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Sock Puppeting & Piggybacking?

Coogybear

I recently watched a video which talked about this term. Has anyone else heard about it?

Sock pupetting Is where vulnerable people or parents of the vulnerable are targeted by individuals and lured into believeing that they are communing with somebody that understands their issues, but who is actually a fake or is in the position of influencing vulnerable people to take actions they wouldn't normally take and getting fellow forum users to back up their claims by asking them to contribute to their cause also.

Is this something people with ASD need to be aware of?

Piggybacking is apparently where legitimate sites are used to mask an individuals identity.

In America it's been used to sell cures for Autism etc, by firms wanting to push their product, but it seems it's also used by others to hoodwink forum users. Has anyone heard of this?

Bit concerned really 

  • I've heard of a 'sock puppet' account before, but only in the context of it being someone's secondary account where, for whatever reason, they are attempting to conceal their connection to the first account or circumvent a disciplinary issue, for example if they want to post despite being banned, or to voice views without the risk of losing their primary account, etc. It isn't always malicious (for example, if a sock puppet is used to talk about a difficult issue with anonymity to the main account). I haven't heard it used in the way you are talking about, although I guess that could be one of the reasons one might make a sock puppet account.