CTA

CTA President Dorval R. Carter, Jr. Impersonated by Twitter Accounts, Agency Says

A wave of imposter accounts surfaced on Twitter earlier this week following a relaunch of the platform's premium service — which grants blue-check “verification” labels to anyone willing to pay $8 a month.

Dorval Carter

Accounts impersonating the head of the Chicago Transit Agency have surfaced on Twitter, according to the CTA.

In a tweet Saturday afternoon, the CTA said two recently-launched accounts that are purporting to be President Dorval Carter Jr., don't belong to him.

"Any information issued by those accounts is not official CTA information," the agency said in a tweet. "The only verified CTA account is @cta."

A wave of imposter accounts surfaced on Twitter earlier this week following a relaunch of the platform's premium service — which grants blue-check “verification” labels to anyone willing to pay $8 a month.

Following a flood of imposter accounts, the service was unavailable Friday.

Prior to the changes, which follow billionaire Elon Musk's takeover, the blue check was granted to government entities, corporations, celebrities and journalists verified by the platform — precisely to prevent impersonation. 

An imposter account posing as pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly & Co. and registered under the revamped Twitter Blue system tweeted that insulin was free, forcing the Indianapolis company to post an apology. Nintendo, Lockheed Martin, Musk’s own companies Tesla and SpaceX were also impersonated, as well as the accounts of various professional sports and political figures.

Associated Press/NBC Chicago
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