Members of the Shiba Inu team are facing a growing number of fake Twitter accounts attempting to impersonate SHIB members.
With all eyes on the SHIB team for Shiba Inu news about the likes of Shibarium and other projects on the roadmap, these accounts are seeking to imitate a range of individuals for their own gain.
And, with calls for Twitter verification rising, it seems to only be getting worse as SHIB grows.
Shiba Inu impersonations
With the SHIB team now no longer just a few developers, impersonators have more targets to go after with new social media accounts.
From Milkshake to SHIBQueenie, fake accounts pretending to be these individuals seem to pop up fairly often, to then message followers with promotions unrelated to SHIB.
This is alongside the continuous accounts pretending to be official SHIB accounts, often gaining thousands of followers, too.
Of course, this is not unique to the Shiba Inu ecosystem. Every industry, from sports to gaming, has its own impersonators, as does the rest of the crypto industry.
In response to this growing issue, several members of the SHIB community have pushed for Twitter to verify SHIB individuals. However, this does not seem to have happened, barring the main SHIB account.
In particular, there has been a large push for the Shiba project lead Shytoshi Kusama to be verified. With 841,000 followers, he is among the most prominent official SHIB sources, but has yet to gain the blue tick.
The Shibburn account, which tracks SHIB burns, was among those to stress the need for his verification. “Very surprised that Shytoshi Kusama hasn’t been verified yet,” it tweeted. “Yes, it is important for the safety of investors.”
In the past, it does seem Shytoshi requested verification several times throughout 2021. In June 2021, he said: “Twitter said I am not "notable" enough to be verified.”
One potential explanation behind this involves Shytoshi’s pseudonymous identity. Twitter verifications for individuals often require the submission of an official ID. In May, when Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover still seemed on, he said: “Verifying people like myself with ease and respect of privacy… could shake the world!”
Twitter is not the only place where SHIB holders have fallen victim to impersonations. One Discord account named Eric was mistakenly identified by some as SHIB developer Eric M. Meanwhile, ever since Ryoshi deleted his posts, several accounts have popped up claiming to be the Shiba Inu founder themself, to then promote another token.
As projects such as the new TREAT token and SHI stablecoin gear up to eventually launch, there’s also still an abundance of fake Shiba tokens being released. Putting this all together, it seems SHIB holders have a minefield to navigate when trying to avoid fake accounts, tokens, and more maliciousness around the Shiba ecosystem.