Twitter | Murdoch's 'wife' An Imposter On Twitter

Twitter apologized after a "verified" account in the name of Wendi Deng Murdoch , wife of global media tycoon Rupert Murdoch , turned out to be bogus.

In an email to AFP, a Twitter spokeswoman said, "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 apologize for the confusion this caused."

It appeared the fake account was set up on New Year's Day, a day after Murdoch himself -- according to a spokesman for his British newspaper unit News International in London -- made his Twitter debut.

Twitter on Tuesday confirmed that the Rupert Murdoch account was verified.

While Murdoch "tweets" touched on politics, films, his vacation and the weather, there were no mentions of his wife's impersonator at Twitter.

"Joining my husband @rupertmurdoch in our new digital adventure on Twitter," read its profile, alongside a photo of the smiling Murdochs at the November 2008 premiere in New York of the film "Australia."

The anonymous imposter tweeted Tuesday: "Hello Twitter. As News International has finally come to their senses, it's time to confirm that yes, this is a fake account. I'm not Wendi."

"To those of you who kept maintaining the account was fake, even after being verified, good on you for being suspicious," added the mystery @Wendi_Deng in a lively exchange with his or her nearly 10,000 followers.

"Above all, this was a bit of fun. If you don't think it was, then you'd better ask Twitter to remove every other spoof account too."

On its website, Twitter says it grants "a Verified Badge" to well-known users, such as celebrities, once it has established their authenticity, for example through a link with an official website.

To which @Wendi_Deng, who disclosed no personal details, remarked: "What verification process?... There was none. I was never contacted."

Australian-born Murdoch, 83, and Chinese-born Deng, 43, have been married since 1999, two years after they met at a party in Hong Kong.

In July, Deng famously leapt out of her seat and counter-attacked a protester who hit Murdoch with a cream pie during testimony before a British parliamentary committee over the hacking of cellphone voice mails by his now-defunct News of the World tabloid.