INDIANAPOLIS, IN – MARCH 17: Mason Faulkner #11 of the Northern Kentucky Norse is defended by Dominique Hawkins #25 and Wenyen Gabriel #32 of the Kentucky Wildcats in the second half during the first round of the 2017 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Bankers Life Fieldhouse on March 17, 2017 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)

Fake accounts breaking sports news can really give people on twitter a hard time, and there is no better example of this than today when an account mimicking ESPN’s college basketball reporter Jeff Goodman sent out a bunch of tweets containing fake news about various high profile college basketball teams and players. The tweets duped a lot of people including many verified accounts and the popular publication Bleacher Report.

Goodman’s verified twitter account’s handle is @GoodmanESPN.  The fake account, which only has 86 followers, and clearly denotes on its bio that it is a “parody account,” has the handle @GooodmanESPN (notice the extra “o”).

Here is a tweet from this morning from the real Jeff Goodman about the University of Kentucky basketball team, who saw another player, Isaac Humphries, declare that he would be signing an agent and leaving the University…

So Kentucky fans already may have been on edge to start.

Here’s the first piece of bait from Fake Goodman about Kentucky Freshman Center Sacha Killeya-Jones, who played sparingly this season, but is a former 5-star recruit, and still filled with potential…

https://twitter.com/gooodmanespn/status/852191569360846850

Once the tweet was sent out there were some quick biters!  Among them, a Marshall University fan blog account, a journalist from Minnesota, a Louisville sports radio personality, and a Kansas City Sportswriter.

Next, Fake Goodman tackled the recent news about Michigan State Freshman forward Miles Bridges. Here’s the always reliable Adrian Wojnarowski with the scoop…

Now here’s the Fake Goodman bait:

https://twitter.com/gooodmanespn/status/852212829415510017

Among the biters, an SBNation writer and the legendary Dick “Hoops” Weiss. Both retweeted the Fake Goodman scoop…

Fake Goodman wasn’t done.  He then tossed out this doozy about Kentucky Freshman Wenyen Gabriel, who seems to be the one player who IS returning…

https://twitter.com/gooodmanespn/status/852243898290384896

He even tossed in the authentic “good kid” at the end of the tweet.  Good form, Fake Goodman.  This one was picked up by Bleacher Report on its Kentucky “Team Stream” app…

Then it spread like wildfire.  This Kansas City beat writer decided to reminisce about an encoutner he had with Gabriel in response to the news…

Next fake news subject for Fake Goodman, Duke’s Greyson Allen…

https://twitter.com/gooodmanespn/status/852250823837011968

Bright kid indeed; But the news: fake.  Duke blogger Brian Horace took the bait though…

Last but not least, how about UNC’s junior Justin Jackson…

That’s Winston Salem based TV Reporter Alex Rose with the bite.

All in all a successful day for Fake Jeff Goodman.  Here’s the real Jeff Goodman clearing his name…

Moral of the story: Check for the check (the blue one that is)! Also look at the bio everyone.

 

 

About Fred Segal

Fred Segal, 35, grew up in the Miami, Florida area and currently lives in Coral Springs, Florida, with his wife and two children. He is currently an attorney practicing in West Palm Beach, Florida, at the law firm Broad and Cassel. Fred is a graduate of the University of Florida and is a rabid, borderline unhealthy, supporter of the Florida Gators.