I can’t imagine what it would feel like to be impersonated but I laughed out loud at a particular tweet of Alyssa Milano who commented on having found somebody posing as her on Twitter (despite her already being an established Twitter user).

A fake me is following me. I wonder how I’m doing this evening. ~ @Alyssa_Milano

Sometimes a verified account doesn’t always stop these apparently very bored people who have way too much time on their hands. Oh definitely not. Miley Cyrus has a verified account, but at any one given time there are at least a dozen if not more “Mileys” trying to suck in the teen masses into believing it’s her “second account”. Even her dad Billy Ray was not immune and had a handful of posers portraying him. Then the confusion really sets in when all these fake people follow other fake people, likely all ONE person unless there’s some “poser posse” out there somewhere. This truly gives new meaning to the term multiple personality disorder. The entire Cyrus family at one point was all being faked. Billy Ray, once told of his poser, got so outraged for the sake of his fans being deceived that he jumped out of bed, snapped a photo, sent to Twitter and immediately had his account verified in order to stop “RealBillyRay”.

See! This is me ! I just snapped this picture. Please block the real billy ray cyrus. It is a fake ! - @BillyRayCyrus

Yes. There is a poser ! Elvis said” Imitation is the highest form of flatery”. But that was before Twitter. This scumbag is a fake!!!!!!!! ~ @BillyRayCyrus

Even though some celebs have made it crystal clear that they don’t use Twitter, it doesn’t seem to stop the posers. For instance, Vanessa Hudgens, impersonated heavily on Twitter, confirmed, along with Zac Efron, that they do NOT use Twitter during an interview on the red carpet of an award show, and on Ellen. A few posers tried to explain it away that they didn’t want too many people knowing about this “private account” (with the celeb’s name and pic splashed all over the page), and a few others simply said she “changed her mind” and DOES tweet now.

Sometimes the internet can be a wonderful globally “together” place and other times the fact that anyone can hide behind their computer screens beneath the veil of anonymity, really breeds a sense of distrust and asks the wonderful age old question … “WTF???”

So bottom line, while Twitter is clearly addressing the issue and at some point fake tweeps will be a thing of the past, in the meantime, if the account is NOT verified, while this does not at all mean they aren’t the real deal, use caution. Don’t go around bragging to all your coworkers that you just had the most amazing tweet session with Robert Pattinson of Twilight (who, as of this writing, does NOT use Twitter).

If you think you’ve found a poser and want to do something about it, I recommend contacting TweetFakes, and Valebrity, who make it their business to verify and report on who’s real and who isn’t. Be careful yet AGAIN though, as there are some posers out there so hell bent on gaining your belief and trust, they will even create a similar Twitter account that by all appearances looks like it’s there to BEAT the fakes for the sole purpose of