Impostor accounts scamming Dota fans by pretending to be famous teams like Invictus Gaming

If you are on Twitter to follow the happenings of the Dota 2 scene then you are probably aware of how much trolling goes on there, especially in this volatile time after The International (TI). On Twitter alone, you might be surprised as to how many player combinations the community has come up with and it’s mostly up to you to figure out the truth from the fiction. We could say all this lighthearted trolling is the current opposite of Weibo where all the serious drama seems to be. There has been tension in the Chinese Dota 2 scene after the conclusion of The International 2013, where China’s performance failed to impress.

Usually, it’s easy to spot truth from fiction and impostors from real people. However, in the case of Invictus Gaming (iG), this doesn’t seem to be the case. They say imitation is the highest form of flattery, but this time, iG is not amused at all. In a recent post on its official Facebook page, iG complained about a fake Facebook page impersonating the club. It turns out that the posts on the impostor’s page have been negatively affecting iG, especially in the post-TI shuffling.

Invictus Gaming vs. Impostor Gaming

The fake page is named IG [-Invictus Gaming] and actually pre-dates the official iG page. (The official Facebook page for iG was only created after the DOTA 2 team’s big win in The International 2012 (TI2); since Facebook is blocked in China it hadn’t bothered with one before then.)

This is not the first time that iG has warned fans about this fake page. The organization first made an announcement when it started receiving messages about it hosting giveaways, as announced by the fake page. During that time, it also cleared up any misunderstanding and mentioned that contrary to what the fake page said, the team is not sponsored by Razer or Taobao. Four days later, iG made another post about fake accounts, this time including their official Twitter account as well. They also stated that among their players, only Chuan has Facebook and Twitter accounts, which means that the Facebook page and the Twitter profile (@430DOTA) for solo mid player Luo “Ferrari_430” Feichi are also fake.

I’m still not sure why the page hasn’t been removed by Facebook, although iG says it has filed an official report. Perhaps it’s the fact that the impostor page predates the official iG page or that it currently has around 15,000 more likes than the official one. At the moment, the fake Invictus Gaming page is still up and has been posting random things about roster changes, which ends up stirring up rumors in the community.

Do not disclose important account details

A similar incident also happened to Malaysia’s Team Orange; an impostor claiming to be Mushi sent messages to people about an event supposedly hosted by Neolution Orange, and even has a web page. This happened in the middle of The International 2013 (TI3), so it’s highly implausible Mushi would even have had time for such posting. At the time of writing, the fake site is still up, asking for people’s email addresses, Steam IDs and passwords. And what do we say to strangers asking for our account information? Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever. Do not give out your account information and details.

Finding the official pages

So where do you find official pages? With iG it’s actually tricky since the fake page was created first. The trick here is to find a reliable source that will verify the page’s authenticity. For example, DOTA news sites like joinDota and GosuGamers will usually link to posts from the official accounts of players and organizations. You can also ask in the DOTA 2 subreddit. Alternatively, you can also go to Twitter to find the players’ official Twitter accounts. You can verify authenticity by checking out who follows whom.

Or just rely on Tech in Asia! For your reference, Invictus Gaming’s official Facebook page is here. It also has an official Twitter page (@invgaming). LGD fans can follow that team via Facebook and Twitter (@LGDgaming). Team DK also has its own Facebook page and Twitter account (@DKdota2) while TongFu currently only has a Facebook page.

(Editing by Charlie Custer)