Welcome to Logos Red, I go by logos and:
Want a double identity?
In this post we’ll be covering how to create a sock puppet to gain information on people on social media. Oftentimes we aren’t allowed to browse accounts without having one. Which is why it’s essential to build a sock puppet.
We’ll do so using a few simple tools and a good bit of manual work.
Don’t worry, I made it as simple as I could. Anybody can follow along.
My Promise
This post will finally end your meaningless search for a valid answer, and you will leave with a sock puppet account.
If there are still any questions left, let me know so I can add it to help the next person who will arrive here.
My Goal
To help you improve in less time than it took me and to make sure you leave with what I promised.
I want you to join our community and for this to be a place that you revisit often.
Use your OSINT skills to help find missing people
If you want to practice your OSINT skills, you can do so by helping families find their missing loved ones.
Become an investigator and join the movement over at TraceLabs: https://www.tracelabs.org/
Requirements
- An OSINT Lab, such as the one I built here: OSINT Investigations: A Guide to Setting Up a Virtual Lab
What is a sock puppet?
A sock puppet is “a person whose actions are controlled by another.”
Well for us?
We’ll be controlling a fake online persona. This can take the form of two kinds:
- An avatar that imitates a real person.
- An avatar that imitates an idea. Think of people who create celebrity fan accounts. Those are avatars based on an idea, not a real person.
You can choose either, depending on what your goals are for OSINT. Your main goal is just to make your sock puppet seem real.
Prerequisites
Make sure that you’re inside your OSINT lab and that your VPN is up and running.
You will most likely have issues with verifying your identity on social media due to the VPN, which is why a prepaid SIM is recommended. You’ll use it in case SMS verification is required.
You can usually buy these at gas stations and small corner shops and they can be used to verify your social media accounts.
How can I create a persona?
First of all, go over to https://thispersondoesnotexist.com/ and find yourself an avatar. You can refresh as many times as you want until you find a suitable one.
Or you can step up your game and use an AI generator such as Stable Diffusion (free and open source):
https://github.com/easydiffusion/easydiffusion
Do not use images that are taken from Google. As those can be reverse searched and your whole fake identity is then pointless.
Once you’ve given your avatar a face, give it a name by using: https://www.fakenamegenerator.com/
Here you can leverage any languages you know and make the character similar to you, but still distinct. Don’t lie too much. This is more if you want to get into HUMINT (Human Intelligence), which is gathering data from people through social engineering.
For a simple spy account, don’t bother too much.
Setting up the accounts
Once you’ve done so, I recommend that you set up a Gmail account. Yes, Google tracks you, but you’re using a VPN. It will help a lot when it comes to setting up social media accounts. A lot will flag you for not using Gmail.
Then link a password manager to that gmail account. I recommend Bitwarden: https://bitwarden.com/
Once you have all that set up, these are the social media platforms that you should sign up for. Add your character’s traits, make it seem real by following people, posting, and sharing content.
This can help you if you need to friend someone on Facebook/Instagram or connect with somebody on LinkedIn.
The main platforms to use for OSINT are:
- TikTok
- X (Twitter)
But we will get into social media OSINT in a future post.
These can help you with gathering data about a person. You’d be surprised at the amount of information people put out these days.
For everybody to see unfortunately…
Conclusion
In this post, we started by laying out the foundation for building a sock puppet, a fake online persona essential for OSINT investigations.
First, we discussed the importance of creating this identity to access social media accounts that would otherwise require a profile. We walked through the steps: precautions by using a VPN, and acquiring a prepaid SIM for identity verification. Then, we covered how to generate a realistic avatar using AI tools and gave it a name with the Fake Name Generator.
Once the persona was created, we explored setting up Gmail and social media accounts, emphasizing platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Reddit to gather information.
By now, you should be equipped with a functional sock puppet, ready for your investigative work.
I thank you for reading and I trust that this guide has proved useful.
More Resources
If you didn’t understand something or you need some help, we have our own Discord community and I currently offer free coaching.
You can also leave us some feedback with what you did not understand and we will make sure to correct it.
