Yes, it’s this time of the season again. Actually, it’s something that comes and goes all year around but the NHL trade deadline, the NHL Draft and the start of the Free Agency Frenzy of July 1st are the three predominant periods where most of the lunatics decide to fool people. Yes, fans are desperate to hear that their team has made moves and they want to believe that they will. Unfortunately, they also become gullible and idiots are counting on that.

This is not to point finger at the fans for being fans and wanting their team to improve, not whatsoever. The real culprits are those who have no life and create those accounts ‘just for fun’. So to avoid anyone getting caught by those trolls and look foolish, there are a few things that you can do to prevent that from happening. Here are a few that I personally find particularly effective, the ABC of fake Twitter accounts:

A- Better be right than be first

If you see that nobody else is commenting on it, give it a bit of time before jumping to conclusions. See if reputable reporters piggyback onto that “news” or not. If it doesn’t happen after a minute or so, it’s likely a fake account.

B- Do you follow that account?

If it’s an account that you know you follow, check your feed to see if it’s in there. If you only see it under a hashtag or from someone retweeting it, it should raise a flag.

C- Click on the account itself

This will be the tell-tell sign right there. Check the following clues:

• How many followers does that account have? They will usually use high profile members of the media to make more people ‘bite’.
• Check the spelling of the Twitter account. Have they changed a letter or a number here or there?
• When was the account created, when did they join Twitter? If you see 2013 for a sports’ team, it’s likely fake, right?

If you follow those simple rules, you will save yourself and your followers a lot of aggravation and embarrassment. Happy Hockey Tweets, tweeps! Go Habs Go!