Social Media warfare has changed throughout the past few years, what used to be a simple process has turned into something much more complex. This includes singling people out. It used to be easier to dox people when people posted whatever they wanted. Now since banning and account reporting are commonplace, righteous people have found ways to be more cryptic, while saying something that would otherwise be viewed as reportable. Now it requires a team of people to change conversation and perform legitimate work, to get someone to entrap themselves.
The best way to avoid problems like these is by blocking people who are causing trouble or people that you know are sketchy. Yes, making accounts does work, but it’s not good for content creators, who are looking for views. Block anyone who you assume is causing problems. Always keep screen shots of your block list as it grows so if your account does get taken down, you don’t have to start fresh. Also study them before you block them, see who they’re close with, or if they have any other alts. Sometimes you can notice patterns with them. Like they’ll keep bringing up sketchy topics, when not asked. Sometimes they do seem out of place.
If you ever notice anything sometimes people acting like your friends will try to manipulate you into doing or believing something you shouldn’t. Not all the bad people in the world act like bad people…sometimes they act nice, just to do horrible things. Sometimes these fake friends will use artificial emotion to get you to feel a certain way about a situation. If you know what to look for, they’ll always break. No one has a good poker face, not even online.
Another thing to look at is how old an account is online, most of these troll accounts are always relatively new. Or sometimes they’ll have a lot of information posted on the date the account was created, it’s safe to say, that the account might be fraudulent. Real accounts with real people have some variation of consistency.
When looking at timing on social media, remember…never post picture of vacation while you are on vacation. This will alert anyone who is stalking you to know when your house is empty, and easy to rob. Don’t even show off valuable when you’re posting publicly online.
Spies come in all different sizes and styles. A lot of the time they’ll try to be in control of a movement, in order to cease activity in that community. This is common both online and in the real world. The most common thing they’ll do is either make up fake problems, to sway momentum in a group, in a negative favor. They’ll also fail to communicate messages throughout the group, waste time, frustrate active members, and simply accomplish nothing. They have ways of lifting up people who are virtually useless, in an effort to make sure the groups stay controlled, rather than actively accomplishing goals. Sometimes this is in a greater effort to make a legitimate chain of command, which is useless. Once they have greater, they’ll start doing odd activities to entice active members into incriminating themselves. A lot of these group manipulators project very high value views of themselves, and usually come across as egotistical. A person with a high value to a community or movement will most likely be targeted during something like this. A lot of times when these people are being targeted, the manipulator will act friendly toward them, going so far as to use flattery to build a false friendship. The manipulator will then use this friendship to collect information, and to also to manipulate using personal emotions. Sometimes some will be abusive, to the point of acting abusive. Sometimes in the real world it’s physical, but people can use emotional abuse, just as easily online. There are many ways to use empathy and guilt online, to manipulate in ways that would otherwise be impossible. Especially since people don’t realize how vulnerable they are emotionally with personal information they share.
If you do find yourself in a situation where you might be dealing with a person like this. Look for pitches. This is when they same something random, or out of place in order to manipulate you, it almost feels like a forced conversation.