Image: Flickr, Torley
Hi there!
Did you know there’s an estimated 20 million fake Twitter accounts?
Some of these may follow you and if they do, be sure you don’t follow them back. Of course, there are tools available that will differentiate between your real and fake followers, but if you want to know how to tell just by glancing at their profile, keep reading.
Here are a few signs of a fake Twitter account:
-The avatar (profile photo) is still an egghead. This could also mean the account is inactive and if so, you don't want to follow back either.
-The Twitter handle and screen name don’t match or make sense. For example, the Twitter handle could be @lskvyuslkdnfoi and the screen name could be "Deonnvsd Ilfinsdf".
-The "individual's" tweets are gibberish or incoherent. A stream of tweets such as "nice 1s bhai.m also upto ur" could mean the profile doesn't belong to an authentic individual.
-The "person" tweets the same exact tweet over and over. These are typically promotional tweets and automated, with no engagement (comments, replies, favorites) by the "person" at all. This is especially a red flag if the tweets are minutes apart. Yikes.
-The "person" has very few followers but follows lots of people. For example, the person has 344 followers but follows 2,000 people. As an additional sign, Twitter doesn't allow you to follow more than 2,000 accounts until you yourself have this many followers, which is a limit many bot accounts hit and get stuck in since they are automated.
-There is no bio on the profile. Be careful here--some individuals are real and just haven't completed their profile. Check for any of the above signs in addition to this one to tell for sure.
Don’t forget to follow your gut—if an account seems fake, there’s a good chance it is!
Until next time,
Ingrid