Wait A Second–I Don’t Think This Is The Real Bucky Covington…
By kncitom on October 5, 2018
Just a reminder to be careful who you get messages from on social media.
It’s Tom and below is an exchange I had with “Bucky Covington” today on my Twitter DM. I’m not sure you can read it or not but basically, he’s hitting me up for money for his “charity”, and, knowing immediately it wasn’t from the real Bucky I decided to have a little fun and keep reminding him about a pair of underwear I “loaned” him at Golf And Guitars once.
The problem is, these online creeps are everywhere. Luckily, there are two easy ways to tell if that Direct Message you just got from Kelly Clarkson is real or not.
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- First and foremost, ask yourself WHY would Kelly Clarkson (or Tim McGraw or Reba or George Clooney or, really, any celebrity) be reaching out to YOU? Nothing personal, but, you know…seriously.
- Look for the check mark. This the easiest and most important way to know for sure. Any authenticated celebrity account will include a check mark next to the person’s name. Let’s say Mike Tyson just hit you up for money to buy himself a new tiger. Before you write him a check, just look a little more closely at the account name for his check. It could be blue or, on some mobile devices, white. Either way, if it ain’t there, it ain’t him.
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There are other ways, too: do they type like English isn’t their first language (or 2nd, or 3rd)? Does their main page lack a bio or a photo? Or does the photo look screen-grabbed from somewhere else? The fake Bucky’s page actually looks fairly real–the guy even re-tweets the authentic Bucky (another red flag!) But do you really think the real Bucky Covington would only have 225 followers? I know he hasn’t had a hit in awhile but… (and for the record, the real, check-marked Bucky has over 67,000)
So, if you get one of these in your DM, whether it’s from “Bucky”, or “Mike Tyson” or “Mickey Mouse”, do your due diligence and then, if it’s not them, report them, and block ’em. Even if it means you need to end that conversation about your underwear.
