Fake account of Murdoch's wife Wendi fools Twitter verification process

A Twitter account, set up in the name of media tycoon Rupert Murdoch's wife Wendi Deng, has turned out to be fake, despite being officially verified as genuine by the micro blogging site.

Deng's account appeared at a similar time to Murdoch's new Twitter account on New Year's Eve.

PIC/AFP

Both received a blue tick from the service, which is only given to high profile people to denote that the account is genuine.

However, despite carrying a tick for the last 48 hours, Twitter has now removed the blue icon from the @Wendi_Deng account, The Telegraph reports.

Twitter, however, declined to comment on how the gaffe had occurred, with a spokesman for the US based company saying that the site "does not comment on individuals' accounts".

"We don't comment on our verification process but can confirm that the @wendi_deng account was mistakenly verified for a short period of time. We apologise for the confusion this caused," the spokesman said.

The person behind the fake account is still unknown, calling herself an "anonymous blogger".

The account quickly gathered followers, attracting over 10,000 people in a short space of time