Country singer, my ass. This is a non-existing problem in the form you stated. Just how often here someone pretends to be someone famous? Maybe once a year? I have been here for more than a decade and I don't remember such a case.
And as I stated, just because someone is real, still can give bullshit advice or can lie so this verification won't protect from that. What protects newbies is using common sense and we who know better calling out BS when we see it. Like now.
I have no idea how often such occurs nor does it matter unless you're Facebook or Twitter. Remember, the OP of this thread specifically named having a verification system
like Facebook and Twitter.
Their verification system is based upon one fact only...identifying or verifying those that setup accounts so their fans or supporters can follow them and communicate with them. How often people steals the real person identity...I don't know.
I do know (I just looked it up on Google) that there are dozens of websites telling people how to spot a fake twitter account or a fake facebook account. Apparently it must be a big issue for so many websites to talk about it.
What about fake twitter accounts that actually fooled people for awhile:
Queen Elizabeth, Michael Jordan, Bernie Sanders, Ed Sheeran, Ariana Grande, Floyd Mayweather, Garth Brooks, Carrie Underwood, Tim McGraw, Usain Bolt, Tim Tebow, Oscar Pistorius and thousands of others.
The above are ones where 10s of thousands of followers were establish BEFORE twitter was able to determine the accounts were NOT the real person...twitter deleted the fake accounts and then contacted the real person to see if they wanted to setup a verified real account...most of them did and now they have a verified twitter account.
My favorite was the fake "Kayne West" account (not verified) that had thousands of followers and making headline news via dissing other celebrities. The real Kayne West being the way he is...didn't care until a particular dissing of a celebrity caused him some legal problems involving product branding issue by the dissed celebrity. Now real Kayne West has his own twitter account (verified) and the other fake accounts have been deleted by twitter.
If its non-existing problem...why do Twitter and Facebook say it is a problem ???
Why do Twitter and Facebook have webpages that talks about the issue and how to become a verified member if its non-existent ???
https://www.facebook.com/ help/contact/356341591197702
(Note: I intentionally put a space in the above link for Facebook because this forum thinks its a "media" link and alters its code in such a way that the link does not appear. Therefore, to get the link to work...remove the space.)
Facebook states "ordinary people" do not need a verification badge. The verification badge is specific to people like celebrities, journalists, government officials, entertainment people, businesses, brands, organizations and so on.
https://support.twitter.com/articles/119135#
Twitter states...
Twitter verifies accounts on an ongoing basis to make it easier for users to find who they're looking for. We concentrate on highly sought users in music, acting, fashion, government, politics, religion, journalism, media, sports, business and other key interest areas. We are constantly updating our requirements for verification. Note, verification does not factor in follower count or Tweet count.
We do not accept requests for verification from the general public. If you fall under one of the above categories and your Twitter account meets our qualifications for verification, we may contact you in the future.
Looks like the verification system is real to me but you say its non-existent...should I believe you or the info above ???
In contrast, the issue you're talking about...there's already an existing threads for that topic here in the feedback section involving sponsors and none sponsors and B.S. traders and proof of profitability and proof of being a trader. You should use those threads for that conversation instead of trying to change the topic of this thread...you're not the OP.
With that said and back to the OP's topic...we do have some ET members stating for fact they are someone important and I've mentioned a few situations here at ET. Other situations I've seen that needs verification involves members that say they are
employed or working at a particular hedge fund, prop firm without giving their real names.
I believe strongly that any ET member that specifically states they are an employee of a financial institution...that ET member needs to verify to Baron that they are in fact an employee of the firm. This is important because these members engage in conversation with other ET members as if they have information about what occurs at the firm that's not generally shared with the public regardless if the info is negative or positive and so on...
These people need to be verified via their name and have the approval of their firm that allows employees to openly discuss the firm here at ET. This has nothing to do with profitability BSers, nothing to do with people proving a trade is real...but it does have to do with protecting ANY ET member from those that say they are someone or a firm when in fact they are not.
So yeah...its an existing problem and just because you're naive about what's occurring on Facebook, Twitter or ET...does not imply it does not exist.
That's the discussion in this thread. Yet, if you want to change the discussion to something different or whatever...what's wrong with discussing those issues in the other thread instead of hijacking this thread ???
Did you get the threads mixed up or forgot to look at what the OP stated ???
P.S. We need a verification system and most likely different types. Thousands of people are fooled on Facebook and Twitter...what makes ET so special in that hundreds here can't be fooled ?
Doesn't anybody remember the fake tweets out of
AP News @
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/apr/23/ap-tweet-hack-wall-street-freefall
After the above incident...AP News now has a verified twitter account @
https://twitter.com/AP and it now has verified twitter accounts for their employees. The tweet about the white house explosions came from a fake employee account mistaken by AP and then uploaded to its news network.
The result was a sudden -143 point drop in the Dow Jones. I remember it well because I was in a trade and took a big loss because people with "common sense" believed the hacked tweets included professional trading firms.
What has happen sense that day for AP News ? They are now verified on twitter and so are their employees that uploads info to the AP News network. You know its verified because it has the
blue badge next to its name. Simply, this stuff is real...
not non-existent.