A methodology for the detection of multiple accounts in social networks

A methodology for the detection of multiple accounts in social networks

Zaher YamakJulien Saunier Laurent Vercouter 

INSA Rouen, Laboratoire LITIS, 685 Avenue del'Université, Saint Etienne du Rouvray Cedex, 76801, France

Corresponding Author Email: 
zaher.yamak@insa-rouen.fr, julien.saunier@insa-rouen.fr, laurent.vercouter@insa-rouen.fr
Page: 
419-439
|
DOI: 
https://doi.org/10.3166/RIA.30.419-439
Received: 
N/A
| |
Accepted: 
N/A
| | Citation

OPEN ACCESS

Abstract: 

With the growth of social media as the most important element of internet in term of visitors, fake accounts detection has become one of the hardest social media security challenges. Over the years, online social media (OSN) have evolved widely, converting part of our personal lives to virtual ones. But this evolution also has negative effects. In 2012, 16.6 million of Americans were victims of identity theft according to an estimate from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, with up to $24.7 billion of financial losses for these victims. Various techniques are used to manipulate users in OSN environments such as social spam, identity theft, spear phishing and Sybil attacks... In this article, we are interested in analyzing the behavior of multiple fake accounts that try to bypass the OSN regulation. In the context of social media manipulation detection, we focus on the special case of multiple Identity accounts (Sockpuppet) created on English Wikipedia (EnWiki). We set up a complete methodology spanning from the data extraction from EnWiki to the training and testing of our selected data using several machine learning algorithms. In our methodology we propose a set of features that grows on previous literature to use in automatic data analysis in order to detect the Sockpuppets accounts created on EnWiki. We apply them on a database of 10 000 user accounts. The results compare several machine learning algorithms to show that our new features and training data enable to detect 99 % of fake accounts, improving previous results from the literature.

Keywords: 

sockpuppet, machine learning application, manipulation, deception, identity, wikipedia, collaborative project, social media

1. Introduction
2. Les projets collaboratifs et Wikipédia
3. Travaux connexes
4. Méthodologie et indicateurs
5. Expérimentation et résultats
7. Conclusion et perspectives
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