What is the bot of a vicious fashion brand that aims at influencers as 'Why don't you collaborate?'



People who have a great influence on the world through SNS etc. '

Influencers ' are making profits through advertising activities that make use of their own influence, but it is highly likely that they will be targeted by fraudsters etc. due to their influence. I can say. As a software engineering expert, the United Nations and American digital about the actual situation of the fashion brand 'Vincere', which seems to operate more than 20,000 accounts that send direct messages to influencers 'Would you like to collaborate?' Marianne Berotti, who has worked for the service bureau, explains.

Who's Running the Vincere Bot Network on Instagram? | By Marianne Bellotti | The Startup | Jul, 2021 | Medium
https://medium.com/swlh/whos-running-the-vincere-bot-network-on-instagram-a558be6c69db

Vincere is a streetwear fashion brand with a large selection of fashion items such as T-shirts, sweatshirts, jeans and sunglasses. As of July 12, 2021, the number of followers on Instagram is 149,000, which seems to be at least a certain level of success on SNS.

Vincere (@vincerewears) • Instagram Photos and Videos
https://www.instagram.com/vincerewears/



However, according to Belotti's research, this Vincere is building a large-scale bot network. Belotti suspected Vincere when he sent a trap account created for investigating bots on Instagram to 'Collab? DM @vincerewears (Would you like to collaborate? If you like, reply to @vincerewears). Please) ”was received.



This trap account has no followers, no followers other than acquaintances, and no hashtags added to the post, so the mystery is 'what did the Vincere bot know about?' did. When Belotti, who was agitated in this way, conducted an investigation, it was suspected that Vincere was building a bot network to attract influencers by making full use of more than 20,000 accounts.

Vincere is a brand that adopts a sales form called 'dropship'. Dropship is a sales form in which products are not manufactured, stored, or shipped in-house, and after receiving an order, the products are manufactured, stored, and shipped to a specialist in China. It turns out that the T-shirt that is actually sold at Vincere for $ 99 (about 11,000 yen) is sold for $ 16 (about 1800 yen) at AliExpress, an online retail service operated by Alibaba Group in China. I am. In other words, Vincere earns the difference of $ 83 (about 9100 yen) as a margin.




It's not illegal for Vincere to price five times as much for T-shirts sold on Aliexpress. However, according to Mr. Belotti, competition among traders is intensifying due to the low barriers to entry that dropships can throw manufacturing, storage, shipping, etc., and advertisements by bots that traders are prohibited by the regulations It is said that there are more and more cases where people get involved in activities. These vendors take advantage of bots and say, 'You'll get 50% off all products specially. In addition, you'll get a certain margin if your followers make a purchase by promoting the code issued here. I'm asking influencers to do business and become brand ambassadors.

Vincere is not the only fashion brand that uses bots in this way. These brands often keep their addresses secret so they aren't tracked, but some brands have been found to cleverly disguise their PO Box addresses. A company called Lasting Impact LLC that uses this PO Box as an address has even been found to reuse addresses under the brands Urban Ice, Valerio, Brute Impact, Pink Pineapple, and Hype Authority.



However, according to Belotti, the total number of bot accounts suspected to be operated by brands other than Vincere is 19,000, while Vincere is suspected of operating more than 20,000 accounts. And that.

Regarding 'How Vincere's bot found a post without a hashtag by an account without followers & followers' that stimulated Mr. Belotti's curiosity, it is possible that the location tag was used.

The long pink wall in Los Angeles and Joshua Tree National Park, which is lined with huge rocks eroded by groundwater from magma that had cooled and solidified about 100 million years ago, are known as so-called 'instagram spots'. You can search for these locations by location tag to collect a large number of images that influencers are posing for.



Belotti's post that triggered it is also believed to have been detected by the Vincere bot because it was given a location tag, and in fact Belotti posted a photo taken at the

Griffith Observatory without any hashtag. , States that a message was sent from the bot.

Such bot networks are not directly operated by fashion brands such as Vincere, and there is evidence that at least part of the network is 'buying from the market.' Belotti cites the bot's account name as proof of this, and many bots promoting Vincere have been confirmed to include the name of the fashion brand 'Valerio' that competes with Vincere.



According to Belotti, one of the pricing methods used to buy and sell these bot networks is to 'determine the price based on the number of followers.' However, since bot sellers can also 'follow with bot accounts', malicious fashion brands that advertise on bots have not increased their human followers at all as a result of being followed by a large number of bots. However, there is a possibility of fraud that 'you have to pay a lot of money'. Belotti commented on this situation, 'In the end, fraudsters are being scammed.'

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