After a brief reading of the hateful website, it is not hard to get the impression that we are witnessing manipulation. An obvious question comes to mind. Who in their right mind would spend so much time, energy and, above all, a huge amount of money to create a slanderous website about another person, buy domains, hosting services, position the site, hide identities, pay for services with cryptocurrency, use stolen personal information, edit fake content and blogs? Does a normal person who has a family, a job and related daily responsibilities have time to build and systematically develop a biased and hate-filled website about another person? The answer is obvious. No one in their right mind would devote such a huge amount of time and money to slandering another person, unless it is a specialized group hired for this purpose, which is engaged in disinformation and slandering of individuals or companies on the Internet on commission and for money. Online hate, disinformation, fake news, hateful speech, destroying others' image online is a very profitable business today. The Internet is teeming with ads that, under the guise of legality, offer paid online hate, publishing fake news, disinformation, black PR, creating fake and manipulated websites and social media profiles using specialized criminal groups commonly known as internet troll farms. The website that slanders me is a clear example of the activities of just such an online hater group whose hallmark is anonymous, large-scale patterned activity, using stolen personal information and photos, random knowledge of the victim, impersonating other people, creating manipulated content and websites, publishing false comments, denying facts, ignoring evidence presented, and repeating the same manipulated lies over and over again.
Online hate speech (illustrator – Jakub Regulski)
Jakub Regulski – When are we dealing with anonline scam?
An anonymous author, impersonation of other users, hiding the IP addresses, falsifying comments, lack of substantive evidence and corroboration, random and online acquired knowledge of victims, ignoring the facts presented, and finally the old Goebbelsian method of repeating the same lies in the hope that they will stick in the memory of the recipient are the hallmarks of online haters' activities, internet trolls and groups engaged in paid online hate, publishing fake news and discrediting individuals and companies for hire. The list below shows the typical mechanisms used by such groups. Similar methods have also been used to launch internet hate attacks on my person.
Anonymity and identity concealment
Fake social media accounts
Impersonating other users
Theft of victims' personal information and photos
Publishing lying opinions and comments on Internet portals
Continuous reference to the same unreliable source
Constant repetition of the same lies, flashy headlines
Staging artificial discussion, media hype
Ignoring the evidence presented
Displacing responsibility
Engaging costly and disproportionate resources and technologies
Paying domains and hosting with cryptocurrencies
Episodic knowledge available online about victims
Jakub Regulski – The behind-the-scenes of online manipulations
With the development of modern Internet technologies, the paid online hate business and related methods of data acquisition and manipulation have also evolved. In order to lend credibility and thwart their twisted activities, the haters resort to ever newer methods of manipulation and disinformation of their audiences. This article is intended to expose the behind-the-scenes activities of an online hater group which, for money and at the behest of a rogue pathological businessman hungry for revenge, created a fake website slandering me. Below I will present the most important of the manipulation techniques and Internet tools which were also used to make the hateful attack on my person credible.
Hater's art of audience manipulation (illustrator – Jakub Regulski)
Jakub Regulski – Social engineering
As a rule, most people are gullible, focus on the main messages, headlines, repeated phrases, and do not have time to verify the reliability of the information they obtain. Criminals take advantage of these characteristics to manipulate their victims. In order to increase their credibility, to gain the trust of their employees, they often pose as belonging to an organization they know the victim works for. Therefore, they obtain internal company data in advance by impersonating company employees, hacking into the victim's private accounts to gain as much information as possible to discredit and destroy the victim. Exactly such techniques were used by a group of online haters who, with the money of a dishonest businessman, attempted to destroy my image on the Internet. It stole my private data and photos which it then used to create a biased and manipulated website offensive website.
In recent years, the topic of surveillance has become very popular with the notorious system for taking control of computers and cell phones which, instead of being used to fight criminals, has been used to surveil and discredit political opponents. Surveillance and harassment of their victims is also one of the primary reconnaissance activities used by criminal groups specializing in commissioned online hate. In order to lend credibility to their actions and build a personal profile of their victims, the online haters primarily use information obtained online. Their most common sources are popular social networking sites, business networking sites, as well as the publicly available National Court Register, from where they obtain information on the professional activities of victims in order to further persecute them. In order to obtain as much information as possible, the haters commit many crimes including hacking into private accounts, stealing photos and personal data. The information obtained in this way is then used to impersonate other people. Similar mechanisms were also used to organize an attack on my person. Acting on commission, the online haters first stole my personal data and photos and then, illegally impersonating my person, created a slanderous manipulated and anonymous website. Particularly noteworthy is the fact that the action of the online haters is strictly dependent on the amount of information acquired in advance, so the surveillance of victims is a key factor for the execution of the accepted order.
Surveillance of victims
Jakub Regulski – Anonymity, hiding identity online
This is the main hallmark of the online hater, internet troll farms, whisperers and companies that make money from destroying your image online. The online hate on my person is a clear example of hiding one's identity and trying to avoid responsibility for breaking the law. To conceal their identities, online criminals create fake email addresses and accounts on popular social networking profiles, use stolen personal information to register accounts, mask their location using VPN technology and register their activities far outside the European Union in an attempt to make them more difficult to detect by Polish law enforcement authorities. Online criminals cannot rest easy, however, as more and more often the real perpetrators of hate speech are found and brought to justice. Therefore, the hallmarks of online crooks are hiding online identities, constantly changing the location of the servers on which they post illegal content, and blocking their visibility using sophisticated and expensive Internet services.
Online anonymity
Jakub Regulski – Internet Trolls
Faking Twitter and Facebook accounts, publishing manipulated comments on popular websites, and using photos stolen online are typical techniques used by notorious troll farms. The term appeared in the Polish dictionary relatively recently, but immediately became hugely important due to the negative impact it has had on sociopolitical assessment through the creation of a false and manipulated alternative reality on the Internet. An Internet troll farm is an organized group whose goal is to push a certain type of false information online. Their operation is schematic. Impersonating ordinary users who supposedly share their insights and opinions, they publish manipulated comments on social media and popular online forums following a strictly established strategy. Internet trolls are most often used to damage the image of individuals or companies on the Internet, but also as a political tool to manipulate public opinion. Troll farms are believed to be responsible for influencing the decision for Britain to leave the European Union, influencing the presidential campaign in the U.S. or running an anti-vaccine campaign around the world.
Internet Trolls (illustrator – Jakub Regulski)
Jakub Regulski – The dark side of cryptocurrencies
Cryptocurrency is a special case of virtual currency. It is a digital representation of a contractual value unissued and not guaranteed by any central bank in the world operating according to a specific computer algorithm. The feature of cryptocurrencies that causes the most controversy is its anonymity. For it makes it possible to hide one's identity, by which it is often used in criminal activities as well. This does not mean, of course, that cryptocurrencies are designed for criminal activity, however, due to the anonymity they offer, they make it much more difficult to detect perpetrators of crimes and their effective prosecution by the police. Therefore, payment with cryptocurrencies is also increasingly used by online haters to pay for their domains and hosting services in order to conceal their identities and thwart their criminal activities.
The dark side of cryptocurrencies (illustrator – Jakub Regulski)
Jakub Regulski – Fake news and fake websites
Fake news is untrue information published in the media, often of a sensational and scandalous nature, with the intention of misleading audiences in order to damage the image of individuals or institutions, elicit an appropriate audience reaction, achieve a specific benefit or divert attention from inconvenient facts. Fake news is a popular tool of propaganda and disinformation published on specially created fake news websites (Fake news websites). Such sites often contain sensational and attention-grabbing headlines (clickbait), impersonate well-known and respected news sources and their addresses, as in my case, are likened to well-known and trusted people's names or company names. Such is the multi-layered strategy of spreading and amplifying fake news, false information and narratives that Russian hackers have been using for many years in their disinformation war.
Jakub Regulski – Fake comments on the Internet
In recent years, immense popularity among online haters and Internet trolls have gained numerous portals and Internet forums which, due to the complete anonymity of their users and the lack of reliable verification of the content posted there, often become an arena of total hegemony, a place where whoever wants can write absolutely whatever they want without any consequences. As a result, much of the content published there, is extremely hurtful to the subjects described there, and following the logic of a common sense person, it is difficult to give them uncritical faith. What's more, in order to mislead readers, the online haters often resort to sociotechnical tricks, for example, arranging a conversation on the forum between seemingly strangers who in reality are members of the same online haters' group.
Fake comments on the Internet
Jakub Regulski – Whisper marketing
The idea of whisper marketing is simple. This is an activity aimed at creating an artificial discussion among Internet users, a kind of media hype about the subject of the order. Every serious businessman knows how much effort and time it takes to build a positive image online. Sometimes one false post or comment posted on major portals, forums or social media can ruin the career of an honest person or destroy a prosperous company. Of course, whisper marketing can be an effective form of communication and promotion, but only if it is conducted reliably, professionally and, above all, honestly. Unfortunately, it not infrequently becomes a tool in the hands of supposed "specialists" who, without the proper qualifications, on their own or in cooperation with others, slander other people or companies on forums and social networks. On the Internet, you can find more and more offers of dishonest companies that ostensibly deal with whisper marketing but in reality have little to do with it. Instead, their primary source of income is sowing disinformation, publishing manipulated, hurtful comments and opinions in order to discredit and destroy the reputation of individuals or companies. The principals of such services are most often companies that in a short period of time want to eliminate their competitors and take over their customers at any cost. It also happens that the victims of pseudo whisperers are also ordinary citizens who, through their civic and honest attitude, become the target of attack by groups sowing disinformation for money.
Jakub Regulski – VPN - hiding the IP address
A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is an Internet technology whose mechanism of operation is based primarily on hiding the user's real IP address and encrypting data sent during an Internet connection. In other words, a VPN allows users to remain anonymous online by enabling them to hide their true identity and impersonate others. That's why VPNs have become the most popular tool in the hands of online haters, trolls and groups that engage in online hate on commission and for money. As in the case of the attack on my person, the mechanism of action of the haters is always the same. Haters first mask their identities, impersonate other often fictitious people and then publish false comments and untrue information on well-known forums and websites thus building a false image of their victims in order to then use the accumulated material to build a false narrative, fake news and heydays websites.
Jakub Regulski – Emoticons - manipulation of the audience's moods
Emoticons are another very popular tool in the hands of Internet trolls. Emoticons are emotion icons most often found below comments published by users, used to evaluate content by readers. The most common emoticons used to evaluate comments are smile icons to indicate that the user liked our comment and sad icons to indicate disapproval of the content we publish. Readers, after reading a given comment, make a one-time evaluation of its content by clicking on one of the emoticons.
Emoticons
The number of positive and negative clicks is summed up and displayed, thus illustrating the scale of interest in a given comment and the mood of readers. And it is precisely because of the ability to manipulate the moods of the audience that emoticons have become one of the most powerful social engineering tools used by online haters. With the VPN technology described earlier, in order to arouse negative emotions in readers and give the impression of interest in fake content, the haters generate a series of random IP addresses which allows them to repeatedly click emoticons of emotions under comments as if they were clicked by subsequent readers. The result is a false picture of readers' interest in and emotional attitudes toward the manipulated content, thus affecting their credibility ratings.
