Twitter Users Affected by Identity Issues
Trust, but verify.
Taken from a Russian writer, this has become one of the most used slogans by Cryptocurrency fans. Even though the catch phrase it is becoming quite popular on the social media, competitors who are going all out to promote the latest high-tech investments are now using the very symbols that are supposed to safeguard users against them.
Whether it’s an account that is copying the world’s leading exchange or its popular tech visionaries, no firm or person is an exception for a simple takedown that is going all over, driven by negligent verification practices by top social media giants.
But from this point in time, it look like “crypto Twitter” taking the greater pressure.
Equipped with a photo ID, fraudsters are effectively deceiving Twitter into providing them a “blue check mark “of authenticity which makes it possible for them to take the identity of real people and entities, with the aim of robbing people’s money.
Let’s look at “seifbei,” a verified account linked with freelance film producer and director Seif Elsbei, which was hacked and later on acted as the real account of the verge company. Additionally, the fraudster took a step further posting messages as crypto exchange Bitfinex and Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin.
Earlier in April, the same verified account “Protafield” committed the same act, changing its account name for a short period of time to copy crypto exchanges to purposely deceive Ethereum giveaways.
This goes to indicate that the present Twitter issue will mostly likely not be solved by the blue check mark or a verification process.
“People at home see this as a stamp that Twitter sees this as a good account, which can be very subjective,” said Tim Pastoor, founder of the Netherlands-based digital identity startup 2way.io.
He continued to explain that screening the identity behind the account and not checking the intent while providing the blue print could prove more deadly to Twitter.
According to a spokesperson, “We dedicate a lot of resources towards combating illegitimate Twitter accounts and educating our users on how to spot them. However, our impact on certain sites is limited.”
The bottom line once again is ‘Trust, but verify’.
