San Francisco artist fools thousands with fake company made for influencers, public figures

An artist from San Francisco created a fake company as a practical joke and, as a result, fooled thousands. 

On Friday, sculptor Danielle Baskin promoted "Blue Check Homes," a fake service that allowing influencers, public figures or anyone who represents a brand, a "Verified Badge crest" on their Bay Area home. Accompanying the Twitter message was a link to a satirical active website.

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The website takes a user directly to an application where they are asked to list their name, social media accounts and email for verification.

"The blue verified badge on your house lets people outside know that you're an authentic public figure," the site reads. "To receive the blue check crest, there must be someone authentic and notable actively living in the house."

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The idea came to Baskin after initially inquiring if the crest symbols on Victorian-era homes in the area actually meant anything, according to her Twitter thread.

However, the sculptor also noted that she'd "actually fabricate one if someone bites" alluding to the fact that it was just a joke.

Still, the tweet gained tens of thousands of retweets and likes. To her dismay, the website actually received hundreds of applications, according to SFGate.

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It has gotten so much attention, Baskin felt obliged to issue a disclaimer.

"For context, I'm an artist who makes random internet jokes that sometimes pokes fun of 'let's turn this into a service' culture, internet vanity culture, and terrible capitalist ideas," she wrote. "Historically, decorative crests found on Victorian homes were a mark to signal wealth and importance and I thought it would be dumb if that concept also existed today."

After much confusion, Baskin asked her followers to "please investigate the things you read on the internet!"

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Likewise, she issued a warning to other artists saying that they "should consider adding disclaimers like this, because not everyone understands your commentary and will share your jokes as fact."

Baskin said her "medium is writing satirical copy for landing pages and creating product launches." However, being a sculptor, Baskin said she would still actually make one.

"So is this real? It's somewhere in between real and fake," she added.

Baskin did not immediately return FOX Business' request for comment.