It’s nothing new for Twitter users to fake verification status, but Twitter’s recent profile redesign is making it easier and more convincing.
Reddit user replicated spotted the trick, which uses Twitter’s new header photo layout to mimic the look of official verified accounts.
And here’s a real verified profile:
You can easily distinguish a real verified account from a fake one by hovering over the blue check mark. If it’s real, it will read “Verified Profile.”
Twitter unveiled the new profile look back in September, saying it would allow users to better express themselves. Now, Twitter users have three different images to assign to their accounts – the header photo, profile picture, and background image. Twitter recently published a video and started reminding users to upload a header photo when they log in, suggesting that header photo adoption may not be to their liking. Once uploaded, these images are uniform across all devices.