Identity is always a problem with social networks, we have seen many people create fake accounts on social media, accounts that don’t belong to the “real” owners. Most recently we saw someone take on the persona of the Dalai Lama, that account was quickly debunked. Now, we are seeing Forrester analyst Jeremiah Owyang getting pummeled by multiple fake twitter accounts, here are just a few of them:
- @jowayang
- @jowbyang
- @jowcyang
- @jowdyang
- @joweyang
- @jowfyang
- @jowgwang
- @jowhyang
- @jowiyang
- @JowJYang
For those of you who are curious Jeremiah’s real twitter account is @jowyang. Here are a whole bunch of fake twitter accounts you can indulge yourself with. Social media scammers and exploiters are always going to exist, and they are always going to try to take advantage of you and me, that’s life. Twitter however does an excellent job of removing fake twitter accounts once they are reported using their support portal. Social media sites and platforms have a responsibility to protect their users from spam. However, the community also has a responsibility to protect itself. In fact, the community does an excellent job of protecting itself.
Once I sent out a message on twitter about Jeremiah’s fake accounts I received several responses from people who also informed Jeremiah of the fake accounts (and told me that Jeremiah had already reported this to twitter).
Update: the above 2 screenshots came from @reportabuse, they have a team handling any spoofers/hackers/etc. so if you have a problem send them a note!
Jeremiah posted his thoughts on the twitter spoofer, but the most important line out of this whole post is,
“Thank you all for watching out for my brand, I appreciate each and every message”
let’s keep looking out for each other, we are our best defense.
Your thoughts?
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