紐約調查在社交媒體平臺出售殭屍粉公司

New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has launched an investigation of a firm that allegedly sold millions of fake followers to social media users.

The company, Devumi, sold more than 200 million fake followers, or bots, to celebrities, sports stars, and politicians, The New York Times reported.

"Impersonation and deception are illegal under New York law," Schneiderman tweeted. "We are opening an investigation into Devumi and its apparent sale of bots using stolen identities."

The Times reported that at least 55,000 of the bot accounts names, Pictures, hometowns and other details taken from people on Twitter. The information was stolen from people in every U.S. state as well as dozens of countries, The Times said.

"The growing prevalence of bots means that real voices are too often drowned out in public conversation," Schneiderman said. "Those who can pay the most for followers can buy their way to apparent influence."

On social media, high follower numbers means greater influence and visibility, which can impact public opinion and offer lucrative financial deals for the account holders.

On its website, Devumi offers customers the chance to buy up to 500,000 followers for social media sites including Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Vimeo, with prices starting at as little as $12.紐約州總檢察長史樹德開始調查一家據稱向社交媒體用戶出售了兩億多殭屍粉的公司。

紐約時報報道，Devumi公司向名人、體育明星和政界人士出售了兩億多殭屍粉。

紐約總檢察長史樹德(Eric Schneiderman)說：“根據紐約州法律，假冒和欺詐是違法行爲。我們開始調查Devumi公司。看來這家公司用盜竊的用戶信息出售了殭屍粉。”

《紐約時報》報道，至少有5萬5000人的推特信息被獵取，包括用戶名、照片、居住地點以及其它一些詳細信息。《紐約時報》說，被盜竊信息的用戶來自美國50個州和幾十個國家。

史樹德說：“日益增多的殭屍粉意味着公共對話中的真正聲音被淹沒。那些能出大價錢購買殭屍粉的人能夠用錢換取影響力。”

在社交媒體上，擁有大量粉絲意味着更大的影響和曝光度，能影響公衆輿論，還經常能給這些高粉絲用戶帶來回報豐厚的簽約。

Devumi公司在其網站上可讓客戶購買各社交媒體平臺的最多50萬殭屍粉，包括推特(Twitter)、Youtube、領英(LinkedIn)、繽趣(Pinterest)、和Vimeo，價格從12美元起。