In recent days, several media outlets, including EL MUNDO and Antena 3 Noticias , have had their identity supplanted on social networks by fake or parody accounts posing as such media.
In these cases, only by visiting the account profile could it be identified as a parody account. The view of your tweets in the timeline of twitter makes it very difficult to identify those accounts as unofficial accounts since they use an account name very similar to the original.
However, there are several clues that can lead us to identify if an account is suspected of impersonating a real one.
Verification badges
Media and large business accounts generally have a blue badge next to their name . This badge can only be granted by Twitter and serves to verify that the identity of the same corresponds to the media, or person or other entity, that it claims to represent. If a large media account does not have that badge, it may be a fake account.
Username
Many fake or parody accounts use names similar to those they want to imitate. It is enough to change a letter for a number that looks like , like an 'O' for a zero, or an ele for a one to lead to confusion.
Other times an underscore is added at the end, at the beginning or in the middle of the username so that the nick is almost 100% identical.
Unusual activity
The communication media constantly feed their social network accounts, so their activity is very high. If you see a major media account with an unusually low number of tweets, it may be a bogus account.
Another way to see if it is a fake profile is to analyze its activity. If you only retweet certain profiles or accounts it may be a fake account. The use of certain hashtags, especially on political issues, can also lead you to identify these types of accounts.
Number of followers
A very low number of followers may also be an indication of a fake account. The media whose websites are the most viewed accumulate millions of followers on their social network profiles. If the account you are visiting has only a few tens of thousands and it is a medium with millions of monthly visits to its website, you may be facing a false account.
Creation date
Many fake accounts are created in a short period of time. If you see that the account of a large company or media outlet was created a few weeks or a month ago, it is surely an impersonation.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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