Fake Twitter accounts fool many during NHL trade deadline
Posted March 5, 2014 8:13 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Some people love to mess with others, especially online, and one that’s getting more popular is to create a fake twitter account in the name of a celebrity.
Some of those people had a field day during the NHL trade deadline pretending to be Bob MacKenzie or Pierre Lebrun.
The fake accounts tweeted out fake deals, one of which included Canucks’ Ryan Kesler being traded to Pittsburgh.
University of the Fraser Valley social media expert Darren Blakeborough says fake twitter accounts are quite common.
He says Twitter does have a way of verifying the account of the bigger celebrities or organizations. “Twitter will determine it is in fact the person that it claims to be. For instance, if Tom Hanks has a Twitter account, the company determines it is Tom Hanks and gives it a badge on the Twitter profile, a blue check mark that says verified.”
Blakeborough also says if an account of a celebrity has no picture, or has only a handful of followers, chances are it’s not the real deal.
