David van Rooyen Twitter account is fake

You gotta admire the pace of Twitter. Within minutes of the new spreading about President Zuma firing…eh…I mean recalling the South African Financial Minister and appointing David van Rooyen, a @daviddvanrooyen Twitter account appeared.

The account, complete with ANC background and David’s picture had amassed over 1000 followers within a couple of hours and it appears that this account is a paradoy fake account.

3 Fake Indicators

1  – The Bio: 

Proud ANC MP. Was Chief Whip on the Standing Committee on Finance, now I’m the Minister! I love soccer, golf, tennis, reading, hunting & parody accounts!

2 – The Time:  The account’s first tweet was only 13 hours ago

3 – The Tweets: The  account,run by an unknown person, has  tweets like this one being Re-Tweeted 52 times:

and this one being Re-Tweeted 125 times:

David van Rooyen Twitter account is fake

The obvious problem is that while some recognise these tweets are someone’s attempt at being funny, after these are Re-Tweeted again and again by people who have real-reputation, the nature of the Re-Tweet gives it legitimacy.

The Real David van Rooyen should approach Twitter and get himself a verified account as clearly he is being impersonated which is one of the key criteria that Twitter looks for when verifying accounts.

By the way, in the several minutes it took to write this, the account gained 29 new followers and if it is indeed the real account, South Africa is in serious trouble…