SOCIAL MEDIA FRAUD SHOCK

MILLIONS of fake Twitter and Facebook accounts are feeding a shadowy global marketplace for social media fraud, a new investigation has revealed.

The New York Times report states that up to 48 million of Twitter’s claimed 330 million monthly active users are actually fake. That is nearly 15 per cent of all Twitter accounts.

Twitter has refuted the figure, but the platform is far from alone. Facebook revealed to investors that it hosted up to 60 million fake accounts, more than twice as many as previously estimated.

The new report claims the fake accounts, also known as “bots”, are influential in shaping public opinion, amplifying messages and spreading fake news. They can also defraud businesses and ruin reputations.

However, US Senator Mark Warner, a ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which has been investigating the spread of fake accounts on Facebook, Twitter and other platforms, told the Times that the creating and selling of fake accounts fell into a “legal grey zone”.

“The continued viability of fraudulent accounts and interactions on social media platforms – and the professionalisation of these fraudulent services – is an indication that there’s still much work to do,” he told the newspaper.

The report also looks into Devumi, one of the most popular companies for buying social media followers – which reportedly has 3.5 million fake accounts on offer for its clients. Devumi reportedly sells Twitter followers and retweets to celebrities, businesses and anyone who wants to appear more popular online.

The Times analysis showed the company had provided customers with more than 200 million Twitter followers.

And there are some big names in among those.

Romeo + Juliet star John Leguizamo has Devumi followers, according to the report. So does Michael Dell, the computer billionaire, and Ray Lewis, the American football commentator and former Ravens linebacker.

Kathy Ireland, the onetime swimsuit model who now presides over a halfbillion-dollar licensing empire, has hundreds of thousands of fake Devumi followers, as does Akbar Gbajabiamila, host of the show American Ninja Warrior.

Dean Leal, who works in the adult film industry and tweets from @PornoDan, told the Times, “Countless public figures, companies, music acts, etc purchase followers. If Twitter was to purge everyone who did so, there would be hardly any of them on it.”