There are plenty of fake Twitter accounts that are intended to be amusing spoofs of celebrities – but it’s easy to set up accounts that could be used more maliciously.

The lack of initial verification on Twitter means that anyone can set up an account pretending to be someone.

Using a Hotmail account, background info dredged from social networks and a picture grabbed from the web, we set up an account for weatherman Daniel Corbett, who left the BBC last year.

After a brief browse of weather-related tweeters, we found a small community of BBC, Met Office and other weather professionals who would have worked with Corbett and subscribed to their feeds in the hope of getting followed in return.

Wary of potentially obtaining private information, we didn’t direct message any of the “contacts” that we followed, yet within eight tweets @WeatherCorbett had a handful of followers, including BBC weather presenters Liam Dutton and Sara Thornton.

Anyone with an axe to grind could have posted anything to reflect badly on Corbett, or entered into private discussions with friends.

Twitter has a process for people to make complaints and, once it’s seen evidence (such as a faxed-in copy of a passport) will close down fake accounts.

We were told by victims of impersonator accounts that Twitter acts quickly, and just as we went to press, our own fake account had been suspended.

(PC Pro)

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