How to check whether a social media account is official

Don’t rely on a badge alone. To check that an account is the official one, find the accounts the person or organisation links from their own website, check that those accounts link to each other, and look them up in a directory of official accounts. Here’s how to make each check, the common signs of an impersonator, and how to report one.

Why a badge alone isn’t proof

A badge tells you what the platform checked, and that differs from one platform to the next.

  • On X, the blue checkmark means the account pays for an X Premium subscription and meets X’s eligibility rules. X doesn’t review those accounts to confirm they are notable or authentic (X’s help page).
  • On Instagram and Facebook, the same blue badge can mean the account belongs to a notable person or brand, or that its holder pays for Meta Verified, a subscription that includes the badge (Instagram’s help page, Meta Verified).
  • On YouTube and TikTok the badge isn’t sold. YouTube’s marks the official channel of a creator, artist, company or public figure; TikTok’s, an account it has reviewed as representing the person, business or brand, and TikTok says it never charges for one (YouTube, TikTok).
  • A badge belongs to an account, not to a name. An impersonator can pick a handle that looks almost the same, with an extra letter, an underscore or a zero for an O, and where badges are sold, can buy one too.
  • No badge doesn’t mean fake. Many official accounts carry none, especially smaller ones and those on newer platforms.

Start from their own website

The best source for which accounts are official is the person or organisation themselves.

  • Find their website by typing its address or searching for it, not by following a link in a message or a post. Official sites usually link their accounts in the footer, on a contact page or on a press page.
  • Check that the link goes both ways: the account’s profile should link back to the same website.
  • Check that their accounts link to each other. An organisation’s YouTube channel, Instagram and X profile usually point at one another and at the same website. An account nothing else links to deserves a closer look.
  • A news report or an encyclopedia article that names the account is a further signal, though either can be out of date.

Look them up in a directory of official accounts

A directory of official accounts gathers, for each person or organisation, the accounts they run across platforms, so you can compare the account in front of you with the list.

Verified Handles is one: a free, non-profit directory of the official accounts of notable people and organisations. Its handles come from public sources, chiefly Wikidata, the open knowledge base; from additions and corrections that our team reviews; and from the people and organisations themselves. How we gather and check handles explains each source. Search for the name, open the entry, and check that the account you found is listed there with exactly the same handle.

Two signals on an entry tell you how far to rely on it. Verified means our team has checked the entry and confirmed it is the genuine record for that person or organisation. Claimed means the person or organisation it is about has proven control of it, and manages it. Most entries carry neither: they are listed from public sources, not individually checked. How verification works explains both.

An account missing from a directory isn’t necessarily fake: a listing can be incomplete or out of date. Treat it as unconfirmed, and make the other checks.

Newer platforms: Bluesky and Mastodon

  • On Bluesky, a handle can be a domain name, such as @npr.org. Only someone who controls that domain can use it as their handle, so a domain handle that matches the organisation’s own website is strong evidence (Bluesky). Bluesky also shows a blue check on authentic, notable accounts it has confirmed, and independent organisations it trusts can confirm accounts too (Bluesky).
  • On Mastodon, a link in a profile gets a check mark when the page it leads to links back to the profile with rel="me". That shows the same person controls both, so check that the linked site is the real one. Mastodon has no central badge (Mastodon’s documentation).

Retired and renamed handles

  • Handles change. When an account is renamed, its old handle can become free for someone else to take: on X, straight away (X’s help page). An old link, a screenshot or an article can name a handle that now belongs to someone else, so check the account as it is today, not only its handle.
  • Look at what the platform shows about the account’s history, such as when it joined. An account that joined last month, or changed its name last week, is not a long-standing official one.
  • On Verified Handles, every entry keeps its full edit history, so you can see when a handle was added, changed or taken off.

Common signs of an impersonator

  • A handle that is almost right: an extra or swapped letter, a zero for an O, or words like “official”, “real”, “team” or “support” added.
  • A new account, or one with few posts, that claims to be someone well known; or an old account that has suddenly changed its name and what it posts about.
  • It contacts you first, often by direct message, and asks to move the conversation to another app.
  • It asks for money, gift cards, cryptocurrency, a login code or a password, or offers a giveaway, an investment or a prize, and says you must act quickly.
  • Its links lead to a site whose address doesn’t match the official one.
  • Its profile picture and posts are copied from the real account.

Real people and organisations rarely ask for payment or a login code in a direct message. The US Federal Trade Commission’s advice on how to avoid a scam and on cryptocurrency scams, which often start on social media, describes the common ones.

How to report an impersonator

Each platform has its own way to report an account pretending to be someone else. Some take a report only from the person being impersonated, or someone acting for them; others take one from anyone.

If an entry on Verified Handles lists an impersonator’s account, use Report it on the entry, or contact us. Our corrections policy says what happens next.