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Fake WWE Stylist Exposed Following Twitter Hack
WWE employees have been known for dishing out inside news to wrestling journalists for decades, while some are legitimate, others have sinister intensions.
Earlier today, BellToBelles.com founder Kristen Ashly exposed someone posing as a Wardrobe Stylist & Designer for WWE under the verified name Erica Gimbel. Ashley detailed her findings in a myriad of twitter posts.
so I clicked on it to see what it was. I was blocked from the account, Erica's, and couldn't see the tweet. I was instantly suspicious, because I've never had any engagement with this account, and seeing her bio, I was instantly intrigued.
I started to scan her profile,
— Kristen Ashly (@KristenAshly) November 27, 2019
took over writer @LynnOlanoff's account, claiming to have an "in" with WWE PR, and tried to feed me fake scoops. This account looked eerily similar. Knowing @SeanRossSapp has also experienced something similar, I contacted him. He said he would message some people for me.
— Kristen Ashly (@KristenAshly) November 27, 2019
weird that all four of her previous photos have no face in the shot. All are behind generic backgrounds that could be anywhere.
We did find a dead hit on a dress she claimed she bought for a Marine Corps Ball.
Below is a pic of her tweet, and a tweet of where it came from. pic.twitter.com/Nl4FPZVieg
— Kristen Ashly (@KristenAshly) November 27, 2019
Taylor Swift and Disney. I contacted Taylor Swift, I haven't gotten any messages back. I also contacted Girl Up, because when I went to their site to see their ambassadors, they don't have any position by that name. Still waiting on their response.
There was a tweet where she
— Kristen Ashly (@KristenAshly) November 27, 2019
We continued to dig. Found tweets from 2014 and 2016 from the account in Google Search that has since been deleted (in the purge), that clearly had came from the original owner of the account, Erica Gimbel of Princesses: Long Island, a reality show that once was on Bravo.
— Kristen Ashly (@KristenAshly) November 27, 2019
The account, which originally belonged to reality TV star Erica Gimbel was hacked, and then used to make people believe they were someone who was a stylist and designer for WWE, FOX Sports, and The Hallmark Channel.
The account posted a video that made many believe that they were sketching a new character for Bray Wyatt’s FireFly Funhouse. This video has now been verified as a fake.
It’s believed that the hacker has compromised several accounts, including usernames @CarolynWWE, @EricaGimbel, and @LynnOlanoff
The person behind the hacked @EricaGimbel account has reached out to Kristen Ashly explaining the hack was easy, and if the real Erica wants her account back they will send the username and password. The fraudulent stated his name was Jason.
HeelByNature.com was contacted by another account believed to be from the same hacker, under the username @CarolynWWE over during Summerslam weekend in Toronto. The user offered free tickets to SmackDown, as well a backstage tour. When looking into the claim, that account quickly went silent and protected their tweets.
I wonder how many people paid these folks for “scoops” pic.twitter.com/wI8kWPbT6M
— HeelByNature.com (@HeelByNatureYT) November 27, 2019
A WWE on FOX representative has commented stating, “That account is a fake. Our friends at WWE are working to get it taken down, We’re still trying to figure it out, but it seems they hacked an account and pretended to be a WWE employee.”
Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful noted he contacted WWE several weeks ago regarding fraudulent accounts, but has yet to receive any response officially from the company.
I emailed WWE several weeks ago about the use of fraudulent Twitter accounts with verification to spread misinformation. Have been in contact with a lot of media about it dating back to February, but WWE never asked for a follow up
— Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com (@SeanRossSapp) November 27, 2019
These accounts have contacted several media outlets with insider news, a lot of which was not true.