I don’t really get why most creators or celebs would bother, is impersonation really that rife and believable on these platforms?
Yes it is, not just for the huge names either, virtually anyone who is well known in many areas has impersonators because where there are fans/people that look up to someone or their work there is a chance of scamming them.
And despite roar's nonsense comment, it can be very hard to tell if an account is real or not if there is no valid verification system in place and the account is not one you've found via very carefully following a url from a known good source (remember that typo squatting is exceptionally profitable).
It's not only money that is a problem with these fake accounts, it can and does become an issue of safety for the users being fooled, and especially for younger users as some of the scum that run these fake accounts do so in order to try and get pictures and videos of children (pre Musk I've seen actors and authors have to give warnings that their only account was verified and any account asking for such things was fake) .
As has been said many many times before the whole reason Twitter started their blue tick scheme was because an American sports personality was being impersonated and took twitter to court because they'd failed to do anything to protect his, and other people's identity on their platform.
The blue tick as it was, was pretty much the absolute minimum Twitter could do to show they'd made an attempt to stop that happening, hence why you had to be notable in your field (not famous overall), as typically your risk of being impersonated rises as you get more well known even if it's "just" in a specific fandom.
As an example of the sort of monetary fraud that is really common with fake accounts for "smaller" celebs* they'll try and direct you to places where you can buy "official merchandise" or get an autograph, these accounts often very deliberately mimicked the real accounts, now they can even have what used to be the "verified" tag.
And it's worth noting, that for many celebs/notable people it's not the money they lose due to the fake accounts, it's the damage that the fakes do to their reputation and harm to their fans.
*Think smaller authors, or the sort of actors who may not be A list, but you'll see people happily lining up to pay £25+ for an autograph at an event.
