[gruez]

Wouldn't the username look off? eg. if you set up with an account with something like "@cutecatpics" as the username to get followers, wouldn't it look suspicious even if changed the name to "Eli Lilly"? It will look like

    Eli Lilly 
    @cutecatpics

You can try flipping this (legit looking username to start with), but it'll look suspicious when you're trying to rack up followers

    Cute cat pics
    @eli_lilly_official

[nemothekid]

Eli Lilly's official twitter handle was @LillyPad. The fake was @EliLillyandCo.

The part about followers doesn't matter because the number of followers someone has doesn't show up in the feed, nor is it emphasized that boldly. Someone can just make a fake account, write a fake tweet, and the retweet that tweet onto their actual account.

[iudqnolq]

It's also completely plausible for a real, situationally important authority to have very few followers.

[fragmede]

hilariously the font that Twitter uses has capital-i look the same as lowercase-L, so when @AppIeOfCA tweeted as a verified account, it was really hard to distinguish from the real @AppleOfCA account.

https://twitter.com/appleofca/status/1590898344242868227 till it gets taken down.

[drcongo]

You can change your handle on Twitter.