Chapter 2 Fake Casting Scam Exposed! A Twitter Thread Reveals How People Are Pretending To Be Actors For Google’s Knowledge Panel
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Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Animal starring Ranbir Kapoor and Rashmika Mandanna is one of the most awaited and anticipated films of the year 2023. After giving superhits with Arjun Reddy and Kabir Singh, Sandeep is ready to spread magic once again with his upcoming gangster drama.
Apart from the teaser and the updates on the film, it usually does not make headlines very frequently. However, today it did so and the reason is immensely shocking. It looks like an unknown name has now been added to Animal’s IMDb page under the celebrity section. Even though no one knows who that person is. Read on.
Recently a Twitter thread is going viral on the social media platform, where a Twitter handle going by the name “@prstb” had shared screenshots of the IMDb page, showing a fake cast member been added to the Ranbir Kapoor starrer Animal’s celebrity list. The page showed the name Subhankar Bagchi from West Bengal in the cast list along with Rashmika Mandanna. In the first tweet, we see the user write, “I was on the IMDb page for an upcoming Ranbir Kapoor movie Animal. In the cast details, I found a name I didn’t recognize. Finding out about this guy led me to the world of how young Indian men from small towns are gaming the system to manufacture their fake online clout.”
https://twitter.com/prstb/status/1556181928407023616s=20&t=BbwrauTusgPye0OJMoIkw
In the next few tweets talking about Animal’s IMDb page, the Twitterati also talked about ‘Subhankar Bagchi’s’ other experience in the industry, “According to this, he has acting credits in some big-budget productions. I am beginning to suspect that this could be a case of IMDb vandalism. IMDb allows anyone to add and edit pages and evidently, these edits are not getting reviewed effectively.” In the next tweet, the user searched Subhankar Bagchi on Google and found that he was a musician rather than an actor.
So who is this guy? I had not heard of him before and he is named in the “Top cast” category for this movie, alongside Ranbir Kapoor.
I checked his IMDb page and this is what his bio and filmography look like. pic.twitter.com/zfHxjl0tqA
— pb (@prstb) August 7, 2022
According to this, he has acting credits in some big-budget productions. I am beginning to suspect that this could be a case of IMDb vandalism. IMDb allows anyone to add and edit pages and evidently, these edits are not getting reviewed effectively.
I googled this guy.
— pb (@prstb) August 7, 2022
Wow, so Google has a knowledge panel on him (on the right). There are also links to his music on various music platforms. Okay, so probably he is pretending to be an actor on IMDb but according to his google search results, he is actually a legit musician? pic.twitter.com/HyYiibVGFF
— pb (@prstb) August 7, 2022
The netizen’s next tweet also shows that there were biographies written about ‘ Subhankar Bagchi’, which the Twitter user feels is not that credible. Further, the user also claimed to search for the person on social media and YouTube but found nothing original from his side. In the next tweet, the user also mentions that the man had created fake credits while making his IMDb page. Claiming that the person scammed Google he said, “Our guy here has manufactured his stature online by feeding misinformation to the sources that Google uses to construct a knowledge panel. He has fooled the mighty google search algorithms into believing that he is a person of certain notability.”
Skimming through the search results, I found biographies written about him on a few websites of doubtful credibility. Like this one on a website called https://t.co/clHCBLsxQR pic.twitter.com/AzkQ6b0dte
— pb (@prstb) August 7, 2022
I looked at his Youtube and other social media. He doesn’t have a lot of followers or any music content on there. I shazamed his songs and they’re copies of existing random music mashed together with an audio editing tool like Audacity. Possibly to avoid getting copyright notices
— pb (@prstb) August 7, 2022
So he set up a profile on a bunch of music streaming platforms. Uploaded mashups of existing songs. Published biographies on sites that do not verify submissions. Set up an IMDb page with fake credits.
Why do all this? To trick google into believing he is a person of eminence.
— pb (@prstb) August 7, 2022
You must’ve seen Google knowledge panels on the right or on top of the page (on mobile) when you google a famous person. The way it works is it gathers information from various online sources and uses that information to show a “knowledge panel” alongside the search results. pic.twitter.com/d1Fbca6632
— pb (@prstb) August 7, 2022
Our guy here has manufactured his stature online by feeding misinformation to the sources that Google uses to construct a knowledge panel. He has fooled the mighty google search algorithms into believing that he is a person of certain notability.
— pb (@prstb) August 7, 2022
Continuing his further research on the tweet thread, the user claimed that he had found many such profiles of ‘Subhankar Bagchi’ in movies like KGF: Chapter 2 and others too. In the next tweet, the user explained how and claimed that these fake profiles were made in an identical way stating that they have a few facts in common. Stating the facts in another tweet the user wrote, “All are part of the cast of big Indian movies with a vague mention of their roles. All young men were mostly from small northern Indian towns. They all have biographies on the same handful of websites that read exactly the same. THEY ALL HAVE THEIR OWN GOOGLE KNOWLEDGE PANEL”
Honestly, I am impressed by his ingenuity. No disrespect to him, but I’m not convinced he thought of this whole scheme on his own. I went back to his IMDb and checked cast details of other movies he is part of. And I found a few dozen profiles with the exact same modus operandi.
— pb (@prstb) August 7, 2022
For instance, check the cast details of the movie K.G.F: Chapter 2. The ones marked in red boxes are all fake credits that I could identify. A few more are listed in other crew of this movie like Production Management, Sound Department, Music Department, etc. They’re everywhere! pic.twitter.com/cdMVD9J9Nc
— pb (@prstb) August 7, 2022
And this is from one movie. If you open the cast/crew details of any recent big Indian movie on IMDb, you will find there are imposters all around. It’s very easy to find them. All of their IMDb bios are written in an identical style.
They all seem to have these things in common
— pb (@prstb) August 7, 2022
– All are part of the cast of big Indian movies with a vague mention of their roles
– All young men mostly from small northern Indian towns
– They all have biographies on the same handful of websites that read exactly the same
– THEY ALL HAVE THEIR OWN GOOGLE KNOWLEDGE PANEL
— pb (@prstb) August 7, 2022
In the next few tweets, the user explained that most of these fake profiles had a biography of themselves on issuewire.com. He also said that while searching for “Indian Singers” alongside issuewire.com, he found many fake accounts on the website, among which some were created last year. The Twitter user also found many fake profiles on filmfreeway.com, where people with no connection to a film background have created fake profiles.
I wanted to see how deep this hustle goes.
Most of these guys had a biography of themselves on https://t.co/clHCBLsxQR – a website that allows you to submit your own press release which is then distributed to search engines and other news platforms. pic.twitter.com/Cx5n0cWSfF
— pb (@prstb) August 7, 2022
So I googled “Indian singer” and limited the search to https://t.co/clHCBLsxQR. And I found hundreds of such biographies. Almost all of them were created within the last year. I opened a few of these pages and all of their biographies are written with a similar template. pic.twitter.com/F0KuIOQzUa
— pb (@prstb) August 7, 2022
There is also https://t.co/b0C5mkBk38, a website for filmmakers to submit their films to film festivals globally. This website has hundreds of profiles of young Indians who have nothing to do with filmmaking.
They also have profiles on a few wikis and random Indian news websites
— pb (@prstb) August 7, 2022
Sharing the reason behind it in another tweet, the user said, “They’re doing this because these websites have no verification or review process for submissions but they have a high SEO ranking which tricks the google search algorithm into believing these citations as legit proof of their notability.” Continuing further he also shared a screenshot of a Youtube search feed saying that he found the step-by-step guide to this particular scam.
They’re doing this because these websites have no verification or review process for submissions but they have a high SEO ranking which tricks the google search algorithm into believing these citations as legit proof of their notability.
— pb (@prstb) August 7, 2022
I searched Youtube and found a few tutorials explaining in detail how to carry out this entire operation. For instance, check this playlist from a young Bangladeshi Youtuber explaining how to get your own Google knowledge panel from scratch in an eight-part video series. pic.twitter.com/JtBKQp8NHN
— pb (@prstb) August 7, 2022
Concluding his tweet thread, he said, “In a world where your online clout is everything, having their own Google KP gives them legitimacy in the eyes of their followers. Many of them have links to their KPs on their IG bios saying they’re verified by Google. A way to show their followers that they have credibility”, adding, “I laud the effort they’ve put into the whole scheme, but in the end, a lot of them are frauds who are misleading their social media followers with information about themselves that’s just not true.”
In a world where your online clout is everything, having their own Google KP gives them legitimacy in the eyes of their followers. Many of them have links to their KPs on their IG bios saying they’re verified by Google. A way to show their followers that they have credibility
— pb (@prstb) August 7, 2022
I laud the effort they’ve put into the whole scheme, but in the end, a lot of them are frauds who are misleading their social media followers with information about themselves that’s just not true.
— pb (@prstb) August 7, 2022
What are your thoughts on a stranger able to put his name besides Ranbir Kapoor and Rashmika Mandanna starrer Animal’s IMDb page? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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