When it comes to information, you’ve likely come across commenters or social media accounts claiming to have it. Waddle Dee Knows, a new Twitter account that made a flurry of predictions just before the most recent Nintendo Direct, did exactly that. Some of them were accurate and were made hours before the Direct began, such as a new Super Mario Strikers and a sequel to Wii Sports. This all turned out to be an elaborate hoax, however.
Waddle Dee Knows appeared to have some kind of insider knowledge
Everything wasn’t right on the money. The “news” that Bandai Namco’s Encanto game would be released by Nintendo in May was one of the more outlandish predictions. Although the account had no idea what was going on with the announcements, there was an explanation. DLC for Mario Kart 8 was a surprise, as Waddle Dee Knows put it in a review. Outside of the development team, it doesn’t appear that many people knew about it.
Waddle Dee, on the other hand, wasn’t only unaware of that—he was unaware of anything at all and was certainly not an insider.
An Unofficial 3D Remake of one of Resident Evil’s Strangest Games Is Happening
Nintendo has ‘no plans to offer classic content in other ways’ as it prepares to shut down 3DS and Wii U stores in 2023. Waddle Dee Knows tweeted, “This account was an experiment to see how easy it is to fake it and make it.” Yeah, I just went with my gut and deleted anything that didn’t show up in the Direct.” It’s like this: He tried to make as many educated guesses as possible before eliminating the ones that didn’t pan out, leaving behind a picture that appeared to be astonishingly accurate. By excluding “weird shit” like the Encanto news, it was able to make the rest of the news appear even more trustworthy.
This prank was supposed to go on for one day, but after just seven hours, the account had 2,000 followers. In some cases, game sites have linked to the “mysterious account,” citing it as a reliable source of information. Waddle Dee Knows had to call it quits almost a full day earlier than planned in order to avoid misleading as many people as possible.
This is YouTuber Jon Cartwright, a Good Vibes Gaming YouTuber who has a 15-minute explanation of how he created the fake account on his YouTube channel. For a more comprehensive look at how scammers make things look legit, check out this video.
Fake Nintendo Insider Fooled Thousands
“I could delete as much as I wanted, and no one would notice because no one could see these tweets,” he explains. “No one would notice.” When Cartwright managed to get a few things right, it made him appear like an insider, which he is not.
“I wanted to see how easy this was, and unfortunately, it’s very easy,” Cartwright tweeted. If nothing else, I hope this serves as a reminder to not blindly place trust in faceless, unidentified online profiles.