A fake Warren Buffett Twitter account provides a good lesson in spotting fake impersonation accounts on the social platform.
Motivational quotes are commonplace on social media, often serving as a much-needed slice of inspiration for those aimlessly scrolling down their feeds. Especially if they come from mega-successful business people.
That’s probably why a list of 10 pieces of advice aimed at young people posted by billionaire Warren Buffett managed to go so viral last week, being re-tweeted and liked hundreds of thousands of times.
Only it didn’t come from billionaire Warren Buffett. Rather it came from Warren Buffet (note the missing ‘t’) posting with the Twitter handle warranbuffet99.
Despite featuring the 88 year old’s photo and [almost] his name, this is just an imposter account. It had nothing to do with the real Warren Buffett.
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There are tell-tale signs –
– There is no blue verification tick. Someone as famous as the real Warren Buffett will be Twitter verified.
– His name is spelled incorrectly.
– The activity on his account spans only a few days and consists of only motivational quotes.
The real Warren Buffett does have a real, verified Twitter account. But it hasn’t posted since 2016. The impostor account has now been suspended by Twitter.
While this impostor account was only posting harmless memes, it is still a good demonstration on how to spot and avoid impostor accounts. The next one you encounter online may not be so harmless.