Creepy...

[McGyver]

Today I tried to set up a Twitter account...
Reluctantly.
But when I went to do so by using my email, it said that my email address is already being used.
I've never ever had a Twitter account and pretty much hate Twitter and never until today even attempted to set up an account.
It turns out that after some searching, I was able to get control of my email account.
It wasn't too straight forward because until now I had no idea, and I wasn't receiving any notices from Twitter and all the FAQs are for when you are receiving notifications and confirmation emails.
Eventually I came across something that allowed me to fix this...
Twitter even showed the named of the user, but when I tried to find them, they don't exist.
I never even received a confirmation email, so this wasn't some ordinary shmuck who got a hold of my email from one of my readmes or something... That lack of confirmation email is really troubling.
My guess is this mystery Twitter account was used for no good... One of the notices that came up when I tried to find the user was something to the effect of "you may not be able to find this account to protect you from sensitive information"...
Whatever the hell that means.

 

[RAMWolff]

There are just some humans that are not human! I had that happen to one my email accounts but it was right in the account. I'd sign in after some trouble and then I'd get a notice saying that there were more than two people accessing the account. Luckily they didn't seem to do any harm that I know of but after some back and forths with GMail security I got it back and changed the password and set up proper encryption but boy that freaked me out.

 

[Miss B]

Geeze, not good guys. Here's hoping it doesn't amount to anything McG.

 

[James R.]

Today I tried to set up a Twitter account...
Reluctantly.
But when I went to do so by using my email, it said that my email address is already being used.
I've never ever had a Twitter account and pretty much hate Twitter and never until today even attempted to set up an account.
It turns out that after some searching, I was able to get control of my email account.
It wasn't too straight forward because until now I had no idea, and I wasn't receiving any notices from Twitter and all the FAQs are for when you are receiving notifications and confirmation emails.
Eventually I came across something that allowed me to fix this...
Twitter even showed the named of the user, but when I tried to find them, they don't exist.
I never even received a confirmation email, so this wasn't some ordinary shmuck who got a hold of my email from one of my readmes or something... That lack of confirmation email is really troubling.
My guess is this mystery Twitter account was used for no good... One of the notices that came up when I tried to find the user was something to the effect of "you may not be able to find this account to protect you from sensitive information"...
Whatever the hell that means.

Geez, that’s creepy. Bizarre, even.

Glad you got it sorted. As to Twitter...I’m not really a fan but I consider it kind of a necessary evil.

 

[Darryl]

I blame it on Putin

 

[McGyver]

I blame it on Putin

Yeah... That and the fraudulent FCC comments were done in a similar manner...
The only reason I knew about that was because of an article in TechDirt, about how the idiots who made the fake accounts used the emails of one of the top PRO Net Neutrality advocates to create bogus accounts to make comments in favor of rolling back net neutrality.
I'm imagining whatever the account using my email was used for had something to do with either of those incidents.
Though the Russian thing was more fake users and the FCC thing was more dead people, elderly and those who never had a Facebook or Twitter account.
The sad thing is in late 2015- mid 2016 there were at least two well known hacks that would allow someone to bypass phone or email confirmation that went unaddressed for a long time... To be honest, I don't see any articles mentioning it being fixed, but often since these kind of issues are not covered by mainstream media until they are a blazing dumpster fire, the tech crowd just points out its a problem and moves on to the next one... You usually don't find out whether it was fixed or not unless during a future article for some other mess, some says "took six months for X to fix the Mr Peanut hack..."... Or "the Mr Peanut hack was never addressed..." (Bad fake examples because my mind is blank and I don't want to sound like I'm making accusations).
My blood is really boiling about it, but I took this strangely calm...

 

[McGyver]

Geez, that’s creepy. Bizarre, even.

Glad you got it sorted. As to Twitter...I’m not really a fan but I consider it kind of a necessary evil.

Sadly neither Facebook or Twitter is a bad concept, but they both fall short of what they could or should be.

I kinda really dislike both Facebook and Twitter, not just because I find them super annoying and self insisting, but for the very reason they've been in the news lately...
I hate that some companies and contractors can only be reached through Facebook.
It's like email is dead.
I found it laughable that for Twitter I tried to file a help request, but it had to be a tweet... It was virtually impossible to sum it remotely understandably in the allotted characters.

I think both platforms were designed in a vacuum, ignorant of human nature, and released without enough consideration of how they could be misused.

 

[raven]

I found it laughable that for Twitter I tried to file a help request, but it had to be a tweet... It was virtually impossible to sum it remotely understandably in the allotted characters.

.

The way around that would be to write the help request in notepad or equivalent and print-screen it, crop it to size in a paint program, then post the pic in the tweet.

 

[McGyver]

I did not think of that... Good suggestion... Regardless, they didn't respond... Could because it sounds like a caveman wrote it.

 

[Nod]

Nothing like your story, but here's a tale.
Some time in the past, I'd set up a Facebook account, and promptly forgot about it. Years later, I got a friend request from me! That's when I remembered setting it up. I didn't follow the link, and just logged in via Facebook itself. Turns out, this guy was my name twin, and thought it would be funny to add people with the same name. Turns out he likes art as well, only he paints.

 

[Stezza]

I quite often tweet to Donald Trump and William Shatner... have yet to get a response though!

I like to keep them updated with the cricket scores in Oz.

 

[Nod]

I quite often tweet to Donald Trump and William Shatner... have yet to get a response though!

I like to keep them updated with the cricket scores in Oz.

I've actually had a reply from William Shatner. He replied that he liked a pencil sketch which I'd done years before. I was well chuffed.
I'm also chuffed to be followed by three actresses, two of which I fancied as a kid.

 

[StudioMartillo]

Nothing like your story, but here's a tale.
Some time in the past, I'd set up a Facebook account, and promptly forgot about it. Years later, I got a friend request from me! That's when I remembered setting it up. I didn't follow the link, and just logged in via Facebook itself. Turns out, this guy was my name twin, and thought it would be funny to add people with the same name. Turns out he likes art as well, only he paints.

I thought I had a doppelganger in Canada for a while.
He had posted a bunch of pictures, schematics and papers on the internet, and he has the same name.
I went back to the site a while later and started browsing through it and realized, HEY! that's my stuff!
Then I remembered that once when I was in Seattle I had given a bunch of boxes of old prototypes, and whitepapers and
schematics to a guy who was very fascinated with my work.
Seemed strange that he used my name though. Could have used his own.

 

[McGyver]

I only get followed by store security... And stray animals... Sometimes vultures too...

 

[scatha]

I blame it on Putin

@Darryl ..or as the French pronounce it: Putain

 

[Darryl]

I thought I had a doppelganger in Canada for a while.
He had posted a bunch of pictures, schematics and papers on the internet, and he has the same name.
I went back to the site a while later and started browsing through it and realized, HEY! that's my stuff!
Then I remembered that once when I was in Seattle I had given a bunch of boxes of old prototypes, and whitepapers and
schematics to a guy who was very fascinated with my work.
Seemed strange that he used my name though. Could have used his own.

Is it possible that some anonymous guy on the internet actually tried to do the right thing? ... nah, it'll never happen, lol.

 

[Darryl]

@Darryl ..or as the French pronounce it: Putain

Sounds dirty ;-)

 

[scatha]

Sounds dirty ;-)

It is (the official translation is 'vagina' )

 

[Deleted member 325]

I thought I had a doppelganger in Canada for a while.
He had posted a bunch of pictures, schematics and papers on the internet, and he has the same name.
I went back to the site a while later and started browsing through it and realized, HEY! that's my stuff!
Then I remembered that once when I was in Seattle I had given a bunch of boxes of old prototypes, and whitepapers and
schematics to a guy who was very fascinated with my work.
Seemed strange that he used my name though. Could have used his own.

It is possible that this person, being a fan of your work, decided you needed more exposure than you were getting and so shared those items and attributed them directly to you. I say this as I once had something similar happen. After confronting the person, feeling someone was trying to replace me (long before I had some of the problems in life I have now when my identity might have been worth stealing) it came out that they just felt my artwork needed more exposure and did not have a way to contact me or they would have linked to me. While I feel this may have been in good intent overall I also have misgivings over not controlling what of my own work is shared under my own name (as I do publish some things here and there in various pen names).
Though now, in my more cynical years, reading this and looking back I am not entirely sure what was said was true, or an attempt to divert trouble having been caught.

Just presented for consideration.

 

[StudioMartillo]

Is it possible that some anonymous guy on the internet actually tried to do the right thing? ... nah, it'll never happen, lol.

Nah, it didn't happen. My initial impression was wrong is all. There was only a doppelganger until I realized what was going on.
The guy used to work for me and is really into 'vintage' electronics and posted pages showing lots of people's work.
It did feel kind of 'creepy' until I figured out what it actually was.