What Are Sock Puppet Accounts
I had this question a while back when I noticed that I have been interacting with a sock puppet account for years, I wondered what made it so real?!
First, we need to understand
What are sock puppet accounts?
Sock puppets are fake accounts created to look real, you might think it is easy but it isn’t at all because you will need to act with that fictional character’s personality everywhere on the internet, but…
Why would someone need a sock puppet account?
There are a lot of reasons for making sock puppet accounts let’s focus on the good ones
- Privacy
- OSINT Investigations
Of course, there are a lot of malicious uses for sock puppet accounts but remember that with great power comes great responsibility. Now that we know “why” we need to know “how”
How to make a sock puppet account?
1. Name, Address, Nationality, Gender, Height, Weight
You can use a website called “Fake Name Generator”
2. Email
You can use any new Email with your fake name
3. Pictures
You can use a website called “This person doesn’t exist” to create an AI-generated profile picture
- It doesn’t need to be a personal account it can be a page, news page, fan page, memes (This will depend on your target)
- Make sure to choose a suitable platform depending on your target, maybe he uses Twitter more so in this case you should focus on Twitter
How to make it convincing?
- The more details you put in making your account the more convincing it will become. (hobbies, job, favorite movies, etc…)
It’s like when a writer writes the back story of a fictional character. - There shouldn’t be any connection between you and your fake account (don’t follow yourself)
- Use it every day for a few months so it looks legit.
- Make online friends.
- Use Vpn/Tor.
Now that we know that we know what are sock puppet accounts and how we can make convincing “fake” accounts let’s see how famous sock puppets got exposed.
How do malicious sock puppet accounts affect us?
Sock puppet accounts affect public opinion for example in elections
Extra Resources
- r/OSINT (Blog)
- TCM Security (Video)
- The Art Of The Sock (Blog)
