This Is Fine: People Quickly Exploit Twitter Blue to Pose as Trump, LeBron
The company admits it won’t verify whether a Twitter user is authentic when letting them subscribe to receive the verified blue checkmark.
By Michael Kan
Twitter is now selling access to its verified badge through the new $7.99-per-month Twitter Blue subscription. And to no one’s surprise, users are already exploiting the system to create “verified” but fake accounts.
For example, one user impersonated LeBron James through a verified account that claimed the NBA player is demanding a trade from the Los Angeles Lakers to the Cleveland Cavaliers.\
Meanwhile, a scammer was spotted posing as Twitter’s own official account on the platform and claiming that users could buy access to Twitter Blue through cryptocurrencies. The tweets from the scammer then featured a link that likely led to a malicious website.
Another user decided to create a verified but fake Twitter account posing as former US President Donald Trump, who was banned from the platform for his role in the Jan. 6th attack on the Capitol in Washington, D.C.
But rather than write fake tweets as Trump, the user created the account to underscore how Twitter’s decision to sell access to the blue checkmark could be easily exploited. “This is why Elon Musk’s plan doesn’t work,” tweeted the account.
Twitter has since shut down the mentioned verified but fake accounts. But it wouldn’t be hard for scammers and pranksters to continue to exploit the system. The company’s own support page for Twitter Blue admits it won’t scrutinize the usernames registered on a profile.
“Accounts that receive the blue checkmark as part of a Twitter Blue subscription will not undergo review to confirm that they meet the active, notable and authentic criteria that was used in the previous process,” the support page says.
Twitter didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. But in a Q&A with advertisers on Wednesday, the company’s new owner, Elon Musk, said the platform will “vigorously” crack down on bad actors who try to exploit the verified checkmark system for deception.
“If someone tries to impersonate a brand, that account will be suspended and we will keep their $8. And they can keep doing that, and we’ll keep their $8 again,” he added. “We’ll do it all day long, they will stop.”
Still, users might want to consider double-checking when reading tweets from celebrities and well-known brands on the platform.
The new Twitter Blue subscription began rolling out on Wednesday to users in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. But for now it’s available to iOS users only as an in-app purchase.
Originally published at https://www.pcmag.com.
