www.twitter.com is it a scam?

[richboy]

I use twitter just to build business relationships

I just happened to log in yesterday, 1/30/2009,
and came across the following message on the
account:

"This account is currently suspended and is being investigated
due to strange activity.
If we have suspended your account mistakenly, please let us know.
See Suspended Accounts for more information."

I sent an email to "suspended@twitter.com" and have not received a reply.

I question if this is an abuse of power.

I also question if this is outright contempt for the customer
by displaying what seems to be nasty and despicable behavior.

It looks like someone taking the advantage to try and
aggravate the customer as much as possible by leaving them in a catch 22;
they have not responded to any email and I question if they ever will.

The customer can't change the username (which is first and last name)
on the account while the account is in suspended status.

The customer can delete the account but they will suffer because
they can't use the original username again once it is deleted -
the customer has to change the username before it is deleted if they
want to use that same username again; however, as explained
above, they can't change the username if the account is suspended.

The customer suffers when people look for their name
on twitter and see that account account has been suspended; the
customer also loses out on people following them.

Any suggestions?

[aleksandarr]

Is there some link in that e-mail? If so, maybe it's a fake link.

[richboy]

It's on the top page of the account when I log into twitter

[cw1865]

How is it a scam? Where's the hook to make you spend money?

[richboy]

Does it work?

It can be a scam if it doesn't work

Has anyone found massive success with it?

I am interested in other's experiences

[timreed]

Why do YOU think they suspended you?
Was it something that you wrote?
Would love to know.

[crankydave]

Originally Posted by richboy

Does it work?

It can be a scam if it doesn't work

Has anyone found massive success with it?

I am interested in other's experiences

Does what work? Success with what? You're not making sense.

Dave

[chandrika]

Wasnt Twitter hacked recently, like about a week ago, maybe it is something to do with that.
Hack forces Twitter into 'full security review'

[richboy]

I added other business people and they followed me as well.
I also gave away a Craigslist ebook for free - that's about it.

I sent an email to del (at) twitter . com

The response:
"Your account was suspended due to aggressive following. You followed a large number of people in a short time period and as a result your account was flagged as spam and suspended."

Account suspended for adding people?

Something smells fishy here.

I replied - "What can be done to reverse this?"


I have not received any reply.

[mf_scott]

Twitter is a free service. Their Terms & Conditions clearly state that they can refuse service to anyone at their discretion. hxxp://twitter.com/terms

[netroact]

I have experienced similar treatment from Web company's many times. If you are indeed telling this the way it happened, it's probably because they are a new enterprise, and they haven't yet learned the importance and effectiveness of courtesy.

Decency dictates that they would provide a detailed explanation before suspending an account, and give their members an opportunity to correct an issue before suspending their reputation.

Of course, I don't know you, so I will give them the benefit of a doubt. I hope you get this resolved satisfactorily.

[SemAdvance]

Wait you decide to go to Twitter click on every person you can possibly follow and then want to know if twitter is a scam??

Myspace ....I am sure you know the amount of friends one can add daily has been restricted due to spammers adding 10,000 friends at once...

Facebook .....I am sure you know the amount of friends one can add daily has been restricted due to spammers adding 10,000 friends at once...

What makes you think Twitter and other businesses won't do the same (and have ) ???

Twitter is a business and as such they have every right to protect themselves against those they feel are about to spam their business.... or perhaps break in and steal something.

Developing a business relationship is one thing.....adding 100s of people willy nilly is damn silly.....and nothing to mention how spammy the craigslist e book must seem to them.

Lastly its really off base to bitch about a free service that you do not pay to use.......

That is almost as bad as webmasters blaming Google for organic SERP issues destroying their business....

Thanks for the laugh......

[SisterSledge]

Here's the best place to go for learning about and resolving Twitter problems:
http://getsatisfaction.com/twitter
Customer service and support for Twitter

Type in "suspended" in the search box there - 198 results

[Orion]

twitter is a social site.. not to be used to spam or market stuff to people.. so when someone comes in and adds a ton of people too quickly that automatically sets off flags as it is standard behaviour for any spammer...

once they are convinced that you added actual people you know you should be fine.

talk to them..

[dharrison]

So long as the link you clicked was a Twitter page and personal details (eg logins, passwords weren't disclosed) then its not a scam.

I have noticed a lot of new followers being suspended due to suspect activity just recently. I'd say talk to Twitter and then take it a bit easier.

[Clint1]

That seems a rather ridiculous that they will suspend someone for following "a large number of people in a short time". What do they think you are, a stalker?? That sounds like something google would do. ("too many IBL's too quickly" and they trash your site or give you PR0).

Originally Posted by richboy

I added other business people and they followed me as well.
I also gave away a Craigslist ebook for free - that's about it.

I sent an email to del (at) twitter . com

The response:
"Your account was suspended due to aggressive following. You followed a large number of people in a short time period and as a result your account was flagged as spam and suspended."

Account suspended for adding people?

Something smells fishy here.

I replied - "What can be done to reverse this?"


I have not received any reply.

[zbatia]

I personally against those numerous social bla-bla-bla sites. They are time killers; spam, spyware, and personal identity thieves’ heaven, and the Internet cluttering junk.

No doubts, people want to make money and to sell their twitters-shmitters for a couple of million dollars but let's face it: why do we need so many of those sites if they essentially repeat each other? Who calculated the loss of productivity (and your life time!) due to those sites' existence?

No doubts that due to Google's practice to bring the search results from social media sites to the top of search pages, than more posts with links you have than more PR score is achieved. I think it's bad search engines' habit and initially will go away.

My wife was a subscriber to several social media sites, and I had to clean up her PC from spyware, viruses, and junk spread over every folder for 9 hours!

Twitters-shmitters must go away and yield the Internet to more smart ways to communicate through reputable web sites that are able to protect members from all those "dangers" of exposing personal identity to help Big Brother and un-friendly brothers (read KGB and similar) to have a free database of people with pictures, connections, thoughts, political views and preferences.

I am not paranoid, I am just educated in Information Security area. Think about it carefully.

[Clint1]

Originally Posted by zbatia

I personally against those numerous social bla-bla-bla sites. They are time killers; spam, spyware, and personal identity thieves’ heaven, and the Internet cluttering junk.

Not to mention, internet pollution (as I call them), and the spawn of stalkers, pedo's, etc.

No doubts that due to Google's practice to bring the search results from social media sites to the top of search pages, than more posts with links you have than more PR score is achieved. I think it's bad search engines' habit and initially will go away.

HA! Exactly, and they are already doing that! No doubt that will increase and start showing up at the top of every search just like unlimited irrelevancies like Ebay, Amazon, Dealtime, Bizrate, etc., and another new useless one TheFind, are doing.

My wife was a subscriber to several social media sites, and I had to clean up her PC from spyware, viruses, and junk spread over every folder for 9 hours!

Not to get OT here, but there's easy ways of preventing that. A few simple settings and tools will prevent that. Spyware Blaster*, SpyBot**, Spyware Terminator**, Windows Defender**, Hostsman*, IE Privacy Keeper**, Internet Sweeper*, and many others, and of course a firewall. She should also get a different type of AV software if it's allowing viruses on the PC.

*Prevention only
**Removal and prevention

[jordy3738]

I have been on Twitter and personally found ti
to be rather boring. Of all the social sites I have been
apart of this one doesn't seem like it's going to last.

The only reason I joined is I found out that
i could set something up called a Twitter Feed.

I joined made a few friends and set up the blog feed
on my account. Now every time I make a post on my
blog my Twitter page gets an updated mini post.

[ronchalice]

Twitter's front page says CLEARLY that it is a site to maintain contact with friends, family and co-workers. I don't see anywhere on the site that it says -- "This is a place to sell people crap that they don't need or want."

The number one rule for ANY business is "choose your market" - followed by "study your market" and "know your market"

Too many people think they have a) the right to market anybody with a user id or an IP address and b) some wonderproduct that everybody in the freaking world has to have.

[Jasoncreja]

How it can be scam? it's not like that have you written something wrong in your account???

[chriscash01]

scam? but how? may be what you're trying to say is spam. it is more related to it than scam.

[bobchrist]

Twitter is not spam but few spammers are surely using this tools to spam the beautiful network.