The Twitter Authenticator Will Expose Your Fake Evan Longoria Account

The Wall Street Journal today details one man's quest to bring honesty to the Twitterverse, at least as it pertains to sports. 26-year-old Connecticut truth-seeker Brendan Wilhide claims to have unmasked 30 fake athlete accounts since January, when he first answered the call to be the enforcer of microblog accountability.

So far his biggest gets are fake accounts posing as Dwight Howard, Carmelo Anthony and Evan Longoria. Clearly it's a labor of love or a really committed sense of duty -- because, as it is with everything Twitter-related, it generates little to no income.

Mr. Wilhide says his work isn't a burden -- his job leaves him with enough free time to enjoy the hunt. There's no revenue to speak of. The $9 he paid in March to cover Web-hosting fees is about the same he's gotten from placing a generic advertisement on his homepage.

According to the article, Wilhide spends several hours a day trying to ferret out fakes. Once he's spotted one, he mentions it on his site, Sportsin140.com. Such is the rightness of his cause that others are joining the battle for Twitter authenticity.

There are even Twitter-cop competitors. Chad Walter, a 35-year-old Internet consultant who lives in the Virgin Islands, verifies tweets on his site, Twitter-Athletes.com. Messrs. Walter and Wilhide say they've never communicated. "I sent him an email and never heard back," Mr. Walter says. Mr. Wilhide says he never saw the email.

C'mon guys, consolidate your efforts. It's not like there's any money to fight over. Together you can be the dynamic duo of Twitter truth-squadding. No mischievous kid will ever think to impersonate Dwayne Bowe online again!

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.