Twitspam Identifies Purveyors of Disinformation [#iranElection]

Any time there’s a trending topic on Twitter, there are spammers that suddenly come out of the woodwork to exploit that topic with the intent to get you to come view their magical slapchopping, traffic-building, penis-enlarging dietary supplement.

In the case of what continues to be the top trending topic today on Twitter, #IranElection, there are those with a vested interest in utilizing the popularity of a trending topic to do worse than move a few more units of their suspicious product. Those with political skin in the game have been found to be impersonating credible, on the ground Iranian Twitterers to spread disinformation intended to harm the cause of the political dissidents, according to a post from Twitspam this evening.

Twitspam is a blog that tracks all sorts of malicious and spammy users of Twitter, and they’ve compiled a list suspicious and malicious Twitter users attempting to exploit the #IranElection hashtag.

Block Now

Obvious Disinfo

• http://twitter.com/Persian_Guy (Using fake RT to spread disinfo)
• http://twitter.com/serv_ (posing fake RTs; disinfo)
• http://twitter.com/TruePersian1 (Was preaching violence & destruction in all caps; now updates are protected)
• http://twitter.com/twitrevolution (Suggesting violence towards police and blocking of roads; such actions are likely arrestable. Either provocateur or someone really violent)

Trolls and SPAM

• http://twitter.com/louis_friend (Tweets are obviously fake, includes obscene links such as the infamous Goatse pics)
• http://twitter.com/jamal1986 (all links are to infamous Goatse pic)NEW!
• http://twitter.com/hoobastank_band (all links are to infamous Goatse pic and is faking RTs) NEW!
• http://twitter.com/WorldNewsUpdate (all links are to infamous Goatse pic) NEW!
• http://twitter.com/atcatsf (all links are to infamous Goatse pic) NEW!
• http://twitter.com/falseprophetakb (Nazi symbolism; claims Mohammad is a “false prophet” hence the username, and name is “HowardStern”)
• http://twitter.com/IRFORREAL (fake url for unrelated site)
• http://twitter.com/ohaitere (Alternating between a false report of Mousavi death and SPAM about iPhones)
• http://twitter.com/jfcrow (few tweets, all appear to be random keywords)
• http://twitter.com/Karmuk (Retweeting same message over and over)
• http://twitter.com/mikehiavelli (Same tweets over and over)
• http://twitter.com/globalmeeting (Same tweets over and over)

Suspected

• http://twitter.com/FreeMediaNews (Some tweets are fake reports)
• http://twitter.com/IRElec (Using entrapment techniques that are well known)
• http://twitter.com/lisamforeman (Possibly fake Guardian.co.uk account)
• http://twitter.com/AJE_Producer (Possibly fake Al’ Jazerra Account)

To Watch

• http://twitter.com/amoo_miki (Was following many people with no updates; only just started posting)
• http://twitter.com/AnonymousInIran (Was an Anonymous Posting Proxy with ANYONE able to post through it; now banned in Iran)
• http://twitter.com/rccccr (was following users with Iran election tweets, still no posts)
• http://twitter.com/BrothersinAbrah (a single hashtag post only)
• http://twitter.com/_SuperGreen_ (No updates so far)
• http://twitter.com/ghb78 (Following seems to be random, followers likely auto-refollow)

Suspended or removed:

• http://twitter.com/IranisFree (Had link to a website that crashes IE)
• http://twitter.com/am12976
• http://twitter.com/iranianfree2k9
• http://twitter.com/rWhZEV (Fake Iran Election headlines)

Conspiracy Theories (Not necessarily purposeful disinfo)

• http://twitter.com/persiantiki
• http://twitter.com/chartingstocks (Writing fake articles on the Iranian Election Twitters)
• http://twitter.com/obamaspy