Wouldn’t it be great if you could roll the clock back 25 years or so and be the first to get in on stock from some of today’s biggest brands in technology? Instead, you and I are hoping to be one of the first to get mock-stock on some of the biggest internet celebrities joining Empire Avenue. Unlike real stock – which is pretty hard to fake – it’s still pretty easy for people to create a fake account on Empire Avenue in the hopes of pushing some Eaves (that’s “cash” in Empire Avenue’s virtual world) around. In any stock market, the mantra “No Risk, No Gain” pushes aggressive investors to risk it all in the hope that the fake profile might actually be the real deal.

So far, fake accounts have all been created in the names of Mark Zuckerberg, Lady Gaga and Larry Page. It is easy to spot a celebrity account that is fake; they do not update the profile picture from the default, no social networks are connected to verify identity, and the biography and status are not updated either. Additionally, Empire Avenue offers celebrities who may be subject to fake or immitations “verification”, similar to Twitter’s Verified accounts. The lack of any of these features on a celebrity profile on Empire Avenue is a sure indication that it is fake. The fake celebrity account on Twitter may also have quickly built a strange portfolio of people they do not normally associate with, or might be spamming communities on chatrooms asking for investors. This behavior is obviously not necessary for a celebrity on any social network, let alone Empire Avenue.

That said, there is no reason to hope that a celebrity (or their PR agent or social media manager) isn’t just being lazy. If you invest in a brand new, yet questionable celebrity profile, and the profile turns out to be a fake, Empire Avenue will refund your entire investment. If the celebrity profile on Empire Avenue is not fake, hold onto for dear life. You may have just struck it rich!

If you haven’t started playing Empire Avenue yet, sign up