Sock Puppet accounts are often created to pose as someone else or to promote something. How do you easily identify these accounts?
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Sock Puppet accounts are often created to pose as someone else or to promote something. How do you easily identify these accounts?
When creating an alternative name for a sock puppet account, sock puppets normally create random users names or will often stick to derivates of their original name such as using different words that express the same concept or simply add new digits like numbers and letters to their names if they wish to be discovered. These derivates are familiar to them because they may have a connection with them being their preferences, self-being among others. In the case of harassment and causing drama and trouble, sock puppets may choose to bear almost the equal user name with just some small modifications, a trait I have observed in many sock puppet accounts. However if a sock is designed to actually help and support their puppet master they will likely choose a different user name that doesn´t have any sort of connection to their other original account.
Sock accounts and their puppet master are not always logged in at the same time. While editing this factor is less useful but as sock accounts are the same person it would only be natural for them to edit in the same time period which can provide you a clue. On chat however, this can prove to be quite effective. Most of the times, when a sock puppeter decides he wishes to be on chat with another one of his accounts to achieve any of his goals, he must exit chat, log in on his sock account and then make a return with his new account.
My encounters with sock puppets, I have seen many who instead of adopting a good avatar, instead adopted one of the Avatars offered on the internet. More experienced sock puppets do choose different avatars, however even they can make a mistake, choosing an avatar that had some sort of connection to the avatar of their previous account.