I know that it would be really cool to be verified on Twitter. It would mean that you were important – important enough to need a verified account because of all the jokers out there that want to create fake accounts because they want to be you. You’re that cool. At least it would be cool to have the illusion of social media relevance, right?<\/p>\n
But if you run across a Twitter profile claiming to offer quick and easy verifications if you only retweet their posts, don’t fall for it. <\/p>\n
The Verge ran a story<\/a> on a particular bogus Twitter account, @PrivateVerified<\/a>, that had amassed over 22,000 followers in less than a day. How did it become so popular? Simple – by asking users to follow and retweet in order to receive verification. <\/p>\n That account was quickly suspended, but it led to readers finding tons of other fraudulent accounts that promised verification. It’s kind of an epidemic, actually. Take for instance @VerifiedTwitter, @requestVerified and @NextVerified, all of which has thousands of followers but are now shut down. <\/p>\n Of course, these types of accounts keep popping up in place of the ones Twitter catches onto. It’s like a giant game of whack-a-mole. Take @freeverifiying for instance, which has over 16,000 followers. <\/p>\n