◇ "One person has 5-10 high imitation accounts, and the monthly income exceeds 5,000 yuan is not a problem."
◇When fake accounts bring the number of daily active users and even advertising revenue to the platform, the attitude of the platform will inevitably become ambiguous
◇ "In order to complete business performance, some companies condone or take the initiative to make false accounts."
On the screen, "fake Jin Dong" and "fake Andy Lau" one mouthful and one "sister"; off the screen, middle-aged and elderly women fall into it and give rewards.
On all major short video platforms, this absurd scene is not uncommon.
Not only fake celebrity accounts, some high imitation accounts pretend to be government departments, commercial organizations, and experts and celebrities, harvesting traffic and realizing cash on online platforms.
A reporter from "Liaowang" Newsweek found through investigation that behind these highly imitation accounts is a gray industrial chain of creating and selling accounts.
The interviewed experts suggested that the crackdown on the high imitation account platform should not only strengthen management, use technical means to identify and clean up in time, but also promote the program through a reasonable upgrade of the intelligent algorithm to prevent the high imitation account video from being pushed to the program homepage; more Linkage, fill up the blank spots in supervision, so that the high imitation number has nowhere to hide.
High imitation account scams all over the Internet
The fake star number in the short video is the latest variant of the high imitation number.
According to the observation of Tian Jiyun, a business security expert at Topxiang: In the past two years, Weibo most commonly used high-fake accounts posing as experts or "stock gods". For example, there were a large number of accounts posing as economist Watson.
With the rise of short videos, celebrities have replaced stock gods and become the target of people's desires. Fake stars who can give companionship and praise have appeared one after another.
Not only celebrities, but also ordinary people's online accounts will be highly copied.
The Weibo account of netizen Zhang Hui's friend "Miss MissX" contacted her via private message one day, falsely claiming that the payment was not smooth abroad, and asked Zhang Hui to help advance the air ticket.
The account also released pictures of playing in Rome in the early hours of the same day.
Therefore, Zhang Hui had no doubts and readily paid 13,900 yuan in advance.
She didn't realize that the account was a high imitation account until she discovered that the screenshot of the repayment transfer sent by the other party was fake.
The reporter's investigation found that many netizens in many places have encountered Weibo friends high imitation account private letter fraud.
Some were asked to advance the air ticket, and some were asked to advance the baggage freight. It seems an unskilled scam, but it is hard to prevent.
There are also many accounts of highly imitated government departments and commercial organizations.
"Your car's annual inspection exemption period is about to expire. You can conduct an annual review on the WeChat official account." Mr. Xu from Quanzhou, Fujian received such a message. According to the SMS prompt, he searched for the public named "Fujian Vehicle Annual Inspection" After clicking on the link, he was directed to a website. After entering the bank card number, engine number, card password and SMS verification code, he was cheated of 2000 yuan.
Some accounts are counterfeit financial institutions and borrow money to help fans increase the amount of online loans.
The reporter searched for "Alipay" and "WeBank" on Xiaohongshu, and saw that many accounts were named Alipay or WeBank Manager ××, and the corresponding official trademarks were used as avatars.
And the replies of these accounts are very "official", making it hard to tell.
On Sina Weibo, the reporter used "Xiweidai" or "borrow" to search for users, and found many high imitation accounts. Some accounts even have more than 10,000 fans.
The cost of fraud is almost zero
"What's the most valuable in the Internet age? Traffic." A Weibo high imitation account practitioner told reporters that the cost of making high imitation accounts is very low. You only need to do some copy and paste work, but the flow is very fast, and then through receiving advertisements. , Bring goods, sell number, etc. to realize the flow.
"One person has 5 to 10 high imitation accounts, and the monthly income exceeds 5,000 yuan is not a problem."
During the investigation, the reporter found that some high-fun phones showed the characteristics of gang operation and matrix production.
On a short video platform, a fake account named "Chairman Ma" releases Ma Yun's videos from time to time. The 47 people on the account's follow list are all high imitation accounts named "Ma" and "Ms. Ma" , The content posted by the account is basically similar.
After these high imitation numbers accumulate traffic, the most direct way to monetize is to receive advertisements.
The reporter contacted a high imitation number operator in the name of apprentice. He said that when the number of fans reached a certain size, a media company would come to ask to "push some unpleasant songs", and fake stars to sing these songs through editing. The video is used for broadcasting.
"The price of a song for an account with 600,000 fans ranges from 150 to 300 yuan."
Some accounts can also be sold after being developed.
The reporter saw on a high imitation account trading platform that the "fake star account" is a best-selling type, and an account with 660,000 fans sells for as much as 30,000 yuan.
From the perspective of fake celebrity accounts on various platforms, it is not difficult for such accounts to attract fans. A newly registered account can have 100,000 fans by posting only 8 videos, and it can realize several thousand yuan in a few days.
The live broadcast is also a way to make a quick profit on the high imitation number.
In a live broadcast room called "East Ge", "Fake Jin Dong" frequently asked fans for rewards and likes.
"My brother is filming "First Take Off" recently, and I hope my sister will support you. It is fate that keeps us together. Every day I come back from filming, I will read your messages." During the reporter's observation, 140 viewers sent it out as the anchor shouted. More than 700 gifts.
Data after the live broadcast showed that the anchor received 170,000 likes.
Asking for gifts on live broadcast is only the first step, and some high imitation accounts also take advantage of the situation to start live broadcast with goods.
In a "fake Jin Dong" live broadcast room, the anchor launched tea, lady cream and other products. The audience in the live broadcast room was mostly middle-aged and elderly women. For the hard-won "care", they placed orders to please the "stars."
Gao Fang not only harvests the middle-aged and elderly groups, but also young people as targets for hunting.
"Now that mobile phones and tablet computers are updated so quickly, young people always have the need for advanced consumption." Some people in the industry gave reporters "weapon" and opened a counterfeit financial institution account, specializing in promoting "huabei", "borrowing" and "particles". The business is good.
The reporter saw a Weibo account that faked "Xiweidai", and the number of fans was close to 20,000, many of which were users of "post-95s" and school students.
Most of the Weibo content posted by this account are screenshots and videos that help others increase the loan limit, some of which even exceed 100,000 yuan.
Algorithm should be upgraded
During the interview, an industry insider revealed to reporters that online platform supervision is relatively lagging. Even if a fake account is dealt with, it will be “washed out” after re-registering with new identity information.
The algorithm recommendation mode of some short video platforms has helped to a certain extent the spread of high imitation videos.
After users watch a video posted by a high imitation account, they will continue to scan similar videos.
Tian Jiyun said that high imitation numbers are often produced in batches.
Some criminal gangs purchase information such as accounts and identities on websites and platforms from the black market, register, tamper with, and authenticate, and use tools such as group control and IP dialing to log in and manipulate accounts in batches.
The content released by the high imitation account can also be produced in batches.
Generally, tools such as web crawlers are used, based on the information released by the users who are counterfeited in the media, Weibo, WeChat and other public platforms, and the counterfeiting is released simultaneously.
Investigating these high imitation numbers seems to be "beating moles", lay down one, and emerge another.
Especially when these fake accounts bring the number of daily active users and even advertising revenue to the platform, the attitude of the platform will inevitably become ambiguous.
"Fighting against false accounts sometimes conflicts with the needs of business growth. Some companies have loosened control for performance, and some companies even condone or take the initiative to make false accounts in order to complete business performance." Tian Jiyun said.
Experts in the industry said that the precise search for a high imitation account requires the process of purchasing citizens' personal information, screening information, and continuous tracking.
Therefore, relevant platforms must shoulder the social responsibility of anti-fraud.
In the current situation where relevant laws and regulations are not yet sound, relevant platforms should establish relevant mechanisms for supervision and management of anti-fraud within the scope of possible, track and analyze the dynamics on the platform, and remind netizens.
Gao Yandong, an associate professor at Zhejiang University's Guanghua School of Law, suggested that the platform should use technical means to identify and clean up high imitation numbers in a timely manner.
At the same time, through a reasonable upgrade of the intelligent algorithm push program, inferior videos similar to the fake Jin Dong incident were pushed to the program homepage.
When the platform cannot determine whether its content is suspected of fraud, it should promptly report to the public security organ or network management department and actively assist in the investigation. At the same time, it can also provide a reporting platform for netizens, and work together to fill up regulatory gaps and create a clear cyberspace.
(Reporters Wu Jianfeng and Yan Zhihong)