Many people think of influencer marketing such as Kim Kardashian or these influencer lists you have in the world of B2B Marketing.

But in fact everybody is an influencer.

If you give somebody a recommendation to watch a film, go and see a movie, then you are an influencer.

"Influencers" were also used in the fight against covid 19, the recent Elton John video of why you should get a vaccine, was influencer marketing. 

Did you know "influencers" where used to catch criminals? 

Here is a recent new story. 


The FBI covertly ran an encrypted communications platform for years that allowed it to intercept 20 million messages from international criminal organizations. Hundreds of arrests have been made across 18 countries as part of the investigation known as Operation Trojan Shield. Suspects, including members of the Italian Mafia and outlaw motorcycle gangs, are among those that have been charged. Australian Police, who helped conceive the sting, have arrested 224 offenders and seized 3.7 tonnes of drugs and $44.9 million in cash and assets.

The crackdown was essentially borne out of the demise of a popular encrypted phone service, known as Phantom Secure, according to newly unsealed court documents. After that enterprise was shut down and its CEO arrested in 2018, the FBI used a "source" to peddle a new app, dubbed "Anom," to criminal networks. Unknown to those who used the devices featuring the platform, the FBI had built a master key into its encryption system. This allowed agents to surreptitiously monitor each message and enabled them to decrypt and store messages as they were transmitted.

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Over the following months, the app organically grew on the back of a "beta test" in Australia and the dismantling of two additional encryption phone enterprises, Encrochat and Sky Global. The FBI's supply-side "source" used this window to distribute Anom devices to criminals who had used those now-defunct messaging channels. The phones grew in popularity within the underworld after high-profile criminals vouched for the app's integrity, Australian Police noted.

"These criminal influencers put [law enforcement] in the back pocket of hundreds of alleged offenders," Australian Federal Police commissioner Reece Kershaw said in a statement. "Essentially, they have handcuffed each other by endorsing and trusting AN0M and openly communicating on it – not knowing we were watching the entire time."