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An algorithm developed at Carnegie Mellon University makes it easier to determine if someone has faked an Amazon or Yelp review or if a politician with a suspiciously large number of Twitter followers might have bought and paid for that popularity.
The method, called FRAUDAR, marks the latest escalation in the cat-and-mouse game played by online fraudsters and the social media platforms that try to out them. In particular, the new algorithm makes it possible to see through camouflage that fraudsters use to make themselves look legitimate, said Christos Faloutsos, professor of machine learning and computer science.
In real-world experiments using Twitter data for 41.7 million users and 1.47 billion followers, FRAUDAR fingered more than 4,000 accounts not previously identified as fraudulent, including many that used known follower-buying services such as TweepMe and TweeterGetter.
Bad news for the nascent astroturfing industry.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 09 2016, @04:02PM
Found a neat 'trick' yesterday. Found it on a conservative forum.
If you are in a 'battleground' state. NC/OH/FL etc. Goto craigslist. Pick a city. Goto jobs and search for 'outreach'.
You will quickly come across items like this http://charlotte.craigslist.org/csr/5772276212.html [craigslist.org]
"Community Outreach Group is hiring canvassers to knock on doors and convince people to vote and vote for our endorsed candidates"
Some are a bit more blatant.
http://miami.craigslist.org/mdc/npo/5749027375.html [craigslist.org]
Have not figured out the conservative keyword yet to search for.
(Score: 2) by vux984 on Friday September 09 2016, @04:24PM
Did you somehow think there candidates that weren't hiring people all over the place to help them get elected? To help them convince voters to elect them. I mean from Reince Preibus and the interim person at the DNC on down through the ranks... that's basically what their job is.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 09 2016, @04:48PM
https://xkcd.com/1053/ [xkcd.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 09 2016, @04:31PM
Knocking on doors to pester citizens to vote for your candidate is as American as apple pie.