Not surprisingly, some reports say that there are as many as 20 million fake Twitter accounts. With a reported 500 million registered users, that comes out to roughly 4% of all Twitter accounts being fake (bots).
While I use social media management tools to easily clean up my stream, at times I like to see how easy it is to spot a fake Twitter account. When you are growing your Twitter account, it is important to pay attention to those you are following. While there are some obvious tell-tale signs, some users are making it tougher to decipher if they are real or fake.
I know there are sites that supposedly can do this for you, but what is the fun in that? Here are some of the things I look for when determining whether or not a Twitter account is fake.
Literally. By egghead, I am referring to the Twitter user in question not taking the time to upload a profile image. Most real people will upload some sort of profile image. While not every egghead is a fake or bot account, this is typically a sign of a lazy person. Or a bot. You decide.
While this move might be a step up from being an egghead, most fake accounts get this wrong. They either use stock images or a profile image shared by other fake accounts.
[PRO TIP] Use Google to find out if a profile image has been used by others.
To do this you can right click on the profile image and copy the link location. Then simply go to Google Images and search by URL. Paste the URL and find out if others are using this same image.
[BONUS TIP] Narrow down your search to just Twitter results by added "site:twitter.com". For example, see how many times this Twitter profile image is used by others.
An empty Twitter bio is almost a dead giveaway that the profile you are looking at is a dud. This underutilized real estate is key to informing your followers (or potential followers) who you are and what you're about. Skipping over this is typically a sign of not only laziness, but a tell-tale sign the account is almost certainly fake.
While this does not run rampant like it previously did, if you see a profile's stream that is all the exact same or very similar tweets, chances are that you are viewing a fake account.
Most notably, if the tweets are all @replies with the same text, you have found a bot account.
While there is no doubt some excessive self promotion on Twitter, some accounts constantly tweet the same thing. Odds are a human is not behind each of those tweets, and better yet it is a sign of someone who does not use automation effectively.
This is an easy one. There are multiple things to look for in a screen name. The first is if you see the profile URL as something like "twitter.com/john-smith" but when you view the profile, the first and last name listed above the bio has no relation to the URL.
For example, it would say something like "Sarah Jones" which obviously has no direct relation to "John Smith" that is in the URL.
The other red flag regarding screen names and URL combinations is if you see an incoherent URL like "twitter.com/kaywhyeleenq". Viewing this URL you will see that while this profile has many red flags, the first and last name listed in the profile has no direct relation to the URL.
While, not all profiles will have a direct relation, most of the time if the URL does not even contain legitimate words or phrases, it is a common sign the profile was automatically generated via software and not a human.
Most of the time fake Twitter accounts simply spew off tweets that directly benefit themselves, like linking directly to their site. However, there are many fake accounts that simply post gibberish or random incoherent thoughts that make absolutely no sense.
Back in the earlier, wild-west days of Twitter, automation was manipulated quite a bit. However, as Twitter has evolved their API access and rules, previous bots and some of their automation no longer work.
An easy way to spot this is in accounts that have not tweeted in months or even years. Looking at the time stamp of the most recent tweets, you can get a good idea of the Twitter account is no longer active. For example, the Twitter account in the image above has not tweeted since 2011.
Twitter has limits on certain things you can do. For example, how many people you can follow. This limit is set to 2,000. Once you follow 2,001 people, you must have at least 2,000 people following you back before you can exceed the 2,001 limit.
A common limitation of bots is that they are not smart enough to manage their following restrictions to get around this limitation. Therefore, many fake accounts get stuck on following 2,001 users.
Once an account gets past the 2,001 following limitation, then I believe the unwritten rule is that you can follow 10% more than are following you. So if your account has 2,000 users following it, then theoretically you can follow approximately 2,200 users.
Accounts that show no signs of interaction with others are often fake accounts. Social media is meant to be a two-way conversation. Those accounts who simply do not interact with others is often a sign of a bot account.
The quick way to find out if there is interaction with other users is to simply view recent tweets by the user. If you can see that within their last 20-30 tweets there are no @replies or retweets, chances are the account you are looking at is automated/fake.
Another common sign of a bot account is an account that does not tend to have anyone following the account back. This is commonly seen with accounts that are following 2,001 users but only have a handful of accounts following back.
While there are a number of reasons someone may not want to follow an account, chances are in this case it is due to the account not being worth one to follow. Twitter users are becoming smarter at whether or not someone deserves to be followed back.
Ensure your account gains followers by being active, sharing, and interacting with your followers. A great way to increase engagement and interaction is by sharing social media memes.
No doubt automation has its place in Twitter when used responsibly. However, a sure sign of an automated/fake account is typically an insane amount of tweets that is more than likely not humanly possible.
I mean, who has the time to tweet 123,684 times? In the image above you can see how tweeting this often did wonders for increasing the amount of followers for this account.
1. They Are An Egghead
Literally. By egghead, I am referring to the Twitter user in question not taking the time to upload a profile image. Most real people will upload some sort of profile image. While not every egghead is a fake or bot account, this is typically a sign of a lazy person. Or a bot. You decide.
2. They Use Stock Profile Images
While this move might be a step up from being an egghead, most fake accounts get this wrong. They either use stock images or a profile image shared by other fake accounts.
[PRO TIP] Use Google to find out if a profile image has been used by others.
To do this you can right click on the profile image and copy the link location. Then simply go to Google Images and search by URL. Paste the URL and find out if others are using this same image.
[BONUS TIP] Narrow down your search to just Twitter results by added "site:twitter.com". For example, see how many times this Twitter profile image is used by others.
3. No Bio
An empty Twitter bio is almost a dead giveaway that the profile you are looking at is a dud. This underutilized real estate is key to informing your followers (or potential followers) who you are and what you're about. Skipping over this is typically a sign of not only laziness, but a tell-tale sign the account is almost certainly fake.
4. Excessive Duplicate Tweets
While this does not run rampant like it previously did, if you see a profile's stream that is all the exact same or very similar tweets, chances are that you are viewing a fake account.
Most notably, if the tweets are all @replies with the same text, you have found a bot account.
While there is no doubt some excessive self promotion on Twitter, some accounts constantly tweet the same thing. Odds are a human is not behind each of those tweets, and better yet it is a sign of someone who does not use automation effectively.
5. Confusing Screen Name / URL Combination
This is an easy one. There are multiple things to look for in a screen name. The first is if you see the profile URL as something like "twitter.com/john-smith" but when you view the profile, the first and last name listed above the bio has no relation to the URL.
For example, it would say something like "Sarah Jones" which obviously has no direct relation to "John Smith" that is in the URL.
The other red flag regarding screen names and URL combinations is if you see an incoherent URL like "twitter.com/kaywhyeleenq". Viewing this URL you will see that while this profile has many red flags, the first and last name listed in the profile has no direct relation to the URL.
While, not all profiles will have a direct relation, most of the time if the URL does not even contain legitimate words or phrases, it is a common sign the profile was automatically generated via software and not a human.
6. Incoherent Tweets
Most of the time fake Twitter accounts simply spew off tweets that directly benefit themselves, like linking directly to their site. However, there are many fake accounts that simply post gibberish or random incoherent thoughts that make absolutely no sense.
7. Has Not Tweeted in Years
Back in the earlier, wild-west days of Twitter, automation was manipulated quite a bit. However, as Twitter has evolved their API access and rules, previous bots and some of their automation no longer work.
An easy way to spot this is in accounts that have not tweeted in months or even years. Looking at the time stamp of the most recent tweets, you can get a good idea of the Twitter account is no longer active. For example, the Twitter account in the image above has not tweeted since 2011.
8. Follows 2,001 People
Twitter has limits on certain things you can do. For example, how many people you can follow. This limit is set to 2,000. Once you follow 2,001 people, you must have at least 2,000 people following you back before you can exceed the 2,001 limit.
A common limitation of bots is that they are not smart enough to manage their following restrictions to get around this limitation. Therefore, many fake accounts get stuck on following 2,001 users.
Once an account gets past the 2,001 following limitation, then I believe the unwritten rule is that you can follow 10% more than are following you. So if your account has 2,000 users following it, then theoretically you can follow approximately 2,200 users.
9. No Interaction With Others
Accounts that show no signs of interaction with others are often fake accounts. Social media is meant to be a two-way conversation. Those accounts who simply do not interact with others is often a sign of a bot account.
The quick way to find out if there is interaction with other users is to simply view recent tweets by the user. If you can see that within their last 20-30 tweets there are no @replies or retweets, chances are the account you are looking at is automated/fake.
10. No or Low Follower Counts
Another common sign of a bot account is an account that does not tend to have anyone following the account back. This is commonly seen with accounts that are following 2,001 users but only have a handful of accounts following back.
While there are a number of reasons someone may not want to follow an account, chances are in this case it is due to the account not being worth one to follow. Twitter users are becoming smarter at whether or not someone deserves to be followed back.
Ensure your account gains followers by being active, sharing, and interacting with your followers. A great way to increase engagement and interaction is by sharing social media memes.
11. An Unrealistic Amount of Tweets
No doubt automation has its place in Twitter when used responsibly. However, a sure sign of an automated/fake account is typically an insane amount of tweets that is more than likely not humanly possible.
I mean, who has the time to tweet 123,684 times? In the image above you can see how tweeting this often did wonders for increasing the amount of followers for this account.
socialforsmallbiz August 14, 2013
I’m building a new twitter account and I’ve got one more .. tweets nothing but quotes. Here’s one and it also uses an image that appears on multiple accounts. https://twitter.com/CecileKincey
Chris Makara August 15, 2013
oh, that is a good one! can’t believe i forgot that one :/
thanks for dropping by and taking the time to leave a comment!
Debi Stangeland August 15, 2013
Great tips for Twitter newbies. Once you have these in your head it’s quite easy to spot the poseurs. Thanks!
Chris Makara August 15, 2013
Thanks for the comment Debi. Most definitely. Over time, you will be able to do most of these without even thinking about it.
OfficeVP August 15, 2013
Great article. These follower-bots are created to act like real person following other users, writing tweets and retweet content. You’ve seen the more obvious follower-bots on Twitter, but the black market creating them are getting more advanced. Spotting a follower-bot can be nearly impossible. They steal information from real person accounts to make them look real. Buying followers is always a bad idea they don’t build engagement, and they don’t do your brand any good.
Chris Makara August 15, 2013
I agree. The blackhat market is usually a step or two ahead of most when it comes to gaming the system. Once they get caught, they look for newer, more creative ways to do it. Bot account scrapers are also a good one as you noted. One way to spot these is to view the bio of accounts, run a search and see who else has the exact same bio.
Yep, buying followers does no good as most are always fake accounts.
Thanks for the great comment, I appreciate it!
Sharida jan August 20, 2017
Chris I gave a question-if u feel there is a duplicate account can 1 have the blue check mark as for celebrities for example and another with the exact same bio and profile and tweets beith a black ball be the same owner or another?
Chris Makara August 20, 2017
I guess it’s possible, but more than likely if they are copying the verified account exactly there are just trying to trick others into thinking theirs is the real thing.
Scott December 6, 2013
Chris, A correction on the stuck at 2000 following. You need to have 91% or 1820 to follow more than 2000. Been there. Otherwise, very informative for people. Thanks.
Chris Makara December 9, 2013
Thanks for the clarification Scott and thanks for dropping by to comment 🙂
Ursula V February 10, 2014
Can a fake twitter account find a way to fake calendar dates? There is one I reported as spam, as I think I know where it originated. It had 100 tweets going back 6 months and all the signs you mention. What I m wondering is could someone fake the dates. Because, if it is who I think itvis, the activity would be starting only a month ago.
Chris Makara February 11, 2014
Hi Ursula, thanks for commenting. I am not aware of how to fake dates? Can you link to the Twitter account?
Ursula V February 12, 2014
Chris, I can’t figure out how to link it @Mexicanacivist . However, on the right side of this acct, right above tweet activity, there is a round blocked symbol, with a red line diagonally across it. Either Twitter blocked @Mexicanactivist, or my “marked as spam” action blocked it. Or it means they are just blocked from me. I don’t know. Interesting, 24 hours after I joined Twitter with an acct, my acct. was suspended. No rules broken, think it was a glitch. I appealed and they reinstated in 24 hours.
Chris Makara February 13, 2014
I looked at the account and I do not see the blocked symbol. If I block them, then I see it saying “blocked” where it typically would say follow/following.
Yeah, Twitter has been known to block/ban new accounts frequently at times. The good news is that you can get reinstated most of the time…especially if you did not do anything wrong.
Dawn October 17, 2017
I started following one of my favorite actors and although, I wish it were him, I’m pretty sure this guy has better things to do than chit chat with me and want pictures and ask all about my life. This person even told me only two accounts were actually him and to delete any others and asked if I had deleted the others yet.
Chris Makara October 18, 2017
Hey Dawn – Most of the time if it is a legit actor, their real Twitter account will have the “verified” badge on it.
Hana Brynda May 25, 2018
What is verified badge on their account please?!
I have sand situation as the lady above
Thanks
HB
Chris Makara May 31, 2018
If the account is verified, you will see a checkmark symbol next to their name. For example, https://twitter.com/verified.
Harold Compton April 12, 2015
Chris, Thanks for the handy tool to check followers. Some of the things you mentioned I was aware of but you gave some new ones that will help me.
Chris Makara April 13, 2015
Sure thing Harold, glad you were able to learn something new! Thanks for stopping by 🙂
Dahlia Drummond April 13, 2015
As a relative newbie to Twitter, I think these are great tips.
Chris Makara April 13, 2015
Glad you found these Twitter tips helpful Dahlia, thanks for taking the time to comment 🙂
Joni O’Reilly/Collins October 4, 2018
I believe I may have been a victim of someone on here . I am fairly new using Twitter . The ? ? Person had multiple numbers attached to their name etc. Scary stuff for me! He seemed very legit to me at first then some family members made me question this person’s legitimacy .
Chris Makara November 12, 2018
Yeah, you definitely need to be careful as they can seem to be legit when in fact they are not.
Jk March 5, 2022
Chris,
Why is that thought these fake hackers want to mess with you or get your personal information or both.
Appreciate your response
Chris Makara March 8, 2022
Unfortunately, it’s usually because they are looking to scam someone out of money.
G. Wayne Clayton April 28, 2015
Chris, love the article…very helpful. In the last 3 days ai have had a rash (in a bad sense) of followers who all have 15K – 45K posts, but have 3 times as many following as they do followers. Thats not so shocking, but then I noticed they all seem to post and retweet from the same people on the same day.
My spidey sense is tingling telling me fake IMO. I block people when I think they are fake. Whats your thoughts: let it roll or just block now?
Chris Makara April 28, 2015
Thanks for stopping by Wayne. Briefly looking at this account, I do suspect it uses quite a bit of automation and did not appear to have any @replies – just RT’s which can be automated as well.
Not that using automation is bad, it’s just that you do need to mix in some real interaction. I did not see it with this account…so I would tend to agree with you. So unless you see that they are sharing stuff that aligns with what you are interested in, you can probably unfollow them as it doesn’t look like they are doing too much engagement.
Karen May 14, 2015
Good article, Chris. I’ve had a rash of fake followers recently, that share many of the attributes you’ve listed above, plus a few others:
* The profile image is invariably a “hot babe” pic, often in a bikini or a tight t-shirt.
* They never, ever RT. Real people RT, at least occasionally. I estimate about half of my tweets are RTs, because I follow a lot of people who are smarter than I am, and when they tweet interesting things, I like to share them with my followers. If you never RT, then you’re effectively saying that no one else’s tweets are worth passing on – and few real people would say that.
* They steal tweets from other accounts. Pick a tweet of theirs that sounds like it might be an original thought, do a search on it, and invariably you find the identical tweet (misspellings, bad punctuation and all) has been tweeted by many other accounts, almost all of them equally fake-looking.
What puzzles me is why these fake accounts bother to follow anyone who doesn’t buy followers. Perhaps I’m missing something, but what’s in it for them? Are they hoping I’ll follow them back? If so, they’re wasting their time, because on the contrary, my instinct is to block them. It’s not that I’m worried that anyone will think I’m buying followers if I leave them be – the fake accounts make up only about 2% of my followers. But I don’t want them stealing my tweets and passing them off as their own, so I’m inclined to block them.
Chris Makara May 15, 2015
Good points Karen. I’ve used search like you mentioned to find fake followers as well…can’t believe I left that one of the list!
I think one reason they follow people is so that when people sell the 1000 follower packages or whatever it makes the accounts look less fake to the people who buy them.
Karen May 15, 2015
A couple of other comments:
* Be careful of jumping to conclusions with #5. A URL without any real words could be fake, but not necessarily. On its own, it’s not enough to call the account a fake. My Twitter handle is @kcIMT122, and even though it looks like nonsense, it’s legit, and it’s meaningful to me. It contains the code of the course I was taking when I opened the Twitter account. One of the course requirements was that we join Twitter. I didn’t expect to hang around long – my first tweet was something like “Unimpressed by this Twitter thing. As soon as the course is over, I’m outa here” – so I certainly wasn’t going to put anything close to my real name in my Twitter handle. 31,000 tweets later, I’m still on Twitter. With 300+ followers, grown the slow way. 🙂 If I’d known I was going to stick around so long, I probably would have chosen something more meaningful, but I can’t be bothered changing it now.
A contradictory URL is much more of a red flag, as in your Sarah Jones / John Smith example.
* I haven’t had a lot of success with the tools that scan your followers and try to detect the fakes. Only yesterday, I identified eight definitely fake followers, for the reasons I mentioned above (all had HotBabe profile pics, no RTs, and stolen tweets) and a few of your reasons (stock or stolen profile pics, no interaction with other people). Before blocking them manually, I decided to run Twitblock. It found none of these fake followers, and instead gave me a few false positives – people it thought were fake, but who are real. So it seems the fake account creators are still a few steps ahead of these tools, and anyone relying on the tools would be making a mistake. And besides, as you said, finding and blocking fake followers manually is more fun anyway!
Karen May 15, 2015
I forgot to say: one more “how to spot a fake” tip to add to your list:
* A Twitter bio that uses one of these words: “geek”, “nerd”, “maven”, “aficionado”, “ninja”, “guru”, “fanatic”, or “evangelist”, and one of “coffee”, “beer”, or “bacon”.
Often in bizarre and interchangeable combinations. Fake Twitter Account A’s bio will say “Coffee maven. Beer ninja. Bacon aficionado.” Fake Twitter Account B’s bio will say “Beer evangelist. Bacon geek. Coffee guru.” And on it goes. Blockety block.
Ribu Roby July 9, 2015
good article but Can’t agree with point number six, because I am using links to my blog in most of my tweets. does that mean I am fake???
Yes also promoting articles which benefits me somewhat. does that mean I am fake???
Chris Makara July 9, 2015
I think you misread it 🙂 #6 says “Incoherent Tweets” and the second sentence says:
“However, there are many fake accounts that simply post gibberish or random incoherent thoughts that make absolutely no sense.”
So this point is referring to people tweeting things just just don’t make sense or read properly. Posting tweets with a link is perfectly acceptable.
almark December 18, 2015
I would say twitter is full of much more than 4%, more like 50% are fake. I kid you not, there are so many who are not even human.
Chris Makara December 19, 2015
I wouldn’t think it would be that high, but yes I agree it is now probably more than 4%. Thanks for stopping by to leave a comment!
almark December 19, 2015
I can just go down my list and see people following, look at their tweets and find that most of the things they are say look like someone pasted a bunch of gibberish. Indeed twitter may have more fake accounts then they use to. Numbers are unknonw.
Mindi O'Toole January 11, 2016
Their profile description makes no fng sense like this one: “Avid zombie junkie. Music aficionado. Food trailblazer. Bacon fanatic. Entrepreneur. Communicator.” Food trailblazer? Avid zombie junkie? Really?
Chris Makara January 11, 2016
There are definitely some crazy descriptions people use, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they (this one in particular) are fake accounts.
I am curious to know what a “food trailblazer” is though 🙂
Mindi O'Toole January 11, 2016
I usually get random followers with a picture of a pretty girl who tweets nothing but quotes or links that I never click (usually because I see the word “cam” hidden in there). On Instagram it’s bikini pictures (with no face) and stock sunset photos. You’re definitely right though. That crazy description doesn’t necessarily mean fake account (mine doesn’t exactly look sane either, now that I think about it) but it usually tips me off to investigate further.
Nifty Betty January 26, 2016
Yesterday I got 15 new followers on Twitter in a very short amount of time (which doesn’t happen to me). All their photos look like stock photos. If they are bot accounts, they just started. They only have around 80-90 tweets, around 30-40 followers and are following around 600-700 people. Some of the accounts have the same tweets. Am I suppose to report these?
Chris Makara January 27, 2016
You can report these if you think they are fake/spam, or block them. Without seeing them, I would say they do sound like they are fake. Especially if they have the same tweets on some of the accounts.
Lately, I seem to get 5-10 accounts all favoriting the same tweet of mine. They never favorite anything else individually from what I can tell. So it looks like this group is also fake/bot/automated. Just one more thing to look out for.
Thanks for taking the time to stop by and comment!
Julia April 7, 2016
I’m not famous and I follow more people than I’m followed by. I don’t care though because I’m not looking for a huge amount of followers. My interactions take place with real life friends and family. I interact with some people but I won’t if I know the person won’t talk back or will only argue or attack me so some of those signs you mentioned don’t necessarily mean it’s a bot account. What I go by is the fake looking stock photo, duplicate tweets and things like ”How would you like to be a millionaire?’ I also know that when one bot account follows you, others slowly but surely begin following you as well. I blocked several people just today that followed me after one rogue account did.
Chris Makara April 7, 2016
True Julia. Just because someone meets some of the criteria doesn’t mean they are necessarily a bot. You definitely can use your own instincts and judgement to make the final call. Very true in that once a bot account follows you there are many other that also start to follow you as well. Thanks for dropping by to leave a comment!
Melissa Jankowski April 17, 2016
Chris – I’m glad to see people are still discussing this helpful post. I’ve had a Twitter account for a long time, but really only started using it two months ago. I’ve found it simple enough to recognize and block the obvious bots, but they are getting sneakier. A seemingly legit account followed me the other day and it was interesting enough, so I followed back. Over the next hour or so, I had a jump in followers. All had profiles and none were completely nonsensical, but there was no interaction. I noticed that all of the accounts were opened on the same month and year, and while they weren’t complete clones, they all put out the same tweets. I have a small following, so it’s not an issue for me, but I’m wondering… do you like to use any particular tools for weeding out fake accounts?
Chris Makara April 17, 2016
Hey Melissa, I agree that it is good that people are still discussing this. There are people that are definitely getting smarter/better at creating more realistic fake Twitter accounts. As for a good tool, I like using ManageFlitter to quickly remove “suspect” accounts plus accounts without profile pics, inactive accounts, etc.
You can probably find another tool or two in this massive list of 500+ social media tools – http://bulk.ly/social-media-tools/
Daisy July 14, 2016
Hey guys, great article! What are your thoughts on tools like https://www.tweetfavy.com and similar sites? I’ve been using their service to get more followers on my Twitter account, great stuff!
Nurul November 11, 2016
My twitter account have no profile images, no followers and no tweets. It’s because I join twitter just for seeing updates from my favourite bands.
Chris Makara November 11, 2016
Yeah, there are definitely people who do that as well. The 11 ways I outlined are simply just common trends I seem to find in most “fake” accounts. Thanks for dropping by to leave a comment!
Tegan Lynne Nappari June 4, 2017
Hey!!! I post a lot of quotes and, my Twitter is real. Lol. Here’s a good one tho, a bad knockoff. Meaning it’s an actual person behind the screen. Not a bot. Claiming to be a celeb or someone known to many, say, an up and coming artist, or even a CCM singer (comtemporary Christian music). Yes, fake twitters for the name of Jesus… Lol. Sad but true. Even Chtis Tomlin has an impersonator, the handle for the fake is @christomlinmin. And every single tweet is a retweet from the real page. I have about 30 suspected following me at the moment. Every time I message (or if I can’t Twitter message, the I email their PR team) it comes back the same, that is not a real account, please report to Twitter. And I do. Report them for impersonation via the web, cannot be done thru the app, and then I block them. I’ve knocked off a good 20 or so now.
Tegan Lynne Nappari June 4, 2017
Also a good tip on this note is, never follow someone back until you verify with the official account, the public relations team, or thru Facebook messenger if at all possible!
Chris Makara June 5, 2017
Yep, that is a good point. There are definitely a ton of knock-off accounts that try to pass as the real thing. Sadly, many people seem to follow these accounts for some reason or another. But like you said, it’s best to verify the account is real before following it back.
Bart August 7, 2017
You also missed the name/Long number combination ex. Janet234908834. Blackhats use a completely automated account generator to create followbot swarm accts that are used later for paid followback services when tasked by a command/control server. Though generally harmless, they contribute nothing and skew statistical data.
100,000 followers wont help find customers if they are all bots.
Chris Makara August 7, 2017
Good point Bart. And you’re right about 100,000 bot followers not helping to drive real value to an account.
Ellen Brotke Bye August 14, 2017
I follow a Twitter account: Liam Neeson OBE (@LiamNeesonActo) because I am a fan. Then “it” is following me back. But when it start to send me direkt posts and asking if I want to donate, I got suspicious. Do you think this is a fake account??
Chris Makara August 14, 2017
Taking a quick look, yes this does appear to be a questionable account. Chances are that his real Twitter account will be verified by Twitter.
Babes February 19, 2018
Hi I have a question about someone famous… let’s just say J lo has a account on twitter can some one else make up a twitter with same user just maybe add a number at the end of their user or does twitter not allow the beginning user name of someone famous to be duplicated? Even though theirs a number. … and user name is different but can someone create a twitter and use their picture and say their J Lo? But their really not…
Chris Makara February 20, 2018
Currently, Twitter does not prevent this from happening and it happens all the time. The best way to tell if it is really a celebrity account is that the account will be “verified” by Twitter and have a verified badge on the profile.
Babes February 21, 2018
U oh ok. Where do I find this verified badge at? I’m new with twitter and not sure where to look. This famous person telling me they have a suit case and they can’t get away to get this money and they will give me 20% of this money when I get suit case.. lol funny huh
Babes February 21, 2018
Ignore the “U” at the beginning. Finger accidentally hit it. Meant ohh ok
Chris Makara February 21, 2018
It will be just to the right of their username. For example, see https://twitter.com/buffer.
LOL @ the suitcase…seems legit haha.
Babes February 21, 2018
Hahah I know not sure how that “U” got in their. But ok I see the check mark right?
Chris Makara February 21, 2018
So the profile with the suitcase full of money has a checkmark? If so, can you share the link to that Twitter profile?
Babes February 21, 2018
No theirs no check mark. Its keith urban. But the one without a check mark
Chris Makara February 21, 2018
Ok, then yeah…it’s definitely a fake account up to no good 🙂
Babes February 22, 2018
Do I report them or just leave it alone?
Chris Makara February 22, 2018
You could report them. If enough complaints are made, Twitter will usually ban the profile.
Babes February 23, 2018
Alright sounds good!! You were such a great help! I never actually had someone message me back on a site like this that answers questions. So im very glad you did..!! Thank you!
Chris Makara February 23, 2018
No problem, glad I could help 🙂 Let me know if I can help with anything else!
Babes February 24, 2018
Oh I will, im not shy lol. You were great!! Thank you again!
Karlo Evan Garcia March 1, 2018
I like your article. But I disagree with number 10. No or low follower counts. How could one control whether someone follows them or not. Myself would not create a twitter account just for people to follow me or not, I just like to share my ideas on a platform on social media like twitter. I got more things to worry about in my life than whether someone follows me or not on twitter LOOOOL, if I did than my life is pretty great. It’s not the life I live by.
Chris Makara March 2, 2018
I understand that you can’t “force” someone to follow you. However, most fake/spam accounts typically have a low follower ratio to those that they follow. These 11 things mentioned are just things to look out/pay attention to and by no means does an account with a low follower count mean it is a fake account 🙂
Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment!
TIM April 21, 2018
Ive been INSTAGRAM following someone who claims to be DANICA PATRICK(racecar driver). She goes by the name DANICAPATCH. I was thinking I was actually conversing with Danica. BUT recently I’ve been getting some red flags.
She says she will send me her new book(signed), a shirt(signed), and a photo(signed). and a business partner from East Stroudsburg, PA would deliver it(red flag: why not USPS? UPS? FEDEX?)
And then she said she’d throw in two brand new iPhoneX! WHY????
She said that if I could give the deliveryt guy $100 that would be cool(RED FLAG!!). I told the person that I was on a fixed income and just did major renovations to my house. She then said she would work something out. Then said $25 gift card would be okay. STILL RED FLAG!!
NOT the real Danica Patrick??
Chris Makara April 22, 2018
I think Danica has better things to do with her time than scam $100 off of people 🙂
In fact, this is her real account – https://www.instagram.com/danicapatrick/
alex May 16, 2018
a lot of people buy fake followers from twitter farms….. I want all my followers to be genuine, but for some reason I get spam of fake followers, does this happens to everybody??? I don’t want fake people to follow me,, is there someone trolling me?? or trying to help me with more followers? because I don’t like it.. is there away to stop this??? thank you
Chris Makara May 16, 2018
Yeah, unfortunately you can’t really control who follows you. Perhaps you could make your profile private and that might help?
Kevin Henry May 21, 2018
I found a fake profile account involving one or two of the things you did not mention https://twitter.com/sarahfhfit there are multiple sarahs and with the same picture and the same amount of tweets what type would you consider this?
Chris Makara May 21, 2018
Yep, these are definitely fake accounts. For fun you can go to https://bitly.com/2GZmXOg+ (which is the link in their bio) and see how many clicks this person is getting from their fake accounts. It’s quite a few and I’m willing to bet they are probably making a few bucks off of what they are doing…
michelleszafransk November 10, 2018
How do you know if an account is still active?or someone else is using that account is that possible???when that person is passed.wouldnt all the accounts be deleted???but also correct me if wrong,the only way someone can use your account is if you give them your information of your account or unless it’s that person pretending to be dead.???but wouldn’t you have to get permission from the account or notification saying this person has the right to be my account???and how do you prove that if possible???or can it be fake??can someone use another person’s account??? Please let me know
Chris Makara November 12, 2018
Usually if an account is still posting you can consider it active. And one way to tell if someone took over or hacked the original account, you can scroll through their tweets and see if the topic/content changes a lot from what was previously posted. As for when someone passes away, Twitter (or other sites) won’t necessarily know that is the case. I’m sure that each social network has their own policies/procedures to handle those situations.
Jeff Jacobsen June 1, 2019
I can’t prove it, but my theory on bots with 8 random numbers is as follows. They can’t change their @username. Mainly because the API doesn’t give the remote host a way to access the bot account’s settings. Without access to settings, it would be impossible to change an account like @JohnDoe12345678 to @JohnDoeLikesYou. Challenge a more advanced AI version to do so. The remote user will get irritated and feign it unimportant followed by a slew of gaslighting and insults.
Chris Makara June 1, 2019
Good point Jeff. I think that makes sense and probably holds some merit as most fake accounts are probably dynamically created but can’t handle registration when a username is already taken. So the easy solution for them would be to throw random numbers on it as the likelihood of it already being registered are minimal.
Lee June 12, 2019
I have someone messaging me. This person is a somewhat new country singer. The account isn’t varied but is Iinked to the verified Accident. He said this was his own personal account but the photos are the same for the profile.
Chris Makara June 12, 2019
I would say it is a fake/imposter. Ask him to contact you via the verified account instead 🙂
Brett November 12, 2019
If someone’s account has their google hangout email on it, no tweets, 1k following and only 200 followers (which appear to be mostly spam) safe to assume this account is fake? Since they posted their google account to be contacted there on their bio.
Chris Makara November 12, 2019
It sounds like it is more than likely fake. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to have 200+ followers with 0 tweets. What reason would someone really have to follow them at that point?
Teja November 16, 2019
we see that a tweet has massive RT’s but can we find out using a software or if there is any way to see if that RTs are done majorly by bots ?
Chris Makara November 18, 2019
I am not aware of a tool that specifically does this, but you could probably skim through the accounts that RT’ed and see if they look fake. If the majority are fake, then more than likely most of the RT’s could be from bots.
Garland Russell December 25, 2019
Hi, Chris; I have some comments & questions. Just a few hours ago, I have someone following me on Twitter who goes by Saikou Marong. His profile is here:
https://twitter.com/SaikouMarong12
He had DM’ed me saying that his family is in trouble & is asking for money & has even given me his info to send him money to “WorldRemit”.
I’ve done some digging, & come to find out, he has THREE MORE TWITTER PROFILES!
https://twitter.com/saikoumarong4
https://twitter.com/saikoumarong9
https://twitter.com/marongtyga
I questioned him about why he had so many profiles, & he had said that “Because I struggle to survive with my family so I’m on here to look for support” & “Life is really very much hard on us here & we suffer a lot for living”. Do you think that this is a scam? I haven’t sent him anything yet.
Chris Makara January 6, 2020
Yes, I definitely would think this is a scam. I wouldn’t send him anything 🙂
Aadarsh Roy February 1, 2020
Hey CHRIS MAKARA ,
Great post with effective tips to identify a fake twitter accounts. I really like your post and truly like the tips that you have suggested to spot a fake twitter account.
In today’s time it is really essential for every users to be aware about fake accounts. Their are millions of fake accounts found on twitter. Many people create their fake accounts with some rong intentions. It is really important for twitter users to detect fake accounts. As these tips will help several users to identify fake accounts. Identifying the fake twitter account is not an easy task, whereas it requires a sharp mind and knowledge. As we have seen that fake twitter users generally include no bios, confusing profile name, and has not been tweeted anything from few years. A twitter account with excessive duplicate tweets, having low followers count and stock profile images are a sign that helps to detect the fake accounts.
Your all the suggested tips are effective and help several twitter users to identify the fake accounts. You have provided a great helping hand for several users.
Truly informative post and thanks for sharing.
Chris Makara February 10, 2020
Glad you found it useful and helpful. Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment 🙂
Marylou May 20, 2020
Well, I really Wish I found this site before. Actually, someone from Twitter using the famous Alexander Dreymon @ Alexader Dreymon (check the sp. don’t know why I didn’t notice it). We were exchanging messages for a week and I really fall for it. I was going crazy over him. Thinking of all the women why would he picked me. I demanded to send me a picture or a phone call but he has this excuses. He even sent me an Actor’s management contract telling me why he can’t call me. Boy, it was too good to be true. When I tried reading the contract that he sent me I noticed something was off. The witnesses signatures doesn’t matches with their names. The John Hancock signatures is upside down. Then he asked me if I want to help a charity. I said ok and want me to send money right away but I kept sending it to the wrong country for some reason I don’t know. So he keep messaging me to send it again. Finally, I realize something is wrong and I just had this gut feeling. So I went to his Twitter account and told him that he’s fake and he blocked me. I reported it but don’t know if they’re going to do something about. He’s posting God’s word In order to get money from people. That is just pure evil.
Chris Makara May 21, 2020
Oh wow, glad to hear you were able to keep from sending the money as well as calling him out. Hopefully if enough people report the account it will get blocked!
Priya Sharma December 2, 2020
Hey Chris i really appreciate your thought to identify fake twitter accounts but some facts are just predictions like After so long a tweet or less followers than following. Its not true in every case.
Chris Makara December 2, 2020
True, while these are just recommendations it is best to manually look at all aspects of the account and make your best judgement based on what you see.
servesh April 14, 2024
As i am new to twitter and rest of the social media handles. thanks a lot for such content !
Janice Majalca June 10, 2024
I have someone ottomotto that said congratulations I won 10,000 from him but I’m not a subscriber so I have to be one to receive the money. It’s going to cost 45 dollars than I can get on the winners payroll. Do you believe this to be true? I can’t believe you haven’t hit on this yet.