For $8, Twitter Blue users create multiple branded impostor accounts
Twitter is starting to expand $8 per month Twitter Blue subscriptions, complete with “verified” brands for paid users. But the social network is also struggling to stop a wave of accounts that are capitalizing on the confusion over those brands, impersonating major brands and celebrities to spread fake information that looks authentic.
In the video game space, fraudulent “marked” accounts appeared Wednesday night including Nintendo of America. supposedly showing Mario flipping the birdThe valve supposedly announcing Ricochet: Neon Primeand Rockstar Games presumably, it will announce a new trailer date Grand Theft Auto VI. In the sports world, a fake Lebron James He claimed to be asking for a tradeA fake Aroldis Chapman He said he re-signed with the Yankeesand “gave” a false version to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. The presumed departure of Las Vegas Raiders coach Josh McDaniels.
Tracking sports transactions and news can become a complete mess with the new verification system
There are already fake tweets from LeBron and Aroldis Chapman pic.twitter.com/vQgMqws1W0
— Joon Lee (@joonlee) November 9, 2022
The marked accounts also cheerfully imitated political figures, on the one hand Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani to Former British MP Tony Blair and former US President George Bush. A bold branded cheater He also imitated Twitter itselfIt advertises a fake “free” Twitter Blue deal for crypto/NFT owners who “authenticate their wallet assets”.
Context collapse
For responsible Twitter users, there are a few ways to distinguish these fake checkmarks from previously verified accounts (they didn’t pay for the checkmark using Twitter Blue). If you go to an account profile and click the blue checkmark, you’ll see “This account is verified because it’s subscribed to Twitter Blue” or “This account is verified because it’s prominent in government, news, entertainment, or another category.” ” In some cases, even looking closely at the “Account Created” date or account names like “@nintendoofus” and “@RockstarGamse” would give things away.
At a quick glance, however, these paid checkmark accounts can easily appear to be genuine to Twitter users who have been in decline for years, conditioned to completely trust information from accounts with a checkmark next to their name. And many who didn’t pay much attention were at least temporarily duped by scammers.
“RICOCHET returns? wait why the hell does this have an official brand?” a confused user wrote in response to the hoax Valve account. Many others retweeted screenshots of some of the hoax tweets as if they were real.
All of the fake accounts mentioned above (which is far from an exhaustive list) are currently suspended for “violating Twitter’s rules,” and some were only up for an hour or less, according to reports. Wednesday evening in the email of all Twitter employees Obtained by BloombergMusk said that “in the coming days, the absolute priority is to find and stop verified bot/troll/spam.”
On Sunday, several previously verified accounts began changing their name to “Elon Musk,” the CEO of Twitter. he wrote It was directed at verified accounts that commit “malicious fraud” and that “Twitter’s unspecified ‘parody’ of any kind will be permanently suspended.” It was at least partially in conflict May statement where Musk said that “permanent bans should be very rare and reserved for accounts that are truly bots or spam.”
The wave of fake paid check stamp accounts comes a day after Musk said “kill” an extra “Official” tag this appeared briefly on many (but not all) Twitter accounts to highlight the previously verified. “The official label is still being rolled out as part of the @TwitterBlue rollout – we’re focusing on government and commercial entities to start with,” Twitter CEO Esther Crawford. he wrote soon after
I’m actually laughing
Publicly, at least, Musk is expressing amusement at the many accounts that seek to sow confusion over the brands he’s bought. When a user stated “[t]The beauty of this is that each account is verified for $8. Twitter keeps the money and suspends the account,” Musk he answered with a range of emojis including a target and a bag of money. In response to another user complaining about fake accounts with purchased brands, just Musk he replied with two laughing emojis.
Can’t imagine why all the advertisers are getting off Twitter lmao pic.twitter.com/pg55WXkxhS
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) November 9, 2022
But many Twitter watchers are wondering how the presence of fake accounts that look official and boast checkmarks — even if they are quickly taken down — will affect the positions of existing brands. showing doubts about buying ads on the platform. “Can’t imagine why all the advertisers are getting off Twitter,” Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier he tweeted sardonically In response to the fake Nintendo account. There are others just kidding the lost revenue from advertisers can easily outweigh the extra money brought in by Blue subscribers who buy blue checkmarks.
“Be aware that Twitter is going to do a lot of dumb things in the coming months,” Musk said Wednesday. “We’ll keep what works and change what doesn’t.”
Image of the list @nintendoofus/Twitter
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