Twitter Blue Account Declares Eli Lilly Giving Away Free Insulin, Pharma Giant Says Its Fake

A fake account with the handle @EliLillyandCo posted last week on Twitter that Eli Lilly And Co LLY is giving away free insulin. 

Responding to the fake report, the company clarified that the account from which the message was sent was not the Twitter handle for the actual pharmaceutical giant. The company went on Twitter and apologized for the misleading tweet. 

We apologize to those who have been served a misleading message from a fake Lilly account. Our official Twitter account is @LillyPad.

— Eli Lilly and Company (@LillyPad) November 10, 2022

The Twitter account @EliLillyandCo had a blue check mark indicating the account was legitimate. Someone pretending to be the company spokesperson wrote, “We are excited to announce insulin is free now.”  

According to a report, the fake Eli Lilly post has now been labeled a parody profile. 

The incident now raises questions about Twitter CEO Elon Musk’s announcement of a subscription service by paying $8 monthly for the Twitter Blue mark. 

Did Twitter Blue tweet just cost Eli Lilly $LLY billions?

Yes. pic.twitter.com/w4RtJwgCVK

— Rafael Shimunov is on Mastodon (@rafaelshimunov) November 11, 2022

The pranksters were able to create a fake account on Twitter by paying the amount and getting a blue mark announcing it as an authentic account. 

Similarly, someone impersonated Lockheed Martin Corp LMT, and using a fake Twitter Blue account, said the company was stopping weapons sales to a number of countries. 

Lockheed Martin stock is down more than 5% a day after a Twitter Blue-verified account impersonated the defense company and said it was halting sales to certain countries, including the U.S.

Similar declines at Eli Lilly after an impersonator Twitter account. $LMT $LLY pic.twitter.com/TTQrmGUyCV

— David Slotnick david_slotnick@mastodon.world (@David_Slotnick) November 11, 2022

On Friday, the company's stock was down more than 5%.

Also Read: Twitter Co-Founder Jack Dorsey Apologizes For Layoffs: 'I Grew The Company Size Too Quickly'

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