A twitter account allegedly belonging to Rupert Murdoch’s Wendi Deng is found to be a fake account, even as it was awarded a verified "tick" badge from the micro blogging service, which is not revoked.

A News International spokeswoman ahs confirmed in London that the @Wendi_Deng Twitter account does not belong to the wife of media powerhouse. The spokeswoman added that the @rupertmurdoch account is genuine.

Murdoch is the chairman and chief executive of News Corporation and is often described as the most influential media personality. His reputation has taken a hit after his company was found to be involved in illegal hacking in the UK.

Murdoch had joined the micro blogging site on 31 December and the fake Deng account was created on the very next day. The fake account was allegedly used to send flirtatious remarks to the likes of Ricky Gervais. The person operating the fake account wrote "i think you look HOT ricky!!! (sssh dont tell @rupertmurdoch!)" to Gervais.

"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," Twitter said in a statement.

The fake account confusion surfaced when a spokeswoman at News International claimed that the account is real. However, the company later said that the @Wendi_Deng account was not real.