- In their private messages, on Twitter, many Internet users have noticed a massive wave of spam.
- One of the messages offers a low-paying job. Only condition: Send your application through Telegram or WhatsApp. A fake account, photo of actress Brie Larson.
- To counter this phenomenon, Twitos launched an attack by user “Flef” with the hashtag #StopBotsDm. His goal? Measure the size of the event.
Bots, Twitter and Elon Musk. Chapter 83. For a few days, In the Twittersphere, many Internet users are protesting the number of spam messages they receive in private messages. Most of the time, the same request appears: “We are looking for a new member for our dynamic, enthusiastic and creative team”, explaining the message that offers a “competitive” salary between 200 and 500 hours per hour. The message sent is in English, but the contact number is identified by a French indicator. There is only one thing to do to send CV and cover letter through Telegram or WhatsApp account.
So why not take the test, the salary is attractive and the process is easy. A few clicks, two or three words in English and the message is sent on WhatsApp. “Hi, I’d like to know more about a proposed post on Twitter”. In the photo, Brie Larson is a blonde with a mischievous air. No wait, that’s the actress. But since Wednesday, radio silence: the account has not responded. Also, a good ten accounts on Twitter that were delivering the same message have disappeared and most accounts no longer exist.
Ambiguous messages
beside him, Tech-web expert and author Victor Bicent Had good luck and was able to trade with this bot starring Brie Larson. “Hello, nice to meet you, my name is Alice. You can do this work on your phone wherever you are,” she tells him. All in all, it only requires 20 to 60 minutes of work per day. The first detail is wrong, Bot doesn’t speak French very well. But above all, the discussion invites the user to the site of the Boulanger brand. Except that it’s a bad interface, Victor Loert notes.
There, scams are linked. A new employee must have a cryptocurrency wallet to withdraw the earned money. As the debate progresses, Victor Bassoit observes that the fraud is becoming more and more twisted. Numbers and letters in messages no longer have any meaning and the work being offered is unclear. “I’m lost,” he admits on his Twitter account. One thing is for sure, the abode of crooks. Yet according to Victor Busside, they will be located in the United Arab Emirates.
Twitter attack
For their part, the Twittos have launched an offensive against these private intrusions with the hashtag “#SpamBotsDm”. Led by social data science consultant “Flef”. His goal? Try to measure the size of the event. To do this, it asks Internet users to send screenshots of their spam-infested private messages. “I can’t ask people to copy and paste all the bot names, they have other things to do. But a screenshot, this is the beginning of my approach. I have tools to read the image automatically”.
On the hashtag, everyone is unanimous: the social network is becoming more and more ineffective when it comes to managing spam. It was headed by Elon Musk. “Twitter has become a bot factory, a basket of crabs,” one of them said. But have they really been outnumbered for a year? In general, bots are more complicated to measure, especially when sending private messages like here. Several weeks ago, In the month of February, “Flef” found a spam campaign that was very easy to analyze. For good reason, the accounts essentially functioned publicly Like it. “But there, bots don’t have a public function,” he laments.
A losing challenge for Kasturi
Ironically, since he came to Twitter, bots have been Elon Musk’s workhorse. Remember, it’s July 2022 and a rich future boss Attempting a retreat after its takeover announcement. why Because there are (many) many fake accounts on Twitter. “20% are fake accounts, four times what the social network claims,” he estimated at the time. But above all, a fake account for an entrepreneur is an account that cannot be targeted with advertising. A niche for Twitter, from which it derives a lot of revenue.
However, before Elon Musk came along, Twitter seemed to be doing better than its competitors in managing bots. Spam accounts disappear as soon as they appear. So should we expect a continuation of the decline in the coming weeks? Of course, especially since this Thursday, the resignation of Ella Irwin, head of trust and safety at Twitter, has sent a new warning about the state of moderation on the social network.
