Twitter: Fake Nintendo and Valve Accounts Show Up on Site as New ‘Official’ Grey Checkmark ‘Killed’ Hours After Launch

After Twitter confirmed it will add a new “official” non-paid grey verification checkmark to verify legitimate accounts from ones subscribed to Twitter Blue, the site has now completely scrapped the idea.

This has led to many getting the blue checkmarks by subscribing to Twitter Blue which costs $8 per month and changing their layouts to impersonate other accounts.

A verified account claiming to be Valve Software tweeted about a new competitive platform of some sort. The now-suspended account was of course not representing Valve, as its username was “@valvesotfware”. However, it may have successfully misled some people.

this announcement is fake, created with purchased twitter blue checkmark, real account @valvesoftware pic.twitter.com/D3B3D8guYq

— ‎Gabe Follower (@gabefollower) November 9, 2022

thank you twitter for recommending I follow the very reall valvesotfware pic.twitter.com/IfADdV0YyP

— raddles (@radraddles) November 9, 2022

An account impersonating Nintendo of America also popped up, posting a picture of Mario flipping Twitter off and other such posts that went viral.

Every single advertiser is about to drop Twitter in the next 48 hours. Person creates fake Nintendo Twitter account, pays $8, gets verified immediately and within 2 hours, all their sh**posts go viral. Real Nintendo account gets spammed with complaints. pic.twitter.com/7CZcwYJDsd

— Matt (@themattprov) November 9, 2022

It remains to be seen what Twitter is going to do about this problem, as verified accounts are popping up all over the site, impersonating someone already established.

Twitter Blue has currently launched only in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. Users can subscribe to the service using an iOS device. Elon Musk said earlier this month that Twitter Blue will roll out in India in less than a month.

The new “Official” grey checkmarks were added to some accounts, but then the identifier was “killed” by Musk. He has confirmed that the blue checkmark will be the “great leveler.”

Twitter was adding an “Official” non paid grey verification checkmark on previously verified accounts. Seems they have since stopped and revoked it. pic.twitter.com/A4QRNgQBWt

— UNDERRATED NINJA (@iamjoseh_) November 9, 2022

I just killed it

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 9, 2022