Plenty of sites and blogs picked up on the fact it looked as if Google CEO Eric Schmidt has joined Twitter – two tweets were inconclusive, but the fact the account had been followed, and was following, plenty of notable people, including a lot of Google staff, seemed to seal the deal.
And then a short while ago this happened; Thousands of follows and followers reset, and the account name has appeared as Felipe Barreto.
Bit of an Oooopsie by a lot of big name sites and mainstream media if this really was a spoof account. Goes to show that a lot of implied trust can be built if you can just get a few of the right people following a fake account.
Update:
Aha – it turns out that the real Eric Schmidt is tweeting – at @ericschmidt which has been taken by someone else but was laying dormant. Top marks to the enterprising fellow who appears to have jumped straight onto @ericschmidt0 as soon as it became available.
Luckily the new account is verified!