Fake Twitter Accounts Reminiscent Of Fake Slush Fund Charity Accounts

Last week, in a sign of desperation, Christine Quinn's Twitter account jumped by 20,000 followers overnight. City & State reviewed the sock-puppet Twitter accounts, and this was their analysis before Quinn's campaign people were forced to get rid of these fake followers after the negative publicity.

Some of the fake Twitter accounts, which was pointed out by City & State, included "Mary DeBoos (@deecohunk0106), Sergio Andres (@deecohunk0105), Tiffany Stone (@deecohunk0104), Quy Sin (@deecohunk0102), Osmany Adrian (@deecohunk0100), Mukhtar Bako (@deecohunk0099), Nick Afriza (@deecohunk0098), et cetera, ad infinitum. Then there is the whole series of followers who coincidentally picked some permutation of @byhnoleda0080 as their user name like Rona Ghotra (@byhnoleda0078), Vija Kumar (@byhnoleda0074) and Kelly Batista (@byhnoleda0072)."

The 20,000 fake Twitter accounts is reminiscent of the umpteen fake charity accounts, which Speaker Quinn used to use, to divert her slush funds for years, until her shady practise was exposed.

At the time the slush fund scandal broke, The New York Post reported about the fake slush fund charity account names used by Speaker Quinn : "Among the dozens of fabricated groups that were slated to receive funds were the Immigration Improvement Project of New York ($300,000), the Coalition for a Strong Special Education ($400,000) and the American Association of Concerned Veterans ($422,763)."

Donny Moss Had His Identity Stolen ; Theft of Identity Used On WSJ Article About Christine Quinn

Activist's Identity Was Stolen ; Sock Puppet Account Used To Post Disparaging Comment. Is This A Form of Cyber Bullying ?

In a spiteful act of immaturity, one of New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn's political supporters posted a disparaging comment about a prominent activist on The Wall Street Journal website.

The Journal had reported about the NYPD's use of violence against protesters, and Donny Moss was one of the activists, who was interviewed by The Journal. In response, someone stole Mr. Moss's identity and posted a disparaging comment using Mr. Moss's stolen identity.

Mr. Moss posted this comment on Facebook : "Is posing as someone else when posting comments online a form of cyber identity theft or cyber bullying? The more we're harassed, the more I think we're making a difference."

U.S. Military Uses Sock Puppet Accounts To Spy On You Online

''Revealed: US spy operation that manipulates social media''

A sock puppet company called Ntrepid has been awarded a contract initially worth $2.76 million by the United States Central Command create fake online accounts -- what has been called a "virtual army" of profiles -- to "create the impression of consensus opinion in online comment threads, or manipulate social media to the point where valuable stories are suppressed."

The U.S. Military may be engaged in illegal activity, if it uses its sock puppet operations to target American citizens, according to The Guardian newspaper.

Persona management by the US military would face legal challenges if it were turned against citizens of the US, where a number of people engaged in sock puppetry have faced prosecution.

Last year a New York lawyer who impersonated a scholar was sentenced to jail after being convicted of "criminal impersonation" and identity theft.

According to The Guardian, "Once developed, the software could allow US service personnel, working around the clock in one location, to respond to emerging online conversations with any number of co-ordinated Facebook messages, blogposts, tweets, retweets, chatroom posts and other interventions. Details of the contract suggest this location would be MacDill air force base near Tampa, Florida, home of US Special Operations Command."

Nobody knows if Ntrepid will be awarded supplemental contracts that will jack-up the amount of money paid to Ntrepid after the fact from secret sock puppet accounts of the U.S. government.