This Is Fine: People Quickly Exploit Twitter Blue to Pose as Trump, LeBron

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(Opens in a new window) 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(Opens in a new window) posing as Twitter’s own official account on the platform, and claimed that users could buy access to Twitter Blue through cryptocurrencies. The tweets from the scammer then featured a link likely 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(Opens in a new window).

Twitter has since shut down the mentioned verified, but fake accounts. However, it wouldn’t be hard to scammers and pranksters to continue to exploit the system. The company’s own support page(Opens in a new window) for the 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. 

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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 only available to iOS users as an in-app purchase.

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