Twitter imposters claim to be his booker

Micky Flanagan has joined Twitter – to tell his fans he’s not on Twitter.

The comic was forced to set up an account amid a spate of fake and ‘parody’ sites in his name.

So he registered as @MickyF_Official to say: ‘Hi all, due to impersonations, this is my official twitter. Afraid I won't be using it. Join me on facebook’

Flangan’s manager Christian Knowles said: ‘The problem of impersonations reached a climax when individuals were' not only claiming to be Micky, but also claiming to be his bookers and publicist.’

The ‘official parody’ account – whatever that means – has more than 10,000 followers and posts in the first person as Flanagan. He also told people to follow nightclub and party promoter Kevin Latta for bookings, even though it is Knowles who actually handles such matters.

Latta's own Twitter profile also stated he could deal with bookings, but after being questioned by Chortle he changed it to: 'Massive Micky Flanagan fan!!' He claimed: 'Its always said its a parody account to avoid any confusion!'

Another phoney Twitter account is registered in the misspelled name ‘mickyflannigan’.

The single tweet strategy has previously been used by Sean Lock to see off imitators. In December he posted: ‘Due to numerous imposters I have been forced to set up a twitter. Now go f**k yourselves.’

Lock has 27,546 followers despite never have tweeted another word.

Published: 29 Aug 2012