Imposter gets Shaq all a-Twitter

By Howard Beck - New York Times News Service

Shaquille O'Neal had a problem. An Internet impostor using his name was sending messages to unsuspecting Shaq fans. So O'Neal did what any sensible, 7-foot-1, muscle-bound mammoth would do. He started tweeting.

"This is the real SHAQUILLE O'NEAL," came the message from The Real Shaq, via Twitter.com, early Tuesday morning.

A clarification was in order because, for the last several months, someone registered as "ShaquilleONeal" was sending frequent messages, or tweets, to hundreds of subscribers.

The synthetic Shaq sounded a lot like the real O'Neal. His blurbs were whimsical, boastful and creative, even adopting O'Neal's unique grammatical flourishes.

"My tweets are Shaqalicious," ShaquilleONeal wrote on Nov. 11.

"Andrew Bynum's knee is like Erika Dampier ... fragile," ShaquilleONeal wrote on Sept. 30, dealing an insult to the Lakers' Andrew Bynum and the Mavericks' Erick Dampier.

The real Shaq could hardly have said it better. Now he is. O'Neal opened his own Twitter account this week to connect with fans and to take back his identity.

"Somebody out there was trying to use my language and trying to speak for me," O'Neal, sounding more amused than offended, said. "Rather than have that happen, I thought I'd do it myself."

O'Neal added: "It's a fun thing. It's a way for fans to connect."

The faux Shaq account was discovered last week by Sports Media Challenge, a consulting firm that works with O'Neal. Kathleen Hessert, the firm's owner, was initially thrilled. She had been pushing O'Neal to Twitter.

A closer inspection revealed the forgery. The fake O'Neal, for example, claimed to be sending tweets during a game. Ward Andrews, the 33-year-old Suns fan behind ShaquilleONeal, said he included outlandish claims as a tip-off to anyone who believed the account was real.

"All the longtime followers, over 500 followers, they know it's a joke," Andrews said. "I really didn't have any intent to pull people's leg. It was just to entertain."

In response to Hessert's complaint, Twitter pulled the plug on ShaquilleONeal this week. Twitter said that impersonating people violates the company's terms of service.

"We do allow parody," said Biz Stone, a Twitter co-founder. "If it's not clear and there is some confusion, we do get involved."

Twitter is considering ways to certify accounts, so fans know when they are really hearing from the celebrities who use the service.

Meanwhile, Shaquille O'Neal is tweeting with the unbridled zeal of a 12-year-old. He posted 17 times on Wednesday, making references to Oprah, yoga, Kobe and fettuccine. He had 1,131 subscribers as of Wednesday night.

And he had a message for Andrews and any other sham Shaqs out there.

"I just want to say, 'Nice job,' but now let the professional take over," O'Neal said in an interview. "There can only be one me. Uno mas me."

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