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Folks, please stop expressing your condolences to @RealWilfordB. It’s an imposter account. (thread) #WilfordBrimley
Secondly, the fact that the account was active and lighthearted during Mr. Brimley’s final days and hours, making no mention of his illness, when according to news reports he was very ill and in intensive care, strains credulity.
Thirdly, it just... obviously isn’t him. Like the fact that he recently tweeted as a celebrity spokesperson for... Quaker Oats? No. The American Diabetes Association? No.
The University of Tennessee’s CAMPUS STORE? Yup.
Seems legit.
The University of Tennessee’s CAMPUS STORE? Yup.
Seems legit.
Fourthly, we have reports like this: https://twitter.com/_streeter/status/1224202459444383749">https://twitter.com/_streeter...
Finally, I believe I have identified the person who runs the imposter account.
I took a look through the account’s earliest tweets, and found a breadcrumb in this tweet where he replied to himself:
I took a look through the account’s earliest tweets, and found a breadcrumb in this tweet where he replied to himself:
This indicates that the account was originally named @WilfordB_1934, but he changed the handle to @RealWilfordB some time later. So I followed that breadcrumb and googled WilfordB_1934, not expecting to find anything.
I found this:
I found this:
So the name Riley Qualls must have been associated with that twitter handle at one time. Again, this is the same account, it’s just been renamed.
Let’s see if anyone by that name has tweeted about Wilford Brimley:
Let’s see if anyone by that name has tweeted about Wilford Brimley:
Hmm. It turns out, Riley has tweeted about @RealWilfordB quite a few times.
And wouldn’t you know it, @RealWilfordB has even tweeted about Riley.
Riley’s friends also tweet about Wilford Brimley a lot. They seem especially fond of “joking” about Riley and @RealWilfordB being the same person. Almost as if they know it’s the case.
It isn’t exactly subtle.
It isn’t exactly subtle.
