts in this network cycle rhythmically between posting three types of content:
• reposts
• posts containing links to news articles
• posts containing links to news articles accompanied by images
Meet @thisisorange, a Twitter account created in February 2022 with a gold "verified organization" badge, thousands of batch-created fake followers, and a couple other interesting traits.
Verified organizations on Twitter can verify affiliated accounts (employees, teams, brand names, etc), which receive blue checkmarks as well as an organization badge (help.twitter.com/en/using-twitt…). The @thisisorange account has thousands of affiliates, mostly cryptocurrency accounts.
How did this come about? The website linked on @thisisorange's profile (orange dot associates) apparently allows one to become an affiliate simply by providing a Twitter account and a cryptocurrency wallet.