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How I Lost My $50,000 Twitter Username

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Re: How I Lost My $50,000 Twitter Username

#71

Post by markdown »

bredren wrote: post #40

This is a scary story! Focusing on the Twitter handle sale part: I have the twitter handle @jetsetter, and have been offered multiple thousands of dollars for it (guess who!). Unfortunately, selling a twitter handle is against TOS. Only @israel has been officially allowed to transfer hands for money, that I'm aware of. So trying to broker the sale of a twitter account can allow the buyer to report your 'behavior' to…

> Only @israel has been officially allowed to transfer hands for money, that I'm aware of.

Twitter: "I'm sorry, you can't do that."

Israel: "What are you, some kind of Anti-semite!?!"

Twitter: "OK, OK, go ahead and do what you want. See, we're not anti-semite :)"

Re: How I Lost My $50,000 Twitter Username

#72

Post by lingben »

harryh wrote: post #18

Who are people's current favorite domain registrars? I've been with name.com for the last year or so and have been happy, but I'm always curios to hear from others.

namesilo has extremely tight security and is very price competitive:

* 2 factor authentication

* 5 security Q/A's before you can make an account change!

http://www.namesilo.com/Support/Domain-Defender

there is no WAY this guy would have had an issue if he was with namesilo and had both protections enabled

(I'm just a happy client and in no other way related to them)

Re: How I Lost My $50,000 Twitter Username

#73

Post by nitinag »

No domain registrar should be taking the last four of your credit card number as proof of account identity or ownership. We certainly don't. Have you confirmed they reset the password based on just the last four of the credit card OR was your account's email address itself comprised, allowing them to reset the password via your email address?

Re: How I Lost My $50,000 Twitter Username

#76

Post by harryh »

bushido wrote: post #70
harryh wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. But I'd feel less bad for that person than someone who drove their Mercedes every day and had it stolen. Also, a Mercedes and a twitter handle (or domain name) aren't exactly the same thing as a twitter handle is a unique owner of a particular pice of the namespace. A better analogy would be an owner of a valuable piece of property who wasn't putting it to good use.

> A better analogy would be an owner of a valuable piece of property who wasn't putting it to good use. So if you were not putting your backyard to good use you would not feel too bad if your neighbors decided to encroach on it?

I think you're deliberately not hearing what I'm saying. Here's a good analogy:

Some rich guy buys an amazing house on a beautiful California beachfront. But then never even bothers to stay there because he's got 3 other vacation homes. It just sits there empty all year long.

Would it be ok for someone to break in and start living there? No, of course not.

But you do have to kind of dislike that guy right? If he doesn't want to use this limited and valuable resource he should maybe give it up so someone else can get good use out of it.

Re: How I Lost My $50,000 Twitter Username

#78

Post by obiterdictum »

joshmlewis wrote: post #62

I could be wrong but what is the value of a stolen Twitter handle? Just like a stolen car or phone if someone starts using it won't it be obvious that it's the thief or the thieves buyer? That's like stealing a Porsche and then showing it off downtown in front of everyone.

Comparatively few people will read this story. Even fewer will care enough to continue the crusade against the attacker for any prolonged period of time to raise awareness among the potential future audience that this account was stolen.

High chance the story will be quickly forgotten and the account will be re-used.

Re: How I Lost My $50,000 Twitter Username

#79

Post by ericcumbee »

bryan_rasmussen wrote: post #33
ChrisArchitect wrote: post #14

pretty freaky stuff. Also, what was the attacker so interested in the @N for anyways? future investment in case some big company/celeb comes along wanting the username? Seems so crazy to go after it...... if Twitter can't sort this out, can't we all just shame the acct into inactivity... Is squatting on it worth all this Mitnick-attack-work?

Well, if this story is true ( I put the if because it seems silly to have that account be the target ) then access to the account is proof of a crime (this is why it seems silly) If they sell it to someone I guess that is a reason to take it, but it also seems like some enterprising DA would want to use it as an example of receiving stolen property ( because News! Hacking! Fame!) So if anyone buys this name they migh…

And in this case I would be pulling for the DA to tear this hacker a new one.

Re: How I Lost My $50,000 Twitter Username

#80

Post by enscr »

mrbill wrote: post #34

It's not a $50K Twitter username unless someone actually paid $50K for it at one point, is it? "Not accepting an offer of $50K for a twitter username I didn't use" doesn't really count...

It has a lot of value for brands like Nike, Nokia, Netflix, Nordstrom... Or a News channel - @N is very attractive to advertise. I don't see any trouble selling it for more than that.
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