Thursday, March 19, 2009

Twits

I got an interesting email earlier today:
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Twitter
Date: Thu, Mar 19, 2009 at 8:56 AM
Subject: Rebecca F----- is now following you on Twitter!
To: xxxxxx@gmail.com


Hi, xxxxxxx (xxxxxxx).

Rebecca F----- (xxxxxxx) is now following your updates on Twitter.

Check out Rebecca F-----'s profile here:
http://twitter.com/xxxxxxx

You may follow Rebecca F----- as well by clicking on the "follow" button.
Best,
Twitter

--
Turn off these emails at: http://twitter.com/account/notifications
Rebecca is the fourth person following me on Twitter. It's fascinating, really, because I'm not even on Twitter. I really don't understand how this could happen. Does Twitter not require email verification prior to account activation or before accepting email address updates of active members? And here's the thing: when I went to the Twitter log in page, I was able to get them to send me another interesting email:
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Twitter xxxxxxx=gmail.com@postmaster.twitter.com>
Date: Thu, Mar 19, 2009 at 7:01 PM
Subject: Reset your Twitter password
To:xxxxxxx@gmail.com


Hi,

Did you forget your Twitter password? It happens to the best of us. Please open the following link in your browser.

http://twitter.com/account/password_reset?email=xxxxxxx@gmail.com&token=blahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblah

This will reset your Twitter password. Then, you can login and change it to something you'll remember. Hint: create a password with a mix of letters and numbers so it's more secure.

Thanks,
Twitter

p.s. We sent you this note because your username or email address was entered into the "forgot password" field. If you didn't forget your password, don't worry, we'll keep it safe for you.

No, I didn't do a new password, although I was sorely tempted. Imagine the fun I could have sending out amusing little twits, such as:
@xxxxxxx: eat me
@xxxxxxx: sharpening knives
@xxxxxxx: kill, must kill
@xxxxxxx: what's the best shampoo for getting blood out of car upholstery?
As much fun as that would be, instead, I sent a notice to the Twitter customer service folks. But $20 says I hear nothing back until I get another "Big Brother is following you on Twitter" email.

2 comments:

  1. OMG, did someone hijack your e-mail and set you up as a Twit?

    ReplyDelete
  2. That account has been set up for a looooong time. It existed when I signed up on 5/8/08. It was the first acct I followed. Not sure how, but it came up associated with your email back then. It's one of the reasons I started exploring twitter. In May 08, twitter sent a confirmation email, but nothing that required a response. I thought the twitter account name was a play on Big Star...

    ReplyDelete