How to create a fake persona and get retweeted by Trump

[jsteele]

This is an incredible story:

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/trump-retweets-nicole-mincey

Someone created a complete fake persona which included a Twitter feed with an army of bot followers, an online store, and "sponsored content" on websites. On Saturday, Trump retweeted a tweet from this fake account:

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/893970139565129730

Both the main fake Twitter account, ProTrump45 and many of the fake account's bot followers used photos from the PlaceIt photo mockup service. That service discovered what was going on and accused whoever was behind the accounts of identity theft:

https://twitter.com/placeitapp/status/894304751701168129

Twitter eventually suspended the accounts so they are no longer available.

Before all of this came to light, the Daily Caller published an article about ProTrump45:

http://dailycaller.com/2017/06/05/protrump45-black-pro-trump-conservative-begins-pro-trump-empire/

It is almost impossible to tell, but this is a sponsored article, meaning that someone offered it to the Daily Caller to publish in return for a portion of any profit made from sales generated by the article.

WND published what it called a "WND Exclusive" article about ProTrump45:

http://www.wnd.com/2017/05/black-liberal-woman-dumps-obama-to-run-trump-store/

This even led to Heavy.com publishing a profile of the fake persona:

https://heavy.com/news/2017/08/nicole-mincey-trump-store-new-jersey-who-is-gear-twitter-bio/

This profile has been updated to included the following:

"Heavy has identified the real name used to create the Twitter handle and other social media, and it’s the name of a 21-year-old college student from New Jersey who says her identity was stolen..."

Heavy.com seems to think the ProTrump45 persona was invented for marketing purposes and is attached to a real person.

At any rate, whether invented for entrepreneurial or political reasons, the persona is completely made up.

[Anonymous]

Wouldn't be surprised if DJT is somehow getting a cut of the action and he basically just advertised his own swag (but didn't want to get caught).

It's amazing to me how many people involved with this "story" simply had no comment as to how they got in touch with this "Nicole Mincey" persona.

[Anonymous]

Seriously, what would be the motivation for someone to do this? I don't understand the point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seriously, what would be the motivation for someone to do this? I don't understand the point.

To make $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$