impersonation
Latest
YouTube fan accounts will soon need a disclosure in the channel name or handle
YouTube is trying to clamp down on impersonation as it's bringing in new rules for fan accounts.
Senator Markey demands answers from Elon Musk over Twitter impersonators
Senator Ed Markey has sent a letter to Elon Musk asking him to explain why it's now so easy to impersonate someone on Twitter.
Elon Musk says Twitter will permanently ban users that impersonate accounts
Elon Musk wrote that Twitter will permanently suspend account impersonators if they are not clearly labeled as parody.
YouTube introduces new tools to battle comment spam and account imitators
Channels will no longer be able to hide their subscriber counts.
Facebook takes down more fake accounts from Iran
Today, Facebook removed 51 accounts, 36 Pages, seven groups and three Instagram accounts that were involved in "coordinated inauthentic behavior" based in Iran. According to the company, the individuals responsible pretended to be located in the US and Europe, impersonated news organizations and journalists in the Middle East and tried to contact public figures under the guise.
My other life as a Kickstarter scammer
I have the process down to a tee. I start by browsing Kickstarter, looking for projects with active campaigns. There's no specific selection criteria. Perhaps I find one that's just gone live, or one coming to the end of its fundraising window. I reach out with a message, explain who I am and invite the project contact to book in an interview. On the call, I feign interest, ask the right kind of questions and promise a write-up on Engadget in the near future. I leave it a day or two and reach out again, saying I've heard great things from others about a specialist that can increase a project's exposure for a daily fee. A highly unethical move for a journalist, but I set to profit from it, so what do I care? The Engadget article never materializes, of course, because this person isn't me.
Facebook fights harassment with impersonation alerts
Online harassment is bad enough by itself, but it can be particularly insidious when harassers try to impersonate you -- they can easily ruin your reputation with a few bogus posts. Facebook might just have a way for you to fight back, though. It's currently testing an impersonation alert feature that automatically warns you when it believes that someone is trying to mimic your account. If you believe there's an impersonator at work, Facebook will manually review the offender and shut them down.
Ariana Grande channels pop stars to save Tidal on SNL
Things aren't going great at Tidal right now, and it's trying to save itself with exclusive exclusive releases from the likes of Rihanna. But what if a power outage messed up their streams? As SNL humorously imagines, it's Chloe the intern (aka Ariana Grande) to the rescue. As glimpsed on the Tonight Show, the diminutive pop star has got a gigantic voice and flawlessly belted out hits from the likes of Britney Spears, Shakira and Celine Dion until the music was restored.
The FBI faked a news website to catch a bomb threat suspect
The DEA isn't the only US law enforcement agency using impersonation on the web to catch suspects, it seems. The American Civil Liberties Union's Christopher Soghoian has noticed documents showing that the FBI created a fake, spyware-laden version of the Seattle Times' website to catch a teen bomb threat suspect in 2007. When the teen clicked the link to check out an equally fake Associated Press story, the hidden software installed itself and sent both the target computer's location and its internet address to officers. As you might gather, both civil liberty advocates and media outlets are furious -- the FBI effectively conducted a phishing attack, and neither the AP nor the Times appreciate having their names and likenesses used without permission.
Facebook wants the DEA to promise that it won't create fake accounts
Remember how the DEA got caught impersonating a woman on Facebook in an attempt to catch criminals who contacted her? Yeah, Facebook isn't at all pleased. It just sent a letter asking the anti-drug agency to promise that it won't create fake accounts or otherwise stomp all over the social network's terms of service. As the site argues, the DEA's moves "threaten the integrity" of its user base -- the point of Facebook's real identity policy is to foster trust, and sting operations violate that trust. Law enforcement isn't above this rule, the company says. It's not certain if the letter will have any effect; the Justice Department tells BuzzFeed News that it doesn't believe this trickery happens frequently. Whether or not that's true, it's safe to say that Mark Zuckerberg and crew have set some firm boundaries for future cases. [Image credit: Tim Sloan/AFP/Getty Images]
The DEA impersonated a woman on Facebook to catch criminals
Law enforcement is no stranger to going undercover to bust unsuspecting crooks, but the Drug Enforcement Administration may have taken an online sting operation one step too far. A woman arrested in a drug case, Sondra Arquiett, sued the government after a DEA agent impersonated her on Facebook to trick at least one fugitive into sharing information. While Arquiett had consented to a search of her phone for the sake of investigations, she didn't give permission to the agent to post photos from that phone for the world to see. Her suit accuses the agent of not only violating her privacy, but of putting her in danger by making it look like she was cooperating with officials.
CCP clarifies EVE terms of service changes again
You may remember that about a week ago CCP incurred the ire of many fans by rewording EVE Online's Terms of Service, which according to many threatened to put a stranglehold on players hoping to scam some chumps by impersonating another player. Well, as part of the ongoing madness/dialogue between players and CCP, the studio has posted a clarification on the game's official site. Specifically, the post clarifies that "the purpose of the ToS update was to pull bits of existing policy into a prominent place where everyone would be able to see it, rather than requiring players to dig through EULA and Naming Policy to fully understand all the rules regarding impersonation." The post goes on to dig through the history of CCP's policies on impersonation from the beginning and the changes they have undergone since. You can find all those nitty-gritty details in the official post, but the takeaway from CCP seems to be that the only thing that has changed is the wording of the terms of service and that CCP will continue to handle cases of impersonation in the same way it has in the past. If you want to read the whole statement for yourself, just click on through the link below.
Will the iPhone 4 blend? What do you think?
Oh come on. You knew it was coming, ever since the iPhone 4 was announced. And here it is. There's not much to say -- you know what's going to happen. Just watch and enjoy. And kudos, BlendTec. It's even cornier (and more surreal) than usual, but pays off nicely. One question: who is that dude, really? Michael Dell?
How scammers plunder your Tales of Pirates booty
For the first time in a long while, we've come across a tale of digital wrong-doing that doesn't involve internet spaceships and is definitely not allowed by the developers. The game in question is Tales of Pirates published by IGG. Apparently a number of the game's players have fallen victim to a trick, and IGG wants to publicize this to make people aware of the scam. There's a brief warning on the official Tales of Pirates site about account security, but they just put out a press release that's far more detailed. IGG writes: "As with any popular game, IGG's Tales of Pirates has attracted its share of scammers. Even the most careful pirate can sometimes be fooled by a well-executed scam. The best way to avoid becoming a victim is to learn the common tricks scammers use. To help players, the ToP would like to highlight one particularly popular method used recently." We can only hope they emailed the full info to their playerbase, but we'll keep our own take on it short and sweet here -- five steps to violating the Tales of Pirates EULA and getting banned (and of course, what to watch out for.):
