More than 15 000 bots have initiated a cryptocurrency fraud on Twitter

The bots represent the new dangers in cyberspace and the development of algorithms has allowed the emergence of robots that organize fraud in the virtual environment.

While conducting a study to figure out what is the best way to identify bots on Twitter - software-controlled accounts, not people - researchers from the cyber security company Duo Security have discovered a network of at least 15 000 bots working together to popularize cryptocurrencies fraud.

Researchers presented the study at the Black Hat conference, an information security conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. They have tried to find an effective way to find bots and bots networks. They began by analyzing the activity of 88 million public Twitter accounts between May and July 2018.

The team used machine learning techniques and other information science techniques to analyze over 500 million tweets of these accounts.

The analysis has led to the discovery of a cryptocurrency-based fraudulent scheme. According to the study, over 15 000 bots worked together to spread the popularity of a promotional campaign with cryptocurrencies, which does not exist.

The scheme requires users to pay a certain amount of money in cryptocurrencies, and in return they will get much larger profits from the digital currency they would receive. Instead, the scheme is a fraud and people do not get anything.

Researchers say they reported this fraud to Twitter, but the platform has not closed those accounts yet. A Twitter spokesman told TechCrunch that he launched an investigation into the situation. But, it remains us, which are affected by such actions. And we might wonder ourselves with the market keeps going down, but without having the right security measures in place this is the result. And while we all dream to a free market, there are still big steps to get there and only the true cryptos to be present.