Online Identity that is not who you actually are. Its somebody whom you are not in real life. A bit like Fake Accounts. The point of Sock Puppet is to not draw attention back to yourself.
Say for doing an OSINT Investigation or looking into research or looking into people, Argo is to never let the person know that we are looking into them
A sock puppet is defined as a person whose actions are controlled by another. It
is often used to refer to alternative online identities or user accounts used for purposes of deception. Online, it came to be used to refer to a false identity assumed by a member of an internet community who spoke to, or about, themselves while pretending to be another person.
A number of techniques have been developed to determine whether accounts are sockpuppets, including comparing the IP addresses of suspected sockpuppets and comparative analysis of the writing style of suspected sockpuppets. Using GeoIP it is possible to look up the IP addresses and locate them.
TYPES :
- Block evasion
One reason for sockpuppeting is to circumvent a block, ban or other form of sanction imposed on the person’s original account.
- Ballot stuffing
Sockpuppets may be created during an online poll to increase the puppeteer’s votes. A related usage is the creation of multiple identities, each supporting the puppeteer’s views in an argument, attempting to position the puppeteer as representing majority opinion and side-line opposition voices. In the abstract theory of social networks and reputation systems, this is known as a sybil attack.
A sockpuppet-like use of deceptive fake identities is used in stealth marketing. The stealth marketer creates one or more pseudonymous accounts, each claiming to be a different enthusiastic supporter of the sponsor’s product, book or ideology.
- Strawman sockpuppet
A strawman sockpuppet (sometimes abbreviated as strawpuppet) is a false flag pseudonym created to make a particular point of view look foolish or unwholesome in order to generate negative sentiment against it. Strawman sockpuppets typically behave in an unintelligent, uninformed, or bigoted manner, advancing “straw man” arguments that their puppeteers can easily refute. The intended effect is to discredit more rational arguments made for the same position. Such sockpuppets behave in a similar manner to Internet trolls.
A particular case is the concern troll, a false flag pseudonym created by a user whose actual point of view is opposed to that of the sockpuppet. The concern troll posts in web forums devoted to its declared point of view and attempts to sway the group’s actions or opinions while claiming to share their goals, but with professed “concerns”. The goal is to sow fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) within the group.
- Meatpuppet
Some online sources use the term “meatpuppet” to describe sockpuppet behaviours. For example, according to one online encyclopedia, a meatpuppet “publishes comments on blogs, wikis and other public venues about some phenomenon or product in order to generate public interest and buzz” — that is, they are engaged in behaviour more widely known as “astroturfing”. A 2006 article in The Chronicle of Higher Education defined a meatpuppet as “a peculiar inhabitant of the digital world — a fictional character that passes for a real person online.”
LINKS for Tools
Intro to Creating an Effective Sock Puppet (way back archive): https://web.archive.org/web/20210307173507/https://jakecreps.com/sock-puppets/
The Art Of The Sock — https://www.secjuice.com/the-art-of-the-sock-osint-humint/
My Process for Setting up Anonymous Sock Puppet Accounts(reddit) — https://www.reddit.com/r/OSINT/comments/dp70jr/my_process_for_setting_up_anonymous_sockpuppet/
Fake Name Generator — https://www.fakenamegenerator.com/
This Person Does not Exist — https://www.thispersondoesnotexist.com/ (Completely AI generated picture of a person who does not EVEN EXIST)
Privacy.com — https://privacy.com/join/LADFC
**For this you need to use a completely different/new device where you have not ever logged your personal information. Do not do this on your own IP address of a personal device , because then it can be trackable. Also always use a VPN (just in case). But note that sites like Facebook, Instagram will ask for an authentication/verification and then not allow because they then get to know that it’s a fake account. If VPN isn’t available, use a ‘mobile’ network. Your persona of the fake account must look as legitimate as possible.
