A misspelled fake celebrity account fooled thousands within minutes

Evidence

Another good example is an incident in 2018, where someone impersonated the US billionaire Warren Buffett on Twitter. The account and photo looked exactly like the real thing except for a small difference: they had misspelled Buffett as ‘Buffet’. Lots of people were fooled, though, and the account – retweeted by media figures and politicians – gained hundreds of thousands of followers within minutes. Fake Warren offered feel-good advice such as ‘stay teachable’ and ‘don’t spend what you don’t have’ – drawing inspiration from things the real Warren Buffett had said or shared before. — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 737

Categorization

• CANDY: A vivid, shareable mini-illustration of how thin the veil of impersonation can be.
• XREF: connects to: Misinformation spreaders fall for obvious online pranks and get widely mocked — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror…, 233; Even Naomi Wolf has a fake doppelganger account spreading conspiracies in her name — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror…, 187

Broader Connections

• Misinformation spreaders fall for obvious online pranks and get widely mocked #exemplifies (0.82) — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 233
• Even Naomi Wolf has a fake doppelganger account spreading conspiracies in her name #exemplifies (0.72) — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 187