Knew a girl named Nicky I guess you could say she was, well, a machine:
A presidential retweet brings lots of attention, whether you want it or not.
But for “Nicole Mincey,” who until recently was associated with the online merchandise store ProTrump45.com, you’d think the attention would be a boon for business and a well-deserved reward for collecting more than 100,000 Twitter followers.
Instead, the Twitter account associated with the store, @ProTrump45, has since been suspended from the site, along with a pool of accounts that acted as bots to amplify advertisements for Trump gear. The t-shirt mockup company Placeit had complained to Twitter that the accounts had used its models, with their own pro-Trump designs super-imposed on Placeit’s placeholder clothing, to advertise ProTrump45. It was identity fraud, Placeit said. Twitter acted with surprising speed, taking down a large number of accounts.
“So far, we’ve only reported to Twitter,” Placeit CEO Navid Safabakhs told TPM in an email Monday. “Our current plan is to report to federal authorities via https://www.identitytheft.gov/ Once we know for sure the identity of the person, we will know what we will do. We may use legal action if it makes sense.”
TPM reached Mincy via email Monday. Her real last name is slightly different than her former online persona’s. “Not responding to media inquiries,” she replied. “Please don’t post my name on any article. This has been one large headache. Hope you understand. Also won’t be answering any questions.”
Lots of media coverage on this now, but TPM was the first place I heard about it before larger outfits rushed in, which is why you should subscribe top TPM. The most hilarious part is that people weren’t even get their awesome trump swag.