Russian Troll Army Incompetence

[Larry1]

The Russian troll army screwed up. It forged a letter from US Senate Minority Whip Richard Durbin to the Prime Minister of Ukraine.  The letter appeared to be on US Senate stationery but got Durbin's title wrong.  Instead of Minority Whip, which is second to the Minority Leader, it said Assistant Minority Leader. As anyone who has been around Congressmen knows, they love their titles and would never get them wrong.

A forger sent a hoax letter to Russian media in an apparent bid to convince journalists that a senior U.S. lawmaker, Senator Richard Durbin, was trying to tell Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk how to run his government, Durbin's office said Monday.

http://tinyurl.com/nbrgtov

You just can't get good trolls these days.

This reminds me of a story told by US journalist Tom Wicker. I think he said the incident occurred in the 1970s.  A threatening letter was sent to some black organization and was signed "Ku Klux Klan".  Wicker had grown up in the Southern US and knew that when KKK people referred to themselves in writing they didn't just call themselves Ku Klux Klan; they referred to themselves as The Invisible Empire of the Ku Klux Klan, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, or some alternative grandiose title. So an investigation was made and the threatening letter was revealed to be a hoax likely done by Soviet Intelligence.

[Boethius]

They often appear in Western papers' comments sections.  However, their syntax usually gives them away.