The Twitter fraudsters

“Some of the stuff is scandalous and has absolutely nothing to do with me,” wrote football manager Sam Allardyce in his Evening Standard column.

Was he ranting about transfer rumours or a dressing room bust-up? No. He took to the paper’s pages to complain about the spoof Twitter account that bears his name – and 86,000 followers.

You can understand why Allardyce took offence. After all, @TheBig_Sam’s messages often feature jokes and language that would make Frankie Boyle think twice.

Twitter initially bowed to Allardyce’s wishes and suspended the account – but, after a hashtag-led backlash, the account was restored in February 2011. The episode is indicative of Twitter’s mainstream appeal, and the popularity of parody accounts that now form an integral part of the service.

Royal connections

Not surprisingly, accounts parodying famous figures are extremely popular. One of the biggest is @Queen_UK, with a whopping 465,000 followers “from across the Commonwealth”. It’s become one of the most popular comedy accounts, allowing its writer to tap into one of Twitter’s unique features and exploit a hashtag.

A ‘Gin O’clock’ Facebook page has attracted almost 20,000 followers, and the phrase even spawned an eponymous book

Hashtags are used to group conversation topics together, and @Queen_UK’s #ginoclock has become something of a national institution. “It’s announced at 5pm every day,” says the writer behind the account, who wished to remain anonymous.

It’s an example of how a parody account can grow beyond its 140-character inspiration: a “Gin O’clock” Facebook page has attracted almost 20,000 followers, and the phrase even spawned an eponymous book.

It isn’t the only parody account to draw inspiration from the monarchy. One of the most notorious is @DianaInHeaven, which boasts 48,000 thick-skinned followers. Curated by comedy writer Andy Dawson, it turns the image of the “People’s Princess” on its head by announcing the arrival of deceased celebrities with a “sweary and belligerent” twist.

Dawson has received criticism for his biting tweets; oddly enough, he says “the majority coming from teenage girls”. He’s also been subjected to a predictably vindictive attack from the Daily Express, which dubbed Dawson a “sick prankster”, and his account “macabre”.

Despite this, Dawson is quick to extol the virtues of comedy accounts. “There’s loads of funny writers, and it’s a level playing field – if you’re entertaining, you’ll find an audience.” He’s taken his success beyond Twitter, self-publishing an ebook called Dead Princess Diaries. His potential publisher “shied away because it thought it was too controversial”.

@DianaInHeaven isn’t the only parody account to make its creator money. One of the biggest belongs to @MrsStephenFry, the fictional wife of Stephen Fry – a Twitter institution with 3.1 million followers – who has secured 115,000 followers and a book deal of her own.

Leave mainstream accounts behind and you’ll find a rich seam of niche content. More than 20,000 people follow @LiterallyJamie, which pokes fun at football pundit Jamie Redknapp and his over-reliance on a few stock clichés. “I spent Sundays ranting about the Redknapps, so I set up the account to give my wife a break,” says the man behind the account, Paul Fisher.

Fisher is fond of his “bewildered observer”. “He’s an irritant but also a nice guy, and he’s a gateway to other targets – his dad [Harry], Frank Lampard, John Terry. I got a lot of mileage out of the Richard Keys and Andy Gray scandal – it was the gift that kept giving!”

Fisher is keen to keep @LiterallyJamie low-key. “I’ll probably keep plugging away until I get bored,” he says, after a foray into football writing proved his unique voice “suits the 140-character format much better”.

And any feedback from Redknapp himself? Alas not: “I’m not sure if he can operate computers more complex than a Nintendo Wii, so he probably hasn’t seen it,” jokes Fisher.

Not surprisingly, Twitter also attracts a tech-savvy audience – one Novak Leavitt, the writer behind @ceoMarkZuck, was keen to tap in to. “I saw how funny @FakeSteveJobs was,” he says, “and was pleasantly surprised by how much steam my own account picked up.”

He even counts Tyler Winklevoss – one of the twins who sued the Facebook founder for allegedly stealing the idea for the social network – among his followers.

Tweet by committee

Not all accounts are the work of office loners or comedians. Take the @FakeAPStylebook, which boasts 250,000 followers and was founded by copy editor Ken Lowery and “journalism nerd” Mark Hale.

I don’t think any of us expected the level of success the feed has achieved

Their account – offering “style tips for proper writing” – was born when Lowery and Hale began “lobbing fake tips to each other over IM”. When they received positive feedback from friends, they decided to take it public.

Despite the initial response, no-one was particularly optimistic. Writer Dave Lartigue says: “I don’t think any of us expected [the level of success the feed has achieved]”, and even Lowery confirmed he assumed it would last “maybe two weeks”.

Now the @FakeAPStylebook team has even released a book, called Write More Good, which has attracted a following of its own. “It’s always fun when readers send us pictures of themselves with the book,” explains contributor Dr Andrew Kunka.

Topical tweeting

Twitter’s immediacy is an even stronger asset when parody accounts target current events. Matt Ruskin created his @Julian_Ass account in November 2010, spurred on by the media attention given to WikiLeaks supremo Julian Assange.

“He’s an extremely lampoonable character who wasn’t getting enough ribbing,” says Ruskin. “I felt it was irresponsible, the way he was giving out all of this information at once.”

Ruskin quickly created an alternative Assange: a “frustrated hacker in his mum’s back bedroom who reveals the truth no matter the social implications”. The results were instantaneous. “Dave Gorman picked up on it within the first one or two tweets, as did Al Murray and Krishnan Guru-Murthy; it was featured in the New Zealand Herald after a couple of nights, and then Forbes magazine.”

Assange is an extremely lampoonable character who wasn’t getting enough ribbing

His topical tweets had an unintended side-effect, too. “An awful lot of people thought it was actually him,” says Ruskin. “Lots of people telling me to fight the good fight.”

Plenty of accounts draw inspiration from the news, and some go beyond satire, using their influence to do good. American comedian Josh Simpson “saw the US Coast Guard kicking journalists off the beach” in the wake of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and was moved to retaliate.

With the story making global headlines, @BPGlobalPR garnered plenty of attention thanks to its satirical tweets: stories on Mashable, The Guardian and Vanity Fair caused enough of a furore for BP to deny it was an official account after thousands of tweeters assumed it was real.

Simpson decided to help the clean-up effort by selling T-shirts – he’s since raised at least $20,000 – and the account quickly became more than he could handle: “I edit every tweet myself, and friends contribute to the writing. A lot of them are comedians, and one actually worked for Apple.”

@LizJonesSomalia spread like wildfire, and raised almost £30,000 for charity

A parody account closer to home did even more good for charity. The man behind @DMReporter, an independent filmmaker who wishes to remain anonymous, used his influence to skewer The Daily Mail when it sent fashion reporter Liz Jones to cover famine – to “collective outrage” from what he calls the “left-wing sounding board” of Twitter.

The spoof, @LizJonesSomalia, spread like wildfire, and he raised almost £30,000 for charity – generosity he puts down to people “helping out people they don’t know… by sticking it to people they don’t like.”

At first, he says, “people didn’t understand the dark humour,” and he was subjected to “horrible messages saying I should stop”. Once people knew that it was for charity, though, their “genuine kindness” came through.

Beyond parody

Look beyond armchair comedians, and a darker side of Twitter emerges. Many forego parody and use the service to impersonate celebrities – a phenomenon that’s seen a diverse selection of personalities, including politician Tony Benn, comedian Jack Dee and the Archbishop of Canterbury, fall victim to impersonators.

Twitter’s public visibility helps these accounts thrive, but celebrities often fight back. Jack Dee’s impersonator was outed by Jonathan Ross after the presenter phoned Dee to check and, as a bonus, Ross got in touch with Jeremy Clarkson, putting paid to another fake account.

Rowan Williams was confirmed as a hoax by Lambeth Palace, and Tony Benn’s fake feed was discovered by Labour MP Tom Watson, who told The Guardian that he “bought him [Benn] a cup of tea,” asked him about the account, and found out Benn didn’t even know what Twitter was.

Why would people imitate celebrities? Psychologists think certain traits are common across people who use Twitter for this purpose. Dr Arthur Cassidy, a member of the British Psychological Society, reckons these characteristics emerge during adolescence.

“People evaluate who they are, and those who aren’t comfortable with their identities explore who they want to be.” As time goes on, personality traits become more obvious: “it’s people with impulsive personalities and slightly above-average intelligence.”

People evaluate who they are, and those who aren’t comfortable with their identities explore who they want to be

For some, impersonating a famous person is a shortcut to increased self-esteem. Cassidy explained how users find it easy to “anchor onto a particular celebrity,” and he’s certain Twitter itself is part of the reason why this has emerged. “We can’t be removed from technology, it’s part of our lives. We’ve all got cyber-identities now, and I can emulate a celebrity no matter where I am in the world.”

Impersonators have to be careful not to cross a legal line. Danvers Baillieu, senior associate at law firm Pinsent Masons, confirmed a feed’s content only has to be “mildly objectionable” for a court to grant an injunction.

In addition to Sam Allardyce, Tory blogger Donal Blaney took action against an impersonator and, according to Baillieu, “served the injunction via Twitter, because he didn’t know him [the writer]”.

Confidence tricksters

Twitter’s most unscrupulous users can wreak havoc offline, too. The story of @Lord_Credo is one of the most notorious, and was told to us by the man who unravelled his lies: ex-solicitor, and now company director, Peter Ede.

Allegedly a senior government figure named Mike Paterson, but really a confidence trickster called Michael Bracci, @Lord_Credo already had quite the résumé. Bracci claimed he was David Cameron’s personal advisor and that, previously, he’d worked with the Canadian Government and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Bracci wormed his way into Ede’s circle of friends and allegedly conned some out of money, took advantage of the hospitality of others, and left the professional reputation of at least one “in tatters”.

Twitter was a vital part of Bracci’s armoury, and it helped him ‘take in many thousands of people’ with his government gossip

At one point he even fabricated a malignant brain tumour, leaving one young member of the group “utterly distraught”. Twitter was a vital part of Bracci’s armoury, and it helped him “take in many thousands of people” with his government gossip.

But tweeting wasn’t the only bit of technological trickery he used. “I was sitting in a hotel with him, and Sally Bercow or William Hague would ring,” says Ede. Bracci used “call back” services to fake his high-level connections.

As well as worming his way into Ede’s group of friends and making waves on Twitter, Bracci also “took a lot more people in than will admit to it” in the “proud, small worlds” of Whitehall and Westminster.

@Lord_Credo even gained media attention thanks to inclusion in a Huffington Post article about high-profile political tweeters, the publication of which Ede found “a little extraordinary”.

Yet, when Ede began to investigate, Credo’s credibility evaporated. “Everyone I spoke to had their suspicions, but nobody had voiced them,” and, once Ede published his findings on his blog – only posting information he could substantiate – Bracci realised the game was up. He quickly apologised, deleted his account and disappeared.

Where’s Bracci now? Ede’s not sure. He’s been in contact with Bracci’s girlfriend, who claims she was conned out of approximately £15,000, and was told he’s seeking treatment in Florida.

Ede admits it’s sad, as he initially thought Bracci was “a nice character,” but can’t get past the “level of deceit” he demonstrated.

Official silence

Conspicuous by its absence throughout all of these episodes is Twitter itself. Ede confirmed the company gave him no help whatsoever during his Credo investigation, and the San Francisco-based firm only began to fight back against impersonators in June 2009, with the introduction of its verification programme.

So much generosity and kindness was genuinely overwhelming – Twitter is quite remarkable

Our attempts to contact Twitter were met only with links to its policies on impersonation and parody accounts, which confirm those who suspect impersonation should submit a support request, and that parodies are free to continue making people laugh “so long as they don’t mislead or deceive others”.

With lawyer Baillieu confirming that Twitter isn’t legally responsible for messages posted on its site, that flimsy policy is all it needs to do to cover its own back.

Vague legal threats won’t stop malicious tricksters and impersonators but, despite this dark underbelly, even Ede still sings Twitter’s praises, enthusing that “it’s a wonderful place and my experience has been absolutely superb”.

The man behind @DMReporter, meanwhile, spoke reverently about the users who made @LizJonesSomalia so special. “People took this idea and embraced it; so much generosity and kindness was genuinely overwhelming. Twitter is quite remarkable.”