How I lost my $50,000 Twitter username

[*BlackFox]

I had a rare Twitter username, @N. Yep, just one letter. I’ve been offered as much as $50,000 for it. People have tried to steal it. Password reset instructions are a regular sight in my email inbox.

As of today, I no longer control @N. I was extorted into giving it up.

While eating lunch on January 20, 2014, I received a text message from PayPal for one-time validation code. Somebody was trying to steal my PayPal account. I ignored it and continued eating.

Later in the day, I checked my email which uses my personal domain name (registered with GoDaddy) through Google Apps. I found the last message I had received was from GoDaddy with the subject “Account Settings Change Confirmation.” There was a good reason why that was the last one.

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Crazy story !

[omier]

Interesting.

[jyushinshuu]

50k is a lot of cash, why didn't he took the offer? or he's probably super rich.

[Love]

Didn't sell for 50k, he deserves anything that happens after that.

[Isis]

But how true is this story, and honestly who would actually pay that much?

[BuDo]

People who use the anonymity of the web to ruin other people's life really piss me off... While I understand these things happen I have a very hard time dealing with it... It's even worse when these online institutions get careless with your personal information....

[DarkJackal]

lol, that would certainly suck. But people can get arrested for joking about shooting a school up on League of Legends, or hacking into someones emails and shit(scarlett leaked pics).
Can nothing be done about this? I mean can't twitter even find out it was actually his account? Don't they have ip logs or some other way to find out who has these accounts besides the current information on them?

[Toshiharu]

Why in the hell would someone want @N, why didn't he sell it for 50k, why is someone hacking for a shitty username? So many questions!

[Isis]

Why in the hell would someone want @N, why didn't he sell it for 50k, why is someone hacking for a shitty username? So many questions!

That's what I thought, there is nothing special about that username?


My ex hacked my email account and Facebook account as well, I'm sure he hacked this account as well...

[XMoshe]

My only guess it's that it's the only, or one of the few, twitter names with just one letter. You probably need 3 or 5 or 7 characters minimal. No idea how he got the 1 letter one then but yeah, thats probably it.

[ltsune]

What I really do like about this story is the fact that the hacker actually helped him afterwards by explaining how he exploited him.

In regards to the worth of the Twitter name, I believe it has to be taken with a grain of salt. After all, making an "offer" doesn't commit you to anything. I could have gone up and offered him $60,000 as well.
That being said, there's no doubt that a Twitter name with only 1 letter is definitely worth something to some people!

[Skyve]

Damn I would of been down for 500$

[BuDo]

What I really do like about this story is the fact that the hacker actually helped him afterwards by explaining how he exploited him.

How do you seem to overlook what the hacker did overall and choose to look at this part of the story...."I stole your possessions but let me tell you how I did it and not return your stuff though"... Please help me understand how this, (and by this I mean the hacker helping out but not returning your possession) doesn't really bother you and or is like-able.....I'm not being sarcastic here I really want to know...

Please don't answer with "things could have been worst" because that's obvious. The hacker could have find the victim's address and travel over to put a bullet in his/her head....Lets just focus on what happened and not go off on what could have happened.....

[*BlackFox]

"I stole your possessions but let me tell you how I did it and not return your stuff though"[/i]... Please help me understand how this

The hacker might think.. He "Deserves" It?

[ltsune]

What I really do like about this story is the fact that the hacker actually helped him afterwards by explaining how he exploited him.

How do you seem to overlook what the hacker did overall and choose to look at this part of the story...."I stole your possessions but let me tell you how I did it and not return your stuff though"... Please help me understand how this, (and by this I mean the hacker helping out but not returning your possession) doesn't really bother you and or is like-able.....I'm not being sarcastic here I really want to know...

Please don't answer with "things could have been worst" because that's obvious. The hacker could have find the victim's address and travel over to put a bullet in his/her head....Lets just focus on what happened and not go off on what could have happened.....

I didn't overlook what the hacker did. But seeing as he's a hacker, I don't know what there is to comment about the crime itself? He's a hacker. That's what hackers do. Instead, I chose to just comment on what really got my attention, which was the parts of the article where the hacked person quoted the e-mail conversations to and from the hacker.
Such conversations doesn't normally happen. The majority of the time, the hacker will just hack your account and never contact you. Even if he does contact you, chances are that it's because he wants to somehow blackmail you, and not because he want to help you protect your account in the future.

That's why I commented on that part. Because it's what makes this story different than most other stories. Hope this answered your question?

[BuDo]

What I really do like about this story is the fact that the hacker actually helped him afterwards by explaining how he exploited him.

How do you seem to overlook what the hacker did overall and choose to look at this part of the story...."I stole your possessions but let me tell you how I did it and not return your stuff though"... Please help me understand how this, (and by this I mean the hacker helping out but not returning your possession) doesn't really bother you and or is like-able.....I'm not being sarcastic here I really want to know...

Please don't answer with "things could have been worst" because that's obvious. The hacker could have find the victim's address and travel over to put a bullet in his/her head....Lets just focus on what happened and not go off on what could have happened.....

I didn't overlook what the hacker did. But seeing as he's a hacker, I don't know what there is to comment about the crime itself? He's a hacker. That's what hackers do. Instead, I chose to just comment on what really got my attention, which was the parts of the article where the hacked person quoted the e-mail conversations to and from the hacker.
Such conversations doesn't normally happen. The majority of the time, the hacker will just hack your account and never contact you. Even if he does contact you, chances are that it's because he wants to somehow blackmail you, and not because he want to help you protect your account in the future.

That's why I commented on that part. Because it's what makes this story different than most other stories. Hope this answered your question?

I see.... It's not that you actually liked what the hacker did in the aftermath but you were rather intrigued by it...If that's the case then I understand..... I was probing to see if you where the type of mind/person who would treat the hacker and the victim in the same manner if you were to meet them......a sort of stoic acceptance to all things...

[ltsune]

I see.... It's not that you actually liked what the hacker did in the aftermath but you were rather intrigued by it...If that's the case then I understand..... I was probing to see if you where the type of mind/person who would treat the hacker and the victim in the same manner if you were to meet them......a sort of stoic acceptance to all things...

Nah, not at all. I was disgusted by what the hacker did. You understood me correctly when you said that it was not that I actually liked what the hacker did, but I was rather intrigued/amazed by it.