Recently, a case was reported<\/a> in which a Booking.com customer, tired of waiting for a promised refund, decided to complain about the company on X. The customer received a response from an account pretending to belong to Booking.com support, inviting him to continue the conversation in private messages. The criminals then called the victim on WhatsApp and promised to refund the money through a \u201cpartner\u201d, for which the victim was asked to download a certain app.<\/p>\n The fake Booking.com support account looked quite convincing. Only a couple of details gave the scammers away: an unexpected hyphen in the account name and the date of joining X \u2014 July 2023. Fortunately, the user suspected something was wrong in time; he stopped communicating with the criminals and contacted journalists, who incidentally ultimately helped him get a real refund from the booking platform. It\u2019s safe to assume that not all victims of scammers on ex-Twitter are so lucky.<\/p>\n It really isn\u2019t easy to make sense of what\u2019s been happening on the microblogging platform over the past year. Let\u2019s retrace how events unfolded with the infamous blue checkmark and the X Premium subscription:<\/p>\n Confused? That\u2019s understandable. The rate of change on this platform is quite remarkable. So let\u2019s talk about what badges we\u2019re left with now on X, after all this turmoil.<\/p>\n The blue checkmark next to a profile name basically means just one thing: this account has an active X Premium subscription. Most likely, the account owner paid for this subscription, although there may be some exceptions (like Stephen King).<\/p>\n What the blue checkmark on X means: the account has an active X Premium (Twitter Blue) subscription<\/p><\/div>\n So, the blue checkmark is no longer a guarantee that its owner can be trusted<\/strong>. It\u2019s just a premium account icon.<\/p>\n Simultaneously with giving out blue checkmarks to anyone who wants one, X has introduced a couple of other badges. Company accounts are now marked with a yellow icon <\/strong> (\u201cgold\u201d as they call it on the platform). Also, their profile picture is square-shaped (regular accounts still have round user pics).<\/p>\n What the yellow checkmark on X means: an official company account<\/p><\/div>\n This subscription type is called X Verified Organizations<\/a> and costs much more \u2014 $1000 per month versus $8 for blue X Premium profiles. A \u201cgold\u201d business account can add other profiles to its list of affiliates and get blue, yellow, or gray badges for them. These cost an additional $50 for each affiliated account.<\/p>\n The blueish-gray checkmarks in the current X color scheme indicate accounts of state and supranational organizations as well as their officials.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p> What the gray checkmark on X means: a government organization account<\/p><\/div> What the gray checkmark on X means: an official figure\u2019s account<\/p><\/div>\n Besides the checkmark next to the profile name, it\u2019s now also possible to add the logo of the organization the account is affiliated with. <\/p>\n What the logo icon next to the name on X means: the account is affiliated with a company<\/p><\/div>\n However, for some reason, profiles of government organizations (the ones with gray checkmarks) cannot add affiliated accounts. So, for example, the account of the head of Microsoft is affiliated with the account of the company itself. But the account of the UN Secretary-General is unfortunately in no way connected with the account of the UN itself.<\/p>\n For some reason, government organizations are not allowed affiliate accounts<\/p><\/div>\n Unfortunately, the new system of multi-colored paid checkmarks on X is quite confusing. <\/p>\n Let\u2019s take the example of Microsoft to illustrate. There are various Microsoft departments and projects with X accounts marked with gold checkmarks, but none of them are affiliated with the main company account. Among the affiliated profiles are top Microsoft executives, but you won\u2019t find @Windows or @Microsoft365 there.<\/p>\nWhat checkmarks and badges are now available on X?<\/h2>\n
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Blue checkmark: means almost nothing<\/h3>\n
![\"What](\"https:\/\/media.kasperskydaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/92\/2023\/10\/12081005\/beware-of-twitter-blue-fake-accounts-1-scaled-1-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a>Gold checkmark: official accounts of commercial organizations<\/h3>\n
![\"What](\"https:\/\/media.kasperskydaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/92\/2023\/10\/12081049\/beware-of-twitter-blue-fake-accounts-2-scaled-1-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a>Gray checkmark: accounts of government organizations and officials<\/h3>\n
![\"What](\"https:\/\/media.kasperskydaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/92\/2023\/10\/12081126\/beware-of-twitter-blue-fake-accounts-3-scaled-1-scaled.jpg\")
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\nIf the account with the gray checkmark is for an organization, the account gets a square-shaped user pic, while for individuals it\u2019s still round.\n![\"What](\"https:\/\/media.kasperskydaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/92\/2023\/10\/12081157\/beware-of-twitter-blue-fake-accounts-4-scaled-1-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a>Logo icon: accounts affiliated with companies<\/h3>\n
![\"What](\"https:\/\/media.kasperskydaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/92\/2023\/10\/12081237\/beware-of-twitter-blue-fake-accounts-5-scaled-1-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"What](\"https:\/\/media.kasperskydaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/92\/2023\/10\/12081316\/beware-of-twitter-blue-fake-accounts-6-scaled-1-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a>How to protect yourself from scammers on X<\/h2>\n
![\"X](\"https:\/\/media.kasperskydaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/92\/2023\/10\/12081346\/beware-of-twitter-blue-fake-accounts-7-scaled-1-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"Official](\"https:\/\/media.kasperskydaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/92\/2023\/10\/12081423\/beware-of-twitter-blue-fake-accounts-8-scaled-1-scaled.jpg\")
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