Reddit users have reported a fake Twitter account of the Ethereum project co-founder Vitalik Buterin. The profile was offering ether at a discount price. 

By the time of exposure, the pseudo-Vitalik already had 4,350 subscribers.

For attentive Twitter users, however, it was not difficult to distinguish the real account from the fake one. The name used by the fake was VitalikButiren, which slightly differs from the actual name with the letters “e” and “I” swapped in the surname. In addition, the fake profile was registered on Twitter in February 2016, while the real Vitalik has been an active user since May 2011. Finally, the VitalikButiren’s Twitter feed was very different from the actual feed, which was another indication of a false account. The only real thing about it was the photo taken from the proper account. 

However, this did not prevent the fake from collecting more than 4,350 followers. The profile was suspended after several Reddit users complained about suspicious messages from the account holder trying to get their wallet details. Fortunately, no real harm has been done to subscribers and no malicious links were detected. There have been no reports of any users being scammed.

Lena Gabdullina