what is a smurf account

A smurf account is an alternate account used by a player in online games to deceptively self-present as someone naïve or less experienced. The term "smurf" originated from two Warcraft II players who were so good at the game that other players would often leave to avoid getting crushed when they saw their usernames come up in matchmaking. To keep their identity hidden, they created alternate accounts named "PapaSmurf" and "Smurfette," which led to the terminology used today. Smurfing happens for a few reasons, such as finding matches taking a lot of time at the highest ranks, or streamers creating smurf accounts to disguise their identities or entertain their audience. In banking, a smurf is a money launderer that aims to avoid attention by breaking large transactions up into multiple smaller, less suspicious transactions, generally spread over many different accounts.